@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social cover
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

RD4Anarchy

@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social

THC-infused, dada-inspired boomer, latecomer to anarchism, literally living the meme now in my mother's basement, with my partner and two cats.
No tankies, campists or ancaps tolerated.
he/him

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

HeavenlyPossum , to random
@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social avatar

Capitalism is a system of rule by capital owners.

Capital is an abstracted, commodified, tradable right to command the labor of other people.

That’s it.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@dlakelan @HeavenlyPossum

>>(investment with an expectation of a return)<<

Toxic conditioning at the core of capitalism. The seed of our destruction.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@dlakelan @HeavenlyPossum

"investment with an expectation of a return" is not the same thing as "building stuff with the idea that it will be useful and generate value for the world", and I don't see any usefulness to the idea of "investing". That concept is not necessary for accomplishing projects of mutual value. It's an extra layer of loaded abstraction that only serves to reinforce capitalist realism.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@dlakelan @HeavenlyPossum

There are legitimate and earlier uses of the word invest that derive from its origins having to do with clothing. But the way you're using it here derives from the financial meaning which had a separate history and was originally specific to money and finance. This was later expanded to the way you're using it (to make use of for future benefits or advantages, as in “to invest time or energy in something”)

As such I think it is still toxic even if you're not talking about money. It is derived from the logic of money and finance and therefore poisons perceptions and motivations. I think we can build something with the expectation it will be useful, without employing the word or idea of investment. I think we would be well-served to try to frame things from a different perspective that doesn't have roots in financial ideas.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/invest-word-history

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@dlakelan @HeavenlyPossum

I'd rather not just gloss over it because I think my point is valid that we unconsciously reproduce capitalist thought with our use of words and concepts to frame how we look at things.

Just like this whole conversation about hypothetical situations keeps including the assumption that money is in play and that people get "paid" with money and that things get sold for money and that people own land as private, exclusive property.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@dlakelan @HeavenlyPossum

>>But at the moment I am struggling to draw a box around what is vs what is not capitalism in Possums conception?<<

Not to speak for HP but I think part of the difficulty is that capitalism is a description of an existing global system that is inextricably entwined with state. You're trying to draw smaller and smaller boxes in an attempt to identify essential "nuggets" of capitalism, but in doing so you separate what you're boxing from the larger context that defines capitalism. At the same time you introduce into those boxes capitalist assumptions and modes of thought as if they are stand-alone principles, but in reality they are deeply connected to the global system that you're trying to box out for the sake of examination.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@HeavenlyPossum @dlakelan

Where does the fuel for the kiln come from?

breadandcircuses , to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

The "Enlightenment" of Western culture makes for a nice story, but that's really all it is — a story.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@ariadne @jamesgbradbury @p @breadandcircuses

Capital is a god for sure: an autonomous authority with real power over us all, yet without any substance outside human imagination and social relationships.

breadandcircuses , to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

What capitalist industry and commerce has done just in the last three decades, pumping nearly a trillion tons of CO₂ into the air, has no precedent.

Never before in Earth’s history has so much carbon dioxide been added to the atmosphere over such a short period of time.

HEADLINE: Chemical analysis of natural CO₂ rise over the last 50,000 years shows that today's rate is 10 times faster

"The rate of CO₂ change today really is unprecedented," said Kathleen Wendt, assistant professor in Oregon State University's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. "Our research identified the fastest rates of past natural CO₂ rise ever observed, and the rate occurring today, largely driven by human emissions, is 10 times higher."

During the largest of the natural rises, carbon dioxide increased by about 14 parts per million in 55 years. The jumps occurred about once every 7,000 years or so. At today's rates, that magnitude of increase takes only 5 to 6 years.

Never in the whole history of Earth has so much CO₂ been poured into the atmosphere in such a short time.

