Hello Antonia! Thanks for another eye-opening article. Hope you come through your dry spell soon, I have been through (a lot) dry spells with photography. They are what they are.
My goodness, what a stack or 2 of books! If I had that many on my table, I'd go into deep depression as the task ahead of getting through them would seem insurmountable. I don't know you do it.
Gosh "Ulm Pishkun" was fabulous, thanks so much! We were through that area/park this Fall, so his words/writing was so close to home, I could almost feel the events. I wonder if it has changed much since you first were there.
I will add that Chris's descriptions of the grasses and what they were like for eons before was totally engrossing and fantastic! I can barely imagine what it must have looked like and been like for hundreds upon hundreds of miles. Wow.
Wow.. I have been searching for grasses like that even in small areas (Tall Grass Prairie?).. I will continue to look... it's one of my Holy Grails :-)
Chris is an incredible writer. I recommend following his work if you like the style and subject, and he has a great newsletter: https://chrislatray.substack.com
Those are the not-for-fun books ;). This is why I hardly ever read nonfiction for leisure! Lets you know how the sausage gets made, though. Nonfiction can be like an iceberg; you never see most of what informs it.
Thanks so much for that link! And I am not sure I could ever get through a not for fun book, but maybe I should test my soul/conscience/mind. Sounds like you have read "The Brothers Karamazov" - was it fun/hard?
Well, I don't do it because I enjoy it, just for work ;)
I haven't read Dostoevsky in years, but yes, a long time ago. I loved his books at the time I read them. Recently I've wondered if there are better translations. All the Russian classics read like 19-century British novels and I wonder if that's really their style.
For many, likely. Writers are naturally inclined to sit alone in rooms, in silence, for long periods of time. Actually, I think that creates problems of its own -- when we hit a dry spot we (or at least I) often have trouble figuring out what to do with that skill. There's a school of thought that advises you to keep your butt in the chair whether the words come or not, but I've come to prefer going for a walk.
I'm very interested in that Hayes book as well and I'm jealous that you have it. I've read that Ilgunas book (and the one he wrote before it). I bought Sand Talk on your recommendation but haven't read it yet. And the Nick Estes book must be moved high on your list!
Started Nick Estes this morning. WOW. Aside from being packed with information, his writing is so powerful. It's like I can feel the reverberation of his voice in my room.
Estes it is! I'm very curious about it--thank you for the prompt. Will dive in soon. Glad you've read Ilgunas, too. He brings an interesting perspective.
Had to buy the Hayes book through the evil empire's UK site. My bookstore couldn't order it. My spouse used to travel to the UK pretty often, but not since March, so I couldn't ask him to get it for me :( I suppose there's no way we can always escape Bezos.
Sand Talk was just so different. I'll go back and read it again. I'm not even sure what I think of it, just felt like it clipped along cracking constraints around the way I've been taught to think and perceive and I'm really grateful for that because it's what I'm looking for right now.
I've ordered some UK editions through Waterstones, I believe they're called, because I just had to read them now. Over a year ago. And I haven't read them. Ha ha
"Capital" has been on my TBR pile since it came out. 2014?
Waterstones is kind of like Barnes & Noble in scale but much more pleasant to be in (layout tends to be more like Tattered Cover in Denver. And of course being British, every store I've walked into there has prominent nature writing and travel writing displays up front. Dangerously inviting bookstores to wander and browse in ...
In your copious spare time..... could you share some insights how you built the reading list pictured in the article? I’ve been googling all the books and am getting more and more excited! It covers several things that (thus far) I have been learning via longform journalism articles and reading presentations and papers (for example..... all things water. Shortages/radioactive contamination from the 50s’/runoff from scotchguard / the “water wars” going on in Montana with hedge funds).... I’m pretty obsessed.
That is really good. Also my son was reading over my shoulder and has now added this song to his playlist :)
Some of this goes back quite a ways. An environmental lawyer friend of mine introduced me to Freyfogle, which led me to Henry George's "Progress & Poverty" (which I'm a little obsessed with), and a local surveyor introduced me to Andro Linklater's "Owning the Earth" (which is absolutely amazing, as is surveying as an art and science). This was all while I was working on a private property vs. the commons essay a few years ago: https://aeon.co/essays/is-it-time-to-upend-the-idea-that-land-is-private-property
I knew I wanted to write a book about that after my walking book was published, so I've been collecting these stacks for a while. Whenever I see something that seems related--like Rutger Bergman's takedown of billionaires at Davos, or an article in the Guardian about doughnut economics being implemented in Amsterdam post-Covid--I look up reviews on Goodreads and see if the book might be worth reading. Which has now led to this insane pile!
