Building Community

I guess the main reason I was upset with Kathleen Gage's presentation was that the message was diametrically opposed to my belief that the best way of small businesses to approach the internet is to learn to become a good netizen. I reject the notion that the individual is in opposition to the community. What we really should be doing is learning to build community.

I think that this ideal of the individual working within a context of a society to improve himself was central to the classical thinking that had defined the American middle class up to the present era.

The guru world, on the other hand, tends to fall into a more Machiavellian view where everything is based on secret little power relations. The idea of having a group that manipulates sales statistics to make a book look popular is a power relation creating an illusion of success.

IMHO Such illusions simply transfer power to the puppetmasters behind the illusion. They do not actually create wealth.

Conversely, I believe that authetentic actions to build a community really do create wealth. Of course, when you look at the books. Kathleen Gage's gurism has apparently made her quite wealthy. My Community Directories might be benefitting the community at large, but have definitely not put pennies in my pocket.