Inspired by this idea that has made it's rounds, I would say "great societies make it so it is not considered theft to copy ideas."
This transformation, which could be what comes after capitalism, has not been driven by power elites from above, abstractions, centralized planning, or even votes. And it won't be driven by any of those things until perhaps, and only perhaps, the eleventh hour just before a different world is already inevitable.
The interesting thing is that you can be the change you want to see, or at least I can be. [1] This blog is a kind of hub for me to live in an information environment that about the discovery and spreading of ideas, without participating in the society-wide program of super-stimulation leading to super-greed [2]. The negative space is really important here; it's not just what I spread, but what I filter out.
I find, link to, and copy enough content to keep myself instructed and amused for a lifetime. And any time I spend in this way is time not spent embodying the delusions and terrors of artificial scarcity. So why copy from the commons? 1) Because I can. 2) Doing so shows that you can 3) It makes the commons more resilient by one more node.
I know I'm some kind of dork for having a "blogger" blog here at the blogspot. I know there are those who would take me more seriously if I had a domain all to myself, and some stylish (I refuse to use the term "unique" in this context) website. But if you think about it, I am taking the text from most likely another server and making a copy of it on one owned by Google. Like it or not, and I respect the opinions of those who do not, Google is one of the most successful companies in the world, with many advantages that unlikely to go away any time soon. This is probably a pretty node to add to any ideas network.
Information doesn't just want to be free. It also wants to survive.
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[1] If you are reading this, you are probably quite a weird person indeed. I have hope for you. Nonetheless, I decided to speak only for myself in this piece from this point forward.
[2] See JMG's acronym LESS -- Less Energy Stimulation Stuff
The last part of the acronym, "stimulation," may seem surprising to my readers, but it’s a crucial part of the recipe. For the last thirty years and more, Americans have been pushing their nervous systems into continual overload with various kinds of stimulation, and I’ve come to think that this is another symptom of the deeply troubled national conscience discussed in recent Archdruid Report posts. A mind that’s constantly flooded with noise from television, video games, or what have you, is a mind that never has the time or space to think its own thoughts, and in a nation that’s trying not to notice that it’s sold its own grandchildren down the river, that’s probably the point of the exercise. Be that as it may, recovering the ability to think one’s own thoughts, to clear one’s mind of media-driven chatter, manufactured imagery, and all the other thoughtstopping clutter we use to numb ourselves to the increasingly unwelcome realities of life in a failing civilization, is an indispensable tool for surviving the challenges ahead . . .