Erin Brokovitch I saw on the new releases table at my local bookstore, but "Living Downstream" (excellent book! so depressing! definitely related to your reading on contamination) I read years ago when I still lived in upstate New York and Steingraber was just starting her anti-fracking protests.
Water wars. Oof. I am also pretty obsessed. And also believe that water should not be owned. "Mythical River" is by a friend of mine, Melissa L. Sevigny, and is one of the best things I've ever read about water and the West.
Looking over your list again..... saw the “abolish silicon valley” and that led to a whole other level of excitement and thought! Please keep up the amazing work! :)
One thing re water..... it’s almost completely un-regulated. Since watersheds span across state lines, you would think it’s regulated by the federal government. Except...it’s not. And state regulations..... vary wildly.
USDA has some amazing research on depletion rates (and NASA Grace/Hope satellites provided data worldwide). Search on USDA Groundwater mining / depletion and you’ll find a number of reports. All USDA can do is publish reports and say “this really needs to be addressed by federal/state legislature”. There has been massive lack of action/attention to the depletion of the groundwater (and in many cases it can never be reversed because of rock formations and such that formed around the underground lakes and no water can get back in).
I moved from California to Texas in 2011. From one drought to another really. The difference in addressing the issues between the states is quite vast.
I struggle through (lately very regular) thoughts/fears/arguments on states rights. I see both sides and it’s....messy. So messy. The commons must be saved from rapid depletion/extinction/pollution etc . It requires galvanizing all the people to action. Helping them see the immediate impact of inaction. It can’t be ignored.
I feel that too much emphasis is placed on climate change as a catch all. Occasionally some discussion of emissions reduction , and carbon footprint. Those are things that are very difficult for most to comprehend. Vs “if you don’t have water for 72 hours, you die” . Never mind rising sea levels/temperatures (because that’s a future thing and is abstract).
I have one glimmer of hope to punch through the polarization, and that’s the Public Land Owner movement. It’s one of very few things that reaches across the political spectrum and gets everyone engaged and talking.
Isn't it crazy? The lack of large-scale regulation or at least management, I mean. Those USDA reports sound awfully important but also so depressing. You've probably read all the things about groundwater depletion in California and almond groves and lack of regulation. It feels like such an intractable problem but we don't have a choice except to try to figure it out--as you said, we can't live without it.
The both sides of anything is messy :/ There's an interesting economist, Elinor Ostrom, who won the Nobel Prize for her commons-based theories. One of the things she proposed was a "nested" system, so commons managed at a local/community level, but within larger systems of management that kicked in when necessary. Water makes the necessity of that so obvious. You can regulate water use and disallow pollution in one place but not upstream, so you need a larger network for that.
The public landowner thing does seem to bring together people from all different spectrums. I think it's effective for the best reasons, because it reminds people of what they love (being outdoors doing whatever) and what they need to do to ensure that future generations also have the chance to love that thing. I think it's so far a great model for education and sparking activism!
Governance..... “nested” yes. We developed a model for that, and for dealing with abuse of the commons. We have a “citizen” and “steward” role, and a compact/license/contract for use of the commons. It’s limited (currently) to computer networking, but I believe it could be utilized as a framework for other commons resources. People commit selfish/vandalism acts when nobody is watching, or the “person” being harmed is invisible (say the phone company, or the shareholders of a large corporation) or nature. What we found in our research/modeling etc was that if you can see/touch the infrastructure, and you community barn raise together, then everyone understands they are part/parcel of the commons. It is them, they are it. A sense of deep belonging, of care/stewardship. We are all linked. Deeply. And macro effects are caused by millions of micro actions. As I mentioned in another comment, cause/effect chains are long and abstract now.
A few months ago researchers determined a way to plant crops under solar cells. I got excited about this. We could have communities plant crops under the solar cells powering the ground stations (the follow on/pull in effect I mentioned) . The idea is that a large upfront cooperative financed capital purchase is done, so that owner/operator is one and the same, no renting like is done today. Renting the infrastructure is another issue. Ah it’s some faceless corporation, who cares if I steal from it.
