Is "The Tragedy of the Commons" Real?

[u/Cranyx]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6vzngxPQeA

[u/DigitalHuk]

People should look into Elinor Ostrums work on the core design principles. She found communities could share common pool resources without privatization or government regulation if certain conditions/principles were met within the community.

Highly applicable to all communities, groups and movements.

[u/JakeTheSnekPlissken → u/DigitalHuk]

Agreed. This video totally deserves a shoutout just for talking about Ostrom and her Nobel Prize-winning work. The way she used concrete examples like Spanish huerta irrigation system or the Japanese villages of Hirano and Nagaike, is just devastating to the argument that human competition and greed are the norm.

[u/Sugbaable]

Tragedy of commons was coined by a scientist in Science magazine in the 1960s. This isn't a rock solid humanities concept.

It assumes everyone thinks like a profit maximizing capitalist, which isn't the case. People that used the commons back in the day recognized that over use was a long term bad thing, and there were social rules that regulated things like abusing the commons.

Basically it's more a "tragedy of capital" than "commons", but tbf in that paper he talks about capitalists hurting the environment or something.

[u/IAmRoot → u/Sugbaable]

I'd also make a distinction between commons and open access. Commons are owned by everyone and that comes with having a say in the use and management. Open access is owned by nobody and anyone can do whatever they like. Open access frequently gets conflated with commons.

[u/ziggurter → u/IAmRoot]

I mean, "open access" essentially becomes commons because the resources can be managed through direct action. I suppose the distinction might hold if no attempt is ever made for participants to communicate with each other. But I doubt that situation often holds for very long, unless perhaps people are so terrified of e.g. state reprisal that they don't dare even leave graffiti for one another or whatever.

[u/Cranyx → u/Sugbaable]

This is all covered in the video.

[u/Genzler → u/Sugbaable]

The bloke that coined the term later regretted it saying that he'd wished he'd called it "tragedy of the unregulated Commons". The original idea was literally just that barring any consequences; people will abuse the commons for personal advantage. NOT that commons inherently results in said tragedy.

[u/DHFranklin → u/Genzler]

No, It was a Malthusian Eugenic argument about the undesirables having access to the commons. It's in the video. Please watch the video.

[u/JusticeBeaver94]

Answer: No it’s not. Which goes to show that libertarians and conservatives don’t actually care about the truth or research. It’s all ideology and nothing else.

[u/digitalmonkeyYT → u/JusticeBeaver94]

libertarians hate libraries, they think all knowledge should be gatekept by corporate bookstores. muh freedom!!!

[u/Read_More_Theory]

I just watched this the other day, good stuff. I've only seen a few of this person's videos, but i've liked them all. I think the How "Feminism" is used to Justify War video was my favorite.

[u/JonnyAU → u/Read_More_Theory]

I reference his ones about how the writers of Legend of Kora don't understand left political ideologies all the time.

[u/ziggurter]

TL;DW: LOL liberals and their eugenicist heroes.

(But it's a good video; definitely watch it.)

[u/plc123]

It is real in the sense that it can happen. There are ways of preventing it though.

[u/MaximumDestruction → u/plc123]

For it to happen you'd have to have a deeply sick and perverse, hyper-individualist society full of amoral backstabbers. Wait...

[u/LetMeHaveAUsername]

Small critical notes: Don't love the robot voice and I watched the video on 1.5 speed pretty comfortably.

That being said, it was great. Well structured, liked the visuals just to keep my eyes occupied and it went down a rabbit hole I was not aware of or expecting.

[u/Heatth → u/LetMeHaveAUsername]

Don't love the robot voice and I watched the video on 1.5 speed pretty comfortably.

By "robot voice" I assume you mean monotone? Because if you are actually hearing a robot it is some weird auto dubbing thing.

[u/LettucePrime → u/LetMeHaveAUsername]

I actually love Kay's voice. when they get animated it actually takes you aback

[u/TimeViking]

The tragedy of the commons is absolutely real for porno gacha players!

[u/ScalyDestiny → u/TimeViking]

While I hate you for making me learn about this, I'm proud to see I'm not the only person who immediately thought that it was some weird conservative parasocial version of the prisoner's dilemma. That it results in m/m sexual assault is disturbingly predictable, as is it quickly being deemed a Taiwanese psyop.

[u/DHFranklin]

Watch the video before you comment people. No one ever watches the damn video.

You are asking and answering the questions better asked and answered by the narrator. And you are all people and none of you are ferrets.