How do economies arise? At their base, they are made up of transactions. Different types of economies are sewn together like a quilt. The economic quilt on Manitoulin is like a disorganized scrapbook. A disorganized scrapbook would have elements from different times laid side-by-side. In a quilt different elements are sewn together. Quilting leaves seams.
Consider that in the King James Bible the Greek word 'eon' is translated into 'world'. The end of the world does not mean fire and brimstone, but, according to Crossan "a physical, feral, and social life in a transfigured world on a transformed earth". How is it that I can buy a plasma cutter to build a bio-char kiln in the same breath as building a flight of stairs; meet a crypto-lender the day Interac shuts down; or build compost boxes next to a member of a radical life-extension corporation?
I first saw the gift economy when we were given fish, with no expected return. I later saw the barter economy when we helped a friend and store owner move, and they gifted us a large bulk order of food with the expectation that we would pay it back through building. I learned about social exchange and respect by doing quality work on the farm, learned about trading labor building compost boxes for money. Learned about social relations by exchanging glances. The organization I'm in is anarcho-capitalist. I say that because we are composed of individuals who participate voluntarily and are self-regulated. Political programming on the farm is open source, and I have found ways to make the machine work for me.
Bees swarm when they sense it is time to move and colonize something else. They slowly coalesce into a singular ball, floating above the air. Scouts buzz around and check places out and report back. In this state, the bees are harmless, they are at peace, and are easily moved into a bee-keeper's hive.
While talking to Mike, as we helped him move, he recounted his trip to South Korea, how they organize hierarchically with age. I thought 'kin-selective strategy.' He explained that male-on-male touching was commonplace since South Korea's denial of homosexuality is so strong that it is impossible to consider it being real. He also related the theory, as a physical trainer, that modern health problems are the result of either: sedentary lifestyle, synthetic foods, or genetic mixing/the melting pot. I had never heard that one before. Juxtaposed with kin-selective strategy and mimetic competition, it is an interesting theory.
Contemporary technological enhancements allow individuals with sizeable wealth to short-circuit all prior kin-selective strategy. Instead of systematically breeding for traits, rich individuals can have a child genetically enhanced, or created ex nihilo. What are the limits? The 'heart' of a people is encoded and embedded in it's genetic information the same way the value of a stock is encoded in the organization; it has little to do with it's current value.
Cultural relativism breaks down upon invasion, and colonization. Human capital transfer is the manipulation of forces to allocate forces. Tactical reorganization of human capital is the military-corporate-industrial complex. If bees are not swarming, they can be smoked out and dazed. Instead of physically moving the bees a great distance, keepers can build new hives around them.
Mike suffered extreme culture shock when returning to Canada. A Canadian from 1930 would be surprised to find that people in Ottawa lock their doors, and build security systems around their home. They wouldn't know not to go certain places, or to not leave their stuff lying around. In Manitoulin, nobody steals, it's a point of pride for the town. However, the understanding of the tragedy of the commons on Manitoulin is such that private property is a necessary evil. Mike joked in an idiot's voice about man destroying the land for money since it is his too.
The underlying reality is such that people unknowingly exploit their uber-organism. Under the sheer brilliance of technological domination, all humans become equal. The world has already ended.
The response to this fact looks like medieval times meets 2020. It anticipates economic collapse, infrastructure collapse, government to continue in one form or another, and resources to be accessible over the net. Permaculurists want a return to a historic way of life, with amenities to eliminate certain tedious or nearly impossible work. The movement will not build communes, but kingdoms.
I made it my job to develop the information system of the organization but it is not easy. For instance, though I thought I was joining a permaculture farm to design a food forest, that project was shut down. Though experimentation is fundamental, I mostly can't gain experience unless I have experience.
The 'great refusal' inevitably leads to violence of one sort or another. Permaculture fits neatly into the revolutionary process set off by Marx. We are set to have a gender bender party in two weeks. Gender inversion and subversion, to change the patriarchy into the matriarchy, is big on the farm. We are collectively known for our strangeness. The farm is slowly invading and conquering the island and spreading its influence. I can feel the Frankfurt school.“Such a worldwide overturning of values cannot take place without the annihilation of the old values and the creation of new ones by the revolutionaries.”
It seems as if the movement can't be stopped. Quilted time is blending sinister futures. When Interac went down I finally managed to check my hypothesis. Every time something bad happens to Western and European infrastructure, cryptocurrencies skyrocket (not the major ones, but secondary currencies shoot up). Even Permaculturists depend on the internet to live. When the central transaction infrastructure collapses we have to switch to the alternative. Permaculture has the same idea where if cities collapse, they'll catch as many humans as possible. The crypto market is founded on super-individualism and complete lack of trust according to its founder Nakamoto:
Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model...
We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer cash system.
References
Nakamoto, Satoshi. "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." Bitcoin. N.p., n.d. Web.