I would love to know more about how you developed these ideas and systems, if you want to email me: amalchik@gmail.com
The point about vandalism acts came up in one of Ken Ilgunas's pieces on the right to roam (I think it was a New York Times op-ed). One commenter, or maybe it was in the piece, said that she'd opened her property for people to use but ended up having to close it because they abused the trails, drove ATVs off-trail, etc. You get that at National Forest Service access places, too, or my favorite target shooting spot that almost always has a ton of trash left there. Definitely seems to show a lack of a sense of belonging: "This is the government's" not "This is ours as citizens." I do like what Backcountry Hunters & Anglers does to try to help people see themselves as active citizens who have a right and responsibility to protect public land.
This is why we can’t have nice things. And why it’s so important that everyone knows everyone. Doing something negative to the land should have a known person impact. As opposed to some abstract owner
“ If you were curious about private property, the commons, and the history of ownership, where would you start?”
and
“ Some stuff to read (no podcasts! I’ve been bingeing on the “Tides of History” podcast, so the rest are just piling up):”
Clearly the answer is to start a podcast! :) haha.
I am actually deeply interested in commons/private property , maintaining balance, community ownership of infrastructure (capital is highly portable/flighty , infrastructure is local/sticky) how to help capital stay local (to build infrastructure) in a way that has infrastructure ending up owned in commons.
I am in early stages of starting a cooperative (High Flight Networks) to operate high altitude balloons (flight hours as a service) and one of the key strategic challenges is how the ground stations can be financed/owned/operated by the community they serve. We don’t want a situation where a few wealthy residents either
1) helicopter activism and fund the build
2) move away (or pass on) and the infrastructure goes/dies with them (ie children selling off the estate)
Sorry, that might be off topic and I apologize if this is considered spam. I just get really excited whenever someone mentions commons/private property etc.
Thanks. :) We like to think so! We spent considerable time looking at large scale problems in the country and how to solve them.
We settled on extending communication systems , and then helping communities finance/own/operate the ground stations and grow up/around them.
We want to have a pull in effect, where once access to communications/internet becomes vastly more distributed, it grows the community / tax base etc and we can start pulling people out of massively over-crowded urban centers.
We also have a cooperative venture capital / finance firm spinning up in 2021 to help package together some investment products to solve big problems (like water infrastructure).
I see the world as a kind of triangle :
Massive unemployment / lack of equitable access to (education|healthcare|food security etc) (alternatively viewed as large amounts of human capital)
Hundreds of billions or even trillions (depending on who you read/believe) of capital that’s parked in S&P/treasuries etc (or doing things like stock buybacks)
<missing piece> to link that capital to solving the problems
Land/capital/labor , but somehow capital became the only thing with a voice.
I am holding deeply (perhaps I’m insane) to the belief that if the right firm/fund/fund managers/structure/governance emerges with the right pitch to the right limited partners, we can make the necessary long term/large/deep investments to solve some big problems. Money is..... less than worthless in a (rapidly emerging) mad max world and unless we do some really hard work , quickly and as massive scale, things will become incredibly bad.
For the balloons, we are pursuing grant/non diluting funding from the US Government to allow for a return to the public (that has given us so much) by releasing everything we do as free/libre/opensource software/hardware for maximum adoption/availability/improvement.
Please keep up the amazing posts. I’m so inspired by your writing. :)
That sounds absolutely amazing and so well thought out! In fact, it sounds like the Commoning podcast should be interviewing you and your group--the depth of this thinking is inspiring in its solidity and comprehensiveness.
Haha! If I tried to launch my own podcast, I really never would be able to catch up on the ones I listen to!
There is one I like that is actually relevant to this project you're working on (and no it's definitely not off-topic or spam) called Frontiers of Commoning, by David Bollier: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontiers-of-commoning-with-david-bollier/id1501085005. There are a number of people he talks with who work on cooperatives and community-oriented projects; it might actually be useful for the questions you're looking into here.
I never thought about the capital = portable/flighty while infrastructure = local/sticky; that's a great insight. It explains some of the efficacy behind something like BerkShares that tries to keep capital local.
I get what you mean about a few wealthy residents. I think that's a chronic problem in a lot of places. We get a lot of that here, and it's a constant worry that someone could move on or lose interest, and then how do you keep the project going? Also, a major problem is people loving investing in or donating to launching a project but it is far harder to fund long-term maintenance. I'm not even close to an expert in these areas, but I think that's where community-building really comes in.
