For this special episode, Matt & Jesse are joined by Shawn Vulliez from the SRSLY WRONG Podcast for a very important discussion about how the concept of Library Socialism might dovetail with the idea-shape of The Golden Square. As Shawn laments, the inexorable crisis of capitalism is that it turns us into “Tool-Handed Monsters who can’t hug our own children.” But published in 1971, Murray Bookchin’s Post-Scarcity Anarchism provided some initial inklings of a world without work or want—where the even-flow of Social Ecology, Libertarian Municipalism, and an abundance of material resources would allow us to finally hug our children, our shared future. Yet, given the climate chaos of the here and now, it’s hard to imagine how we might get there as we face the fast-Fascist collapse of the biosphere. Insects, animals and the Earth’s ecosystems die-off while capitalism forces us into collectively stuffing more Big Macs into our mouths. How might we meet the human rights to food, shelter, healthcare and education, and in so doing, create a new horizon for physical objects, where we could live in an ever-revolving circularity of consumer abundance? Beyond the bleak choice between denial of reality or submitting to involuntary human extinction, is there a third avenue left unlisted by popular imagination, one that doesn’t require a magic marker to see or decrypt? Thankfully, there is a clear path toward an Ecology of Freedom, where we say goodbye to the continued maintenance of hierarchy and make way for its utter annihilation and dissolution, replacing it with a shared prosperity. As such, we must Decommodify the means to a dignified life, and Democratize every area of society. This dual principle is the only game in town, and its consecrated demands will lead us toward a vibrant and fecund future. These principles need foundations, though, which is why Library Socialism and The Golden Square can mutually embrace as complementary concepts: The Golden Square as the new social contract for society, and Library Socialism as the means for organizing our world. This conversation between comrades traces the beginnings of a mutual vision to address our ecological & social crises with practical solutions and an imminently achievable purpose. Humanity has an infinite amount of untapped potential that these outlined concepts toward a dignified global society aim to unleash. We should break from the Baby Yoda Nostalgia Blankets © of the possible—that keep us swaddled in narrow dreams and demands—and chart a course toward The Utopian Sphere. To paraphrase the now-radicalized Mandalorian (upon hearing us): “The Golden Square is the Objective. Library Socialism is the Way.”
Mentioned In This Episode:
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SRSLY WRONG’S PODCAST TRILOGY ON “LIBRARY SOCIALISM”
Episode #189: “Library Socialism & Usufruct”
Episode #196: “Library Socialism & The Irreducible Minimum”
Episode #200: “Library Socialism & Complementarity”
Cory Doctorow in BoingBoing – "Library Socialism: a utopian vision of a sustainable, luxuriant future of circulating abundance"
Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations (1776):
“Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.” Indeed, “Nobody ever saw one animal by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that.”
Roland Boer in The Conversation: “How Cute Dogs Help Us Understand Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’”
Fun Factoid: The poet Allen Ginsberg, a fan of Bernie Sanders & his open use of socialism, wrote a poem in the politician’s honor, entitled “Burlington Snow” (1986):
Socialist snow on the streets
Socialist talk in the Maverick bookstore
Socialist kids sucking socialist lollipops
Socialist poetry in socialist mouths
—aren’t the birds frozen socialists?
Aren’t the snowclouds blocking the airfield
Social Democratic Appearances?
Isn’t the socialist sky owned by
the socialist sun?
Earth itself socialist, forests, rivers, lakes
furry mountains, socialist salt
in oceans?
Isn’t this poem socialist? It doesn’t
belong to me anymore.
Dumb Blue Checkmark Twitter Debate Episode #6,789,453,821 – starring @petercoffin:
“when someone says "there is no such thing as justifiable hierarchy" you should understand they think you should be able to pilot a plane full of people right now at this very moment”
The very beginnings of Murray Bookchin’s ideas of Social Ecology start with his masterwork collection of essays, Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971). Republished in 2004 by AK Press.
Murray Bookchin’s Essay: "What Is Social Ecology?"
Murray Bookchin’s The Ecology of Freedom (1976). Republished in 2005 by AK Press.
David Graeber’s notion that “money is a promise we make to each other,” originally surfaced in his magnum opus, Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Published in 2011 by Melvin House Books.
Bong Joon Ho has said in interviews he has found the response to Parasite very similar in different countries around the globe:
“The film talks about two opposing families, about the rich versus the poor, and that is a universal theme, because we all live in the same country now: that of capitalism.”
Erik Olin Wright’s assertion that we live in a “society of private hoarding” is expounded upon further in his posthumous book How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century. Published in 2019 by Verso Books.
Usufruct: A Working Wikipedia Definition
On “Baseline Communism” – from David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years:
“In fact, communism is the foundation of all human sociability. It is what makes society possible.”
“I will call this "baseline communism": the understanding that, unless people consider themselves enemies, if the need is considered great enough, or the cost considered reasonable enough, the principle of "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs" will be assumed to apply.
