Perhaps commerce is the natural metaphor for relationships with
human beings from outside one's immediate local culture. Considering
the unsavory nature of most of the metaphors that many people in
the world still resort to for their exorelationships, perhaps
propagating the "commerce is natural" meme would be a big step
forward.
Of course, if you only hang out with fully-enlightened people, it
would be (possibly) a step backward. But if you only hang out with
enlightened people, then you *are* alienated from the human race.
No one is born enlightened.
Pushing the idea that your natural relationship with all the billions
of people in the world that you do not and cannot know is commercial
says nothing about your relationships with the people that you can
and do know. Obviously those can be much more flexible and deeper.
If you honestly wish to relate to your closest friends and relatives
only on the same terms that you could relate to a stranger from
Uruguay, then I think you're robbing yourself of opportunities for
satisfying relationships with other human beings.
Eric Watt Forste ++ mailto:arkuat@pobox.com ++ http://www.c2.org/~arkuat/