How did we get here?

"After hundreds of millennia in which all humans had direct access to the commons, it took only a few centuries... 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." - Karl Widerquist and Grant S. McCall

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Last Notes

2026-05-23 15:29:56 UTC

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Counterpoint from Jason Hickel.
(I think my position is somewhere between his comment and what you're saying).
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/624/593/268/397/242/original/5a1e1d7e43c9f56a.jpeg

2026-05-08 22:33:52 UTC

Subtooting a conversation that arose from a reply (to someone else) from someone who describes themselves as "Scientist, progressive, businessman":
This person sees racism as the root of global warming and Trumpism. The way I see it racism originated and persists as a tool of the elite ruling class, intended to justify violence, oppression and coercion that are essential to them maintaining power and hierarchical power structures. It is not something that arose on its own from the grass roots of human nature and *then* led to assholes being in power.
This person says racism is "also crushing democracy and the rule of law". No, you need to dig deeper! "Democracy", as implemented by states, and Rule of Law are both also tools of those in power. While some of the rest of us may benefit from them sometimes in relative and peripheral ways, their core purpose is not to serve or protect us but to control and exploit us.
This person suggests that racism needs to be addressed in "the way the Union communicated with the Confederates". Apparently they are unaware that Abraham Lincoln was a white supremacist and the Civil War was not really fought over slavery.
This person says "EVs are fine. Cars are not the problem." and "We know how to do this in a far cheaper, cleaner way." Also: "Growth in and of itself is FAR less of a problem than bigotry & hatred, particularly racism." Hmmm. Spoken like a true businessman!
Also: progressivism is a moat around capitalism, not a bridge out of it. As long as you still venerate the god of this world, Capital, you're supporting and enabling the very system that perpetuates racism and exploitation, and which ravages the planet (including to build more EVs and to sell more "green tech").
Enclosure continues, in the name of "green capitalism"
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431939309472300
Technology will not save us. We are not going to be able to have our cake and eat it too.
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431931441337202
Cars
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431391552749242
The real results of capitalism, colonialism, state, and the religious rituals of "economics" - environmental destruction, violent coercion and exploitation of humans - and the real cause:
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431500315072494
Rule of Law
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/howard-zinn-the-conspiracy-of-law

2026-04-21 17:59:08 UTC

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I recommend this thread of threads, quotes and links, "How Did We Get Here?":
https://c.im/@whathappened/113427830249968598
#note15zh…v8wu

2026-04-21 17:55:09 UTC

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Well, that's your choice. But it's not a very helpful reply in this context since there are a great deal more references being offered here than just Wengrow, and I think the linked essay by Wengrow is very valid and relevant regardless.

2026-04-21 17:33:06 UTC

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I don't think human nature is that simple or limited. While I oppose hierarchy and state, that does not mean I reject other forms of human cooperation and collective actions. Societies that went beyond nomadic HG bands did not automatically go down the path of hierarchy and oppression. Human nature is vastly creative and flexible and there are many examples of more egalitarian societies that went well beyond small nomadic bands. This is thoroughly addressed in some of the links I already shared:
More discoveries challenging conventional ideas about human cultural evolution
https://c.im/@whathappened/113432448395719328
"Looking further back we see that humans all over the globe have been actively managing our environment successfully and sustainably for many millennia, which reveals falsehoods embedded in the Lockean (white, European, patriarchal) view of humanity, history and land use."
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431238520344807
and https://c.im/@whathappened/113431255161180652
#note1dd6…63du

2026-04-21 16:29:02 UTC

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I also have an issue with his next piece in the series, "Human Supremacy". I do agree that human supremacy is a toxic school of thought that we need to abolish. He connects it to monotheism, and I suppose there is some truth to that. But he then pushes the scenario that monotheism emerged because of agriculture (specifically intensive, mono-crop type of agriculture), and also paints agriculture as an outcome of human supremacy. All of this is treated as part of natural human evolution in general, as if cultures gradually on their own developed these ideas and went with them.
Again, I think he is missing a huge part of the big picture by not addressing the power dynamics that actually led to these conditions. He has positive things to say about animism as a better form of relationship with nature, but does not acknowledge that animism did not just evolve into monotheism on its own, from a grass roots level, going along with mainstream narratives about people voluntarily choosing an agricultural lifestyle and embracing the emergence of state.
This disingenuous narrative is not supported by the actual evidence. Intensive mono-crop agriculture is something that was forced upon people through coercion and violence by the newly emerging power structure we now know of as state. Look at the indigenous peoples of North America for example, they did not inevitably evolve such forms of agriculture, nor did they voluntarily embrace the idea of human supremacy as an good idea shared by visitors from the "old world". No, it was violently forced upon them, along with genocide and slavery.
Things could have played out differently, and there are many examples where they did. Just like capitalism and state, the concept of human supremacy was forced on the vast majority by a small group of people who happened to have enough concentrated power to do so (along with a large amount of luck... bad luck for most of us).
In other words, I reject the notion that human nature is to blame for our predicament. Rather there were and are specific, small groups of people responsible for imposing hierarchy and toxic narratives on the rest of us. I also reject the narrative that agriculture itself inherently and inevitably leads to the problems we're facing now.
Here are some posts containing numerous excellent references about agriculture, state, and historical alternatives:
More discoveries challenging conventional ideas about human cultural evolution
https://c.im/@whathappened/113432448395719328
How Colonialism Spawned and Continues to Exacerbate the Climate Crisis
and
What Is: The Capitalocene
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431500315072494
"Looking further back we see that humans all over the globe have been actively managing our environment successfully and sustainably for many millennia, which reveals falsehoods embedded in the Lockean (white, European, patriarchal) view of humanity, history and land use."
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431238520344807
and https://c.im/@whathappened/113431255161180652
Murphy also treated patriarchy and property rights as things that emerged naturally and universally among villages, but in fact these things were probably more the result of the emergence of state than preconditions that led to the emergence of state:
https://c.im/@whathappened/113430982349813569
"...private property theory furnished propaganda for the enclosure and colonial movements that forcibly established that institution around the world."
https://c.im/@whathappened/113431100256958323
Property as a social construct
https://kolektiva.social/@RD4Anarchy/111891044015665650

2026-04-21 02:29:07 UTC

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I didn't find that quote 🤷‍♂️ but I will say that yes he came up short at the idea of "modernity", not recognizing more specific and significant actual causes of where we're at now. But the value of his stuff as a reference has to do with understanding that transitioning our energy sources to solar and wind, or other "renewable" sources, even if we did it 100%, if that's *all* we did it wouldn't save us from the course we're on (which includes a lot more than just climate change).

