TAPESTRY OF THE COMMONS

The Tapestry of the Commons is a collection of ideas and interactive tools to help you explore the concepts of the Commons, Private Property and Common Wealth.  The Tapestry illustrates the interaction between the different types of Commons, and what affect Corporate Control has on the Commons.

What do you think of when you hear the word “Commons”?  Maybe a town square, or the dining hall on campus.  It could be the House of Commons or the woods where Robin Hood and his Merry Men took refuge.  There’s Common law and Common good and Common wealth and Common decency. The Commons are shared things. Shared by all and owned by none. Some Commons are gifts of Nature--like water, land, plants, animals and even our own DNA.  We share these Natural Commons with all the other living creatures on the planet.  We receive the gifts of the Natural Commons free as our birthright, but they are gifts shared with all the rest of the planet¹s creatures.  These Common gifts are interconnected and they are finite.  No land, no trees, no grass, no zebras, no water, no anything.  The life of the entire planet depends on the Commons. And all these Commons must be passed on, healthy and flourishing, to the next generations of all the creatures of the Commons. We humans, too, are part of the Natural Commons, we owe our very life to the Commons, but we do not own the Commons.  The Commons are not property—the Commons are a shared gift. A Common dream.

Watch for a forthcoming Meet-up

on this subject in

2007!

-- From Lou & Pat Hammann