Our rulers are literally conducting an insanely dangerous experiment, making it impossible for anyone to say with any certainty what will happen next. No one knows, because nothing like this has ever been done before.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://phys.org/news/2024-05-chemical-analysis-natural-years-today.html

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@MisuseCase @antics @YusufToropov @Jennifer @breadandcircuses

Jennifer was not the OP and Yusuf consistently deserves nothing but scorn.

bobjmsn , to random
@bobjmsn@mastodon.scot avatar

Earlier today the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack MP, announced that he will order ministers to plan for a nuclear reactor to be built in Scotland!

Scotland only has one operational nuclear site left, Torness, which will be decommissioned in 2028.

Will you help us tell Alistair Jack and the UK Government to keep nuclear out of Scotland?

Petition:

https://greens.scot/NuclearFreeScotland?utm_source=email&utm_medium=middle

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@benroyce @tf @Tarbh @peterbrown @petealexharris @bobjmsn @simon_brooke

The dire problem is capitalism, which causes extremely excessive energy use which in turn results in horrific destruction to the biosphere through insane levels of extraction.

Nuclear energy does not address this, only de-growth will. Nuclear energy is only needed to maintain these suicidal levels of capitalist extraction and the conversion of our world into plastic and other waste. The potential risks (both immediate and long term) involved with nuclear are too great for the technology to be trusted to the capitalist system even if we really did need it. Boeing represents the trajectory of capitalist tech, imagine if the shit happening there were to happen in the nuclear industry.

Nuclear is the worst answer to climate crisis, ignoring the root causes entirely and perpetuating exploitation and pollution of global south and indigenous lands in the name of sustaining the status quo.

Hell NO! to nuclear.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@benroyce @tf @Tarbh @peterbrown @petealexharris @bobjmsn @simon_brooke

Part of my point is that if we still need nuclear we've lost already. Just like "renewables" have only helped increase extraction and energy use, they have not replaced it. Nuclear would be the same, just fueling capitalism further and adding significant risks to the equation.

I see this as similar to the situation with electric cars. Replacing every IC vehicle in the world with an electric one is not the answer. We must drastically reduce the number of vehicles in use and the only way to do that is to change things fundamentally so that we are not so compelled to have to use them so much.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@benroyce @tf @Tarbh @peterbrown @petealexharris @bobjmsn @simon_brooke

Perpetuating the status quo is nonsense.

We're not going to agree on this so just leave it at that. You're not going to change my mind about nuclear energy. I just hope you will come to see that technology is never going to save us and neither will states.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@benroyce @tf @Tarbh @peterbrown @petealexharris @bobjmsn @simon_brooke

I didn't argue against technology per se, I said it will never save us.

I'm not dreaming of alternate realities, I'm saying that there are no ends to justify, only means that we must live with.

Yes, I absolutely do argue against states.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@benroyce @tf @Tarbh @peterbrown @petealexharris @bobjmsn @simon_brooke

Right? It's an endless trap. We must liberate ourselves from it.

GeofCox , to random
@GeofCox@climatejustice.social avatar

I don't see what's gained by the application of the word 'capitalism' only on the basis of the existence of wage labour, but I do see that this usage disguises a lot of other distinctions between very different societies.

But then I don't think everybody is 'violently forced into wage labor'. I don't think the fact that a great many people want to, and succeed in 'escaping the rat race' by becoming self-employed artists, makers, musicians or plumbers should be glossed over - nor that such escapees are pretty generally envied; nor do I think people with a commitment to socialism or other good causes that leads them into employment in co-operatives or charities or other social enterprises have been 'violently forced into wage labor'; nor do I think a child growing up with a heart-felt wish to care for others, and finding a vocation as a doctor or nurse providing free health care in a universal state health system has been 'violently forced into wage labor'; or... well, you get the idea.

Such jobs are most jobs in many places; capitalism - profit and growth oriented businesses that exploit labour for private gain - sometimes represents only a relatively small employment sector. Of course it is still tremendously destructive - because it must grow, it continually tries to sell things, often by creating dissatisfaction that only its latest car or dress or pill will satisfy - and we all know about the environmental destructiveness of this never-ending search for growth. But it is crucially important, if we really want to change that, to emphasise that societies can be, indeed are disparate, organised in all kinds of different ways, with all kinds of different jobs.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@GeofCox @fifilamoura @NatureMC @AdrianRiskin @HeavenlyPossum

Wage labor is a huge chunk of the pie, but the pie that's really at issue here is the market society that has been imposed on all of us through violence, theft and genocide, and maintained through violence or the threat of it. It is all based on exclusion from resources (Enclosure), enforced by state. Self employment, working for an excellent public health system, surviving by selling one's art or crafts, none of these represent escape from this compulsory market society or capitalism. Our only options to avoid participating in this market society are at the extreme margins.

