Surviving Capitalism (Not) : First Five Thousand Years of Debt

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, November 20, 2011

First Five Thousand Years of Debt

Click here to access article P2P Foundation.

This lengthy article features information on a recently published book entitled, First Five Thousand Years of Debt, by David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist. Although I haven't had time to read all of the article, I have read some of the three interviews that Graeber had about his book with various people, and found them to be useful in elucidating Graeber's new findings about the historical origins of money and debt.

...the very principle of exchange emerged largely as an effect of violence—that the real origins of money are to be found in crime and recompense, war and slavery, honor, debt, and redemption. That, in turn, opens the way to starting...an actual history of the last five thousand years of debt and credit....