Have now watched the first installment--fantastic documentary (also the host of Frontiers of Commoning just recommended Karl Polayni to me, so it was great to make that connection). I didn't know it was 6 parts! Looks like that's my watchlist for the next week :)
I think you sent me that link once before and I couldn't figure out how to access it. Thank you! I'll sign up for the free trial and try again. In the meantime, I really like this essay on Aeon about how modern economists and popular culture get Adam Smith so wrong: https://aeon.co/essays/we-should-look-closely-at-what-adam-smith-actually-believed
"For while Smith might be publicly lauded by those who put their faith in private capitalist enterprise, and who decry the state as the chief threat to liberty and prosperity, the real Adam Smith painted a rather different picture. According to Smith, the most pressing dangers came not from the state acting alone, but the state when captured by merchant elites."
Oh--and this great episode of the Scotland Outdoors podcast interviewing two researchers who pieced together the links between wealth derived from slavery followed by that same wealth being used to buy estates in Scotland, leading to some of the most egregious Highland Clearances: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0908hjr
It's pretty academic (not graphic) but was eye-opening in the way it linked so many of the injustices around ownership (of people, of land) during that period of history.
And the Boston Tea Party! I actually was writing a newsletter post kind of about these things for next week. It wasn't just taxes on tea--it was taxes on tea to help the British East India Company get out of debt. Looking forward to finally watching this.
That is *beautiful.* Wow. Kimmerer never misses and I hadn't seen that one. (Also the whole structure and probing of the essay is essentially the book proposal I was working on, but she does it so much better!) The invention of scarcity in the interests of private profit/gain has been driving me batty, trying to figure out where it started, somewhere very deep in history. (Charles Eisenstein's book, the Sacred Economics she references, tries to poke at this a little but doesn't really get there.)
Pedantic.... “ The invention of scarcity in the interests of private profit/gain has been driving me batty, trying to figure out where it started, somewhere very deep in history”
artificial scarcity :)
My take:
Somewhere in the shift of hunter/gather (where cause/effect was vastly more.... central/real life/death) to “industry” . It was sold as “efficiency” (appeal to laziness). Scaling along with massively increasing populations , decrease in infant mortality rates etc. I call it the two sided problem. Many things are helpful/good (like a reduction in infant mortality rates) however that also has a somewhat indirect cause/effect, need for scale/efficiency (perhaps need is the wrong word).
Capture of surplus is deeply inherent across many forms of business. An inherent belief that someone is owed a multiplicative return on their investment. So we now have industrial scale farms with horrid treatment of animals/workers (frequent (but not frequent enough) busts of sub minimum wage paid workers ) and of course all manner of chemicals/medicines pumped into the animals / crops (pesticides etc etc) . All in the name of capturing surplus.
So that is what I would focus on, the motivations/history of capturing surplus value. That is what underlies the invention of artificial scarcity. This is why I’m so enamored with the cooperative model of entity formation. The fruits of the bounty are distributed to all stakeholders. It creates alignment.
Oh, yes, you are right--artificial scarcity. That piece Timothy linked to does a lovely job of pointing out the difference. Nature is abundant but it doesn't mean there aren't times of scarcity (like in a drought).
Now that's an interesting side to the coin. I hadn't thought about capturing surplus. I guess Kimmerer addresses that in the essay, too, when talking about someone who was studying a hunter-gatherer community and asked why a hunter shared out all his meat instead of saving it for another time. And he said he stores the meat in the belly of his brother (meaning that sharing what you have builds bonds of reciprocity, so that when another gets an animal, they will share with you).
Is it partly about time as well as relationship? Like a mentality was created where humans lost the ability to envision surplus coming back to them in another form years in the future?
Any books you'd recommend on capturing surplus value? (It's probably in one of those massive stacks I need to get through.) Eric Freyfogle's "The Land We Share" addresses that in some forms but his book is structured around specific legal cases throughout U.S. history.
Hello Antonia! Thanks for another eye-opening article. Hope you come through your dry spell soon, I have been through (a lot) dry spells with photography. They are what they are.
My goodness, what a stack or 2 of books! If I had that many on my table, I'd go into deep depression as the task ahead of getting through them would seem insurmountable. I don't know you do it.
Gosh "Ulm Pishkun" was fabulous, thanks so much! We were through that area/park this Fall, so his words/writing was so close to home, I could almost feel the events. I wonder if it has changed much since you first were there.
Best
Paul
I will add that Chris's descriptions of the grasses and what they were like for eons before was totally engrossing and fantastic! I can barely imagine what it must have looked like and been like for hundreds upon hundreds of miles. Wow.
