Like most of us, you probably learned in school that people invented money to replace barter, markets are guided by The Invisible Hand, and a debt is a kind of sacred promise. Like much else you learned in school, says anthropologist David Graeber, this is wrong. Markets are constructed by states, while the appearance of debt, slavery and money in human affairs coincide with the appearance of violent empires, and recede when empires are in decline. Debts are only sacred, Graeber explains, when the poor owe the rich, and there are key distinctions between debts and promises. Graeber, the author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years is interviewed by C.S. Soong on KPFA's Against the Grain...
The Origins of Debt, Money, Slavery and Empire
An Against the Grain Interview by C.S. Soong and Sasha Lilley
KPFA.s Against the Grain is consistently one of the best interview shows around. We at BAR steal ideas from them all the time. You can find a link to Debt: The First 5,000 Years here.
listen
http://www.againstthegrain.org/files/files/atg/atg_2013.01.07_graeber.mp3
Comparing Trump to European fascists often ignores the fact that racial slavery created its own unique form of fascism.
This week Covid-19, Left solidarity, and the duopoly were on your minds.
We are in a time zone wherein the problematic of queerness is being emancipated through story telling.
Mutual aid work is part of actually addressing survival needs right now, and getting to the root causes of problems.
The Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP), a New York City-based policy analysis and advocacy organization, recently released
