Sublime

Negative-interest currency, for instance, won’t work if other sources of economic rent are still available to invest in. Localization depends in large part on the removal of hidden subsidies that make global trade economic. Gift economies allow the quality of life to improve even as the economy shrinks.

An expansive and inclusive care economy is one possible expression of an ethic of insecurity, and one that would require dismantling systems that produce and exploit vulnerability. Instead of profit-hungry recklessness, a care economy would proceed cautiously, taking care of people and the planet by doing less harm, and by seeking to repair the dam

It will restore the mentality of the gift to our vocations and economic life. It will reverse the money-induced homogenization and depersonalization of society. It will be an extension of the ecosystem, not a violation of it. It will promote local economies and revive community. It will encourage initiative and reward entrepreneurship. It will be c

The gift moves toward the empty place. As it turns in its circle it turns toward him who has been empty-handed the longest, and if someone appears elsewhere whose need is greater it leaves its old channel and moves toward him. Our generosity may leave us empty, but our emptiness then pulls gently at the whole until the thing in motion returns to re

The walls split humanity itself into two fundamentally distinct groups: hunter-gatherers and settlers. Hunting and gathering might have remained the majority mode of life across the world until as recently as the 1600s, but those who pursued it have never held the pen of history; it was those inside the walls who would dictate the terms.

If, as many are suggesting, our species’ future now hinges on our capacity to create something different (say, a system in which wealth cannot be freely transformed into power, or where some people are not told their needs are unimportant, or that their lives have no intrinsic worth), then what ultimately matters is whether we can rediscover the fr

Collaboration and reciprocity are natural, and yet in the world we inhabit, competition and the fear of scarcity often block us from seeing these ways of being with one another.

(say, a system in which wealth cannot be freely transformed into power, or where some people are not told their needs are unimportant, or that their lives have no intrinsic worth),