Some fundamental questions about the causes of war, poverty amidst plenty and environmental degradation are currently being raised by mainstream and alternative news media. This is nothing new. During the 19th century a host of talented writers were asking the identical questions, giving rise to a vast literature on the politics and economics of the social order. That is available for study today, on the shelves of university libraries and in a range of specialist library collections. Many practical schemes for securing the common good arose from group discussion of the literature, leading to good practice in the three spheres of politics, education/culture and economics. Nevertheless, commerce was allowed to dominate all forms of production, so that scientific and technological 'progress' has landed humanity in its present sorry plight. At the heart of the matter lies the crucial fact that without mothers and farmers there would be no humanity, yet motherhood and cultivation of the land are subjects almost totally left out of the educational curriculum.
The 19th century writings of Robert Owen, William Cobbett, Marx and Engels, John Ruskin, William Morris, Kropotkin and a host of others informed the various socialist and cooperative movements and the welfare, health and educational reforms of the welfare state of the mid-20th century. Yet the forces of self-interested materialism predominated, so that poverty and warfare escalated on an unprecedented scale worldwide. Mothers have been turning out more soldiers, arms manufacturers and researchers in the pay of Big Pharm than they have farmers and artists.
At the root of the problem lies the acceptance of waged and salaried slavery as a necessary fact of centralised global corporatism. He who does not work shall not eat is the motto of present times. And by 'work' is meant working for money. Since mothering and sustainable farming cannot be subjected to market forces, they are left out of the universal accounting system. What is necessary now is a fundamental change in the systems of working together, taking account of Rudolf Steiner's Fundamental Social Law and Threefold Commonwealth. This is not the space to explore Steiner's teachings. All that can be said is that every individual living today draws upon the common provision of food and the necessities of life. Hence they have a bounden duty to explore the duties and responsibilities that flow from their rights as citizens.
In the early decades of the 20th century, groups of people seeking to understand the economy of urban industrialism drew up versions of the Landlord's Games. They explored their local political economy in order to find new ways of setting about things. However, the playing of board games became such a popular pastime that their original purpose was diverted into Monopoly, which taught the values of corporate capitalism. (See previous Blogs)
As individuals, we can all make marginal changes in our purchasing policies and lifestyles. We can support good causes and make gestures of protest. But such measures assume that, with a little tacking and weaving, all will be well. This is not the case: the system is beyond reform. It needs to be changed fundamentally, root and branch, and that cannot be done by individuals acting in isolation. It will only happen when groups come together, take a leaf out of the original inventors of the Georgist Landlord's Games, study the political economy of global corporatism, and set about devising alternatives to the dictatorship of finance. A formidable task? Yes! An impossible one? No! The Tintagel House Sheffield Book Collection is available for study.
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