Some years ago, I was watching and listening to a communist poetry/rap group in a public park and rather enjoying the spirited rhythmic presentation. Hundreds of people were enjoying it too. The message was goofy but harmless in some way, essentially a bunch of tuneful hectoring on how we need to come together and share and be one, etc. At some point, the lead singer said that the best path to utopia was a direct one. We should throw away our cell phones! Well, at that point, the crowds lost interest and drifted away. Communism was tolerable until it meant an end to technological progress.
For this reason, I sense that the phenom of StoryOfStuff.org might be overreaching with this one. Do we really want to return to the days of getting our video-tape players repaired rather than buying a DVD player or just subscribing to netfix? (For a critique of the general line of this effort, see Sterling Terrell).