2026-04-20 15:35:59 UTC

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People need to understand that even if we discovered a magical free, clean, and limitless source of energy, capital would still decimate the planet.
#Capitalism

2026-02-03 19:25:49 UTC

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To suggest that "moderate" capitalism could be an acceptable scenario is to ignore or deny the reality that capitalism is built on a foundation of lies, violence (including genocide), theft, and exploitation (including slavery). It is rotten *from* the core. There is no "baby" to save in the bathwater of capitalism, just a tub full of toxins that need to be destroyed.
The idea that capitalism can be redeemed by regulation is just like saying that slavery could be an acceptable system if it was just regulated enough. Moderating it doesn't change the malevolent essence behind it.
The very concept of capital itself serves no purpose other than to consolidate, concentrate and protect the power of the ruling class, and it does so at the expense of human freedom and the health of the biosphere that sustains life on this planet. The concept of capital distorts our perception of reality and embeds us in a delusion that separates us from nature.
I invite you to explore this thread of threads and references to better understand how there is nothing just or beneficial about capitalism:
How did we get here?
https://c.im/@whathappened/113427830249968598
#capitalism
@npub1y5u…f5re @npub1cj7…f65k

2024-11-05 21:23:22 UTC

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Appendix 5: More discoveries challenging conventional ideas about human cultural evolution
A groundbreaking study published in the journal PNAS is overturning traditional wisdom regarding the origins and inevitability of wealth inequality. Based on a massive dataset of over 50,000 houses in some 1,000 archaeological sites worldwide, the study suggests that economic inequality is not an inevitable result of societal advancement, agriculture, or population. Instead, it seems to be a consequence of political choices and governance structures.
https://archaeologymag.com/2025/04/study-reveals-inequality-was-never-inevitable/
State formation across cultures and the role of grain, intensive agriculture, taxation and writing
This research adds weight to the conclusion of James C. Scott (author of AGAINST THE GRAIN and SEEING LIKE A STATE) that state was not a welcomed, voluntary evolution made inevitable by the emergence of agriculture, as predominant narratives would have us believe, rather it was intensive agriculture and monoculture coercively *imposed* on people by the ruling elite of a specific sort of newly emergent system of domination and exploitation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02365-5
Essay by David Wengrow: Beyond Kingdoms and Empires
A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms
https://aeon.co/essays/an-archeological-revolution-transforms-our-image-of-human-freedoms
@npub1s02…zz9t thread on the spread of agriculture and the rise of the state:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/112864320248967445
@npub1s02…zz9t thread on humans' relationship with "wilderness":
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/112785679516359170
Unearthing Power: Female Leadership and Building a Monumental Society at Copper Age Valencina
“This society expressed leadership not through brute domination but through spiritual, symbolic, and material capital,” the authors write.
"Despite its sophistication, Valencina never evolved into a state. Instead, it represented a unique form of early social complexity—one shaped not by kings or dynasties, but by collaborative labor, ritualized consumption, and female-centered authority. The political economy of Valencina, the study notes, offers critical insight into “top-down impulses vs. collective action” and invites new perspectives on how societies organized themselves in the absence of centralized state control."
https://wildhunt.org/2025/05/unearthing-power-female-leadership-and-building-a-monumental-society-at-copper-age-valencina.html
How ghost cities in the Amazon are rewriting the story of civilization
Remote sensing, including lidar, reveals that the Amazon was once home to millions of people. The emerging picture of how they lived challenges ideas of human cultural evolution (archived from NewScientist)
https://archive.ph/vcsip
@npub1s02…zz9t thread: The City Without the State—complex urban infrastructure at the Pingliantai Neolithic site
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111079324770420934
@npub1s02…zz9t thread: The City Without the State—political revolution and social leveling at the Taosi Neolithic site
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111098000190597587
Exploring the ways in which residents of Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia differentiated themselves as well as the ways in which they did not:
"Scholars have long debated whether early agropastoralism was intrinsically associated with the “origins of inequality,” seeking the roots of current cultural practices or problems and largely presenting social developments as the byproducts of sedentism and/or crop agriculture. Many now reject any inherent linkage between agriculture and inequality as teleological and materialist, and there is no longer a consensus that either sedentism or food production automatically entails the rise of inequality greater than exists in hunting and gathering societies."
"Our results [exploring the ways in which residents of Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia differentiated themselves as well as the ways in which they did not] indicate no unified trajectory of inequality through time... and no evidence for institutionalized or lasting economic or social inequality."
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0307067
"Çatalhöyük has strong evidence of an egalitarian society, as no houses with distinctive features (belonging to royalty or religious hierarchy for example) have been found so far. The most recent investigations also reveal little social distinction based on gender, with men and women receiving equivalent nutrition and seeming to have equal social status, as typically found in Paleolithic cultures."
"Noting the lack of hierarchy and economic inequality, historian and anti-capitalist author Murray Bookchin has argued that Çatalhöyük was an early example of anarcho-communism."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk

2024-11-05 21:18:14 UTC

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Appendix 4: One attempt to tell a new story
An area in northeast Syria that’s populated by around five million people and is roughly the size of Belgium, Rojava (Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) is a vision of hope and a daily struggle full of paradoxes. We have much to learn from this experiment and it's history.
Rojava Revolution: Women’s Liberation, Democracy and Ecology in North-East Syria
https://bioneers.org/rojava-revolution-womens-liberation-democracy-and-ecology-in-north-east-syria-ztvz2406/
Hope and Contradictions: My Year in Rojava
https://www.defendrojava.org/news/hope-and-contradictions-my-year-in-rojava
9 February 2026 update on the situation in Rojava:
The Rojava Revolution in Peril, the Struggle for Free Life Continues
A Statement from American, Chinese, and Russian Internationalists
https://crimethinc.com/Rojavaperil

