This, I believe, creates an open system where both the citizen and the capitalist are in check. But today businesses have reached a point where their accumulation of capital has created an entourage of large oligopolies where democracy is powerless. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. Today, unfortunately we are at the doorstep of complete private control of our newest media technology, the internet. The internet is tightrope walker in a capitalists circus, it is on the cusp of a market driven, e-commerce role of the internet, versus a public, debate and information oriented communication technology.
Private control is anti-democratic, public control is democratic.
The path we choose to take will forever be reverberated throughout our society for years to come. Douglas Rushkoff, Media Virus. Ballantine books, New York, 1996. Douglas Rushkoff, Media Virus. Ballantine books, New York, 1996.