UR Here: The Community, the Crises and the Commons
/A lot of people think something is really wrong with our country–indeed our whole world. Last winter and spring, mass protests throughout the Middle East swept long-standing regimes out of power. This past summer, European cities experienced mass protests about the state of economies and jobs. This fall, the Occupy movement has swept from Wall Street to Washington Street here in Iowa City and beyond.
The goal of the occupiers has sometimes been criticized for its vagueness, but the main targets of the anger are elite, powerful institutions that are perceived to take too much and not give enough back, predominantly large corporations and banks. The Occupy and Tea Party movements seem to share some common ground, though the Tea Partiers’ object of rage is the government; the sentiment is similar, though, as they think government takes too much and does not return enough back to the people.
Jay Walljasper thinks a lot of the unrest we’re seeing in the world today may be a crisis of the commons and I think he may be right. Jay is a University of Iowa alumnus and former writer and editor of our own Daily Iowan. He has gone on to success as editorial director and editor ofUtne Reader, editor at large with Odemagazine, freelance writer, book author and speaker. Currently, Jay is focusing his work on the idea of “the commons,” which can be seen, in part, in his work as editor of the website OnTheCommons.organd as a senior fellow with Project for Public Spaces. His latest book is All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons(New Press, 2010). Jay is coming to town to talk with us about the commons on Nov. 8 and 9.
The phrase “the commons” may evoke vague images of fences and pastures in England dredged up from your high school world history class. And that’s partially correct. But Jay’s idea about the commons is much more wide-ranging than that. “The commons” isn’t an idea that’s necessarily conducive to an elevator pitch, but Jay sums it up nicely in the title of his book. Ultimately, the commons is all that we share.
Many of the crises of our times seem focused on problems of private ownership. The big powers own too much private wealth (which is also acquired and kept through dishonest or unfair means) and the little people (the 99%, as the occupiers would claim) own too little. That’s admittedly an oversimplification, but I think it captures a good chunk of the issue. Certainly private wealth–what, frankly, we don’t share with others–is an important part of life. But if you think about it, most of our days–and, indeed, the most important things in life–are really spent with, among and about the things that we share.
Read the whole article at LittleVillageMag.com