2024-11-05 21:15:33 UTC

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Appendix 3: Prefiguring Degrowth
Confronting Power, Accumulation, and Ecocide
I found this essay to be an excellent overview bringing together many of the same themes presented in this thread, explaining the necessity of an anarchist approach to degrowth and clearly describing the continuum of hierarchical power structures, state, colonialism, capitalism, climate crisis and ecocide. Features solid basic info on anarchism and democracy.
https://archive.ph/ORzKu

2024-11-05 21:11:35 UTC

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Appendix 2: Human Nature
Greed Is Not Human Nature – It’s Human Conditioning
by Wyatt E Jones
https://theslowburningfuse.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/greed-is-not-human-nature-its-human-conditioning/
Many claims about human nature have been trotted out in defense of the idea that we must be managed or controlled by some higher authority (God, state, rule of law, capital, "the market", so-called "democracy") because we are inevitably violent and selfish, perpetually prone to being oppressed by the ever-present potential tyrants among us, condemned to reproduce hierarchy forever everywhere.
To dispel these non-innocent narratives, here are some @npub1s02…zz9t threads that are bursting at the seams with history, archeology and anthropology:
On Anarchism and Leadership
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/113103845709064779
A survey of some of the ways in which people sustain egalitarian societies against would-be tyrants.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111290743792188200
Neither violent conflict nor peaceful cooperation are inevitable products of human nature, but rather deliberate social choices we can make.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111025312476874870
On the social construction of altruism and egoism.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111466874348514976
An exploration of some of the ways non-state societies deter power-seeking and aggression.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110683095773219652
The state is not necessary for preventing violent aggression, such as murder, and indeed may be worse for that purpose than its absence.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111198577601193102
“Tribal” societies were often more civilized than capitalist modernity is.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110916353874829458
Do people really like living under state rule?
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110685130975554822
Some introductory thoughts on the state, hierarchy, and statelessness.
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111053356612723637

2024-11-05 20:18:55 UTC

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Appendix 1: EcOnOmIcS!!1!!
"Mainstream economists are not interested in describing reality, they are interested, ultimately, in telling people how to behave. They actually are moralists more than scientists, but they pretend to be scientists, and they use moralistic language - "rational behavior" - to describe actions that any other sort of moralist would consider the essence of immoral behavior."
- David Graeber
"...the neo-classical school of economics had come to dominate universities “like Catholic theology in medieval Europe … a doctrine that fundamentally defines the way humanity sees the world”.
"...economics education should be more pluralist, more ethically conscientious, more historically aware, and more oriented towards the real world..." rather than “dominated by a single framework presented as ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’”
“It is urgent that the economics discipline learn to understand these issues as systemic features of our capitalist economy rather than as the result of market imperfections or crony capitalism.”
- Rethinking Economics, the movement changing how the subject is taught
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/10/rethinking-economics-student-academic-organisation-changing-education
If you have ever been told to "go learn some economics!", this post is for you. Here are links to a surplus of valuable thoughts on the subject, starting with the [@blair_fix](https://mastodon.online/@blair_fix ) piece that was excerpted in the fifth post of this thread:
Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2020/06/18/can-the-world-get-along-without-natural-resources/
A mathematician on the "free market" economic model, excellent thread from @npub1t8q…hqf8
https://mastodon.social/@magitweeter/111653879323307502
Thread continues here (post #22 of 26): https://mastodon.social/@magitweeter/111654689724502196
Revealing paper from Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan on how both liberal/neoclassical and Marxist economists fail at describing anything actually real when it comes to capital:
Capital accumulation: fiction and reality
"What we need now are not better tools, more accurate modelling and improved data, but a different way of thinking altogether, a totally new cosmology for the post-capitalist age."
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue72/BichlerNitzan72.pdf
David Graeber: Against Economics
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-against-economics
Interesting piece about what supply and demand misses, with important insights about value and market power, poverty and inequality:
Bargaining Power and Prices: A Response to Sanyazi and Carson
https://c4ss.org/content/58918
Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/04/economist-meets-physicist/
Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
https://evonomics.com/free-market-genocide-the-real-history-of-trade/
GDP and the Idolatry of Growth
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/25/gdp-and-the-idolatry-of-growth/
The Lie At The Heart Of Consumer Society
https://indica.medium.com/the-lie-at-the-heart-of-consumer-society-1a6fe24d832f
The problem with economic models
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/03/all-models-are-wrong/#some-are-useful
David Graeber: What is the meaning of money?
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-note-worthy-what-is-the-meaning-of-money
Here's another article from [@blair_fix](https://mastodon.online/@blair_fix ) that really belongs here:
The Ritual of Capitalization
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2021/06/02/the-ritual-of-capitalization/
For an extensive deep dive into capitalist economics, here is a very thorough examination from An Anarchist FAQ:
What are the myths of capitalist economics?
https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionC.html
STATE CAPITALISM: THE WAGES SYSTEM UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT by Adam Buick and John Crump
https://files.libcom.org/files/State%20Capitalism.pdf
The focus of this short book is to argue (very successfully IMO) that individual private ownership is not a defining feature of capitalism and that countries such as China, The Soviet Union (this was published in 1986), Cuba, Vietnam, etc, though they may identify as "socialist" and are called "communist" by many are in fact simply another form of capitalism called "state capitalism". In the process of making this argument, this book also became an excellent general reference for understanding what capitalism really is, how capitalist economics work, what socialism really is and isn't, and plenty of fascinating and clarifying historic context.
I would be remiss not to mention:
DEBT: THE FIRST 5,000 YEARS by David Graeber, an absolute must-read to better understand the history of debt and money.
https://we.riseup.net/assets/393727/David+Graeber+Debt+The+First+5+000+Years.pdf

