On Monday, an advertorial entitled “E-commerce & The Demise of the Community” appeared in the New York Times. The latest in a series on “Megatechnology,” the ads are funded by an organization called the Turning Point Project, which is made up of some 80 non-profit organizations that “favor democratic, localized, economically sounds alternatives to current practices and policies.”

In no uncertain terms, the folks at Turning Point have little respect for the accomplishments of Jeff Bezos and other e-commerce luminaries. Monday’s advertisement was a diatribe against the evils of e-commerce and the argument went something like this: As the New Economy runs amok with riches, anything having to do with the offline world is being rendered obsolete. On the one hand, local tax-paying stores are being replaced by large tax-exempt e-commerce giants—and, because there is no sales tax on Internet-based commerce, the millions of dollars in tax money which would usually go to worthy recipients like public schools, arts programs, and libraries, are growing scarce. On the other, as non-dot-com businesses (that is, Mom-and-Pop stores) and “real places where people gather” slowly disappear, the “fundamental basis of American community and culture” is also eroding.

It is difficult to ignore several of Turning Point’s assertions. First, life as a small, independent shopkeeper has grown increasingly trying over the last decade. First it was Target, Walmart, and Blockbuster running both Mom and Pop out of business; now it’s Amazon.com, Travelocity.com, and Drugstore.com. And as Turning Point rightly notes, the government—in rare bi-partisan fashion—has gone to great lengths to keep its hands off the throttle of the New Economy engine. (For instance, though much has been made of the anti-trust suit against Microsoft, the action hasn’t really triggered more meddling by government in the high tech economy.) The insular technology community, in many respects, continues to do what it pleases.

Second, the organization’s broader concern with what it calls the “culture of isolation” has some merit. Turning Point fears a world in which people live “life through machines. They have social relations through machines; they shop via machines.” The organization goes on to site recent studies by Stanford and Carnegie-Mellon which suggest that excessive Internet use is making Americans “more isolated, alienated, lonely and depressed.”

Unfortunately for Turning Point and other organizations spooked by the stunning proliferation of Web companies, the die is already cast. Like it or not, the Internet represents the future of global business and Turning Point is essentially fighting an unrealistic and losing battle against e-commerce.

Fortunately for all of us, e-commerce companies aren't patently evil. Amazon.com—which just celebrated its fifth birthday—employs well over 7,000 people and has made an effort to work with independent booksellers rather than drive them out of business. And many small businesses, like their large counterparts, have been able to re-invent themselves by using the Web. Just consider how Ebay has transformed the collectibles business.

Of greater concern should be the implication that we are bound to lead ever-more-isolated lives. The Turning Point Project’s findings, though depressing, are hardly surprising. Virtual “communities,” while only in their infancy, are already prevalent in American life. Particularly for young Americans, the Internet is quotidian, and chat—the act of conversing online with complete strangers—(as creepy as it seems) is normal to most. Sadly, it appears these aspects of human “interaction” will only continue to grow as the Internet spreads.

As for the efforts of the Turning Point Project, we feel the organization’s name is all too apt. We’ve passed the turning point. The culture of isolation is already upon us.

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