FWIW, I find this definition of capitalism from "State Capitalism" to be very useful. When speaking of "market society" I refer to number 1:

"We shall suggest that, apart from being a class society, capitalism
has the following six essential characteristics:

  1. Generalised commodity production, nearly all wealth being produced for sale on a market.

  2. The investment of capital in production with a view to obtaining a monetary profit.

  3. The exploitation of wage labour, the source of profit being the unpaid labour of the producers.

  4. The regulation of production by the market via a competitive
    struggle for profits.

  5. The accumulation of capital out of profits, leading to the expansion and development of the forces of production.

  6. A single world economy."

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@GeofCox @fifilamoura @NatureMC @AdrianRiskin @HeavenlyPossum

The texture and details that you value in France are entirely subject to the whims of the ruling elites and/or the power of other states and could be yanked away from you at any time.

They also are founded on horrible texture and details in other states, both in the past (colonialism) and ongoing (fossil fuel and mineral extraction, human exploitation).

I call the rapacious international stuff capitalism. I also call the nicest, most pleasant little mom 'n' pop bakery shop capitalist because it still depends on enclosure and state violence to exist, and probably depends on rapacious international stuff too (chocolate and sugar for example).

Working to improve things within this system and working through states to accomplish it is a losing game, like playing against the casino (or as I said before an unbeatable game of whack-a-mole). Small gains will be made here and there (you win enough hands to keep you hoping), the costs will be hidden elsewhere. We'll be given crumbs, just enough to keep us from challenging the core problems but never enough to outpace the destruction of the biosphere and never enough to allow too many people to imagine (let alone realize) a world beyond state control and the compulsory market society of capitalism.

I don't fully know how to liberate ourselves from this, but I feel pretty strongly that a huge part of it is to understand this bigger picture and the root causes and not get bogged down in reformism - repainting the surface in "antiquing" style, simulating the texture and details of our lost freedom. It might look nice, and that might be enough for some people, but I believe we need to clearly see the actual object that we've painted-over. It is not a piece of harmless furniture, it's a killing machine.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@GeofCox @fifilamoura @NatureMC @AdrianRiskin @HeavenlyPossum

>>It's not surprising that you don't know 'how to liberate ourselves'...<<

I said "fully". That doesn't mean I have no idea at all, or that I'm not doing anything.

You say capitalism is not a monolith, I say imagine the sweeping and fundamental changes that would come simply from dethroning the concept of capital itself.

You say there are more coop members than shareholders, and so many new social enterprises and environmental initiatives, yet you assume that overturning capitalism too suddenly would plunge us into Hobbesian "terror" 🤷‍♂️

I'm retired and my partner and I uprooted ourselves, relocated to another state and moved in with my 94 yr old mother to help her continue to live as independently as possible in her home. I won't be starting any unions, my hands are pretty full.

As for all the rest, I perhaps don't agree on how much progress we've really made when all things are considered. Good luck with your efforts, we'll see how it goes, won't we?

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@GeofCox @fifilamoura @NatureMC @AdrianRiskin @HeavenlyPossum

Capitalism is about capital, not about who owns it.

Capital is power, and that power ultimately comes from state either way.

