Take out some time right now to think about the concept of space. Space
is what we occupy all the time. It is where and what we are always within
and never without. Space, in every sense of the word, seems to be the
foundation, the fundamental element, that shapes and directs us; because
it is the space that each of us occupies that determines who we are.
Space is always with us. It is the one thing that is not even a thing;
yet it has played one of the most essential and overpowering roles in
what we've become. Space does not deal with us; yet we, in our attempt
to deal with it, have to some degree become controlled by it. From our
desire to explore and experience, to master and overcome space, we have
become its subjects. And through this subjectivity, we have been driven
to constantly emerge with new ways of commanding space. In the name
of progress, we have created ways to work around space, that is, to
eliminate some of the limitations that it poses in the realm of distance.
For humankind has a vision, and to fulfill the mighty breadth of our
species' vision of that future not yet lived, we have made it our preoccupation
to challenge space in our pursuit to overcome its expanse.
Now, grasp this. They tell us that big corporations form the backbone
of the world. They run and control and compete for it. But, of course,
the competition is not so light. So staying on top means arming themselves
with the most primary ingredient: Information. Information is "where
it is at." Consequently, the more information that a corporation has
the more control it gains. And how are they going to do this but by
having access to that which it wants to control -- the world. But the
world is a great big place, one that occupies tremendous space. And
this space is going nowhere. You can't move it or manipulate it, shrink
it or delete natural space. So the only thing left to do is to work
around it by creating a new kind of space, a space where distance is
not an issue so that you have endless access to other occupied spaces.
And the answer to this was the Computer. The computer took us out of
natural space and placed us onto those digital highways of cyberspace,
where a whole new dimension of control was possible and the information
to obtain it readily accessible.
But what they did not anticipate was the absence of control that cyberspace
would inevitably embody. For cyberspace belongs to no one, so everyone
within it is equal. Cyberspace eliminates social barriers, thereby creating
the ideal environment for perfect competition. As a result, according
to Newt Gingrich, capitalism is reverting back to its beginnings. People
are slowly moving away from "big corporations, big unions, big governments"
and moving more towards a world of small entrepreneurs. "More and more
people are going to operate outside corporate structures and hierarchies"
to work "in the nooks and crannies," those new spaces, the Information
Age has created (McChesney). At this
rate, it won't be long until we witness the "end of organized capitalism."
Due to the "electronic democracy" created by cyberspace, "equality will
reign on the Internet" where the bulk of capital activity will eventually
take place; and everyone will have the same opportunity as the next guy (or corporation).
A prime example of this new trend in commerce is the up and rising
auction based forum of ebay, otherwise known as ebay.com. Through ebay,
people all over the globe have bet, bought, sold and resold everything and
anything in the name of profit. And though today in '99 ebay is a
multi-million dollar corporation, it certainly did not start off with
multi-million dollar backing. To the contrary, when Pierre Omidyer came
up with the bright idea he was just another average guy who merely wanted
to find buyers for his girlfriend's Pez dispenser collection. So he
created the site. And from that single move, today, not only can Pierre
buy his girlfriend all the Pez she wants but he can probably buy out the
Pez company itself. For by simply taking a minuscule percentage of
the buyers profit, somewhere around 1%, ebay has become the winning
corporation it is today. Due to the extremely high number
of users, ebay has managed to go from small-time thinking to big-money
making. Moreover, it gives everyone a chance to be apart of the new electronic
market by giving them space to create a site to sell their product.
From there, millions of people have access to this site. And because it is
one of the largest and most popular sites, somewhere along the line a
virtual community for its members, which helps maintain its large
clientele through a large chat room, was created. Here members can
coexist virtually to talk about the site and the all the great deals it
has to offer and also rate other members on their auctioning etiquette. So as you can see, the Internet is rapidly creating more and more
spaces. And though the corporations may still have the upper hand
at the moment, at the rate that all the smaller worlds (profit
organizations) that even the big corporations are creating who knows what
will happen. Maybe these new smaller worlds will in fact out do the
mega-worlds and give birth to another level of capitalism or even perhaps
the end of capitalism as we know it today.
