existing outside of capitalism

A BRIEF LIST OF HUMANS BEING, NOT DOING

Art by Disssgrace

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

Hi friends,

Thanks for being here, taking some time out of your day to read these words. I’m glad you’ve chosen to do so.

If you are new here then a special welcome to you! I’m Grace Pengelly, a writer and editor living in Somerset. You can find out more about me on my website. I send this newsletter out every other week, for free. If you are a paid subscriber then you will also receive GOLDEN HOUR posts every Sunday. Hit the button below to subscribe for free or become a paying patron of my work.

This week’s edition of The Murmuration is about the ways we exist outside of capitalism. It was this quote by the novelist Ursula K. Le Guin that first got me thinking along these lines. What are the things that capitalism cannot touch? Where can they be found?

I managed to come up with a list of five—but I’d love to hear some more of your own examples in the comments below, which I’ll leave open.

1.     GIVING SOMEONE A FLOWER

As I walked to the park yesterday a small girl of seven or eight wandered over and asked if she could give the baby something. Unfurling her hand, she presented me with a buttercup, the brightest submarine yellow you could imagine. I said thank you and that we would enjoy looking at the flower together when we reached the park. She ran off, and I haven’t seen her since.

If we want to understand what it feels like to exist outside of capitalism, we could do worse than speaking to children about their lives. What are the things that are important to them? How do they think of their days? What are their favourite ways to spend their time?

2.     BREASTFEEDING A BABY

This morning I woke up at five o’clock and fed my daughter in bed. At thirteen months she is still breastfeeding, something I am happy about—although I do feel slightly self-conscious about whether it is still ‘normal’ now that she is one.

Sometimes she stands up and hunches over me, her body perpendicular to mine. Other times she fiddles with my breast, using her forefinger and thumb to pinch whatever nipple she isn’t currently latched onto. Occasionally we feed when her dad isn’t looking and she hasn’t eaten tea: our secret.

It’s easy to forget how subversive the choice to breastfeed is within a capitalist society. By feeding my child this way, I am, however briefly, able to provide for my daughter in a way that is antithetical to how we spend much of our lives. There is no cost involved. It is a gift freely given. It feels like a precious thing, and one I am in no rush to move on from.

For now, we continue to live in a sort of quasi-symbiosis with each other, understanding each other’s needs and recognising each other’s emotions. I have often felt that the child I breastfeed is different to the child who is up and about most of the day. When I’m feeding she is under my spell. In these moments, we exist outside of capitalism, in tune with our bodies and each other, oblivious to the unrelenting demands of the market.

3.     SELLING YOUR COMPANY TO YOUR EMPLOYEES

Every Tuesday morning a man drops off a box of vegetables and fruit on our doorstep. This week Guy Singh-Watson, the founder of Riverford, announced that he had sold the remainder of his business to this delivery man, and another 999 staff employed by the company.

In 2018, Singh-Watson initially sold 74% of Riverford to his staff, setting the price at a quarter of what accountants believed it to be worth. The remaining stake has now been sold for £9.8 million. Guy has said he will spend some of the money on more solar power and local community projects in Devon. He has not set up trusts which would enable him to avoid paying tax.

‘Together, we have made a small part of the world a bit more like the world I, and so many of us, want to live in’ said Scott, one of the new co-owners.

Responding to this comment Guy wrote that:

When my time comes, with my final breath, I will take comfort in that thought, and leave my tractors, trucks, land, trees and artichokes to fellow co-owners. I know they will use them well.

4.     WRITING A BOOK THAT WON’T BE READ FOR 100 YEARS

Ocean Vuong hands over his manuscript in the forest

In Nordmaka, just outside of Oslo, a forest grows slowly. In 100 years the trees will be cut down, pulped, and transformed into a library of books. Since 2014 different authors have been asked to write a text which won’t be published until the year 2114. The anthology of texts will be printed on paper made from this forest.

This is The Future Library, the brainchild of an artist called Katie Paterson. If you want to read any of these texts, written by the likes of Margaret Atwood and Karl Ove Knausgård, then I’m afraid the odds are stacked against you.

This week the poet Ocean Vuong and writer Judith Schalansky contributed their books to the library, taking part in special ceremony within the Oslo City forest where they handed over the manuscripts to Katie Paterson. It looked fun! Vuong is a Buddhist and so some monks also took part. These two books will be printed in 91 years time.

In a catalog on the library’s website, the British writer Jay Griffiths points out that the word tree in English and tre in Norweigian are etymologically connected to words like true, truth, and troverdig. Trees are steadfast parts of our existence, which are able to outlive us. We can trust them to still be there for our grandchildren when we have gone.

In her speech, Judith Schalansky said that:

A hundred years is longer than an average human life, and thus long enough to defy imagination. Time is a physical quantity; we can measure it, but it eludes our grasp. A particularly vivid image of time is to be found in the growth of trees, which are not only far taller and more useful than us but far longer lived.

5. GAZING AT NGC 346

Image by NASA

When I feel despair, I look up the latest photos from the James Webb Space Telescope, which has been taking images of galaxies and the outer edges of the solar system since 2021.

This is a new image of NGC 346, a star cluster which is about 200,000 light years away from earth. These images show plumes of gas and dust that stars and planets use as source material during their formation. 

The purple clouds on the left are the remains of a supernova explosion. 

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.

How do you exist outside of capitalism? Let us know in the comments.

Take care,

Grace

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