2024-11-05 19:47:21 UTC

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If you're not already a student of anarchism, then you probably have some very negative ideas about "anarchy" or anarchism. It is beyond the scope of this project to mount a comprehensive defense or explanation of anarchism, but we also don't want to leave you hanging without some guideposts towards further understanding.
Some recent essays (from 2025):
You may already be an anarchist
https://theslowburningfuse.wordpress.com/2025/12/05/you-may-already-be-an-anarchist-3/
Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace
https://crimethinc.com/2025/02/21/become-an-anarchist-or-forever-hold-your-peace
Here are a couple popular introductions:
"Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!"
by David Graeber
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-may-surprise-you
"To Change Everything"
https://crimethinc.com/tce
A site about TV tropes is an unexpected place to find it, but here is a pretty decent and thorough overview of anarchist theory and history. It describes different tendencies and schools of thought within anarchism. I might have some quibbles, and any given anarchist is likely to disagree with some parts, but overall it's both very well-informed and very informative:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Anarchism
Here are some pieces dealing with specific common concerns about anarchism:
@npub1s02…zz9t on Anarchism and Leadership
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/113103845709064779
Ask an Anarchist
A good collection of thoughts and links from the Neighborhood Anarchist Collective's website:
https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/ask-an-anarchist/
NAC on Mastodon: @npub163y…dcf8
Anarchists Are Not Naive About Human Nature
https://archive.ph/k9R2T
Anarchism and a moneyless economy
(not all anarchists would agree with all the ideas in this essay, but it makes some good points and clarifications about the anarchist perspective and alternatives to capitalist economics)
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alan-macsimoin-anarchism-and-a-moneyless-economy
The Conspiracy of Law by Howard Zinn
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/howard-zinn-the-conspiracy-of-law
Anarchism and Democracy
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-anarchism-and-democracy
David Graeber on democracy:
There Never Was a West
Or, Democracy Emerges From the Spaces In Between
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-there-never-was-a-west
Here is a different take on democracy. This book is not really an introductory sort of text, more like internal anarchist discourse, but as such it offers revealing insights into actual anarchist ideas, practices and experiences. Featuring many fascinating examples and analysis from recent history, grounding it in real life struggle, not just theory.
FROM DEMOCRACY TO FREEDOM
The Difference Between Government and Self-Determination
https://crimethinc.com/books/from-democracy-to-freedom
Free PDF: https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/books/from-democracy-to-freedom/from-democracy-to-freedom_screen_single_page_view.pdf
Here is a rich survey of anarchistic principles and practices in action in the real world, past and present:
ANARCHY WORKS by Peter Gelderloos
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works
For further research here is a very good reading list ranging from basic introductions to specialized aspects and history of anarchism:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KDEM4AzinLVFQZGDljFriiMwWFn73IIIlp26LwEasK0/edit
30/30
But wait, there's more! Continue exploring the following appendices...

2024-11-05 19:45:29 UTC

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So, if capitalism, state, and other hierarchical power structures are existential threats to humanity and to the biosphere and therefore must be removed, what does that leave us with?
Anarchy??!
Yes.
From @npub1l27…zpk4 - "Anarchism isn't a fantasy and it's not a political theory - it's a collective name for whatever forms of society can exist without murder as a political tool"
https://chez-risk.in/2023/02/19/anarchism-isnt-a-fantasy-and-its-not-a-political-theory-its-a-collective-name-for-whatever-forms-of-society-can-exist-without-murder-as-a-political-tool/
29/30

2024-11-05 19:42:50 UTC

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Capital is served by various institutions (property rights and legal codes, corporations, the system of wage labor, law enforcement, military, other religions, education systems, media, white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, etc), by the billionaires and oligarchs who are its priests and the rulers and politicians who are their henchmen. As Albert Einstein wrote in Monthly Review, May 1949:
"...private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
As a result we have unwittingly internalized Capital's demands, to our great detriment. Capital's narrative is deeply embedded into every aspect of our lives.
Note how this quote from the speech "The Three Evils of Society" by Martin Luther King Jr. assumes the Protestant work ethic is a good thing and not itself part of the implanted narrative that serves Capital. Instead of calling it out, MLK tried to distance it from capitalism. So while the second sentence of this quote is very true, the first sentence is an example of the deep conditioning of the narrative of capitalism and its precursors:
"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad."
Even "Democratic Socialist" Bernie Sanders sadly equates dignity and security with wage slavery:
"This is the United States. We are the richest country on the planet. One job should be enough to live with security and dignity."
David Graeber, from his book DEBT: THE FIRST 5,000 YEARS:
"For me, this is exactly what's so pernicious about the morality of debt: the way that financial imperatives constantly try to reduce us all, despite ourselves, to the equivalent of pillagers, eyeing the world simply for what can be turned into money - and then tell us that it's only those who are willing to see the world as pillagers who deserve access to the resources required to pursue anything in life other than money. It introduces moral perversions on almost every level. ("Cancel all student loan debt? But that would be unfair to all those people who struggled for years to pay back their student loans!" Let me assure the reader that, as someone who struggled for years to pay back his student loans and finally did so, this argument makes about as much sense as saying it would be "unfair" to a mugging victim not to mug their neighbors too.)
"The argument might perhaps make sense if one agreed with the underlying assumption - that work is by definition virtuous, since the ultimate measure of humanity's success as a species is its ability to increase the overall global output of goods and services by at least 5 percent per year. The problem is that it is becoming increasingly obvious that if we continue along these lines much longer, we're likely to destroy everything."
As @npub1s02…zz9t has commented: "capitalism depends on ignorance of history for its ideological survival". It is the intent of this project to do what we can to remove some of this ignorance, to share the debunking of some of the lies we've been told; to encourage *unlearning the lesson* that has been forced upon us.
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2024-11-05 19:39:25 UTC

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Think about the stories and characters we are presented with in popular fiction, the endless supply of cop shows on TV, the rags to riches stories; examine the many assumptions built-into every aspect of our lives, planted there by institutions both of control and recreation (interesting word that: our engaging in recreation can *re-create* the capitalist program).
For now we'll just touch on this with some thought-provoking examples.
From @npub1l27…zpk4 - Why Are Children Forced To Study Mathematics At Gunpoint?
https://chez-risk.in/2023/04/05/why-are-children-forced-to-study-mathematics-at-gunpoint/
27/30

2024-11-05 19:15:17 UTC

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How is it that we are not all rising up against all these horrors? How are so many fooled for so long, scammed into supporting a system that treats us as a resource to be consumed? This is a huge subject worthy of it's own project. Investigate the term "capitalist realism" and Gramsci's concept of "cultural hegemony":
CAPITALIST REALISM (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_Realism
Cultural Hegemony (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony
Ideology: Coercion's Spin Doctor
https://www.thecommoner.org.uk/ideology-coercions-spin-doctor/
26/30