To someone who has been excluded by enclosure, there is no functional difference whether the enclosed property or resource is private or state property.

from the book:
"In defining capitalism as a form of social organisation, now world wide, in which production is carried on by wage labour and orientated towards the accumulation of capital via profits realised on the market, we deliberately left open the question of the form of ownership of the means of production - by private individuals, by joint-stock companies, by the state or even by cooperatives - since this is not relevant to the operation of the economic mechanism of capitalism. The substitution of state for private (individual or corporate) ownership does not mean the abolition of capitalism, since it leaves unchanged commodity production and both wage labour and the accumulation of capital. It merely means that capital, or a part of the capital, in the political area of the world concerned has come to be incarnated by the state, or rather, in practice, by a number of different state enterprises."

gee8sh , to random
@gee8sh@mastodon.online avatar

Given 's unwavering support for and its genocidal apparatus, I am thinking of starting to transition out of its ecosystem.

It's gonna be challenging, primarily because I use an Android smartphone, and because I have been using a Gmail account for ages.

I welcome your tips!

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@tzafrir

Whatever they think about Hamas, 143 countries in the UN General Assembly just voted to give Palestine more rights and privileges in the UN, against only 9 'No' votes and 25 abstentions.

It seems like quite a few countries don't like the Israeli government.

@HeavenlyPossum @GregDance @Mary625 @sentient_water @PeterLG @palestine @DropBear @argumento @israel @ThinkIsrael @hanscees @gee8sh

immibis , to israel group

Did just defend itself at the ICJ by saying " has a right to exist"? Yes. Yes it did.

@israel @palestine

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@faab64 @tzafrir @palestine @israel @immibis

>>No country has the right to exist...<<

I agree with this.

>>...or results of some tribes getting together to call it a nation instead.<<

This might not be so objectionable, but it is certainly not the origin of any country in the world today, and probably not any real state ever. States form around an elite; imposed from the top down, never from the grass roots.

wdlindsy , to random
@wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

"There are three chief reasons for the right’s relentless bashing of Kamala Harris. Those reasons do not include her laugh, or her 'scant experience on the world stage,' or the way she pronounces the word 'the.'

The three reasons are:

She’s a Democrat.

And a person of color.

And a woman."

~ Mark Jacob

And as M. Jacob says, to their great discredit, the corporate media are willing to play along with this racist misogyny.

https://www.stopthepresses.news/p/why-the-right-loves-to-cheap-shot

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@HeavenlyPossum @wdlindsy

Remember this shit? 🤮

Kamala Harris Mocks Progressive Protesters Who Want "More Schools, Less Jails"

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/08/13/flashback_2013__kamala_harris_mocks_protesters_who_want_more_schools_less_jails_progressives_must_acknowledge_crime_does_occur.html#

AnarchoNinaWrites , to random
@AnarchoNinaWrites@jorts.horse avatar

Folks, politely. I get 1 vote. I'm not president. I'm not the one running for president. I'm not the one who said "don't you DARE primary Manchin and Sinema." I'm not the one who REFUSED to expand the Supreme Court. I'm not the one who refused to change the fillibuster rules. I'm not the one blowing a winnable election to a reality TV show fascist out of ideological commitment to a settler colonial genocide. I'm not the one kissing fascists and asking them to work with me. Tell Joe. It ain't me

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@HeavenlyPossum @AnarchoNinaWrites

And Obama 😒

mondoweiss , to palestine group
@mondoweiss@social.mondoweiss.net avatar

There are 2.4 million starving people in Gaza. This is an absolute joke.


@palestine @israel

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@voxpopsicle @HeavenlyPossum @palestine @mondoweiss @israel

Here's an interesting thread about this:

https://mastodon.social/@Infoseepage/112026778960077706

RD4Anarchy , to random
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

"The entire point of the American political system is to make it nearly impossible to change the political and economic status quo."

https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111937420227447350

RealJournalism , to random
@RealJournalism@mastodon.social avatar

Things are never as bad as they seem. We thought that Y2K would destroy our system because computer systems would not recognize the change from 1999 to 2000. The biggest risk is to do nothing. https://humanprogress.org/despite-climate-change-today-is-the-best-time-to-be-born/

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@RealJournalism

I have some recommendations for reading:

Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2020/06/18/can-the-world-get-along-without-natural-resources/

The Climate Movement is Making a Huge Mistake
https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/the-climate-movement-is-making-a

The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/04/07/Rising-Chorus-Renewable-Energy-Skeptics/

Prefiguring Degrowth
Confronting Power, Accumulation, and Ecocide
https://nishikantsheorey.substack.com/p/prefiguring-degrowth

@Snowshadow @breadandcircuses

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@violetmadder @RealJournalism @LeftistLawyer @Snowshadow @breadandcircuses

The welfare state exists only as a near last resort measure to protect capitalism, and I think that's all Roosevelt was doing in the end.

