roundtable: Re: OP-ED ON TV - PUBLIC

roundtable: Re: OP-ED ON TV / PUBLIC

Re: OP-ED ON TV / PUBLIC

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Fri, 6 Jan 1995 12:03:03 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 12:03:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Brad Cox <bcox@gmu.edu>
Subject: Re: OP-ED ON TV / PUBLIC
In-Reply-To: <v02110313ab321bf0afb1@[192.0.1.2]>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950106114912.11157A-100000@access2.digex.net>


On Thu, 5 Jan 1995, Brad Cox wrote:
> > 
> >  2.  Build an infrastructure (information, telecommunications,
> >education, sustainable development) that is not based on self-interest,
> >or the profit motive, but is instead designed to serve the paramount
> >public goods that Americans find most important (such as those included
> >in the parenthetical preceding phrase).
> 
> Public good? Supplied no doubt by such pinnacles of fair-minded success as
> the US Postal Service, Universities, Hospitals, and Soviet bureaucracy?


  It is a staple defense of the "conservative" power block to contrast
itself against all opposition by claiming the latter resemble the
Communist/Socialist ethic, but the very opposite is closer to the fact. 
Both the totalitarian and authoritarian power structures pursued by
Newtonian politics dismiss democratic concern for the public interest, 
in favor of unilateral control by strategically placed individuals to 
serve mainly the self-interests of the leadership.  But the right of 
the people to serve the larger public interest under a democratic form 
of government, which is our birthright, is a cure for both those plagues. 

  The most effective way to serve the public good with regard to
information and telecommunications infrastructure is literally under 
our fingertips.  The Internet, and the National Research and Education 
Network (NREN) Program that was killed by despicable "conservative" 
politics, was the most successful industrial development program in 
the history of civilization.  It was governed by voluntary cooperation 
to serve the public interest rather than being motivated by greed to 
serve the private interest. 

  Vigdor Schreibman
  <fins@access.digex.net>

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