The coat is a use value that satisfies a particular want
Marx: "Yesterday I pawned a coat dating back to my Liverpool days in order to buy writing paper" (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, vol. 38 [1852-55]: 221).
On the significance of Marx's coat, see Peter Stallybrass, “Marx’s Coat,” in Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces, ed. Patricia Spyer (New York: Routledge, 1998): 183–207. [PDF].
That said, for a thoughtful survey of how the commons, cultural and otherwise, might thrive inside of, or along with, with current conditions I recommend Peter Barnes’s book, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. One of Barnes’s points is that our debates about the future often imagine only two actors: the government and private business. Barnes suggests a third set, common property trusts (as, for example, the kind of land trusts devised by the Nature Conservancy). There is much to say about common property trusts but for now the point is simply that we already have a mix of cultural modes and should continue to have them going forward with, I hope, the commons recognized and strengthened.
One of the areas I find challenging in addressing Creative Commons culture is how Creative Commons relates to capitalistic culture (or rejects it). Creative Commons can be compatible with open market, but it can also challenge some of the fundamental tenants of it. Throughout the units, as I tried to imagine applications of Creative Commons, or making licensing decisions as a creative and academic, I found that I had questions about artists and how they can earn a living in this model, and how this model supported and challenged my role as a librarian in academe.
But now it was all for the best: a law of nature, a chance for the monopolists to do good for the universe. The cheerer-in-chief for the monopoly form is Peter Thiel, author of Competition Is for Losers. Labeling the competitive economy a “relic of history” and a “trap,” he proclaimed that “only one thing can allow a business to transcend the daily brute struggle for survival: monopoly profits.”
Sounds like a guy who is winning all of the spoils.
Peter Perrett: How The West Was Won [oo]
VÖ: 30.6.2017
Tobias Weindorf: Stories To Be Told [oooo]
VÖ: 26.5.2017
Accordion Affairs: Elle [oooo]
VÖ: 5.5.2017
Ludwig Seuss: Ludwig Seuss and the Boogie Men [oooo]
VÖ: 21.4.2017
rising
I agree with the points made by Ssamo1 The Pope is trying hard to tell people to stick to the traditional Catholic practices and shun the reformatory ideas of Martin Luther. He is being religiously appealing for people of that time because he knew that those who have believed in Roman Catholicism and have been loyal to the Pope, Peter and the Church will listen to him and consider Martin Luther and his reformation as prime evil. These words work powerfully from religious as well as from the political perspective.
PETER BAKER,
Here's is wiki bio)
by a man whom I was [partially] acquainted with
Who advised Peter to speak with William Still?
Peter Freedman
What purpose does this letter serve? Why would William write to his brother Peter narrating how they met?
Peter Dreier