Wow.. I have been searching for grasses like that even in small areas (Tall Grass Prairie?).. I will continue to look... it's one of my Holy Grails :-)
I don't know if this would fit the bill because I'm not sure what their plant restoration program is like, but maybe: https://www.americanprairie.org
Thanks for that link - lots of great info (and pics) there!
Chris is an incredible writer. I recommend following his work if you like the style and subject, and he has a great newsletter: https://chrislatray.substack.com
Those are the not-for-fun books ;). This is why I hardly ever read nonfiction for leisure! Lets you know how the sausage gets made, though. Nonfiction can be like an iceberg; you never see most of what informs it.
Thanks so much for that link! And I am not sure I could ever get through a not for fun book, but maybe I should test my soul/conscience/mind. Sounds like you have read "The Brothers Karamazov" - was it fun/hard?
Well, I don't do it because I enjoy it, just for work ;)
I haven't read Dostoevsky in years, but yes, a long time ago. I loved his books at the time I read them. Recently I've wondered if there are better translations. All the Russian classics read like 19-century British novels and I wonder if that's really their style.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/19/change-your-life-sit-down-and-think
Maybe a clue on the root cause for many issues ?
For many, likely. Writers are naturally inclined to sit alone in rooms, in silence, for long periods of time. Actually, I think that creates problems of its own -- when we hit a dry spot we (or at least I) often have trouble figuring out what to do with that skill. There's a school of thought that advises you to keep your butt in the chair whether the words come or not, but I've come to prefer going for a walk.
Oh, and I love this post. I have—am having—similar struggles.
Sending you lots of good writerly energy and all sorts of other good energy <3
I'm very interested in that Hayes book as well and I'm jealous that you have it. I've read that Ilgunas book (and the one he wrote before it). I bought Sand Talk on your recommendation but haven't read it yet. And the Nick Estes book must be moved high on your list!
Started Nick Estes this morning. WOW. Aside from being packed with information, his writing is so powerful. It's like I can feel the reverberation of his voice in my room.
Estes is an inspiration to me. I aim to figure out a way to meet him one day.
I hope you do! This book is incredible.
Estes it is! I'm very curious about it--thank you for the prompt. Will dive in soon. Glad you've read Ilgunas, too. He brings an interesting perspective.
Had to buy the Hayes book through the evil empire's UK site. My bookstore couldn't order it. My spouse used to travel to the UK pretty often, but not since March, so I couldn't ask him to get it for me :( I suppose there's no way we can always escape Bezos.
Sand Talk was just so different. I'll go back and read it again. I'm not even sure what I think of it, just felt like it clipped along cracking constraints around the way I've been taught to think and perceive and I'm really grateful for that because it's what I'm looking for right now.
I've ordered some UK editions through Waterstones, I believe they're called, because I just had to read them now. Over a year ago. And I haven't read them. Ha ha
"Capital" has been on my TBR pile since it came out. 2014?
Waterstones is kind of like Barnes & Noble in scale but much more pleasant to be in (layout tends to be more like Tattered Cover in Denver. And of course being British, every store I've walked into there has prominent nature writing and travel writing displays up front. Dangerously inviting bookstores to wander and browse in ...
In your copious spare time..... could you share some insights how you built the reading list pictured in the article? I’ve been googling all the books and am getting more and more excited! It covers several things that (thus far) I have been learning via longform journalism articles and reading presentations and papers (for example..... all things water. Shortages/radioactive contamination from the 50s’/runoff from scotchguard / the “water wars” going on in Montana with hedge funds).... I’m pretty obsessed.
Also re Superman isn’t coming, reminded me of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUS8g1VPeeA
That is really good. Also my son was reading over my shoulder and has now added this song to his playlist :)
Some of this goes back quite a ways. An environmental lawyer friend of mine introduced me to Freyfogle, which led me to Henry George's "Progress & Poverty" (which I'm a little obsessed with), and a local surveyor introduced me to Andro Linklater's "Owning the Earth" (which is absolutely amazing, as is surveying as an art and science). This was all while I was working on a private property vs. the commons essay a few years ago: https://aeon.co/essays/is-it-time-to-upend-the-idea-that-land-is-private-property
I knew I wanted to write a book about that after my walking book was published, so I've been collecting these stacks for a while. Whenever I see something that seems related--like Rutger Bergman's takedown of billionaires at Davos, or an article in the Guardian about doughnut economics being implemented in Amsterdam post-Covid--I look up reviews on Goodreads and see if the book might be worth reading. Which has now led to this insane pile!
