great and enthusiastic article indeed! On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 2:22 PM, jules peck <[email protected] > wrote:
> Hi all - I thought you may be interested in my latest blog. > > > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jules-peck/the-fabulous-future-of-p2_b_5836834.html > > I've just returned from an eye-opening, mind-expanding week in Leipzig at > the 4th Annual global Degrowth congress. This vibrant gathering brought > together over 3,000, mostly young, 'prosumer' activists and practitioners > from a variety of new economy movements. > > While there I learnt a huge amount from makers, hacktivists, > anarcho-syndical cooperativists, collaborative-commoners, anti-capitalists, > free-culturalists, buen-vivir, transitioners, Fab-Lab-ers, p2p-ers and > social-entrepreneurs from places as diverse as Spain, India, Bolivia and > Brazil. And continuing the theme of new economics, on the train back I read > Jeremy Rifkin's important new book the "The Zero Marginal Cost Society - > the internet of things, the collaborative economy, and the eclipse of > capitalism." > > In preparation for Degrowth I also spent three days in Meissen on a > deep-dive with a small group of p2p and commons movement leaders including > David > Bollier <http://www.bollier.org/> andMichel Bauwens > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Bauwens> who, in the introduction to > his book, both praise Rifkin as a visionary of a new world order. > > I was in Germany as part of the research and outreach for work on the Real > Economy Lab > <http://www.compassonline.org.uk/the-road-from-serfdom-to-the-equal-sharing-of-blessings/>, > an initiative that aims to help connect theory and practice through a > collaborative mind-mapping of the wider ecosystem of the post-growth new > economy movement. The hope is that this process can form the start of a > global alliance building to converge these various new economy movements > into one force for good. > > Germany was a good place to start as its probably the country furthest > ahead in the combination of the Internet of Things, renewable, > decentralized and community controlled energy, grassroots commons activists > and 'makers'. > > One thing everyone I met have in common is a desire to create a new world > order, a new way of creating, connecting and being which is beyond the > market, beyond ownership, growth and capitalism. To them the idea of > working for a large company for a wage has just never even been on the > radar. Indeed the idea of large, shareholder owned private enterprises > doesn't feature in the world they are co-creating. Many of them have also > conceptually, and in some cases, such as Cooperativa Integral Catalana > <http://cooperativa.cat/en/>, literally moved beyond any real > relationship with politics and the state. Indeed, even the cutting edge of > politics, Citizen-democracy parties like Partido X and Podemos, are running > fast just to try to keep up with the convergence of these movements. > > Emerging from this convergence is a powerful vision of a new world order > and paradigm which represents real hope of building a bottom-up safety-net > to catch the ever-more fragile top-down, as it unravels and collapses > around us. > > The new paradigm these movements are creating is post-enlightenment, > lateral not hierarchical, chaordic, networked, decentralist, inclusive, > open, rebellious and fun. It represents a near future that will test and > fail much of the incumbent and dying models of politics and business. And > it cocks a snoot at the Lockean, Millian and Social-Darwinian paradigm and > story that has so atomised, excluded and isolated us from each other and so > ravaged the planet. > > What have till now been separate movements of the co-operative, commons > <http://www.bollier.org/commons-resources/commons-projects>, p2p > <http://p2pfoundation.net/>, Transition and Makers are converging and > learning that they have much in common and that if they stand and develop > together they can be more than a side-show and thorn-in-the-side of the > mainstream -- they can become the mainstream in a new post capitalist, post > growth world. > > Management guru Jeremy Rifkin's new book The Zero Marginal Cost Society > <http://www.thezeromarginalcostsociety.com/> is, along with Naomi Klein's > new "This Changes Everything - capitalism versus the climate > <http://thischangeseverything.org/>," a current must read. It documents > an on-going shift to what Rifkin calls the Third Industrial Revolution. And > it summarizes much of what I experienced last week in Leipzig about the > coming together of the Internet of Things (IoT), the p2p worlds, the > collaborative-commons and new economy movements. > > Rifkin points to a central contradiction of capitalism which I find a > useful addition to the new economy theories > <http://flourishingenterprise.org/uncategorized/alternatives-to-capitalism> of > people like Professors Schweickart, Olin-Wright and Alperovitz. This is > that capitalism's inbuilt dynamism drives it necessarily, if left to a > truly free market, towards near-zero marginal costs of production for > additional production units -- what Rifkin calls 'extreme productivity'. > The implications of this are revolutionary -- once at near-zero the > system's inbuilt dynamics stall and start to unravel -- "goods an services > become nearly free, the exchange of property on markets shuts down and the > capitalist system dies". > > Thus the very DNA of capitalism, that which has made it such a success, > has within it its own lethal sting in the tail. Its designed to kill > itself. And to kill off any enterprise, such as the private shareholder > owned corporate, reliant on its continuing. Capitalism has done its job and > made itself redundant. If only we had made it to where we are now, on the > edge of near-zero marginal costs, and the new economy it heralds, maybe 40 > years ago > <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/limits-to-growth-was-right-new-research-shows-were-nearing-collapse>, > we might not now be in our nose-dive into possibly unstoppable, runaway > climate chaos. > > Rifkin's view is that we are seeing the eclipsing of capitalism as a > system and that incumbent centralised and vertically integrated > profit-orientated businesses, whilst they will try to mimic, learn from and > slip-stream this new order, will at best be carried only a short way on > this journey to the new economy. Certain sectors like energy, health, > finance and consumer products are first in the firing line. Some nimble > incumbents in other sectors may morph into new forms of enterprise that can > flourish within the new order. > > The idea that we could soon all be able to 3D print our own homes, cars, > clothes using open-access, open-source code, near-free energy and resources > in local Fab Labs <https://www.fab10.org/en/home> is mind-blowing but a > near reality. It blows the hierarchical, inequality based current economy > out of the (3d printed) bathtub. If done with a close eye on ecological > limits it could herald a true circular economy. > > I've long though the next paradigm will need to go beyond the tired state > versus market, capitalism versus socialism debate and, as Rifkin says "the > young collaborationists are borrowing the principles virtues of both the > capitalists and the socialists, while eliminating the centralising nature > of both the free market and the bureaucratic state". I'm not sure what Marx > would have made of the idea of the shift from exchange-value to > 'shared-value', nor where this sits vis a vis 'use value' but as Rifkin > says "The rule book that governs a market exchange economy becomes far less > relevant to the life of society" in what he sees as the soon-to-be > dis-enclosure of the means of production and the eclipsing of capitalism by > the collaborative commons. > > The vision of networked, open-source, open-access, > exponentially-increasing extreme productivity in the hands of the masses, > not private interests, is of course manna from heaven. I'm not entirely > convinced by all of Rifkin's logic. His future seems a world covered in > endless Pv farms and wind turbines and his thinking on decoupling seems > untested and incommensurable with the reality of the scale and intensity of > energy and carbon reductions needed to keep us from a 4 degree world. But > there is much in here which rings true. > > Rifkin's thinking dovetails nicely with Klein's latest book which is also > about the eclipsing of capitalism by people-power. Indeed Klein champions > many of the movements I met in Leipzig and gave a keynote address to the > congress. > > This p2p, people-powered revolution in commerce, economics and democracy > is all emergent stuff. Whilst experimentation is flourishing and producing > real impact, the social and movement networks are not yet fully connected > into a coherent global alliance. And as yet they don't have an over-arching > vision, narrative and route-map which can inform their various trajectories > and combine to build a progressive anti Shock Doctrinaire > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine> alternative to the > unravelling of our current systems. > > But after what I've seen and heard this week I'm ever more optimistic. I > feel a bit like I've just been plugged into the Matrix - only its not > malign and its in our control. I've seen the future and it's F > <http://www.valldaura.net/greenfablab/>ab > <http://www.valldaura.net/greenfablab/>-ulous. > > All the best > > Jules Peck > Founding Member > Jericho Chambers > 12a Charterhouse Square > London EC1M 6AX > > M: 00447920844802 > W: www.jerichochambers.com/ > T: @citizenjules > B: www.citizenrenaissance.com > '*Aspire not to have more but to be more*' Archbishop Oscar Romero > > Clerk to Jericho Chambers [email protected] on +44 77 64 78 89 69 > > Jericho Chambers is the trading name of Jericho Chambers LLP, a limited > liability partnership registered in England and Wales with partnership > number OC385688 and whose registered office is at 35 Piccadilly, London, > W1J 0LP > > > > -- > All the best > Jules > Convenor, Real Economy Lab > <http://flourishingenterprise.org/real-economy-lab> > > e: [email protected] > m: 07920844802 > w: www.flourishingenterprise.org > b: www.citizenrenaissance.org > t: @citizenjules > 'Aspire not to have more but to be more' Archbishop Oscar Romero > -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
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