The power of collectivity

The balance between the ‘I’ and the ‘we’

It was not easy to write an introductory article for this chapter on collectivity. There is so much collectivity in all layers of our existence that collectivity is actually as natural as breathing, or at least you would think so. Unfortunately, despite the obviousness of the ‘we,’ more and more attention is being paid to the ‘I.’ In our society we are obsessed with our own lives and with the pursuit of individual success and happiness. We live with the idea that we ourselves are responsible for everything we have and we don’t have. Everything is malleable, as long as we do our very best at school and find a well-paying job to consume at will.Unfortunately, this path is not the right one and we are facing quite a few problems that are getting out of hand. As far as I am concerned, collective ownership and the encouragement of collectivity are important tools in the transition to a new society and a new mindset. How exactly we are going to do that nobody knows yet, but more focus on the ‘we’ instead of the ‘I’ is inevitable in my view.

Living together
Where individuality focuses on the ‘I,’ collectivity focuses on the ‘we.’ This is an important distinction, but it does not mean that one should see the individual and the collective as mutually exclusive opposites. On the contrary, individuality and collectivity belong together like light and dark, yin and yang. They complement each other. Individuality is about developing your identity, character, opinions and dreams. Collectivity also affects your identity and opinion, but is equally important for mutual solidarity, the development of a collective force, safety nets, freedom, urban development, autonomy and everything else on which our society is built. Without collectivity we cannot exist. No one can live alone. Even the richest and most powerful people on earth depend on others. All the experience, knowledge and labour of ourselves, our fellow human beings and the many generations before us makes our society into what it is. Everyone contributes. The baker provides bread, the farmer provides fruit and vegetables, construction workers build houses, hairdressers cut hair, pavers build streets and so on. It’s one big collective system that we call society. We live together with others and that togetherness makes us stronger, better, healthier, smarter and happier. The fact that we currently live in a society that is very much focused on the individual is unnatural and weird. This focus on the individual is certainly not smart. The individual can never be healthy, happy and safe if the big picture, the collective system, does not work well. Collectivity is the highest good, the better the cooperation is between humans and between humans and nature, the better and happier life is.

Disturbed balance
Humans are not ants or bees, always and completely thinking and working in the service of the collective. We have our own will, our own dreams and our own ambitions. This is fine, as it makes us a diverse and idiosyncratic life species. The possibility of individual fulfillment is essential for developments in fields such as art, music, literature, fashion and architecture. Individual freedom is valuable, but not if it comes at the expense of the collective systems needed to give everyone the chance of a good and healthy life. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where the balance between the individual and the collective is completely distorted. Things are not going well in a lot of areas and a lot of places in the world. One crisis after another is breaking out and the prospects are even more dire than the current situation. Our society is going haywire. There is panic, hunger, pain, fire, flooding, war, pollution, extraction and so on. The collective interest and the future of humans and other living species is being put at stake for the insatiable individual enrichment of a small group of people.

Survival
The chance of survival as humanity is greatest if we work together. We need the strength, wisdom and energy of multiple generations worldwide to face the problems currently on our plate. The biggest, most pressing problems are global warming and climate change. That change seems irreversible and the consequences are already disastrous. If we all do our utmost best globally, we can ensure that global warming does not continue much further than it already has. Only then there might be some hope for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. We owe it to future generations to collectively intervene now and to show that we can (partially) repair what we have all allowed to get out of hand.
We have already seen in the previous chapter that collective ownership, degrowth, steward ownership and regeneration are important concepts and/or tools to work with. There are plenty of ideas, but for now, those in power seem to lack the will to act. This unwillingness to change is rooted in individualism. Caring only for yourself and enriching yourself rather than caring for the greater good. That is where much of the misery begins.
How exactly we should solve all the problems, of course, I don’t know either. There are a lot of us and a lot of desires. An incredibly complex situation, but that doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel. We know what causes the bulk of the problems and we can only solve it collectively. We cannot and should not leave it to those who are in power now. Those in power are part of the problem. Those with power and money prefer not to change, because they will have to give up some of their wealth. I suggest that those who do not want to participate in devising and forcing the necessary solutions should somehow be cut off from all collective services. That way, they will experience what it means to be on their own. Someone who no longer gets electricity, food, water, medicine, education and culture from society will soon learn that the collective interest is greater than the individual. It will become clear that the ‘I’ can flourish only if the ‘we’ is healthy and strong.

Collectivity is not the same as communism
By the way, more focus and attention on collectivity does not mean that we should move to a communist or any other top-down system. I regularly notice that people associate collectivity and collective ownership with communism. I understand the link, but let us clarify at this point that it is not the same thing. The communism of the Soviet Union, for example, was a centralized one-party, totalitarian communism in which abuse of power and violence against citizens was not shunned.
There are also examples of places where communism did work, such as the island of Hirta, but that is not what this web docu is about. For those who want to read an article about how there is an everyday communism present in our lives, the article Secretly we are all communists. For centuries. All day by Rutger Bregman in De Correspondent is a fun piece to read. Beyond that, of course, there has been plenty written and talked about communism, for those interested in it.
Unlike communist regimes, collectivity and collective ownership usually arise from the bottom up, unforced and from the needs of citizens, not from the state or the business world. I therefore think it is a good idea to invest much more money and time in small collaborative initiatives rather than in large bureaucratic systems or profit-oriented businesses. I am not suggesting abolishing government, not at all. Instead I propose that self-organization, according to one’s own views and needs, should be much more encouraged and facilitated. I envision a society based on trust, with citizen councils and collective structures.
What would it be like if a country were organized according to the model of an association? A structure in which members/citizens have power through citizens’ councils and in which there is a board (without power) for overview, recommendations, coordination, and so on. Apart from that, a collection of committees/ministries dealing with certain issues to inform and advise the citizens and the board. A system with collective involvement sounds more like a real democracy than the one we have now, where we get to vote once every four years. Then we have to wait and see what will happen and whether it somewhat matches the election promises.

