I think that as long as Doctorow is the face of the movement... with articles like this, we aren't going anywhere and corporations probably don't mind him.
Conciseness is a virtue. When's the last time a corporation has ever produced a 2000-word essay on the reasons you should buy their game? Or a political party releasing a 3000-word essay on the virtues of their economic proposal for public viewing? If the best minds of our movement can't get a point across without, to put it on an extreme note, blathering on and on all over the place, they aren't afraid. Slogans and catchphrases have more power than detailed essays. To quote the 80s cartoon Pinky and the Brain, "Simple Ideas for Simple Minds" is a much smarter strategy for taking over the world.
It's even better when it's behind a paywall. You will pay to read a long essay? The only reason you would do that is if you already care about the subject. Anyone who doesn't care yet won't ever see it or pay for it or read it, so nothing happens at all.
I get that most people never read these sort of documents, but I think some people do and take it seriously, or at the least, would interpret the absence of such a document as a red flag for an ideology lacking intellectual rigor.
Conciseness is a virtue. When's the last time a corporation has ever produced a 2000-word essay on the reasons you should buy their game? Or a political party releasing a 3000-word essay on the virtues of their economic proposal for public viewing? If the best minds of our movement can't get a point across without, to put it on an extreme note, blathering on and on all over the place, they aren't afraid. Slogans and catchphrases have more power than detailed essays. To quote the 80s cartoon Pinky and the Brain, "Simple Ideas for Simple Minds" is a much smarter strategy for taking over the world.
It's even better when it's behind a paywall. You will pay to read a long essay? The only reason you would do that is if you already care about the subject. Anyone who doesn't care yet won't ever see it or pay for it or read it, so nothing happens at all.