Erin Brokovitch I saw on the new releases table at my local bookstore, but "Living Downstream" (excellent book! so depressing! definitely related to your reading on contamination) I read years ago when I still lived in upstate New York and Steingraber was just starting her anti-fracking protests.
I could go on but you get the idea ;). Mostly serendipity. Like, Garrett Bucks had a newsletter piece (https://thewhitepages.substack.com/p/real-men-put-an-entire-countrys-public) about Gerda Lerner's "The Creation of Patriarchy"--I'd never heard of her!
Water wars. Oof. I am also pretty obsessed. And also believe that water should not be owned. "Mythical River" is by a friend of mine, Melissa L. Sevigny, and is one of the best things I've ever read about water and the West.
Looking over your list again..... saw the “abolish silicon valley” and that led to a whole other level of excitement and thought! Please keep up the amazing work! :)
Team Human is also a good one along those lines, and a very quick read :)
Thanks! Great stuff.
One thing re water..... it’s almost completely un-regulated. Since watersheds span across state lines, you would think it’s regulated by the federal government. Except...it’s not. And state regulations..... vary wildly.
USDA has some amazing research on depletion rates (and NASA Grace/Hope satellites provided data worldwide). Search on USDA Groundwater mining / depletion and you’ll find a number of reports. All USDA can do is publish reports and say “this really needs to be addressed by federal/state legislature”. There has been massive lack of action/attention to the depletion of the groundwater (and in many cases it can never be reversed because of rock formations and such that formed around the underground lakes and no water can get back in).
I moved from California to Texas in 2011. From one drought to another really. The difference in addressing the issues between the states is quite vast.
I struggle through (lately very regular) thoughts/fears/arguments on states rights. I see both sides and it’s....messy. So messy. The commons must be saved from rapid depletion/extinction/pollution etc . It requires galvanizing all the people to action. Helping them see the immediate impact of inaction. It can’t be ignored.
I feel that too much emphasis is placed on climate change as a catch all. Occasionally some discussion of emissions reduction , and carbon footprint. Those are things that are very difficult for most to comprehend. Vs “if you don’t have water for 72 hours, you die” . Never mind rising sea levels/temperatures (because that’s a future thing and is abstract).
I have one glimmer of hope to punch through the polarization, and that’s the Public Land Owner movement. It’s one of very few things that reaches across the political spectrum and gets everyone engaged and talking.
Isn't it crazy? The lack of large-scale regulation or at least management, I mean. Those USDA reports sound awfully important but also so depressing. You've probably read all the things about groundwater depletion in California and almond groves and lack of regulation. It feels like such an intractable problem but we don't have a choice except to try to figure it out--as you said, we can't live without it.
The both sides of anything is messy :/ There's an interesting economist, Elinor Ostrom, who won the Nobel Prize for her commons-based theories. One of the things she proposed was a "nested" system, so commons managed at a local/community level, but within larger systems of management that kicked in when necessary. Water makes the necessity of that so obvious. You can regulate water use and disallow pollution in one place but not upstream, so you need a larger network for that.
The public landowner thing does seem to bring together people from all different spectrums. I think it's effective for the best reasons, because it reminds people of what they love (being outdoors doing whatever) and what they need to do to ensure that future generations also have the chance to love that thing. I think it's so far a great model for education and sparking activism!
Governance..... “nested” yes. We developed a model for that, and for dealing with abuse of the commons. We have a “citizen” and “steward” role, and a compact/license/contract for use of the commons. It’s limited (currently) to computer networking, but I believe it could be utilized as a framework for other commons resources. People commit selfish/vandalism acts when nobody is watching, or the “person” being harmed is invisible (say the phone company, or the shareholders of a large corporation) or nature. What we found in our research/modeling etc was that if you can see/touch the infrastructure, and you community barn raise together, then everyone understands they are part/parcel of the commons. It is them, they are it. A sense of deep belonging, of care/stewardship. We are all linked. Deeply. And macro effects are caused by millions of micro actions. As I mentioned in another comment, cause/effect chains are long and abstract now.
A few months ago researchers determined a way to plant crops under solar cells. I got excited about this. We could have communities plant crops under the solar cells powering the ground stations (the follow on/pull in effect I mentioned) . The idea is that a large upfront cooperative financed capital purchase is done, so that owner/operator is one and the same, no renting like is done today. Renting the infrastructure is another issue. Ah it’s some faceless corporation, who cares if I steal from it.