2024-11-05 19:13:54 UTC

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Enclosure continues, in the name of "green capitalism":
"'They Will Die': Tesla-Linked Mining Project Is Devastating One of the World's Uncontacted Peoples"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxj8wm/uncontacted-tribe-threatened-indonesia
Material Sacrifices
The cost of green tech is too high
To tackle climate chaos, decolonize the labor movement
https://archive.ph/G7y5x
25/30

2024-11-05 19:11:54 UTC

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To go off on a tangent for just a moment: we should be clear that we are not going to be rescued by converting our cars to electricity or by switching our current insane energy "needs" to "renewable" sources. Technology will not save us. We are not going to be able to have our cake and eat it too:
The Climate Movement is Making a Huge Mistake
"Judged by their actions rather than their words, many environmental organizations put more emphasis on sustaining a modern western lifestyle than on sustaining the planet.
They’ve become more focused on what is politically feasible than what is ecologically necessary."
https://archive.ph/iSBMo
The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics
The green techno-dream is so vastly destructive, they say, we have to come up with a different plan.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/04/07/Rising-Chorus-Renewable-Energy-Skeptics/
Do I report what I've learned about solar PVs - or live with it, privately?
https://archive.ph/OYDCS
24/30

2024-11-05 17:24:48 UTC

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Here is @npub1glr…8qmc on the Victims of Capitalism (note this was published in May 2020, if written now it would also include millions more deaths due to capitalism's failure to prioritize human safety and well-being, throwing us under the bus of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic in favor of an imaginary entity "the economy"):
https://c4ss.org/content/52864
23/30

2024-11-05 17:22:16 UTC

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Let's continue to look at the real results of capitalism, colonialism, state, and the religious rituals of "economics" - environmental destruction, violent coercion and exploitation of humans - and at the real cause:
How Colonialism Spawned and Continues to Exacerbate the Climate Crisis
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/09/21/how-colonialism-spawned-and-continues-to-exacerbate-the-climate-crisis/
What Is: The Capitalocene
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/01/wi01042601.html
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2024-11-05 17:18:54 UTC

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"Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002169
Highlights:
- The common notion that extreme poverty is the "natural" condition of humanity and only declined with the rise of capitalism rests on income data that do not adequately capture access to essential goods.
- Data on real wages suggests that, historically, extreme poverty was uncommon and arose primarily during periods of severe social and economic dislocation, particularly under colonialism.
- The rise of capitalism from the long 16th century onward is associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality.
- In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, wages and/or height have still not recovered.
- Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began only around the 20th century. These gains coincide with the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements.
Abstract:
"This paper assesses claims that, prior to the 19th century, around 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty (defined as the inability to access essential goods), and that global human welfare only began to improve with the rise of capitalism. These claims rely on national accounts and PPP exchange rates that do not adequately capture changes in people's access to essential goods. We assess this narrative against extant data on three empirical indicators of human welfare: real wages (with respect to a subsistence basket), human height, and mortality. We ask whether these indicators improved or deteriorated with the rise of capitalism in five world regions - Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and China - using the chronology put forward by world-systems theorists. The evidence we review here points to three conclusions. (1) It is unlikely that 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty prior to the 19th century. Historically, unskilled urban labourers in all regions tended to have wages high enough to support a family of four above the poverty line by working 250 days or 12 months a year, except during periods of severe social dislocation, such as famines, wars, and institutionalized dispossession - particularly under colonialism. (2) The rise of capitalism caused a dramatic deterioration of human welfare. In all regions studied here, incorporation into the capitalist world-system was associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality. In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, key welfare metrics have still not recovered. (3) Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began several centuries after the rise of capitalism. In the core regions of Northwest Europe, progress began in the 1880s, while in the periphery and semi-periphery it began in the mid-20th century, a period characterized by the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements that redistributed incomes and established public provisioning systems."
On a side note, you may encounter pro-capitalism arguments that offer supposed evidence from data presented at a site called "Our World In Data" (often quoted by mainstream journalists). Do not take anything from that site at face value! The data presented is often incomplete, cherry-picked, manipulated, and not standardized properly. Biases are ignored and uncertainties treated as fact. Here is a revealing article about the people and agenda behind that site:
The Unbearable Anthropocentrism of Our World in Data
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/26/the-unbearable-anthropocentrism-of-our-world-in-data/
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2024-11-05 17:16:40 UTC

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on Hunger
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110224911687712240
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2024-11-05 17:14:11 UTC

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on Poverty
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/109463692215268151
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2024-11-05 17:12:47 UTC

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Ok, so capitalism can be a tad harsh 🙄 , but we are told it's worth it because capitalism has "lifted billions out of poverty!" and that even the poor of today are wealthier than kings of old. Let's unpack these claims and take a close look at the concepts of "wealth" and "poverty".
@npub1s02…zz9t on Wealth
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110043938013023300
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2024-11-05 17:10:07 UTC

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Here is @npub1l27…zpk4 on the role of state violence in market society:
State Violence, The Diamond/Water Paradox, and an Invisible Axiom of Classical Economics
https://chez-risk.in/2023/01/29/state-violence-the-diamond-water-paradox-and-an-invisible-axiom-of-classical-economics/
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2024-11-05 17:06:58 UTC

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Another quote from THE PREHISTORY OF PRIVATE PROPERTY:
"No argument about the freedom to appropriate can support the market economy, because capitalism makes people no freer to appropriate property than the common property regime, public property regime, or any other system. A person born into the contemporary market economy is as unfree to appropriate land as a person born to a common property regime or a public property regime that allows no private landownership. The right to appropriate scarce resources, as economist define the term (i.e. anything with a monetary value), is inconsistent with a system of equal freedom from coercion. The propertyless today are not and cannot be equally free to appropriate.
"Lomasky's "liberty to acquire" holdings actually means the "liberty" to purchase goods. That's not a liberty at all. That's a positive opportunity. The goods you are expected to buy are made out of resources you have forcibly been excluded from using yourself. The chance to take orders from one resource owner so that you can "earn" the right to buy goods from other resource owners might be useful, but it is not freedom from some form of coercion that exists in societies with a common property regime."
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2024-11-05 17:04:38 UTC

