:: [unSYSTEM] No Utopias - Is There a …
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Autor: Amir Taaki
Fecha:  
A: unsystem
Asunto: [unSYSTEM] No Utopias - Is There a Way Out?
I'm not often reading political books or fiction. Mostly it's science
text books or computer manuals. I don't have much respect for the
leading sentences and weasel words that is so often prevalent in
political reasoning.

My perspective is based more on practical experience from being around
different communities over the years. Mike told me his views are more
from deep thought and reasoning. We arrived at the same conclusion
from different vantage points. I see this happening around me with
everyone arriving at the same position.

I want to simplify the political discourse. I believe it's been too
weighted down by dogmatism and complex visions tenuously drawn out
from unproven first principles. The truth is simpler. We don't need to
complicate what we know.

Our society is not natural, and this is now the way people are meant
to live. It's isolating and degrading meagre living that preys on
people to shoehorn them into wage work and debt slavery. The more we
look to gangsters to protect us, the more people will be preyed on.
You will always be outside that closed circle begging for higher
wages, shorter hours or better working conditions. Concessions are
buying your compliance and obedience.

The environment is fucked and we're facing an ecological crisis. The
system is becoming overbearing and draconian surveillance is
exponentiating. Mass protest movements from the tea party, Occupy,
middle east, Brazil, Spain and Turkey are evidence of a balkanising
world. It's rapidly becoming chaotic, and the only way for governments
to maintain unity is growing fascism.

When you live in a community (especially political ones), it's obvious
how the system hates competition. There is always a legal this or that
to halt any challenges to established order and hierarchy. If there
isn't, then the agents of the system make something up. Police are
wilfully corrupt _regularly_. It is not a rare occurrence. They steal
evidence, instigate violence (and arrest people for assault) and twist
laws to carry out protectionist action. Am I supposed to like
gangsters because it's 'their job', or am I just meant to dislike the
ones that love their job and go way beyond the line of duty (acting
outside the law).

Right now, I'm convinced it's all sliding downwards anyway. I'm not
bothered to fight against that. Neither is it worth my time to try to
convince others to leave. What does feel constructive is building up
spaces for our people and leaving doorways open.

I really like this project in Barcelona called Calafou. It's a
techno-industrial ecovillage. They own the land with ~60 apartments on
there and lots of space. It's a community of people working on various
projects. They source electricity from the local dam and are
researching renewable energy sources. You can pay ~150 EUR a month (in
Bitcoin) for an apartment but it is only "pay for use" - if you leave,
you get all the money back. But this isn't necessary as you can live
for free.

The collective administrating it, is called La Integral Cooperativa
Catalan which helps manage economy. If you want to make money, you can
do jobs like making marmalade which they buy off you and then sell on
the market. If you want to start a business, they provide a legal
interface to the bureaucracy which does things like balance incoming
and outgoing taxes from all businesses (so you don't have to pay much).

One of the people (Enric Duran) who helped found this borrowed 500k
EUR from various Spanish banks which he donated to social movements
then didn't give back to the banks. I favour this idea of taxation.
Stop complaining about banking criminality, and start re-appropriating
stolen goods on behalf of the people.

They use the word "post-capitalist" lots, but it's misleading to read
into that too much. What many Bitcoiners imagine as capitalism is not
what most people conceptualise. The word is problematic and dividing.
We would probably term the concept as corporatism. It's not communist
or socialist to dislike corporations, and favour individuals and small
businesses.

I see the role of an entrepreneur as a person looking into a community
or market, getting into the minds of those people and trying to
satisfy a need. The business is simply a vehicle for sustaining the
work. It isn't about trying to offer the minimal work for the maximum
pay scamming off everyone around you. It's about building
infrastructure, and supporting good people around you to improve the
lives of people. I like Bitcoin because it empowers this group of
people (artists, small business, any service).