LuckyBlackCat

I'm alive and working on new videos

Heyyy! Sorry I haven’t released a video in… wow, over five months! During this time I’ve been working on four long videos. Unexpected complications with one in particular have prolonged the production time, and I’ve also been dealing with some personal/life issues that have been time consuming and stressful. But I remain undaunted!

It will still be a while (hopefully not more than a couple months?) before any of these long videos are ready, but once the first one comes out, the other three will be close behind.

In the meantime, I’m considering making a short video to fill the void, but am not sure if that’s a good idea because it will be one more thing delaying the release of the Big Four. We’ll see what happens!

I hope all of you are well… I’m sending love and positive wishes across the distance (to the extent such thing is possible! In any case, the neurons for that intention are firing in my brain). ❤️

New video: They Have Power Over Us… But We Have Power Over Them

Hello all you lovely people who support me on patreon. Today I published the shortest video essay (though not shortest video) I’ve ever made. It’s called They Have Power Over Us… But We Have Power Over Them, and although it’s a post-script to my video How We Lost Our Freedom, it will still make sense even if you haven’t seen its counterpart.

Unfortunately, in How We Lost Our Freedom, I made our situation sound a lot more hopeless than it actually is, because I forgot to discuss our latent, untapped power – a revolutionary power which can help us overthrow the system that dominates us.

Oops – I fucked that up. And that’s why I made this video: To say the things I forgot to say and thereby unfuck my mistake... and hopefully also to help infuse you with more hope.

Here’s the link https://youtu.be/mPaZLA4j530

I hope you like it! 😊💖🍀

I wonder if others made this mistake?

On Nov 16 and Dec 7 I published two videos on the commons, and someone commented on the second one that when they saw the thumbnail on their homescreen they thought it was the same video as the first, so they didn’t click on it. Weeks later, they realized it was a different video because they wanted to rewatch the first one, went to my channel page, and noticed two videos with commons in the title.

I’m not sure if others made this mistake, but just in case, there are two separate videos.  

The second one, which you may have missed if you got confused, is: (Self-)Governing the Commons: Survive Apocalypse; Build a Better World https://youtu.be/Yt9se4MuWzA  

And the first is: The Real Tragedy Is Not the Commons https://youtu.be/xYunyIPUd7Y   

Well anyways, I hope your new year is off to a good start! And of course: Please remember to love yourself and each other. 💖

A New Year's Poem for Hope

Happy New Year! But is it happy?
The world is still so fucking crappy
Is the future bleak, or is it bright?
We don’t know, it’s out of sight

But the fact that we really don’t know
Is what allows our hope to grow
To claim it’s hopeless is to claim to see
Each and every possibility

None can know what is to come
None can claim that hope is done
Things can change, and can change fast
It’s happened this way in the past

But we must take action, it is essential
And each of your actions, they have potential
“You’re a drop in an ocean”? Fuck that psyops!
Because what is an ocean but a multitude of drops?

And even if we never actually win
It’s still good to punch them in the chin
To keep on fighting! Defy, rebel
To work to overthrow this hell

It elevates the spirit
Makes it glow and shine anew
And that glow spreads to others
And can elevate them, too

To refuse to acquiesce to domination
To fight against it, win or lose
That in itself makes life more beautiful
And so it’s the path that we should choose

And as we spread our beauty
With every word and deed of fight
We raise the chances that like our spirits
Our future, too, will be so bright

That's my New Year's Poem! And here's a video on hope by Anark https://youtu.be/yBRTm1tMdAw

New video!

Although this is a sequel to the previous video, this one is fully understandable even if you haven’t watched the one before it. The title is: “(Self-)Governing the Commons: Survive Apocalypse; Build a Better World” https://youtu.be/Yt9se4MuWzA

This is a good video to watch if you want to learn about any of the following:

1. Practices to help us (be more likely to) survive a possibly apocalyptic future

2. Practices to help us transform society into one that is egalitarian

3. Practices to help us stop destroying the environment

4. Elinor Ostrom’s book Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action

5. Real life, real world examples of people solving the collective action problem

6. Real life, real world examples of people managing scarce economic resources in ways that are egalitarian: both egalitarian in the sharing of resources, and in the sharing of the power people have over management decisions

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I hope you are having a good day and that you are well in general. And of course: Please remember to love yourself and each other. 💖

Heyyyy! Check it out… a new video! 😊 "The Real Tragedy Is Not The Commons"

https://youtu.be/xYunyIPUd7Y

Are humans doomed to pursue narrow, short-term self-interest even when it hurts us in the long-run? Or are we capable of overcoming this and learning to cooperate for everyone’s benefit?

 “The Tragedy of the Commons” is a catchphrase coined by Garrett Hardin and the title of his highly influential essay. It serves as propaganda for policies that strengthen the power of the ruling class at the expense of everyone else, and for beliefs that deter us from abolishing this destructive power.

 This video looks at research debunking the tragedy of the commons, especially that of Elinor Ostrom. It also looks at related issues of capitalist and state control of natural resources, examining how and why this causes environmental ruin.

 The issue of the commons is tangled into questions of who should have power: Must power take a form where elites dominate decision making in society, excluding everyone else? Or can power take a form that prevents these harmful hierarchies?

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 Another new video is coming either at the end of the month or early December – it’s already complete but since this video I just released is over two hours I figure I should give you all some time to watch it before sending another over two hour video your way.

 Here’s hoping all of you are doing well (or as well as possible under the circumstances). And as always: Remember to love yourself and each other!

A New Video (FINALLY)

To All You Dear Lovely People Who Support Me On Patreon...

Omg, so yesterday I released a new video for the first time in... I just checked and it's been literally a year (well, one week less than a year). I’m sorry for the long wait. I’ve been working on a few videos simultaneously, so expect another two coming in either September or October. And after that, although I can’t say how long the wait will be, I can assure you it won’t be nearly as long as it was this time.

Here's the link if you missed it: https://youtu.beF4Joz6xzc

Thank you for ALL your comments. I had to step away for a while due to constraints in my time, but I will be reading all of them eventually.

Below is a description of the new video. I hope you like it! And thank you SO much for your patience and support.

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VIDEO DESCRIPTION

The more power someone has over another person, the more they can constrain that person’s freedom – and it’s hard to think of a power imbalance more extreme than being dependent on someone for food, shelter, and other survival needs. Yet this is the norm in our society.

Human freedom is constrained by the fact that most of us are dependent on the economic ruling class for our survival. In today’s world this means that most people are dependent on a wage paid by an employer, which we do in exchange for working for that employer. In earlier eras many people were dependent on land that was owned/controlled by lords or other elites, and access to that land was only granted in exchange for paying those elites either in crops, currency, or labor. In both cases an economic ruling class controls access to resources the rest of us are deprived of yet need for survival, and this enables our exploitation.

But why is it like this? How was this dependency created? How is it that we, the vast majority of humanity, lost our freedom? That's what this video seeks to explore.

The main takeaway is that a person’s freedom is not secure if someone else controls their access to the means of subsistence and means of production – which in today’s world is much more than just the land. Therefore, to create a society where people are truly free, it must be the case that access to the means of subsistence and means of production are shared by all, and something that no one is alienated from. By contrast, if these are under the exclusive control of only a portion of the population – whether that be an elite economic class or even a socialist/communist political party – then that is a recipe for tyranny, exploitation, and unfreedom.

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Sending good wishes to you all. And as the saying goes, remember to love yourself and each other!