@wretchard:

Well, back to topic (is that still possible?).

I do think that we depend on our culture for our strength. Our ability to fight devious enemies depends entirely on our ability to do so without losing our core strength, which is, er, Applied Liberty[?].

So we wring our hands over the advantages the thugs and Fascisti enjoy. Properly so.

The reason I thought an analogy with the “open source movement” might be a fruitful beginning toward answering your question [roughly speaking] “How do we respond to gangster tactics in cyber space?” which was then extended in the comments to “How do we citizens not under military discipline volunteer to fight the numerous fascisms that beset us?”

The answers to the extended question seemed to die with the reality of “herding cats”.

Well, that is the point at which “open source” theory takes over. What was Stallmans’s great theoretical work? “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”, right?

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/

Well, if we are talking about volunteers wishing to work for the common good (in spite of the fact we are also rather doctrinaire libertarians, right ?– Hah!), we are talking about an open source model.

DrJ may have been right to withdraw under the pretext that “open source” is a bottomless-pit meme of horrific idiocy, at least that’s what it looks like when one reads the Linuxian debate sagas…

Still… “The Commons” is as much a foundation of Property (privately held and otherwise) as anything else one can discern. It is the foundation of the separation of sovereign authority vs representative government, of Church vs State, of legislation vs Ruler, of judicial authority vs executive authority, and on, and on, and on…

I don’t think our friends in Georgia, or in Russia, or in Azerbaijan, or … wherever… presently have enough of that heritage to functionally inform their daily life decisions. More’s the pity.

However, the Rule of Law began long before the Celts invaded what became Merrie Olde Englande, and Liberalism (free markets and universally representative governance with an Enlightened twist) long precedes the agonized struggles of Russians, and Georgians, and Chechens, and Turkmeni, and Pilipinas, and Malagasei, and ………

…to acquire a version of Liberty of their own.

And if that is a great contribution of “open source” to the struggle for Liberty, i.e. free development of one’s own “version”, well, that is our patrimony, and that is their heritage…