UR Here: The Community, the Crises and the Commons

A lot of people think something is really wrong with our country–indeed our whole world. Last winter and spring, mass protests throughout the Middle East swept long-standing regimes out of power. This past summer, European cities experienced mass protests about the state of economies and jobs. This fall, the Occupy movement has swept from Wall Street to Washington Street here in Iowa City and beyond.

The goal of the occupiers has sometimes been criticized for its vagueness, but the main targets of the anger are elite, powerful institutions that are perceived to take too much and not give enough back, predominantly large corporations and banks. The Occupy and Tea Party movements seem to share some common ground, though the Tea Partiers’ object of rage is the government; the sentiment is similar, though, as they think government takes too much and does not return enough back to the people.

Jay Walljasper thinks a lot of the unrest we’re seeing in the world today may be a crisis of the commons and I think he may be right. Jay is a University of Iowa alumnus and former writer and editor of our own Daily Iowan. He has gone on to success as editorial director and editor of Utne Reader, editor at large with Ode magazine, freelance writer, book author and speaker. Currently, Jay is focusing his work on the idea of “the commons,” which can be seen, in part, in his work as editor of the website OnTheCommons.org and as a senior fellow with Project for Public Spaces. His latest book is All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons (New Press, 2010). Jay is coming to town to talk with us about the commons on Nov. 8 and 9.

The phrase “the commons” may evoke vague images of fences and pastures in England dredged up from your high school world history class. And that’s partially correct. But Jay’s idea about the commons is much more wide-ranging than that. “The commons” isn’t an idea that’s necessarily conducive to an elevator pitch, but Jay sums it up nicely in the title of his book. Ultimately, the commons is all that we share.

Many of the crises of our times seem focused on problems of private ownership. The big powers own too much private wealth (which is also acquired and kept through dishonest or unfair means) and the little people (the 99%, as the occupiers would claim) own too little. That’s admittedly an oversimplification, but I think it captures a good chunk of the issue. Certainly private wealth–what, frankly, we don’t share with others–is an important part of life. But if you think about it, most of our days–and, indeed, the most important things in life–are really spent with, among and about the things that we share.

The OnTheCommons.org website gives us a good starting point for a fuller definition of the commons: “The commons is a new way to express a very old idea–that some forms of wealth belong to all of us, and that these community resources must be actively protected and managed for the good of all. The commons are the things that we inherit and create jointly and that will (hopefully) last for generations to come. The commons consists of gifts of nature such as air, oceans and wildlife as well as shared social creations such as libraries, public spaces, scientific research and creative works.”

As you explore the On the Commons website and Jay Walljasper’s book, however, you see that the commons involves much more than the natural world, public institutions and intellectual property. We share not only the air around us and the public library and the pedestrian mall, but also dances, holidays, jokes, fairy tales, customs and traditions, manners, recipes, community connections and mutual support, democratic freedoms, social responsibilities, values, social capital and so on. While American culture valorizes rugged individualism and private property, the real 99% of our lives is the commons.

In a recent article entitled “The Struggle for the Commons,” which appeared in the Oct. 27 issue of The Nation, Jay Walljasper wrote, “The commons is an old value that’s resurfacing as a fresh approach to twenty-first-century crises such as escalating economic inequality, looming ecological disruption and worsening social alienation. In essence, the commons means everything that belongs to all of us, and the many ways we work together to use these assets to build a better society. … Taken together, it represents a vast inheritance bequeathed equally to every human–and one that, if used wisely, will provide for future generations. Tragically, this wealth is being stolen in the name of economic efficiency and global competitiveness.”

And here, I think, is where the Tea Partiers, and maybe even some of the Occupiers, go wrong. The problems of our day are not just the disparities in personal wealth, whether you believe the villain is the banks, the corporations, or the government (though those issues are important). The primary problem is that these entities (including governmental entities) are more and more privatizing–and thus limiting–so much of what has traditionally been part of the commons.

In many ways, I think the commons is a state of mind as much as a type of ownership. The idea reorients our attention to what we share and what unites us rather than what we keep from each other and what divides us. It refocuses our sense of value toward what belongs to all of us rather than what belongs to each of us. What would our community, our nation, even our entire world look like if the commons truly became our touchstone? When Jay comes to town this month, he’ll help us sort through these issues on international, national and local scales.

The public events that Jay Walljasper is holding in Iowa City are free and open to the public—this is, indeed, a program of the commons. Updated information can be viewed on our “The Commons–Iowa City” Facebook page and, if you want to join in the conversation about the commons in our community and are a Facebook user, on our “The Commons–Iowa City” group.

Please come share some time and ideas with Jay Walljasper and join the commons conversation!