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The result of all this has been to force us into a "market society".
@npub1s02…zz9t on the imposition of markets and the demolition of society:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110182089285428195
@npub1s02…zz9t on why money is so insidiously pervasive in virtually every aspect of life:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/113854777439943148
One of the foundational falsehoods underlying capitalist ideology is the claim that money emerged at the grass-roots level as a natural and inevitable progression from supposedly pre-existing "barter economies"; a clever hack that benefited everyone. Anthropologists and archaeologists know this is not true, but orthodox economics and other conventional institutions still promote this myth routinely. Here is a recent study further debunking this pervasive indoctrination:
Ancient tally sticks across three civilizations challenge myths about money
https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ancient-tally-civilizations-myths-money.html
See also chapter 2 "The Myth of Barter" from David Graeber's essential book DEBT: THE FIRST 5,000 YEARS
https://we.riseup.net/assets/393727/David+Graeber+Debt+The+First+5+000+Years.pdf
It is true that various forms of Indigenous currency arose independently in many places around the world, but those systems were fundamentally different from money as we know it today. Here is an informative article about that:
Indigenous Currency Systems: From Wampum Belts to Trade Valuations
https://archive.ph/wMhyt
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2024-11-05 17:02:27 UTC

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- An investigation into money, credit, and the social role of landlords:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110108848618951452
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2024-11-05 17:00:07 UTC

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on art as an enclosed commons:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110162427730407993
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2024-11-05 16:54:36 UTC

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on the enclosure of our roads and car dependency as capitalist rent:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110123111646315678
(See also: What We Lost When Cars Won
Americans once feared cars. Now we can’t imagine life without them.
https://grist.org/culture/cars-crashes-books-culture/
for more horrifying details of car culture see this article which fleshes out the statistics very well though it falls short by only dealing with superficial causes and solutions:
We Should Be Building Cities for People, Not Cars
https://devonzuegel.com/post/we-should-be-building-cities-for-people-not-cars
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2024-11-05 16:38:37 UTC

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Here is an insightful, extensive and detailed look at the history of Enclosure in Britain and the so-called "Tragedy of the Commons":
A Short History of Enclosure in Britain
https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/short-history-enclosure-britain
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2024-11-05 16:35:09 UTC

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With all the above context in mind let's examine the process of Enclosure.
Here is an introduction to "The Tragedy of the Commons" from @npub1s02…zz9t:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/109449321659418326
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2024-11-05 16:19:55 UTC

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(continued)
Milpas
Based on the agronomy of the Maya and of other Mesoamerican peoples, the milpa system is used to produce crops of maize, beans, and squash without employing artificial pesticides and artificial fertilizers...
A milpa is a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers plant a dozen crops at once including maize, avocados, multiple varieties of squash and bean, melon, tomatoes, chilis, sweet potato, jícama, amaranth, and mucuna ... Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary...
The milpa, in the estimation of H. Garrison Wilkes, a maize researcher at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, "is one of the most successful human inventions ever created."
The concept of milpa is a sociocultural construct rather than simply a system of agriculture. It involves complex interactions and relationships between farmers, as well as distinct personal relationships with both the crops and land. For example, it has been noted that "the making of milpa is the central, most sacred act, one which binds together the family, the community, the universe ... [it] forms the core institution of Indian society in Mesoamerica and its religious and social importance often appear to exceed its nutritional and economic importance."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milpa
Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths
First described over 120 years ago in Brazil, Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are expanses of dark soil that are exceptionally fertile and contain large quantities of archaeological artifacts... Archaeological research provides clear evidence that their widespread formation in lowland South America was concentrated in the Late Holocene, an outcome of sharp human population growth that peaked towards 1000 BP
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31064-2
The Supposedly Pristine, Untouched Amazon Rainforest Was Actually Shaped By Humans
"Perhaps [...] the very biodiversity we want to preserve is not only due to thousands of years of natural evolution but also the result of the human footprint on them," Iriarte says. "The more we learn, the more the evidence point to the latter."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pristine-untouched-amazonian-rainforest-was-actually-shaped-humans-180962378/
Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lost-cities-of-the-amazon-discovered-from-the-air-180980142/
Genetic Evidence Overrules Ecocide Theory of Easter Island Once And For All
https://www.sciencealert.com/genetic-evidence-overrules-ecocide-theory-of-easter-island-once-and-for-all
Easter Island study casts doubt on theory of ‘ecocide’ by early population
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jun/21/easter-island-study-casts-doubt-on-theory-of-ecocide-by-early-population
The truth about Easter Island: a sustainable society has been falsely blamed for its own demise
https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-sustainable-society-has-been-falsely-blamed-for-its-own-demise-85563
Debunking the “Ecocide” Myth: The Real Story of Easter Island
https://scitechdaily.com/debunking-the-ecocide-myth-the-real-story-of-easter-island/
Climate change, not human population growth, correlates with Late Quaternary megafauna declines in North America
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21201-8
New research upends theory that Indigenous Australians hunted large animals to extinction
https://archive.ph/XuewE
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250078
Study finds Indigenous people cultivated hazelnuts 7,000 years ago, challenging modern assumptions
Researcher says evidence challenges narratives of wild, untouched landscapes in what is now British Columbia
"What this is saying is ... intentional agricultural-type food production is part of our heritage for longer than ancient Egypt."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-hazelnut-research-1.7392860
All these examples just scratch the surface. Here is an absolutely mammoth thread from @npub1wl5…vs4x with many more examples from around the world showing "that the history of our relationship to nature has not been one of unilinear destruction; and that destruction is not 'human nature'":
Posts 1-21: https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109410840331192595
Thread continues here (posts 22-42): https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109508169070569262
Thread continues here (posts 43-52): https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109535265169676919
Note: some of the links in Pauline's thread are no longer working, but I was able to find alternatives. If you are seriously diving into her thread, you can check this post for alternate links:
https://c.im/@whathappened/114032806544180033
Rather than human nature, agriculture, or over-population, the cause of our current nightmare of environmental destruction originated with a specific group of people who had the power to enforce their exploitation and pillaging over the entire globe eventually. We'll look more later at the disastrous results of colonialism and capitalism.
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2024-11-05 16:15:41 UTC

