graeber numbers & weapons law
any system that reduces the world to numbers can only be held in place through the use of weapons – david graeber, debt (book)
graeber numbers & weapons law: any system that reduces the world to numbers can only be held in place through the use of weapons – david graeber, debt (book)
via jake snider fb post in david graeber discussion forum:
This morning I encountered the following quote in the closing chapters of “Debt”:
“Any system that reduces the world to numbers can only be held in place through the use of weapons.”
I think this might be the most profound message/revelation in the whole book.
very similar to graeber violence/quantification law et al.. debt (book).. p 383
graeber violence/quantification law: ‘when one looks a little closer, one discovers that these two elements—the violence and the quantification—are intimately linked‘ – david graeber in debt
Do you think he’s right or wrong? Why?
If you agree can you, in a short post, explain why we need weapons to sustain such a world?
What are the economic consequences of releasing the world from the threat of weapons?
better to just ask/try to do without (the numbers.. et al)
literacy and numeracy both elements of colonialism/control/enclosure.. we need to calculate differently and stop measuring things
aka: get to the root of problem
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do
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: imagine if we listen to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & use that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
the thing we’ve not yet tried/seen: the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
[‘in an undisturbed ecosystem ..the individual left to its own devices.. serves the whole’ –dana meadows]
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental exponential labeling) to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap/dance.. the unconditional part of left-to-own-devices ness.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
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be you. 