The list is now massive, and extremely sordid. While Disgruntled Housewife was a personal, decidedly non-mainstream site, it is now part of the ChickClick network of girls' and women's sites and earns Nicole a decent monthly payment from advertising revenues. One questioner asked how these Web auteurs juggled earning money with finding time to work on the site. Cults and Consumerism For Denise Caruso, the Net is less about viruses than it is about cults. The many attributes of the Net all add up to its being a cult machine, she said.
Consumerism is the one true religion.
This explosion of consumerism has fostered a counterculture among the religious right, who are dropping out of the consumer media. This counterculture puts a focus on morality and ethics and posits the commercial net as unethical. Even so, Caruso concluded that the Net is still the most powerful tool for freedom we have ever known. Discuss this article in the O'Reilly Network Forums . Return to the O'Reilly Network Hub .