While reading the following, think about bees, pollinating the natural world.

The Pirate's Dilemma And Opportunism: ”

I just finished watching a video of Matt Mason - author of ‘The Pirate’s Dilemma’ - giving a talk that more or less covered the topic of his book.

First of all, Matt really gets it. He really does. He is looking a piracy as reflective not of a failure in the legal structure, but failure in companies’ approach in their own market. I hate to put too much of a commercial/free-market spin on this, for what I’m going to connect it with is at times orthogonal to that perspective, but he’s right when he says that pirates:

  • identify gaps within and outside the existing marketplace

  • may do damage, but carry valuable information in their actions

  • can often harness the collective consciousness of their audience and turn that into social change

He primarily draws on pirate radio in Europe, but connects it with the record industry, fashion, etc. The solution he proposes to combat piracy is to either (1) fight it when appropriate, or (2) compete with it and treating it as a real (if illegitimate) force. To compete, companies should learn from where pirates are adding value to their product, where they are increasing a products recognition or brand value, and identifying advantages in selling convenience and experience.

As with many things, I couldn’t help but start comparing some of his talk to things I’ve read by Paolo Virno - specifically about opportunism an virtuosity. Firstly - and I’ve covered this in the blog before - competing with piracy in many sectors is a matter of recognizing that main players must begin to locate value in non-physical products, the product of immaterial labor. As Virno points out, McDonalds has this down with their ’service with a smile.’ You aren’t going there for the burgers, but for the service (quick, friendly, etc).

More interestingly, it seems that what Matt is pointing out is the opportunism of the pirates. Virno would probably say that this is a natural result of the shift to a post-fordist world. Opportunism is a virtue, if not necessity, rather than something to be frowned upon. In an interview with Archipelago in 2002 he said:

‘…if it is certain that postfordist labor has at its center communication - culture in the most full sense of the term - then, it is necessary to commence analysis starting from certain emotions, but not emotions in the psychological sense, but rather emotions understood as forms of being, forms of being in the world, and we began to discuss the negative feelings: before all others, opportunism, later cynicism and finally fear. We believed that opportunism understood as mass emotion, signified that each individual worked in contact with many distinct opportunities, opportunites understood in a technical sense.’

It seems very clear that contemporary labor’s very core is communication. No need to look further than sales of the Blackberry to prove that. So it is a natural result that participants in this new era should take advantage of opportunities they see - this is what Matt calls ‘gaps’.

So to blend these two sources, ultimately Matt Mason is suggesting that companies take a hint from the pirates and wake up to their post-fordist existence. It will not be an easy task to theorize the role of a company acting as a post-fordist subject, but perhaps that is where we are headed.

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(Via Swarming Media.)