This article was written because of an invitation from Nika Dubrovsky, for a series of texts that were to be published in summer of 2021 in Jacobin Magazine following David Graeber's death.
The David Graeber tea set being used at his local Portobello Rd bookstand in the rain.
If there is an economy that takes care of people who give care, are there rich people?
If there is an economy that takes care of people who give care, does everyone participate in care work?
If everyone who gives care receives care, does asking for help make "able" people feel like a failure?
If everyone is equilaterally being supported, do people still feel indebted to those who help them?
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If our economy centred the production of and care for life, health would be our money. We would not exchange to get it, because we would create a culture where everyone had it. The transition would be hard, but not in the way you think. First we would have to clean up this place, fix the land and water, apologize to the people who we have stolen from, make good with animals and plants. We would have to reorganize all of our physical and social infrastructure that systematically destroys anyone or anything for money.
These big industrial green jobs would be easy compared to how much we would need to change about ourselves and about our culture. We would have to change our habits, our values, what we believe makes a good society and a good life. We would have to decelerate our ambition towards individual survival. We would have to stop our attachment to the soiled dreams that allow us to pretend that (as David Graeber said) it is "entirely normal that the more obviously one’s work benefits others, the less one is likely to be paid for it; or insisting that financial markets are the best way to direct long-term investment even as they are propelling us to destroy most life on Earth..."
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If there is an economy where caring for others is a standard part of everyone's life, what happens to the personalities and lives of rich white people?
If everyone has the time, capacity, tools and agency to offer others high quality support, what happens to hierarchical systems and ways of being?
If everyone receives support without needing to exchange for it, what becomes of all these supported people, and what do they do if they aren't living a nightmare where bare survival was their full time job?
If there is an economy that centres health and life, how do people value themselves?
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Most of us are a little sick, and I count wealth as a sickness that spreads as dangerously as COVID; not only because of what it does to everyone who catches it, but more so those who don't. Also, the human systems it collapses, and the violent separation it creates between people. Because of our status as a cooperative species, and because we involuntarily spread all of our most important information (from microbes, to viruses, to ideas) to everyone around us, one person cannot be healthy when other people are not. What happens when everyone is a little sick, feverish, delusional, stuck in a bad dream? Well, we need more people who give good support, and we can't be picky about who. Everyone is capable of healing and being healed.
We, on the left, say that care should be valued. But, what if it was so abundant that it became valued above and beyond money? What if everyone was led to believe that they had the skills and capability to care, and that support work was a highly valuable thing they could do with their time? What if giving support gave the supporter so much energy and meaning that everyone planned the rest of their lives around when they could do it?
This is already happening from couches all over the world, hidden in plain sight. I am a part of a viral feminist peer to peer health project called The Hologram. The premise is simple: three people – the ‘Triangle’ – meet on a regular basis, digitally or in person, to focus on the physical, mental and social health of a fourth – the ‘Hologram’. The Hologram, in turn, teaches these listeners how to give and also receive care. Over time each triangle reflects a multifaceted image of the person - a hologram. When they are ready, the Hologram will support them to each set up their own triangle, and so the system expands. This peer to peer model was first inspired by the free, non-hierarchical Integrative Model developed by the Group for a Different Medicine at the Social Solidarity Clinic in Thessaloniki, Greece during the financial and refugee crises.
We host courses, workshops, and online practice sessions. Many people use the practice in their daily life, all over the world. Some of those people meet in a monthly online meeting called The Community of Practice. "We" are surprised when we ask for support from people in our life, and they say yes. We are surprised when the people who give us support in our "triangles" seem energized by their time giving us their attention and care. We are surprised that we are able to offer care without trying to fix anyone. Many of us are experiencing what it is like to be a part of an open, viral care network, instead of a closed care circle, for the first time. We are feeling what it is like to give care and receive care outside of a framework of exchange. Some of us are trying desperately to let go of our addiction to expertise so we can actually observe and listen. It is hard, but the money is great.