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Looking further back we see that humans all over the globe have been actively managing our environment successfully and sustainably for many millennia, which reveals falsehoods embedded in the Lockean (white, European, patriarchal) view of humanity, history and land use. From the research article "People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years":
"The current biodiversity crisis is often depicted as a struggle to preserve untouched habitats. Here, we combine global maps of human populations and land use over the past 12,000 y with current biodiversity data to show that nearly three quarters of terrestrial nature has long been shaped by diverse histories of human habitation and use by Indigenous and traditional peoples. With rare exceptions, current biodiversity losses are caused not by human conversion or degradation of untouched ecosystems, but rather by the appropriation, colonization, and intensification of use in lands inhabited and used by prior societies. Global land use history confirms that empowering the environmental stewardship of Indigenous peoples and local communities will be critical to conserving biodiversity across the planet.
"Archaeological and paleoecological evidence shows that by 10,000 BCE, all human societies employed varying degrees of ecologically transformative land use practices, including burning, hunting, species propagation, domestication, cultivation, and others that have left long-term legacies across the terrestrial biosphere. Yet, a lingering paradigm among natural scientists, conservationists, and policymakers is that human transformation of terrestrial nature is mostly recent and inherently destructive. Here, we use the most up-to-date, spatially explicit global reconstruction of historical human populations and land use to show that this paradigm is likely wrong. Even 12,000 y ago, nearly three quarters of Earth s land was inhabited and therefore shaped by human societies, including more than 95% of temperate and 90% of tropical woodlands. Lands now characterized as "natural," "intact," and "wild" generally exhibit long histories of use, as do protected areas and Indigenous lands, and current global patterns of vertebrate species richness and key biodiversity areas are more strongly associated with past patterns of land use than with present ones in regional landscapes now characterized as natural. The current biodiversity crisis can seldom be explained by the loss of uninhabited wildlands, resulting instead from the appropriation, colonization, and intensifying use of the biodiverse cultural landscapes long shaped and sustained by prior societies. Recognizing this deep cultural connection with biodiversity will therefore be essential to resolve the crisis."
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023483118
Those in power have been telling us that *we* (people in general or "human nature") are the problem. Popular narratives insist that humans and agriculture of any kind are intrinsically and inevitably destructive to the biosphere.
The actual evidence tells us otherwise:
@npub1s02…zz9t on "Tells" (archeology):
"And here these farmers sat, year after year, millennia after millennia, in one place. These were people working with the same Neolithic agricultural package, growing the same sorts of wheat and raising the same sorts of sheep, in the fields around their tells.
They did not die out. They did not exhaust their soils to extinction. Many of them — especially the tells in the Danube Basin that constitute “Old Europe” — developed no states, as some people believe is inevitable from wheat cultivation. If they did leave, they left for reasons unrelated to the success of their way of life. But, as I noted, some of these tells are still inhabited, like the central citadel of Aleppo in Syria."
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/113367947919067023
On Navajo Lands, Ancient Ways Are Restoring the Parched Earth
https://e360.yale.edu/features/navajo-natural-infrastructure-dryland-streams
The great abandonment: what happens to the natural world when people disappear?
-Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to Bulgaria-
Many of the landscapes people now tend to think of as untouched, from the savanna lands of equatorial Africa to the deep Amazon rainforest, have already been deeply transformed by human presence. “The essential role that people play in ecology is the critical thing, and it’s been ignored,” Ellis says. “The most biodiverse places left on Earth – this is almost universally true – have Indigenous people in them. Why? Well, they conserve a lot of that biodiversity and actually produce it. They maintain that heterogeneous landscape.”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/nov/28/great-abandonment-what-happens-natural-world-people-disappear-bulgaria
(continued...)
9a/30
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2024-11-05 15:44:39 UTC

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Let's spend some time looking at Enclosure both historically and as a continuing reality. We'll start with a quick look at one small example of how people organized life on their own just before having it turned upside down by Enclosure:
@npub1s02…zz9t on the Rundale System of Common Property:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110219111305684330
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2024-11-05 15:40:31 UTC

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More on Locke and others like him from THE PREHISTORY OF PRIVATE PROPERTY:
"Locke could hardly have been unaware that his theory provided a justification for an ongoing process disappropriating European commoners and indigenous peoples alike or that that process amounted to redistribution without compensation from poor to rich. This observation raises serious doubts that the principles contemporary propertarians have inherited from him reflect some deeper commitment to nonaggression or noninterference.
Lockeanism eventually revolutionized the world's conception of what property was by portraying full liberal ownership as if it were something natural that had always existed, even though it was only then being established by enclosure and colonialization. Lockean and propertarian *stories* might have been more important than their *theories* in that effort. The "original appropriator" in Locke's story resembles European colonialists rather than prehistoric indigenous North Americans who first farmed the continent. Locke's appropriator establishes the fee-simple rights that colonial governments (building a global cash economy) tend to establish rather than the complex, overlapping rights indigenous farmers in stateless societies tend to establish."
"The intent of Blackstone, Locke, Grotius, and other early modern property theorists was not to describe what property actually was or even what kind of institutions most people wanted at the time. Instead, it was "a common strategy of claiming the ground of property so as to preempt serious consideration of alternatives like common property" [Olsen,E. J. 2019, "The Early Modern 'Creation' of Property and its Enduring influence," European Journal of Political Theory, Online Early, 1 23]. In that way, private property theory furnished propaganda for the enclosure and colonial movements that forcibly established that institution around the world."
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2024-11-05 15:33:22 UTC

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Here are two short threads from @npub1s02…zz9t on the Labor Theory of Property and John Locke:
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/110164109548612913
https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/109465708774475922
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2024-11-05 15:25:58 UTC

