The Real Threat of Blogs

I've been reading and often appreciating Douglas Rushkoff for quite some time. He posted a great prophetic piece about the real threat of blogs which resonated with me. Here's a snip:


Likewise, I believe the greatest power of the blog is not just its ability to distribute alternative information - a great power, indeed - but its power to demonstrate a mode of engagement that is not based on the profit principle.


just to clarify, I don't have anything against profit or markets and especially not entrepeneurship. In fact, it seems to me like blogging is a form of entrepeneurship. Any artist who tries to project a story or a project into the world has felt the contours of that sort of market... Certainly developing or sustaining a "non-profit" organization is a difficult entrepeneurial enterprise. in contemporary times, it is difficult to seperate the concept of market from the concept of "public sphere" and audience...and while i think that if the "market" metaphor prevails too much (in any of those domains), our imagination will be stunted in dangerous ways -- I also can see how that metaphor (of markets) enhances the domains of politics and media and education and church...

but i like Rushkoff's post because it offers an alternative vision of what MOTIVATES people. It seems like much of the rightwing ideology is motivated by a presumption that people are ultimately motivated by money and success in a traditional market...so its refreshing to think about a *real* context where people are *really* motivated to *engage* but not primarily by money...