>One sort of positive affect of the downturn, is that computer programmers of
>a libertarian bent are finally starting to wake out of their Wired(TM)
>stupour, and realise that they're being screwed just as surely as smoke
>stack old economy employees. Okay some of them still cling desperately to
>neoclassical 101 dogma in an attempt to explain why the deserve to be
>crushed (why do people do this?), but others are starting to question
>things. I had hoped that the result might be to push tech workers into
>thinking about unionisation, or a more left-leaning perspective on the world
>(and realise that their rather lowly position in the class structure).
>However, based upon personal observation, they seem to be moving to
>something closer to fascism. They've kept their sort of libertarian,
>individualistic, outlook (mixed with market fundamentalism) - but they've
>added to this a hatred of both immigrants and workers in places like
>Bangalore - while manufacturing a conspiracy in big government to sell their
>jobs abroad. Am I just on the wrong mailing lists, or is this a general
>trend? It seems like the kind of thing which could be easily manipulated
>into something rather ugly.
>
I don't think it's a general trend. For one thing, the tendency of
techies for Libertarian politics has never struck me as explainable by
the usual class-and-politics analysis. Tech people like to understand
systems, and they prefer it when systems follow explicit rules reliably.
So, when you set up the rules for Tab A to always go into Slot B, or you
want it to happen reliably. This is great when you're designing a
factory or writing code-- but stuff like economics and social science
starts looking pretty woolly, and next to a well-designed piece of code,
they seem to have as much predictive value as reading tea leaves. In
other words, if a techie likes laissez-faire capitalism, or even echoes
some Social Darwinist sentiments, it's _not_ because they're acting out
something based on their paycheck or social class. It's because they
like having a clear and explicit system by which they can interpret the
world.
I'd also like to mention that I've known a lot of programmers who don't fit the Silicon Valley Libertarian mold, and who think the laissez-faire stuff is utter bullshit. Still, when there's an economic downturn, there's always the change for major-league ugliness as people search for some kind of explanation.