[P2P-F] political & social revolution / transition to a commons-based society / intergenerational learning

[Michel Bauwens]

Dear George,

I've got enough reports coming in that say that these movements are actually
very broad, and not confined to the new generations; I see two things
happening, i.e. that young people are giving hope to those older ones that
had lost hope; on the other hand, some of us can possibly play a role of
'boundary spanners' some kind of link with earlier cycles ... So many of our
generation have become either cynical, joined those that do harm, or lost
hope; those of us that haven't, have a special responsability I think,

I think we have to distinguish different temporalities, that of the steady
construction of alternatives, which is accelerating; and the non-linear
temporarility of social movements, with its unpredictable up and downs.

As you know, in my writings, I think a new upswing of kondratieff is still a
possibility, though it may be very well derailed by the other longer time
cycles and the biospheric and social crises which are accumulating ..

we are entering a zone of chaos, in which many of us will be forced to turn
to p2p practices not out of idealism, but out of sheer necessity of survival

the current capture of the state by financial predators, the bankruptcy of
what remains of the industrial left, has severely diminished the capacity of
the system to respond to feedback and accomodate structural reform .. this
slows down positive adaptation, but increases the amount of alternative life
practices and the risks of more radical explosions ...

as the chinese curse says, 'may you live in interesting times' (cfr recent
wave of unrest in southern china)

Michel

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 1:45 PM, George Por <
george at community-intelligence.com> wrote:

> Michel,
>
> The new movements' new thinking is emerging as we speak. The post-camps
> phase of DRY seems creating structures of engagement that, if successful,
> can transcend (and include) protest and outrage, moving towards growing new
> institutions of counter-power.
>
> However, the *social* revolution (beyond the political), as you know, which
> includes a radical transformation of the capitalist mode and relations of
> production and distribution, the root system of the social ills that the
> current movement is attacking, will take much longer.
>
> In resonance with the Kondratieff cycle mentioned in a recent analysis of
> the revolutionary crisis, on the p2p site, I anticipate a decades-long
> transition to a post-capitalist, commons-based society. Some of your
> writings and Adam Arvidsson's new book will be instrumental to illuminate
> the challenges and opportunities of the transition, in which the struggle
> includes pushing for more and more commons-friendly markets and states.
>
> All that shouldn't lure us into thinking as we knew what is really
> happening, right now. Learning is more important than knowing. The courage
> and creativity of the movements hugely inspire me to pay close attention and
> do what I can to support them. That's what inspired also my idea for the
> workshop that we'll have at SOAS university, here in London,
> http://t.co/FwCPloF .
>
> Since the 60s I hardly had any hope that this moment can come in my
> lifetime. What do you all think about the best ways, in which owe generation
> can support the movement?
>
> in solidarity,
>
> george
> _______________________________________________
> P2P Foundation - Mailing list
> http://www.p2pfoundation.net
> https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
>



-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ourproject.org/pipermail/p2p-foundation/attachments/20110614/b5527605/attachment.htm