You see a lot of hand wringing about social media and division and isolation. I think that the division and isolation are real but it puts the cart before the horse. We are divided and isolated because we have lost public space and public time. You can't afford to go out and be with people or even pursue solo delights, like walking, fishing, bird watching or what have you.

If we think about semi common land as places where you can be with others away from work it will include places like pubs and cafes, parks, forests, hills, clubs dedicated to games or shared interests. The costs of entering have increased. Transport is expensive, adequate gear costs, the drink or the cake is exorbitant. Many of these places require a critical mass of people to survive. There are less people with the time and the resources to maintain or participate in shared activities.

It becomes the preserve of the rich few. They in turn mark their enclosure by making it seem like possession of the right, hyper-expensive gear is a prerequisite of entry. You rarely see people out for a cycle in a pair of old trousers, a t-shirt and battered old bike these days. It's all lycra and carbonfibre.

We lack the time and the energy to do it even when we have the money. So we turn to youtube and social media to fill the lack, but the division will remain until we can get the boot off our faces by freeing up access to the common and the semi-common. Then we can be with each other again.

#Commons, #SocialMedia, #CapitalismIsKillingUs

Had to again work in the same room with a sick person today.

This feels so violent. It's like the "whatever this is" has put a gun in all of our hands. A gun that we are forced to put against our own heads and pull the trigger on, once every few months now.

Add on top the denial, because of course it's "just the summer flu" and I am not sure which will end me, the virus or a mental breakdown.

I mean it can't be just me feeling this way?

#CapitalismIsKillingUs #covid #violence

#CapitalismIsKillingUs: If the world’s highest emitting countries only focus on technological climate solutions (like switching to renewable energy) and not #systemic behavioral ones (like buying less stuff and using less energy), the authors argue, #climatechange may be slowed. But #ecological #overshoot—which includes symptoms like #biodiversity loss, #ecosystem collapse, and #oceanacidification—will worsen. And as overshoot worsens, the authors argue, “the likelihood of societal breakdown increases.”

#suffiency #sharingeconomy #CommonsNotCommodification

https://open.substack.com/pub/heated/p/do-we-need-to-change-our-behavior