[....]
>
> Political economy affects all of us, in scads of ways. If we want to
> be less alienated, anxious, and exposed to the risk of climate
> catastrophe, it would help to learn something about it. This is
> supposed to be democratic, self-governing society, right? I don't see
> how there would be similar social benefits from the masses learning
> Unix line commands.
You are missing the point, no one is asking anyone to learn Unix command line. Yes, Stallman can be unpractical sometimes and when we want to get work done, we want to use the tool that is easily available. I can symphatize with that. However, he takes on extremist views for comments like -- "But now I just don't want to be bothered".
One of major ideas that is changing and challenging the political economy of software (which plays a influential role in the capitalist system) is the Free and Open source movement. As software is not a physical entity, its operations hide under the logic of algorithms and codes. Cars or ATM machines are open for scrutiny by the user. Software, on the other hand is mostly not open to such scrutiny. Important assumptions and biases in software is obscured and inside the proverbial "black-box". It is not possible for the ordinary computer user to scrutinize the assumptions and biases embedded in the code of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Embedded in the software codes are complex rules of logic and categorization that may have material consequences for those using it. As regular users cannot understand the inner workings of the software, we need people like Stallman and the Free Software movement to remind us to open the black-box or at least be aware of it.
-sharif
-- Sharif Islam http://www.sharifislam.com Research Programmer University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library Systems Office 217-244-4688