Tuesday 3 January 2012

Susan Livingstone on Occupy Cafe.org Declarations of Possibility for Occupy and the New Economy

Some of the Transition Towns are experimenting with community-based economic systems and finding that they have the potential to render the entire notion of exchange obsolete.  Mostly this happens because people are sharing their gifts with their communities rather than "working for the man every night and day."  It's not about this economic model or that economic model - it's more about decentralizing our economy by acknowledging, supporting, making visible, or replicating local initiatives that are already in place (like clumps of imaginal butterfly cells scattered throughout the muck of what used to be the caterpillar) such as farmers markets, flea markets, community gardens, alternative currencies, buyers cooperatives, and "maker" and service collectives of all sorts.  The acceptance of a unified economy was sold to the sheeple based on the convenience of a single currency for "all debts public and private" and the efficiency of debt-driven competition and growth.  If we want to reclaim our birthright of community-level interdependence and trust, let's throw off the shackles of our wage slavery and enjoy the GIFT of life instead of "earning a living" and devaluing the gift into a right or entitlement.  That's the world I want to live in!

No comments:

Post a Comment