“Baseline communism might be considered the raw material of sociality, a recognition of our ultimate interdependence that is the ultimate substance of social peace.”
Annie Lowrey in The Atlantic: “Give Us All Fully Automated Luxury Communism”
Aaron Bastani’s Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto. Published in 2020 by Verso Books.
Samuel Alexander in The Conversation: “Life in a ‘Degrowth’ Economy, and Why You Might Actually Enjoy It”
Ricardo Mastini in Open Net Democracy: “Degrowth: The Case for a New Economic Paradigm”
David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Published in 2019 by Simon & Schuster.
Elizabeth Balkan, director of food waste for the Natural Resources Defense Council with Megan Thomspon on PBS News Hour: "Americans Waste Up to 40 Percent of the Food They Produce"
Dana Gunders in NRDC Issue Paper (August 2012): "Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill"
Paul Flahive in Kera News: “Hunger In Texas: No End In Sight For Pandemic Food Lines”
Political Compass Test - An Earlier Version in the 1960s had “Democratic” at the bottom of the Y-axis, but was replaced with “Libertarian” in the popular version used today.
How and Why the Term “Libertarian” Was Co-Opted from French Usage:From Wikipedia’s Definition of Anarchy:
“Since the 1890s, the term libertarianism has been used as a synonym for anarchism and was used almost exclusively in this sense until the mid-20th century development of right-libertarianism in the United States, where classical liberals began to describe themselves as libertarians.”
Overview: Community Land Trusts (CLTs)
The Inland Equity Community Land Trust
The notion of “Dual Power” traces back to ideas explored by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book: The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century (1851):
“Beneath the governmental machinery, in the shadow of political institutions, out of the sight of statesmen and priests, society is producing its own organism, slowly and silently; and constructing a new order, the expression of its vitality and autonomy, and the denial of the old politics, as well as of the old religion.”
The Black Socialists in America coalition are Mapping Dual Power for the Here & Now:
ROAR Magazine – Issue 9: Dual Power – "The seeds of a new world, taking root here in the shell of the old."
On the Greek notion of “Paideia” in Greek Left Review: Excerpts from Murray Bookchin’s book From Urbanization to Cities: Toward a New Politics of Citizenship: “The Idea of Citizenship”
Understanding the ABCs of Marxism: “The working class makes itself a revolutionary subject through its struggles—it transforms itself.” – As Explored in Michael A. Libowitz’s Essay in Monthly Review: “What Makes the Working Class a Revolutionary Subject?”
The Phrase from the Former Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi – Socialist Chokwe Lumumba: “We have to free the land to free ourselves,” comes from Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi. Edited by Ajamu Nangwaya and Kali Akuno. Published in 2017 by Daraja Press.
“How many birds are in flight right now?”
Jeremy Corbyn’s sentiment: “Every single person you meet knows something you don’t.” – As Explored in Andy Beckett’s Essay About the Rise of Corbynism in The Guardian: “The Wilderness Years: How the Labour Left Survived to Conquer.”
Abdullah Öcalan’s ideas and writing have been recently translated in a flurry of translations by PM Press, including: Building Free Life: Dialogues with Öcalan, Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings (Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume II), and The Sociology of Freedom: Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume III
Neuroscience has shown that the prefrontal cortex doesn’t finish developing until your mid-twenties: As Explored in Lucy Wallis’ Article in The Guardian: “Is 25 the New Cut-Off Point for Adulthood?”
The Marxist Theory framework of Minimum, Transitional, and Maximum Programs.
Leon Trotsky: The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International aka “The Transitional Program” (1938)
On Murray Bookchin’s ideas about a transitional program, as described in a speech by Janet Biehl in 2012 – “Bookchin, Öcalan, and the Dialectics of Democracy”:
“Bookchin’s communalist movement never got as far, in practical terms, as Öcalan’s has, but if it had, he would surely have faced the same problem. The concept of a transitional program, which Bookchin invoked in such occasions, may be useful here. He used to distinguish between the minimum program (reforms on specific issues), the transitional program (like Öcalan’s), and the maximum program (socialism, a stateless assembly democracy). That distinction has a revolutionary pedigree—Murray used to credit it to Trotsky. It’s a way to retain a commitment to your long-term goals and principles while dealing in the real, nonrevolutionary world.”
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Classic Anarchist & Utopian Science Fiction Novel, The Dispossessed (1974). Published by Harper Collins.
Margaret Atwood in The Guardian: “The Road to Ustopia”
We could have already paid for free college and erased student debt with the money spent on COVID (corporate) relief: “How Much COVID Relief Has Been Spent So Far?”
The Ideas of First Nature, Second Nature and Third Nature Are Explored in Great Detail Inside Murray Bookchin’s The Ecology of Freedom. A lovely illustrated overview of these ideas can be found in the Social Ecology Pamphlet by Emily McGuire.
Oscar Wilde on the rich being burden by their wealth: The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)