Re: [Trisquel-users] One thing that bothers me about Richard Stallman

[gnuser]

I am in a little hurry right now, but one thing I would like to give you an  
answer to is the difference between society and community.
While this is something that I have been thinking about for some time and  
have not yet figured the best way to express the whole thing clearly, the  
fundamental idea is that in a society you have different "classes" of people  
(like rich an poor), in a society you have business and commerce as  
fundamental parts of living. In a community you don't because everyone is  
equal to everyone and they all contribute something to the whole (that is the  
community) and they all live from the whole. I know that in a first looking  
at it, it seems like "evil communism" but that is not what I am trying to  
target at here. Of course, a community of "equal people" is always in danger  
of "one being more equal than other" and you have the book "Animal Farm" to  
read if you want to take a look at how easy it is to fall for that "mental  
trap" but I am trying to think of a community that REALLY works. You don't  
have to be poor and you don't have to be rich because if one "richness" comes  
up, it is freely available to all. And no one is poor because through the  
work of EVERYONE, everyone is feed and happy. So, of course, if we were to  
live in a community, there would be no need to be able to "sell" things,  
because commerce would not be the same as we have today. But in a society you  
need to, because you are expected to earn your own living, on your own and  
not as a part of the whole society. Ofcourse, if you read some newspapers you  
might think that we live in a "good society" and that everyone is "equal",  
but truth is, things are not like that. There are people who are privileged  
and live a rich life by oppressing other people who are poor and enslaved. A  
politician makes sure that the law says "politicians have these and these  
rights" because he himself will get gain from those rights. If those laws  
mean that other people will have to pay more taxes, he does not care. So,  
yeah, there are a few good people in society, but for the most part, the  
system of "society" is good at making divisions and putting people under the  
power of other people. That is not good, and we should be able to live in  
community. That would apply to software too.