I would love to know more about how you developed these ideas and systems, if you want to email me: amalchik@gmail.com
The point about vandalism acts came up in one of Ken Ilgunas's pieces on the right to roam (I think it was a New York Times op-ed). One commenter, or maybe it was in the piece, said that she'd opened her property for people to use but ended up having to close it because they abused the trails, drove ATVs off-trail, etc. You get that at National Forest Service access places, too, or my favorite target shooting spot that almost always has a ton of trash left there. Definitely seems to show a lack of a sense of belonging: "This is the government's" not "This is ours as citizens." I do like what Backcountry Hunters & Anglers does to try to help people see themselves as active citizens who have a right and responsibility to protect public land.
This is why we can’t have nice things. And why it’s so important that everyone knows everyone. Doing something negative to the land should have a known person impact. As opposed to some abstract owner
Oh now you’ve done it .... :)
“ If you were curious about private property, the commons, and the history of ownership, where would you start?”
and
“ Some stuff to read (no podcasts! I’ve been bingeing on the “Tides of History” podcast, so the rest are just piling up):”
Clearly the answer is to start a podcast! :) haha.
I am actually deeply interested in commons/private property , maintaining balance, community ownership of infrastructure (capital is highly portable/flighty , infrastructure is local/sticky) how to help capital stay local (to build infrastructure) in a way that has infrastructure ending up owned in commons.
I am in early stages of starting a cooperative (High Flight Networks) to operate high altitude balloons (flight hours as a service) and one of the key strategic challenges is how the ground stations can be financed/owned/operated by the community they serve. We don’t want a situation where a few wealthy residents either
1) helicopter activism and fund the build
2) move away (or pass on) and the infrastructure goes/dies with them (ie children selling off the estate)
Sorry, that might be off topic and I apologize if this is considered spam. I just get really excited whenever someone mentions commons/private property etc.
Also, how cool is high altitude balloons?!
Thanks. :) We like to think so! We spent considerable time looking at large scale problems in the country and how to solve them.
We settled on extending communication systems , and then helping communities finance/own/operate the ground stations and grow up/around them.
We want to have a pull in effect, where once access to communications/internet becomes vastly more distributed, it grows the community / tax base etc and we can start pulling people out of massively over-crowded urban centers.
We also have a cooperative venture capital / finance firm spinning up in 2021 to help package together some investment products to solve big problems (like water infrastructure).
I see the world as a kind of triangle :
Massive unemployment / lack of equitable access to (education|healthcare|food security etc) (alternatively viewed as large amounts of human capital)
Hundreds of billions or even trillions (depending on who you read/believe) of capital that’s parked in S&P/treasuries etc (or doing things like stock buybacks)
<missing piece> to link that capital to solving the problems
Land/capital/labor , but somehow capital became the only thing with a voice.
I am holding deeply (perhaps I’m insane) to the belief that if the right firm/fund/fund managers/structure/governance emerges with the right pitch to the right limited partners, we can make the necessary long term/large/deep investments to solve some big problems. Money is..... less than worthless in a (rapidly emerging) mad max world and unless we do some really hard work , quickly and as massive scale, things will become incredibly bad.
For the balloons, we are pursuing grant/non diluting funding from the US Government to allow for a return to the public (that has given us so much) by releasing everything we do as free/libre/opensource software/hardware for maximum adoption/availability/improvement.
Please keep up the amazing posts. I’m so inspired by your writing. :)
That sounds absolutely amazing and so well thought out! In fact, it sounds like the Commoning podcast should be interviewing you and your group--the depth of this thinking is inspiring in its solidity and comprehensiveness.
Thank you for the kind words :)
Haha! If I tried to launch my own podcast, I really never would be able to catch up on the ones I listen to!
There is one I like that is actually relevant to this project you're working on (and no it's definitely not off-topic or spam) called Frontiers of Commoning, by David Bollier: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontiers-of-commoning-with-david-bollier/id1501085005. There are a number of people he talks with who work on cooperatives and community-oriented projects; it might actually be useful for the questions you're looking into here.
I never thought about the capital = portable/flighty while infrastructure = local/sticky; that's a great insight. It explains some of the efficacy behind something like BerkShares that tries to keep capital local.
