Tuesday, February 12, 2019

"I feel" and "I think" in ~300 words

When I first reflected upon the Diggers readings, I thought something like: "how fascinating it is that all these readings so far can be read as critiques of capitalism, all but ensuring we have countless similar discussions about the merits and demerits of private property, etc....."

But then I reflected upon my reflection (reflectception) and thought that those conversations are, in a way, gratuitous. Sure, the Diggers/Levellers alluded to the dichotomy between "poor" and "rich", but their critiques most often formed themselves around "oppressed" and "oppressor".

Some quotes from True Levelers Standard Advanced stood out to me:

"In the beginning of Time...not one word was spoken...That one branch of mankind should rule over another."
"and the same Spirit that made the Globe, dwels in man to govern the Globe."
"not one Lording over the another, but all looking upon each other, as equals in the Creation."
"There is no intent of Tumult or Fighting, but only to get Bread to eat, with the sweat of our brows; working together in righteousness, and eating the blessings of the Earth in peace."

I think we suffer from a postmodern error when we apply socialism/capitalism/communism discourse to readings like this. Because we exist in a world of economy and commodity, we impose those notions onto these readings. But they are unwarranted: though they touch on economic subjects, I feel they're thinking more philosophically than anything else.

Me being a yoga-dude full of namastes, this sounds an awful lot like some of the philosophy I learned about in YTT,—the concept that you are better than no one and no one is better than you; we just are. And that sounds great to me.
You'll find zero mention of economy, just a way of life.

I believe Obi Wan said it best when he said, in other words....


jk tho bc I'm a political science major

1 comment:

  1. Winstanley and the Diggers definitely lived in a market- or trade-based economy, but you are 100% right that they are not talking about "capital" in the way that we do today. They are much more focused on what it means to not have access to the basic means of supporting yourself even when you work more than an honest day's labor. They are a proletariat ahead of their time. ;-) I'm planning to write a post about the way these ideas work in the DIgger texts, so stay tuned for more of my thoughts on this!

    ReplyDelete