Turned out that little book on mutual aid was just the entrance to the rabbit hole. And it was no surprise to encounter old friend David Graeber once I got down here in the hole. This book is an incredible exploration of all we owe, and all the ways we give back. From pillage and tribute, to mutual aid and friendly trade, the ways we exchange reveal and illuminate the most basic elements of human nature that allow us to communicate, relate, and bond.
One simple way to understand a major part of what we do here at The Wonderment is through the lens of distribution: We take large pools of traditional philanthropic resources, often sidelined or stagnated in different holding places, and bust those funds up into a wild array of small grants in support of the community building at the grass rootiest level. Are these distributions gifts? Loans? Exchanges? How can or should each of those aspects be best considered?
Graeber repeatedly invokes the saying that “by gifts one makes slaves and by whips one makes dogs.” We have learned over and over in our work that how you give really matters, and this book is helping me understand better ways to think about both our intentions, and our unintended consequences.
(By the by, I was reminded about this book hearing it mentioned last week by economist Gillian Tett on the Ezra Klein show, linked in my response below.)
Interested? I think you should be. You can check out the first few chapters here to get yourself hooked: Preview of Debt: The First 5000 Years
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