Progressivism is a moat around capitalism, not a bridge out of it.

breadandcircuses , (edited ) to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

You’ve probably already heard the very bad — but completely expected — news that we have just completed our first 12-month span with global temperatures more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average.

See -- https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68110310

However, according to the IPCC, this does not mean that the goal of the Paris agreement is in tatters. According to them, 1.5C will have to be exceeded over a span of 20 to 30 years (!) before they will declare the target missed.

Come on, give me a break. Do you think we’re idiots? You expect us to fall for that?

If we continue on with Business As Usual for another 20 years, the planet will heat up even more, probably over 2C if not higher.

It’s time to stop the lying. Stop covering up for capitalism. And stop drilling for more oil and more gas to burn.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@MisuseCase @petealexharris @breadandcircuses

Alexander is an ancap troll, pushing a cartoon version of capitalism along with the delusion that capitalism and state are somehow at odds 🤣

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@breadandcircuses @MisuseCase @petealexharris

He's not worth engaging that's for sure, but I don't mind countering his bullshit by leaving some facts for others to see.

CindySue , to bookstodon group
@CindySue@bookstodon.com avatar

I finished How to Hide an Empire and I didn't think I could be more disgusted with the U.S., but I am. And I even already knew a lot of what was in the book.

@bookstodon

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@TruthSandwich @CindySue @bookstodon

argumento , to palestine group
@argumento@hispagatos.space avatar

The number of murdered children in alone already is larger than the number of civilian casualties in the Ukraine war, on both sides. The total figure of civilian casualties is two and a half times more than the civilian deaths in Ukraine. Its been nearly two years of war in Ukraine and only 110 days of butchery in

This is no war, this is genocide.

@palestine

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@argumento @palestine

It's crazy that there are actually people who acknowledge genocide in Ukraine but say it's not happening in Gaza 🤦‍♂️

AdrianRiskin , to random
@AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social avatar

A popular response to anticapitalist discourse is that capitalism is intrinsically good but it was corrupted at some point in the recent past and whatever anticapitalists are complaining about is really due to that fall from grace rather than capitalism itself. The election of Ronald Reagan is popular for this.

People who sincerely believe this are so historically illiterate that it's impossible to have a serious discussion with them so I don't (usually) engage, and when I do it's disappointing. But if they couldb talk sense about it what I'd really want to hear from them is when do they think capitalism got good? A fall from grace implies a prior state of grace and when was that for capitalism?

For hundreds of years, dune the best beginning, capitalism was fueled by slavery, murder, torture, armed robbery. Marx's famous characterization of its birth as "dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt" is an understatement. When did this end, do they think?

I mean, explicit slavery is mostly illegal, although that only happened generally within my great-grandparents' generation, so not that long ago, but slavery was pretty seamlessly replaced with systems of exploitation that were and are only visibly less violent. This has to be the case because the profits never shrank. When did capitalism get good in order to be able to get bad in the 1980s?

Anyway, yes, this is a subtoot. Since they're incapable of responding sensibly I'm shouting it into the void instead.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@MartyFouts @MisuseCase @SallyStrange @CorvidCrone @AdrianRiskin

None of those states removed capitalism.

"Private ownership" of capital is a red herring, not an essential characteristic of capitalism (I don't give a fuck what any dictionary says).

Has any state eliminated capital? Has any state been able to extricate itself from the global system of capitalism?
Has any state even eliminated wage labor?

Nope. They all serve capital.

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@violetmadder @MartyFouts @MisuseCase @SallyStrange @CorvidCrone @AdrianRiskin

I highly recommend this book:

"State Capitalism: The Wages System Under New Management" by Adam Buick and John Crump

I found it very helpful not just for clarifying this particular idea but also for understanding of capitalism in general.