Share economy
In recent years, we increasingly hear terms like ‘participation society’ and ‘sharing economy.’ These are fancy words from companies, municipalities and governments which are thrown around all the time with the aim of making us feel heard and allowed to participate. Let’s start by saying that of course sharing is great. If we talk about collectivity and collective ownership, the sharing of knowledge, experience, time, money, land, space and resources, for example, is inextricably linked to it. Collectivity and the commons are always about the ‘we’ and therefore also about sharing. Or as Silvia Federici so beautifully put it: ‘No commons without community.’
We can roughly divide the sharing economy into two parts: the social part and the commercial part. The social part is for instance about initiatives such as the speel-o-theek (lending games and toys) and Peerby (borrowing/renting stuff from your neighbours). There is also a commercial part in which companies such as Uber and AirBnB are often mentioned. You can question the commercial part, because in fact this is not about sharing, but about making money.
Sharing products, services, materials and tools is essential if we want to change our production and consumption patterns to reduce our footprint. Sharing is part of the solution, provided it is done with the right intention. Making a profit is not prohibited in this respect, as long as that profit is spent and distributed in the right way. So no shareholders lining their pockets, but value returning to the community and the collective interest, or deployed to protect and/or restore nature.

Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a philosophy from the southern part of Africa that revolves around giving and taking. There is no single definition, but at its core ubuntu is always about humanity and the ‘we.’ Freely translated, ubuntu means ‘I am because we are.’ Desmond Tutu developed an Ubuntu theology based on this meaning from the Ubuntu philosophy. In this church community, both spiritual and earthly goods are shared. Other definitions of ubuntu include ‘humanity towards others’ and ‘belief in a universally shared covenant that unites all humanity.’
Ubuntu is slightly different from the sharing economy I mentioned earlier, although both are about sharing. However, the ubuntu approach is philosophical, theological and spiritual in nature, whereas our sharing economy is approached from a mainly economic perspective. I think linking everything and everyone to the economy and to a financial value is a mistake. We overlook so many other important things if we continue to look at our society only from the economic perspective. We need to become more aware of the fact that we have an economy, but that we are not an economy. That is why it is important to study and appreciate philosophies like ubuntu and wisdom from other, non-Western communities from, for example, Africa, North America, South America, Asia and Aotearoa (formerly known as New Zealand). Let’s share knowledge, learn from each other’s approaches to life and how we relate to other people and all non-human life. In both ubuntu and other philosophies, humans are seen as community beings, not just autonomous individuals, and I think we in the West can learn from that.

Chapters
This webdocu brings together many different inspiring stories, all about collective ownership and ideas for organizing life differently. From small-scale housing cooperatives to large-scale energy cooperatives, ideas for regenerative food production, degrowth, the reintroduction of the commons and so on. In this chapter on collectivity, we try to explore in various talks and articles the ways in which collectivity can affect and relate to our society, freedom, mutual solidarity, urban development and so on. It is an open enquiry, with no conclusion and no unequivocal truth that excludes other truths. What is online now is an initial impetus, a starting point that we will keep adding to in order to keep exploring and stimulating collectivity.

Inspiration
We are convinced that collective ownership is a very appropriate way to organize our society in a different, more human way. We want a society that is more attentive to the big picture and non-human life on earth, while being open to other ideas that fit the same objectives. It should be clear that there is not just one way to do good. Different places and situations sometimes require different approaches. If we work from the same intention, to do good for the greater good and nature, it is only natural to adapt structures and organizations so that they work everywhere.
Through this webdocu we hope to inspire and encourage people to look into collective ownership. Not only from a personal perspective, but especially from the collective perspective, and with an eye on and respect for future generations. After times of privatization, guarded borders and appropriation, it is time to share. Let us be clear, when we talk about sharing and collectivity, we are not talking about a national sentiment like ‘America first’ or other forms of commonality built on identitarian traits. We favour different cultures, languages, customs and small-scale communities, but some problems can only be solved if we forget the national boundaries we have devised and approach the earth and society as one big whole.

Collective power
Collectivity is everywhere, and for humans it is as necessary as oxygen. Without collectivity there is no future. It is easy and quite common to write pages full of everything that is not going well on the earth. We have got ourselves into a mess, and are struggling to find solutions that are widely supported and effective on a large scale. It is a difficult transition phase that requires sacrifices and costs lots of money. The longer we wait, the more costly and hopeless the situation becomes. It is not our intention to paint a pessimistic picture in our webdocu, but rather to show that there is hope. We want to show that there are people seeking and finding solutions. There are wonderful examples of organizations thinking about the long term and the big picture. Collectivity is a story of hope. Standing alone has a paralyzing effect. People are already stressed and anxious enough by the negative future scenarios presented to us every day. We desperately need new stories of hope. We need each other, because only together can we limit the damage. Let a reappraisal of collectivity guide us in our search for solutions. Collectivity is fun, enjoyable and instructive; it is not a punishment. More collectivity at many levels will help us develop a new strength. Hopefully, it will make us realize that a bit more humility towards nature would be appropriate: that we are part of, rather than in charge of, solving the imbalance between humans and nature and the associated climate impacts.
To encourage collectivity, it deserves a place in our education. Besides the usual subjects like mathematics, geography and biology, there should be compulsory education in collectivity. Not to limit individual development and freedom, but to make people aware from an early age on that a healthy, fair society for all is unthinkable without collectivity. It is about the stories we tell each other, what we teach our children and last but not least, creating the right balance between the ‘I’ and the ‘we.’