Privatisation and the commons
The commons – At the minimum, our air, water, forests, oceans. Shared assets essential to all life thriving.
To even think that any of these assets can be privatised is to conflate the impossible.
Private and commons are mutually exclusive. The words themselves are an impossible math. You can have one, not both. Commons. Or private.
Yet our operating system loves the myth of privatisation. That somehow when we make a commons a private asset, everyone will gain.
This myth is the central thesis of the neoliberal story.
That privatisation is the best way to go. Better management, they say, as if the public are unable to manage things. Tell that to a culture that managed things well for 65,000 years.
The intent behind privatisation is more profit. The intent behind a healthy commons is to create an asset for everyone. The two intentions combined end in a negative number. This is entropic.
When we live in a world that insists on profit in all things as the measure of success and health, we have chosen the path that consumes everything.
Photo Taken June 16th 2024