Free download:
https://files.libcom.org/files/State%20Capitalism.pdf

Here's the definition of capitalism that they work with:

...apart from being a class society, capitalism
has the following six essential characteristics:

  1. Generalised commodity production, nearly all wealth being produced for sale on a market.
  2. The investment of capital in production with a view to obtaining a monetary profit.
  3. The exploitation of wage labour, the source of profit being the unpaid labour of the producers.
  4. The regulation of production by the market via a competitive
    struggle for profits.
  5. The accumulation of capital out of profits, leading to the expansion and development of the forces of production.
  6. A single world economy.

They convincingly show that capital still runs things whether it is controlled by private individuals or state officials.

Enclosure works with state or "public" property just as well as private property.

breadandcircuses , to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

As long as we have been human, we have had trade. As long as we have had civilization, we have had markets.

, on the other hand, is a recent (and pernicious) invention.

Those first two will not intrinsically cause harm. We can live with them in peace and security, with plenty for all in a harmoniously balanced ecosphere.

But no matter how hard you try to control or “regulate” it, capitalism breeds inequality, waste, and war. Until it is overthrown, they will always be with us.

> Thoughts triggered in response to the comments on this thread - https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/111658403927360563

RD4Anarchy ,
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

@AlexanderKingsbury @magitweeter @simon_brooke @rauder @FantasticalEconomics @turtle_green @AdrianRiskin @HeavenlyPossum

>>Heck of a leap from "there is an incentive for this to happen" to "there is a requirement for this to happen". To encourage something is not to force it.<<

This is hilarious coming from someone who insists that greed is the common denominator of humanity: "but hey, it's ok to encourage it" 🤦‍♂️

RD4Anarchy , to random
@RD4Anarchy@kolektiva.social avatar

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
(a thread of threads, quotes, and links)

This is a collection of writings and research concerned with how we got where we are today, which is in fact the story of what has been done to us, and what has been taken from us.

By "us" we're talking about "the 99%", "workers", "wage slaves", all non-owners of private property, "the poor", unhoused people, indigenous people, even plenty of people who swear by capitalism and identify as "capitalist" yet have no capital of their own and no serious hope of ever having any worth speaking of. In other words almost everyone except for the very few who have had the power to exploit us and shape our lives to serve their agenda. We're going to examine institutions and concepts that have deeply altered our world at all levels, both our external and internal realities.

By "here" we are talking about climate crisis and myriad other environmental catastrophes resulting from hyper-excessive extraction, consumption and waste; a world of rampant inequality and exploitation, hunger and starvation; a world of fences, walls, tollbooths, prisons, police, bullshit jobs and criminalized poverty; a world overrun with cars and preventable diseases; a world of vanishing biodiversity and blooming fascism; a world where "democracy" results in being led by some of the worst of humanity; a world ruled by an imaginary but all-powerful and single-minded god: Capital.

Our inspiration and structural framework for this survey is this quote from "The Prehistory of Private Property", an important work from political philosopher Karl Widerquist and anthropologist Grant S. McCall:

"After hundreds of millennia in which all humans had direct access to the commons, it took only a few centuries for enclosure, colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization to cut off the vast majority of people on Earth from direct access to the means of economic production and therefore to rob them of the power to say no. It took only a few generations to convince most people that this situation was natural and inevitable. That false lesson needs to be unlearned."

https://widerquist.com/books-3/#2b

Also recommended: "Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy"

https://widerquist.com/books-3/#4b

#capitalism #colonialism #enclosure #PrivateProperty #state #police #inequality #anthropology #environment #ClimateCrisis #economics

1/30

After hundreds of millennia in which all humans had direct access to the commons, it took only a few centuries for enclosure, colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization to cut off the vast majority of people on Earth from direct access to the means of economic production and therefore to rob them of the power to say no. It took only a few generations to convince most people that this situation was natural and inevitable. That false lesson needs to be unlearned.
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