How did we get here?
@whathappened@c.im
"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
c.im
[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
("This book examines the origin and development of the private property system to show that three commonly held beliefs about private property are false: the belief that individualistic private property develops naturally, the belief that private property promotes negative freedom, and the belief that inequality is natural and inevitable.")
Also recommended: PREHISTORIC MYTHS IN MODERN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
https://widerquist.com/books-3/#4b
("This book uses extensive anthropological and historical evidence to falsify the commonly held belief that everyone benefits from the state and/or the property system. Although many people benefit, the least advantaged are worse off in contemporary capitalist states than people typically were in stateless societies with common property systems.")
1/30
