Highlights

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Hardin maintained that environmental tragedy inevitably accompanies the public use and management of land, water, and air. But the real history of the depletion of the commons tells almost the opposite story: one of privatization, enclosure, and relentless profit seeking.

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shared finite resource will always succumb to overuse. “The inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest.”

✏️ The myth that was spread as truth and continues to be conjured, even after the opposite was proven. 🔗 View Highlight

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Elinor Ostrom won a Nobel Prize for a life’s work demonstrating that people are indeed capable of sharing finite resources without depleting them.

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tragedy, “remorseless inevitableness,” as Hardin defines it, is an inherently ahistorical mode. There have always been contingencies, other ways history could have gone. The tragedies of the past are tragic expressly because they were never inevitable. It’s not fate, honey. It’s just capitalism.

✏️ The power of capitalism is making us feel that tragedy is inevitable and we can’t do anything about it.. It’s always going to be the case. In fact, we would be suspicious if things weren’t tragic. That’s messed up. 🔗 View Highlight