459 - Ancient Ideas for a New World (The Meanings of the Commons)

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Episode #459 - Ancient Ideas for a New World (The Meanings of the Commons)

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⌚ Sun 19 April 2009  ☻Louis Wolcher, Laura Nader, Helena Norberg-Hodge

Download Hour1 Download Hour2This week we adapt a documentary, Lessons from Ladakh. It chronicles a 20 year period during which the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh was subjected to capitalist development in the name of progress, destroying an ancient culture based on solidarity, and the fragile ecosystem which had previously met the needs of the people. Where there had been a sense of abundance and happiness, there was now squalor and despair.

Notions like the rule of law, progress, and development are part of what one of our speakers this week calls the given world - the society we have been born into and which is presented to us as a fait accompli, a track with one direction only. But this is by no means the opinion of all, and many are looking towards ancient ideas and practices as guidance towards new future directions. One of those ancient ideas with resurgent power is the concept of the commons, a form of economy brutally stamped out to create the modern world.
Many thanks to Mike McCormick of Mind Over Matters
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