Towards New Paradigms Of Exchange For Non-Dystopians
What are the viable shoots of new growth with potential to one day support and condition a protopian, modern technological society?
What are the viable shoots of new growth with potential to one day support and condition a protopian, modern+ technological society?
This letter shares the recent Voicecraft podcast with Michel Bauwens, an analyst of civilisational transition, theorist with a background in political economy and technology, and founder of P2P Foundation.
In it, we explore a picture of political economy that doesn’t fit the traditional modes and labels fought over in the 20th century, or in our modern culture war. Neither capitalism, communism, nor other nameable forms of popular exchange governance / philosophy.
The core concept this episode invites you to perceive and think about is the commons.
Michel’s core thesis as far as I can tell is that the commons is the key societal institution with the capacity for effective, ethical stewardship of the lifeworld.
That is, alongside the functions of the ‘market’ and the ‘state’, we ought to recognise the function of ‘commons’ as a distinct and vital piece of the political economic picture.
This conversation marks the first public Voicecraft conversation that centres the notion of commons, although Voicecraft.Network held a five part mutual learning series at the end of 2020 with special guest Kylie Stedman Gomes—live player, unique thinker, and thoroughly decent human being who was principal in championing the notion of commons in my neck of the woods.
I intend the Commons Series to run well into the future, spanning private research and public discourse. It won’t only be a series about political economy, but rather incorporate metaphysics, spirituality, religion, anthropology, ethics, and more — such is the depth of the notion.
You can access the shownotes, conversation waypoints, and more on Michel Bauwens here.
In other news:
I’m excited to begin a journey with Jonny Miller’s new Nervous System Mastery (NSM) cohort. If you haven’t already and hold an interest in such things, I thoroughly suggest you follow the man on Twitter and check out his work.
I went down with a nasty cold the day I was due to present at Cadell Last’s Philosophy Portal conference on Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and unfortunately wasn’t well enough to attend. But I hear the conference was a great success and the presentations are viewable here. Cadell and I are set to record a podcast soon which may cover some of this territory, so looking forward to that.
And I hope you don’t mind, but there will be quite a few emails coming your way over the coming days.
There’s a local Voicecraft event occurring on Friday the 18th here in Melbourne (this is the pre-launch URL you can use to purchase a ticket).
And finally an open Voicecraft Network session with Daniel & Michelle Garner of O.G. Rose on Transformative Philosophy on the 21/22nd November, timezone depending, which will be free to attend. The link to register for that is here.
Discernment on the Way,
Tim