[P2P-F] The Economics of Monasticism by Nathan Smith

[Anna Harris]

The element left out of this analysis is the fact that monasteries are
single sex establishments which do not have to cope with child rearing.
They are therefor parasitic in the sense that they live off the produce of
the society at large which provides them with the personnel while leaving
them free to indulge in their 'spiritual capital'.

There is no doubt in my mind that child rearing is the most difficult and
undervalued profession, since it is performed in the main voluntarily by
untrained people out of love, and therefore does not appear to require any
specific investment. Consequently it can be ignored as in the above
discussion as though living in a secular socialist commune could be
compared to living in a monastery.

I am not decrying the need for a spiritual element in helping to sustain
indivuals and groups. Indeed I think it is essential to bring meaning in
the present situation of imminent 'collapse of civilisation', but it needs
to be able to be interwoven into our everyday lives, not hived off into
separate cloisters which may be beneficial for the inmates but do not
really contribute to the sustenance of the rest of us.

Anna

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 7:05 AM, Kevin F <kev.flanagan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've been reading 'The Economics of Monasticism by Nathan Smith' over
> the past week. He makes some interesting points in comparing the
> sustainability of intentional communities with that of Christian
> monasteries. Citing a study by Rost et al (2008) that
> "An average longevity of 463 years makes monasteries more durable not
> only than firms, but even than most states." and further suggesting
> possibilities as to what makes them so successful.
>
> I will add it to the wiki when I get a chance over the coming days.
>
> The Economics of Monasticism - Nathan Smith
>
> "Since their emergence in ancient times, Christian monasteries have
> proven to be among the most durable of all human institutions, and in
> the medieval centuries made enormous contributions to the emergence of
> Western civilization. They are organized internally on socialist
> lines: monks own no property and owe total obedience to the abbot,
> making the monastery a miniature ‘centrally planned economy.’ A
> puzzling contrast exists between the longevity of monasteries and the
> transience of secular socialist communes. This paper presents a
> theoretical model which shows why voluntary socialist communes might
> be viable despite ‘shirking’ problems, yet fail due to turnover, and
> how worship, which induces people with high ‘spiritual capital’ to
> self-select into the monastery and then grows that spiritual capital
> through ‘learning-by-doing,’ can solve the turnover problem and make a
> worship-based socialist commune—a monastery—stable. Monasticism, like
> the market, is a form of ‘spontaneous order,’ but unlike the market,
> it does not depend on third-party enforcement (e.g., by a state) to
> function: this explains why monasticism (unlike capitalism) was able
> to thrive in the anarchic Dark Ages. Monasteries, in principle and
> largely in practice, are a form of society based on consent of the
> governed, unlike liberal states which preach but do not practice
> consensual governance, and it is interesting to juxtapose the real,
> live ‘social contracts’ of the monasteries with the notional social
> contracts of liberal political theory."
>
> http://www.thearda.com/workingpapers/monasticism.asp
>
> --
>
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