> You see, if somebody robs a store, it's a crime and the state is all set and ready to nab the criminal. But if somebody steals from the commons and from the future, it's seen as an entrepreneurial activity and the state cheers and gives them tax concessions rather than arresting them. We badly need an expanded concept of justice and fairness that takes mortgaging the future into account.
- Ursula M. Franklin, The Real World of Technology
@baldur Great points, but also…
*cries in 🇬🇧 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/police-wont-show-up-arrest-10003559
The Commons was a quaint concept from before the days of capitalism, when most people were able to see that cooperation, not competition, was vital to survival.
Now thanks to generations of people living in capitalist, consumer societies, people have lost sight of that view.
It's like acceptance of capitalism was dangled like a big, huge credit card humanity could borrow against again and again until our spending habits were too big, and we reached our spending limit. But we're still the borrowers.
@baldur Hell yes.
(I would take the rationalist/effective altruist community a lot more seriously if the discussions on "what we owe the future" centered around appropriations from the commons instead of doubling/tripling down on Skynet fears.
@baldur @gwynnion
Every single gas guzzling car, including mine, is dumping waste into the air. The air is polluted and that causes harm. The car is in effect stealing from the commons.
We have a legacy issue we need to overcome where nothing can be allowed to pollute. This sounds extreme now but in the future we’ll look back and it will just seem obvious.
Social justice is more important but who wants to be set free into a dead world. We need to do all things at all levels, all at once.
Things do domino, so if you want support for the environment, support civil rights. When people have the economic mobility not lost to health debt, they can put energy to your pollution bill. When they are not starving for any food, they can ask what’s in the food.
Mechanisms of control exist and we don’t need tear them down, we need to take them over. We need to yell at our politicians until they are worthy of our vote then we need to vote for them. 🗳️
As we take power we need to clean it up. Remover the filibuster, change the judiciary and destroy gerrymandering.
It’s all linked and we are linked to it.
This reminded me of the old adage
“Treat the earth well: it was not given to us by our parents, but loaned to us by our children."
In my youth this was thought to be a 'Native American Proverb' - but this origin seems now to be disputed. Anybody know more?
It's an important perspective, because it alludes to the ethical and potentially legal case for environment-friendly lifestyles and policies, as opposed to the now more familiar scientific and economic viewpoints.
It also made me wonder if any work is going on towards a methodology to calculate the net present value of future losses?
It also reminded me of a brilliant cartoon I saw some time ago, which I'd like a copy of if anybody knows it...
A couple on an airplane, one saying to a flight attendant "I can't believe it - this flight cost us almost nothing" - and the flight attendant answering: "Don't worry Madam - your children will be paying."
The 1989 CBC Massey Lectures by Ursula M. Franklin |
Thibaut Sailly
Baldur Bjarnason
devolute
Ember! 🦴
mike805
Thaolin 🇨🇦
Frances Larina
Humza Kazmi (Allandaros)
Aviva Gary
The Animal and the Machine
Michael Bell
Selena
GeofCox