I get what you mean about a few wealthy residents. I think that's a chronic problem in a lot of places. We get a lot of that here, and it's a constant worry that someone could move on or lose interest, and then how do you keep the project going? Also, a major problem is people loving investing in or donating to launching a project but it is far harder to fund long-term maintenance. I'm not even close to an expert in these areas, but I think that's where community-building really comes in.
Thanks for the pod recommendation! :) Listening now.
Have now watched the first installment--fantastic documentary (also the host of Frontiers of Commoning just recommended Karl Polayni to me, so it was great to make that connection). I didn't know it was 6 parts! Looks like that's my watchlist for the next week :)
I think you sent me that link once before and I couldn't figure out how to access it. Thank you! I'll sign up for the free trial and try again. In the meantime, I really like this essay on Aeon about how modern economists and popular culture get Adam Smith so wrong: https://aeon.co/essays/we-should-look-closely-at-what-adam-smith-actually-believed
"For while Smith might be publicly lauded by those who put their faith in private capitalist enterprise, and who decry the state as the chief threat to liberty and prosperity, the real Adam Smith painted a rather different picture. According to Smith, the most pressing dangers came not from the state acting alone, but the state when captured by merchant elites."
Oh--and this great episode of the Scotland Outdoors podcast interviewing two researchers who pieced together the links between wealth derived from slavery followed by that same wealth being used to buy estates in Scotland, leading to some of the most egregious Highland Clearances: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0908hjr
It's pretty academic (not graphic) but was eye-opening in the way it linked so many of the injustices around ownership (of people, of land) during that period of history.
And the Boston Tea Party! I actually was writing a newsletter post kind of about these things for next week. It wasn't just taxes on tea--it was taxes on tea to help the British East India Company get out of debt. Looking forward to finally watching this.
That is *beautiful.* Wow. Kimmerer never misses and I hadn't seen that one. (Also the whole structure and probing of the essay is essentially the book proposal I was working on, but she does it so much better!) The invention of scarcity in the interests of private profit/gain has been driving me batty, trying to figure out where it started, somewhere very deep in history. (Charles Eisenstein's book, the Sacred Economics she references, tries to poke at this a little but doesn't really get there.)
Pedantic.... “ The invention of scarcity in the interests of private profit/gain has been driving me batty, trying to figure out where it started, somewhere very deep in history”
artificial scarcity :)
My take:
Somewhere in the shift of hunter/gather (where cause/effect was vastly more.... central/real life/death) to “industry” . It was sold as “efficiency” (appeal to laziness). Scaling along with massively increasing populations , decrease in infant mortality rates etc. I call it the two sided problem. Many things are helpful/good (like a reduction in infant mortality rates) however that also has a somewhat indirect cause/effect, need for scale/efficiency (perhaps need is the wrong word).
Capture of surplus is deeply inherent across many forms of business. An inherent belief that someone is owed a multiplicative return on their investment. So we now have industrial scale farms with horrid treatment of animals/workers (frequent (but not frequent enough) busts of sub minimum wage paid workers ) and of course all manner of chemicals/medicines pumped into the animals / crops (pesticides etc etc) . All in the name of capturing surplus.
So that is what I would focus on, the motivations/history of capturing surplus value. That is what underlies the invention of artificial scarcity. This is why I’m so enamored with the cooperative model of entity formation. The fruits of the bounty are distributed to all stakeholders. It creates alignment.
Oh, yes, you are right--artificial scarcity. That piece Timothy linked to does a lovely job of pointing out the difference. Nature is abundant but it doesn't mean there aren't times of scarcity (like in a drought).
Now that's an interesting side to the coin. I hadn't thought about capturing surplus. I guess Kimmerer addresses that in the essay, too, when talking about someone who was studying a hunter-gatherer community and asked why a hunter shared out all his meat instead of saving it for another time. And he said he stores the meat in the belly of his brother (meaning that sharing what you have builds bonds of reciprocity, so that when another gets an animal, they will share with you).
Is it partly about time as well as relationship? Like a mentality was created where humans lost the ability to envision surplus coming back to them in another form years in the future?
Any books you'd recommend on capturing surplus value? (It's probably in one of those massive stacks I need to get through.) Eric Freyfogle's "The Land We Share" addresses that in some forms but his book is structured around specific legal cases throughout U.S. history.
Cooperatives really are something hopeful. One of Bollier's podcast episodes gets deep into some of the things that really help them function, like clarifying values at the outside. I think it was this one: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nathan-schneider-on-cooperatives-and-digital-governance/id1501085005?i=1000493190655