Date: Mon Jan 8 15:56:36 2001
realname: Book Lover
username: books@excite.com
comments: After reading this book, it's quite obvious that the author feels that Socialism is the only acceptable belief system. The book is filled with complaints about the capitalist and pro individual freedom attitude that dominates the tech industry. So for all of you who buy the authors viewpoint, I have found an answer for you: China! I have to admit that I'm somewhat envious. If there existed today a fully capitalist country anywhere in the world I would relocate there without hesitation. But alas, there are none, and here I remain. But you, the socialists and communists who comprise the bulk of the readers of this book, your Nirvana exists! I have read your posts and I hear you. I understand your desires and motivations. Utopia is within your reach, and it is: China! Don't take my word for it. Read it straight from the PRC Constitution itself: Preamble After founding the People's Republic, China gradually achieved its transition from a New-Democratic to a socialist society. The socialist transformation of the private ownership of the means of production has been completed, the system of exploitation of man by man abolished and the socialist system established. socialism, yeah! Article 1 The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. The socialist system is the basic system of the People's Republic of China. Disruption of the socialist state by any organization or individual is prohibited. wow! Article 2 All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. the people, not the corporations! Article 6 The basis of the socialist economic system of the People's Republic of China is socialist public ownership of the means of production, namely, ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by the working people. oh my God yeah! You see, it's there, waiting for you. Think about it. No more posting messages about all the rich people who make you feel bad 'cause they own all that stuff. In China, nobody's rich! (Except for the bureaucrats, but no country's perfect.) So to you, I present my gift: China. And in return, my only request is: PLEASE LEAVE

Date: Sat Apr 7 14:01:17 2001
realname: christof heinrich
username: cbh19@yahoo.com
comments: I wonder about the extent to which Borsook might have "missed the boat" in terms of the connection between high-tech's technolibertarianism and what is arguably a deeply embedded and ever burgeoning libertarian tendency in larger American society. High-techies, while strategically positioned economically, are hardly the only selfish Americans absurdly claiming individual reification. The individualistic ideology of "I'm my own self-made person and no one thing/entity/institution/other person ever helped me along at any point in my life therefore I'm only responsible for myself and accountable to no one other than myself" is all-pervasive in contemporary America. While such a philosophy does not pass the "laugh test" when subject to even the slightest bit of scrutiny, it is nonetheless an ideology through which and by which millions of Americans describe themselves and "make sense" of the world around them. (Conveniently ignored by libertarians, of course, is the interconnectedness and interdependence of ALL human beings, no matter how much -- and how absurdly -- "individuals" claim that they are outside of the social body. Ask a die-hard individualist, So, how is it that you came to see yourself in such terms, and how is it that so many other people have COLLECTIVELYcome to see themselves in similar terms?, and the ridiculousness of an extreme individualism is immediately unmasked as pure folly.) As Borsook so eloquently argues, we are inexorably and inextricably interdepedent upon one another. What I, you, we do will have an impact on someone else -- for better or for worse. Led by a runaway libertaranism, we seem to be headed toward a solipsistic, chaotic, treacherous, dehumanizing and anarchic world, a world in which the very social fabric that undergirds an essential humanity is on the verge of being swallowed up by a selfish individualism. One must wonder exactly how far "thinking" people can go in terms of a simple-minded libertarianism. One need only reflect for a moment to realize that to claim that one is totally and completely separate from human society and culture, completely on one's own, is utterly ridiculous. Such a claim cannot even withstand the most superficial kinds of reflection. What's at stake in confronting and combatting rampant American liberatarianism is the very basis of human society, its structure, the future of humanity. For if people can be persuaded (falsely) to believe (wrongly) that individuals, (miraculously) separate from the cultural and social conditions of their existence, succeed on their own -- without the support and help of others, including social and governmental institutions, then a seemingly inevitable push to do away with a social support network, system, structure, government will arise. Such a push (putsch?) will fundamentally alter human society, almost certainly for the worse for all but a very few privileged human beings whose "God-given" status will in fact be contigent upon the unacknowledged exploitation of others within an atomized but still interlocking and interconnected social order.

Date: Tue Jun 12 18:34:42 2001
realname: Lilly Irani
username: lilly@stanford.edu
comments: Hi- Just fuel to the fire. This is the story of arrogance and chauvinism at Juno: http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,190 2,9375,00.html?body_page=1 ~lilly irani

Date: Sat Nov 24 16:53:10 2001
realname: KP CHEN
username: kchen6039@aol.com
comments: Dear Paulina, Let us establish a new University (a new Stanford, for example), campuses in US, Russia, China, Japan, India, EU, ....) New institutions serve new purposes... Happy Holiday, K.P. Chen

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