The Commonsverse as a Parallel Polis: Opportunities and Challenges

Politicians and economists may dismiss the commons with a wave of the hand, but commoners understand a deeper truth – that the presumptions of capitalist modernity are profoundly flawed, if not already collapsing.

I have seen the future and it is ‘Ramp Hollow’

Harrison Brown wrote in 1954 that the most likely outcome of industrial civilization is a return to agrarian civilization. Historian Steven Stoll gives us a glimpse of an agrarian world that existed before the industrial revolution, one that might provide a possible pattern for an agrarian existence in the future.

Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons (Episode 52 of Crazy Town}

The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “tragedy” part of it has been debunked – it really should be the triumph of the commons.

English Landowners have Stolen our Rights. It is Time to Reclaim Them

Almost all of us, in England and many other nations, are born on the wrong side of the law. The disproportionate weight that the law gives to property rights makes nearly everyone a second-class citizen before they draw their first breath, fenced out of the good life we could lead.

The Commons and Climate Change

There is much to be said about the relationship of commons to climate change, but let me offer this short glimpse into the clash of worldviews that must be negotiated. Whatever the outcome in ongoing arguments with capitalist climate-deniers, our best recourse will be to build and fortify our many commons as a failsafe against the earthly reckoning that is coming.