Why "Triumph of the Commons?"

The “Triumph of the Commons” is an inversion of the well-known concept in economics known as the “Tragedy of the Commons.” First conceptualized by William Forster Lloyd in 1832, the Tragedy of the Commons asserts that without regulation, continuous acts of individual human selfishness will eventually add up to the overexploitation and destruction of the Commons. This concept has been used by economists and capitalists ever since to explain the inability of humans to transcend their own selfishness for the greater good of society. A deep-seated historical obsession with this belief hinders Americans from viewing the climate crisis with our much (self)lauded optimism and can-do spirit.

As long as corporate interests pressure lawmakers to take slow and circuitous action to fend off the climate crisis and as long as individual humans do not take responsibility for the greater Commons of the Earth, there will be no hope for humankind. This project and the term Triumph of the Commons imagines a world in which humans make individual sacrifices that culminate in our survival rather than a world full of selfish actors consuming their way to tragedy. If we are to survive the climate crisis, the theory that a Triumph of the Commons is possible will need to be true. Let's do everything in our power to make it so.

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