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(continued)
_____
In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remarked, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary way of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when of a sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is, however, of the last consequence.
_____
With David Hume's observation in mind, let's return to Locke's 'theory' of property. It's not a 'theory' at all - it's a moral treatise. According to Locke, we *ought* to own what we produce. But that doesn't mean that we *do*.
To see the consequences of this mistake, we need an actual scientific theory of property rights - a theory that explains why property exists, not why it 'ought' to exist. The most convincing theory of private property, in my opinion, comes from the work of Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler. To understand property, Nitzan and Bichler argue that we should turn Locke's idea on its head. Property isn't a 'natural right'. It's an act of *power*.
Property, Nitzan and Bichler observe, is an act of exclusion. If I own something, that means that I have the right to exclude others from using it. It s this exclusionary power that defines private property. Here are Nitzan and Bichler describing this act:
_____
The most important feature of private ownership is not that it enables those who own, but that it disables those who do not. Technically, anyone can get into someone else's car and drive away, or give an order to sell all of Warren Buffet's shares in Berkshire Hathaway. The sole purpose of private ownership is to prevent us from doing so. In this sense, private ownership is wholly and only an institution of exclusion, and institutional exclusion is a matter of organized power.
_____
When we think like Nitzan and Bichler, we get a very different view of income. Recall that most political economists see property in terms of the 'things' that are owned. They then argue that income stems from these 'things'. Nitzan and Bichler upend this logic. Property, they argue, is about the *act* of ownership - the institutional act of exclusion. Income stems from this exclusionary act. We earn income from the *fence* of property rights, not from what's inside the fence. In other words, if you can't restrict access to your property, you can't earn income from it."
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2020/06/18/can-the-world-get-along-without-natural-resources/
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2024-11-05 15:22:21 UTC

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Next we're going to meet a monster and do our best to kill it. This monster is the ghost of the man John Locke, a philosopher known as "the father of liberalism". We're going to spend some time dragging Locke through the mud because his ideas became a linchpin in our whole system of property, justifying atrocities that continue even as we read this together now. It's not that Locke was single-handedly responsible for our plight, but he does serve as an example of the kind of men who used high-sounding words and "moral" arguments to draw us all into a nightmare that enables *them* to "live the dream".
We'll start with this excerpt from an article by political economist [@blair_fix](https://mastodon.online/@blair_fix ) "Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?" (by all means read the entire excellent article, but for now this excerpt serves our purposes):
"The original sin
From its outset, the field of political economy was not designed, in any meaningful sense, to understand resource flows. Instead, it was designed to explain *class relations*. The goal of early political economists was to justify the income of different classes (workers, landowners and capitalists). They chose to do so by rooting this income in the 'production of wealth'. What followed from this original sin was centuries of conflating income with 'production'. This conflation is what allowed Robert Solow to proclaim that the world could "get along without natural resources".
Let's retrace this flawed thinking. It starts with a failure to understand property rights. Political economists largely understand property as a productive asset - a way of thinking that dates to the 17th-century work of John Locke (or perhaps earlier). Locke proclaimed that property rights stemmed from 'natural law'. A man, Locke argued, has a natural right to own what he 'produces':
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...every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in, hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other Men. For this Labour being the unquestionable Property of the Labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joyned to, at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others.
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Locke's thinking became known as the "labor theory of property". This theory (and its derivatives) is why political economists misunderstand the role of natural resources. Here's what happens. If we accept Locke's argument that you have a right to own what you produce, it follows that your wealth should stem from your output.
Most political economists after Locke accepted this reasoning (at least in part). That meant that the debate was not about whether wealth was 'produced', but rather, about *which* 'factors of production' were 'productive'. The physiocrats thought land alone was productive. Marx insisted that only labor was productive. Neoclassical economists proclaimed that, alongside labor, capital too was productive. The debate between these schools played out over centuries. The problem, though, is that it's based on a flawed premise. The debate assumes that value is 'produced'. (It's not.)
To see the flaw, let's go back to Locke's theory of property rights. Notice that it's not really a 'theory' in the scientific sense. It doesn't explain *why* property rights exist. It explains why they *ought* to exist. Locke proclaimed that a man ought to own what he produces. That is his 'natural right'.
This change from 'is' to 'ought' is important. It means that we're not dealing with a scientific theory. We're dealing with a system of *morality*. The philosopher David Hume was perhaps the first to understand this moral sleight of hand. He noticed that moral philosophers made their arguments more convincing by framing what 'ought' to be in terms of what 'is'. Here's Hume reflecting on this trick: (continued...)
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2024-11-05 15:10:32 UTC

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Understanding the state of things requires us to understand The State. Here's a crash course:
What Is The State? A helpful thread from @npub1s02…zz9t https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/113034394722266469
The State, Our Ancient Enemy
https://www.thecommoner.org.uk/the-state-our-ancient-enemy/
The State as Sole Capitalist
https://archive.ph/7uRGy
Here is another aspect of state, and another example of accepted narratives that need to be questioned in light of actual evidence. It turns out we can probably thank state for patriarchy:
How did patriarchy actually begin?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230525-how-did-patriarchy-actually-begin
More info about roles of men and women in past societies:
Shattering the myth of men as hunters and women as gatherers
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-shattering-myth-men-hunters-women.html
Worldwide survey kills the myth of ‘Man the Hunter’
https://www.science.org/content/article/worldwide-survey-kills-myth-man-hunter
Iron Age DNA Reveals Women Dominated Pre-Roman Britain
https://www.sciencealert.com/iron-age-dna-reveals-women-dominated-pre-roman-britain
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2024-11-05 15:06:46 UTC

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To explore this new understanding further here is a more detailed look at the stories we've been told and who has been telling them (this one is a longish read, dive in if you find it interesting, otherwise don't get bogged down here, move on to the next post!):
"How to change the course of human history (at least, the part that's already happened)"
by anthropologist David Graeber and David Wengrow:
https://www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/
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2024-11-05 15:04:21 UTC

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A big part of this false lesson is the fantasized history that serves as its foundation; the stories we've been told and the assumptions we've been conditioned with.
To introduce us to "A new understanding of human history and the roots of inequality" here is the TED talk by archaeologist David Wengrow (link includes transcript):
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_wengrow_a_new_understanding_of_human_history_and_the_roots_of_inequality/transcript?language=en
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2024-11-05 01:48:55 UTC

[Note: this thread was copied from another instance with the full knowledge and endorsement of the original poster who wants to remain anonymous here.]
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, exploitation and oppression, hunger and starvation, genocide and war; a world of fences, walls, gatekeepers, prisons, police, bullshit jobs and criminalized poverty; a world overrun with cars and preventable disease; a world of vanishing biodiversity and thriving 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 book 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
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