Just as the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was doing its flat-level best to kill the free, open internet by turning it over to the corporate telecommunications and cable interests, my friend and former colleague Jay Walljasper publishes All That We Share, a book re-examining the commons. The commons is simply that which we share. Walljasper cites clean air and water, wildlife preserves, the US judicial system, Wikipedia, and the internet all as examples of shared assets that make up the commons.
“Anyone can use the commons, so long as there is enough left for everyone else,” Walljasper notes in an excerpt for Yes! magazine. “This is why finite commons, such as natural resources, must be sustainably and equitably managed.” Using the example of sampling in music, Walljasper points to the greatest strength of the commons: A borrowing and repurposing of what came before to move collectively forward.
Walljasper recognizes that this millennia-old system of mutually beneficial sharing is being threatened. “As the market economy becomes the yardstick for measuring the worth of everything, more people are grabbing portions of the commons as their private property,” Walljasper writes. He provides the examples of pharmaceutical companies that use government grants to develop drugs which are then patented and sold at prices that only the rich can use. And Bikram Choudhury’s copyrighting of centuries-old hatha yoga practices.
But Walljasper, undaunted, goes on to point out how people are beginning to work together to take back the commons from greedy individual and corporate interests. Everything from neighbors fighting to keep libraries open, improve neighborhood parks, and fund public schools to providing internet access to the poor and challenging corporate grabs to limit access to information gives Walljasper good cheer and reason for hope. More importantly, Walljasper sees in the commons a “toolkit for fixing problems” and goes on to cite the work of individuals (including his wife) to restore and strengthen the commons.
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