{"id":8384,"date":"2012-03-16T12:19:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/?p=8384"},"modified":"2023-01-06T10:31:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T09:31:53","slug":"debt-and-the-story-of-civilisation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/debt-and-the-story-of-civilisation-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Debt and the story of civilisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Autumn, whilst rumbling across Belgrade on one of the city’s ancient trams, I listened to an interview on Tech Nation<\/a>  with Anthropologist David Graeber , about his book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

It is undoubtedly of of the best podcasts I heard last year.<\/p>\n

The type of debt and financial structures that a civilisation adopts will dictate its fate.<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast for a quick but thorough introduction to the ideas in the book.<\/p>\n

Here is an interview with the author on Naked Capitalism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bookforum<\/a> also has fine review.<\/p>\n

Neuroanthropology blog<\/a> has a very details and brilliant overview.An excerpt, addressing one of the most interesting parts of Graeber’s thesis:<\/p>\n

Graeber suggests that the \u2018language of debt\u2019 is a \u2018moral\u2019 one, not just an economic one.<\/strong> I would also add that we are told that debt default is an apocalyptic scenario, more dangerous than gutting social programs, disinvesting in infrastructure, making health care inaccessible, and bringing about all the slow moving catastrophes that often accompany austerity programs designed to increase states\u2019 ability to pay their debts.<\/p>\n

What makes Graeber\u2019s analysis so interesting is that, because of his extensive historical research, he can actually trace how the current economic cosmology of debt arose, and point to periods when debt threatened to cause similar crises.  Specifically, he argues that the fluctuation historically back and forth between debt-backed or credit money (as we\u2019ve essentially had since 1971) and bullion or commodity-backed money, is accompanied by larger shifts in patterns of warfare, slavery and debt bondage.<\/strong> Specifically, Graeber suggests that the expansion of debt is part and parcel of a virtual money system, one that has been dealt with before in human history. – Neuroanthropology blog<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For another round up of links and videos, see  Book of the year: Debt (2011) by David Graeber<\/a><\/p>\n

Coincidentally, David Brin recently blogged <\/a>about Robert Wright\u2019s new book “Nonzero” . In it he completely agrees with Graeber that the super rich are at war with the rest of us (also a view shared by Essential Intelligence<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

Go read one of the most important books in the past twenty years, Robert Wright\u2019s Nonzero<\/a> . Our entire Enlightenment Experiment has been about positive sum games. Open-competitive Economic Markets, Science, Democracy\u2026 these are all examples of systems set up to harness competition and produce positive sum results for all.
\nAlas, there are forces in human nature that always trend toward ruination of such systems. Winners tend not to want to compete as hard, next time, so they use their wealth and power to cheat! It is called oligarchy; the very thing that wrecked markets and democracy and science in all past cultures. Every single last one of them.<\/p>\n

Except ours\u2026 but not without a struggle in every generation. Today, capitalism isn\u2019t the enemy; it is the #1 victim of an ongoing attempted coup by oligarchs – who are only doing what humans are programmed to do, when tempted by feudal privilege.  If liberals would only read the \u201cFirst Liberal\u201d \u2014 Adam Smith \u2014 and realize this, they might drop both the left and right and stand up for the balanced market that emphasizes small business, startups and brash-competitive creativity, instead of monopoly, corporatism, state-paternalism and aristocracy.<\/p>\n

Heck, if our ancestors could stand up and save the Enlightenment during their crises\u2026 so can we.<\/p>\n

From http:\/\/davidbrin.blogspot.com\/2012\/03\/contemplating-civilization-rise-fall.html<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Autumn, whilst rumbling across Belgrade on one of the city’s ancient trams, I listened to an interview on Tech Nation  with Anthropologist David Graeber , about his book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years“. It is undoubtedly of of the best podcasts I heard last year. The type of debt and financial structures that a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,30,32,34,36,5,12,14,15,42,19],"tags":[300,296],"class_list":["post-8384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-belgrade","category-business","category-contemporary-culture","category-environment-science","category-humanities","category-news","category-philosophy","category-politics","category-psychology","category-sociology-social-sciences","tag-processed","tag-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-2be","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4177,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-kalmyk-of-belgrade\/","url_meta":{"origin":8384,"position":0},"title":"The Kalmyk of Belgrade","author":"Limbic","date":"November 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Whilst looking for a Buddhist centre in Belgrade, I came across the sad story of the Kalymks and their gift to Belgrade - a Buddhist temple. Apparently there is a little country in the Russian Federation called Republic of Kalmykia. It is Europe's only Buddhist country.\u00a0The Kalmyks are decendend from\u00a0the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Belgrade & Serbia"","block_context":{"text":"Belgrade & Serbia","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/belgrade\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/historical-belgrade\/","url_meta":{"origin":8384,"position":1},"title":"Historical Belgrade","author":"Limbic","date":"October 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"BIGZ, first Serbian printing house,\u00a0\u00a0Dragi\u0161a Bra\u0161ovan,\u00a01970s Fantatsic series of historical (20th century) pictures of Belgrade featuring some of my all time favorites, BIGZ, Eastern Gate, Sava Center, Museum of Contemporary Art and of course Genex Tower (West Gate). Time Travel: A Photographic Journey through the Yugoslav Capital Belgrade | bellegrade\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/dragistabasovan70sBIGZ-667x652-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/dragistabasovan70sBIGZ-667x652-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/dragistabasovan70sBIGZ-667x652-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15742,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-most-ridiculous-yugoslav-era-album-covers\/","url_meta":{"origin":8384,"position":2},"title":"The most ridiculous yugoslav era album covers","author":"Limbic","date":"November 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From\u00a0http:\/\/justsomething.co\/the-21-most-ridiculous-yugoslav-album-covers-ever Also see my personal collection of ludicrous album covers I scanned in Belgrade: https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/limbic\/sets\/72157625119090416\/","rel":"","context":"In "Belgrade & Serbia"","block_context":{"text":"Belgrade & Serbia","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/belgrade\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/yugoslav-album-covers.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25339,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/guide-to-modern-yugoslav-architecture\/","url_meta":{"origin":8384,"position":3},"title":"Guide to Modern Yugoslav Architecture","author":"Limbic","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting look at Belgrade's Yugoslav architectural legacy.","rel":"","context":"In "Belgrade & Serbia"","block_context":{"text":"Belgrade & Serbia","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/belgrade\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52194,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/chabuduo-and-10ism\/","url_meta":{"origin":8384,"position":4},"title":"Chabuduo and 10%ism","author":"Limbic","date":"September 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoyed Austin Healy's post on Stopping at 90%. It reminded me of what we used to call \u201c10% ism\u201d when I lived in Belgrade in the early 2000's. Pretty much anything over there was always unfinished at that time. An entire road would be built, but they would not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17031,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-murray-gell-mann-amnesia-effect\/","url_meta":{"origin":8384,"position":5},"title":"The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect","author":"Limbic","date":"February 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Came across this whilst reading Felix Salmon's superb \"Why you can't trust journalism\". He links to Seekerblog's 2006 post on \"The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect\", who in turn quotes Michael Criton's 2002 speech \"Why Speculate?\": Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Belgrade & Serbia"","block_context":{"text":"Belgrade & Serbia","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/miscellaneous\/belgrade\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"can a giant eraser remove the past?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3116\/2895975611_f9218387f8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}