The Theft of the Commons | The New Yorker
The Theft of the Commons | The New Yorker
Section titled “The Theft of the Commons | The New Yorker”
Metadata
Section titled “Metadata”- Author: Eula Biss
- Full Title: The Theft of the Commons | The New Yorker
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://newyorker.com/culture/essay/the-theft-of-the-commons
Highlights
Section titled “Highlights”- What Hardin considers the “inherent logic of the commons” is actually the logic of capitalism, the dominant logic of our time. That logic dictates expansion, no matter the consequences, and it has brought our world, as Hardin warned it would, near ruin. “Ruin,” he wrote, “is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.” Freedom, in this context, is what we might call free enterprise, freedom having been redefined, in our age, as access to profit.