ashley on debt
18 min video may 2024 – Debt by David Graeber: Our Historic Moment of Economic Transition – via michel bauwens tweet [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4AfVkBmo0A]:
2 min – we need to completely rethink our sense of the rhythms of econ history.. t
graeber rethink law: people don’t want to rethink everything especially people who have made so many sacrifices in the name of false understanding – David Graeber from 2 min video clip – human cost of econ – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RB10fVZxCs]
need 1st/most: tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
oikos (the economy our souls crave).. ‘i should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.’ – gaston bachelard, the poetics of space
a: he views this as a moment of historical opp
to begin to free ourselves the first thing we need to do is view ourselves again as historical actors, as people who can make a difference in the course of world events..t
graeber make it diff law: the ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently‘ – david graeber utopia of rules
ashley: i’m thinking of paradigm shifts in 1\ econ 2\ govt 3\ knowledge systems
those are the things we need to let go of (aka: any form of m\a\p).. if want a legit diff way to live
3 min – ashley: his opening of book with cocktail party convo about imf (international monetary fund) as rep actor who decides ie: whose debts can be forgiven et al.. he compares imf w divine kings and religious authorities
5 min – ashley: he was complaining about a places that owed to imf because dictator had taken much money.. and people had paid it back over and over.. but because of ie: compound interest still owed so much.. and his (david’s) convo partner said ‘surely one must pay one’s debt’ .. he realized then that that was a moral statement.. the morality of paying back debt over morality over morality of serving.. looking at what are moral frames that shape who gets money in long run.. and .. not always true that everyone must pay one’s debts.. w/interest rate.. that assumes some won’t pay back.. ie: file for bankruptcy and let it ride/flow.. book looks at what structures have changed over time
7 min – ashley: *the way i would define econ system: a set of institutions that determine where scarce resources flow..t and what is an **institution: rules, roles, norms and enforcement mechs that structure human relationships.. t
*cancerous distraction .. no scarce resources if org around legit needs.. graeber stop at enough law et al
**mufleh humanity law: we have seen advances in every aspect of our lives except our humanity– Luma Mufleh.. how we gather in a space is huge.. need to try spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove to facil curiosity over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us.. ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
8 min – ashley: so if thinking about norms and enforcement mechs.. morality is one of the biggest factors at play..t
and why we so desperately need tech w/o judgment ie: nonjudgmental expo labeling to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap
ashley: the norms around what people consider legit, illegit, worthy of social scorn/accolades.. all that is wrapped up in morality.. so looking at moral enforcements thru out history that’s part of history
ashley: so scarce resources include: *food, housing, energy, oil, labor.. but it also includes some things like human attention.. and some other scarce resources i think we’re going to have to **get creative with as we’re thinking about which scarce resources matter..t
huge.. need 1st/most: means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox so we can org around legit needs (ie: *ones listed are irrelevant s to the deeper 2 basic needs of our essence.. if we org around those.. we’ll find graeber stop at enough law will take care of anything else we may think we might nee.. because **we have enough resources.. (and legit basic needs not scarce.. just hidden).. just not being resourceful.. spinning our wheels with cancerous distractions in sea world
ashley: a lot of this is really about how we prioritize our obligations to people..t
actually.. obligation is also a cancerous distraction.. keeping us from us.. if that is our focus.. that’s really just a form of people telling other people what to do
9 min – ashley: diff between my thinking and his: 1\ myth of barter.. he sees it as 2 types.. i see it as 1 type.. when he characterizes the way economists think.. i don’t think those are correct.. mischaracterizes how economists think.. will get in way of whole endeavor.. that will be another video
11 min – ashley: 2\ time scale for change.. he writes ‘this is definitely a moment of transition.. no one is going to be able to have any chance of saying what all this really means for another gen, at the very least’.. i think it could happen faster than that given tech et al.. happening way more quickly that in past.. yes took time then.. a slow morph.. but in current age change is sped up.. so could happen over 10-20 yr period.. t
oi.. rather.. year or less.. if legit whatever you want ness.. via sabbatical ish transition
12 min – ashley: 3\ throwing out ideas.. ‘one thing that’s clear is that such new ideas cannot emerge w/o our jettisoning of much of our accustomed categories of thought.. which have become mostly sheer dead weight, if not intrinsic parts of the very apparatus of hopelessness.. and formulating new ones‘.. t
13 min – ashley: on one hand i do agree.. yes some ideas will need to be jettisoned (thrown overboard).. what i disagree with is that we can actually figure those out from the standpoint today.. we can’t know which is dead weight.. which important in a system we cannot imagine..t
exactly why we need tech/means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox so we can org around legit needs
ashley: where i am going in this series.. don’t know where imagination will take me.. but questions i’ll address 1\ how did morality and violence underpin diff econ structures.. definitely a theme thru out his book
14 min – ashley: 2\ if in middle of econ shift.. what did those shifts look like when people were going thru major shifts in past.. what was going on to create this major shift
actually have had none in past.. all same song
15 min – ashley: explore 3\ his notion of myth of barter and econ view on it and my disagreement w him there and 4\ his notion of communism ‘from each to each’.. how did that operationalize.. what can we learn about these gift econs
16 min – ashley: a sense for how he’s thinking about hope.. it relates to what he calls the apparatus of hopelessness.. which sounds like opp.. source of hope?.. thing is we have these ways of thinking that enforce hopelessness.. give a sense it’s always going to be like this.. could be said that overcoming that apparatus of hopelessness is the task
17 min – ‘it could well be said that the last 30 yrs have seen the construction of a vast bureaucratic apparatus for the creation and maintenance of hopelessness, a giant machine designed, first and foremost to destroy any sense of possible alt futures.. to do so requires.. propaganda engines of every conceivable variety, most of which do not attack alts directly so much as create pervasive climate of fear, jingoistic conformity, and simple despair that renders any thought of changing the world seem an idle fantasy.. even if we are at the beginning of the turn of a very long historical cycle.. it’s still largely up to us to determine how it’s going to turn out.. ie: shift from bullion econ to virtual credit money at end of axial age and begin of middle age.. the immediate shift was experienced largely as a series of great catastrophes.. will it be same this time? presumably, a lot depends on how consciously we set out to ensure that it won’t be’.. t
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
ie: imagine if we listened to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & used that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
18 min – ashley: so he’s really trying to convey a sense of agency.. that is what i appreciate the most
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be you. 