Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons
David Bollier
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 0865717680
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The biggest "tragedy of the commons" is the misconception that commons are failures—relics from another era rendered unnecessary by the market and state. Think Like a Commoner dispels such prejudices by explaining the rich history and promising future of the commons—an ageless paradigm of cooperation and fairness that is re-making our world.
With graceful prose and dozens of fascinating stories, David Bollier describes the quiet revolution that is pioneering practical forms of self-governance and production controlled by people themselves. Think Like a Commoner explains how the commons:
- Is an exploding field of DIY innovation ranging from Wikipedia and seed-sharing to community forests, collaborative consumption, and beyond
- Challenges the standard narrative of market economics by explaining how cooperation generates significant value and human fulfillment
- Provides a framework of law and social action that can help us move beyond the pathologies of neoliberal capitalism
We have a choice: ignore the commons and suffer the ongoing private plunder of our common wealth, or Think Like a Commoner and learn how to rebuild our society and reclaim our shared inheritance. This accessible, comprehensive introduction to the commons will surprise and enlighten you, and provoke you to action.
David Bollier is an author, activist, blogger, and independent scholar. He is the author of six books on different aspects of the commons, including Green Governance, The Wealth of the Commons, and Viral Spiral, and is a frequent speaker at conferences, colleges and universities, and policy workshops.
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enabling them to accuse sharers of “piracy.” It is important to note that enclosures are not just appropriations of resources. They are also attacks on communities and their practices of commoning. Their primary goal may be the seizure of resources, but they also seek to impose a “regime change” on people. Enclosures convert a system of collective management and social mutuality into a market order that privileges private ownership, prices, market relationships and consumerism. The goal is to
might add ‘natural cooperation’ as a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection.” It bears noting that the popularity of “individual selection theory” during the latter half of the twentieth century coincided uncannily with the heyday of market culture and its ethic of competitive individualism. A case of culture affecting scientific observation? What is notable about the more recent findings of evolutionary science is the recognition that individual organisms
inescapable price of economic progress.) Similarly, as the Internet and digital technologies have made it easier to copy and share books, film and records, they have triggered major political battles over the proper scope of copyright laws. As such stories suggest, the modern tendency to assert absolute individual property rights is a libertarian fantasy. One person’s property rights invariably end up affecting another person’s property rights; everyone’s freedom cannot be limitless. Indigenous
was entirely social. People tacitly negotiated and observed a certain set of rules. There was no formal statute or private contract spelling out how a passenger must behave. The system was all based on a social understanding, an instance of vernacular law, as described above. A coffeehouse or bar may be privately owned, but its social character and tone are largely defined by the customer/commoners, not the owner. It is entirely natural for people to organize and enforce their own rules
assets. It can sanction independent commons trusts to act with their own delegated authority. It can use online tools such as social networking to elicit useful citizen participation in government proceedings. Here are some examples. In the US, the federal government leases grazing rights on public lands to cattle ranchers (at rock-bottom rates). It sells the right to mine gold, silver and other metal ore on public lands for $5 per acre and no standing royalties. The government also auctions off
