Erecting fences on the Medium commons
A tale of modern enclosures
Once upon a time there was open green spaces, woods, ponds, boggy areas.
These were the commons.
Sometimes owned by a Lord sometimes owned by the community, sometimes no one owned.
No one owns the sky, the wind, the sun, the stream, or so they thought.
It was upon these commons the commoners exercised their ancient rights, pasturing their livestock, cutting turf, collecting wood, letting their pigs root for acorns in the autumn.
The commons were a social interaction between the commoners and the common. The commons self-regulated, adapted to changing conditions.
Then one day the King, the Lords, decided they would fence off the land, deny the commoners their ancient right, thousands of Acts of Parliament were passed to criminalise the commoners, to enter the commons was to now trespass, to poach, to be an outlaw.
On the internet there are many commons.
One de facto commons was Medium, where the commoners, writers and readers, collaborated, shared their work, often writer and reader were one and the same.
Then one day, the Lords of the Medium commons cried, who are these commoners, profiting from our investment, they contribute nothing to us, they are freeloaders, we must erect razor wire, enclose the commons, freeloaders will not be tolerated.
What the greedy Lords failed to understand, it was the commoners who had invested, without them, there would be no commons, the Medium commons would be worthless.
Sadly the Lords had not been endowed with wisdom, gold yes, which they had acquired by one crooked scheme or another, but wisdom no. They were known by the commoners as Vulture Capitalists. Such was the evil of these Lords, that if you hailed a horse and cart, they claimed a fee acting as though they owned it. They even tried to claim a fee from the man selling coffee from his little horse-drawn wagon.
The Vulture Capitalists claimed to be Magicians and Alchemists, that they could turn base metal into gold, conjure Unicorns out of thin air. As was learnt the hard way, these were cheap conjuring tricks. The only conjuring trick they had perfected was conjuring gold out of your purse into theirs.
The commoners were not happy with the Lords of Medium, why should we be denied access to our commons, they cried.
Some feeling intimidated, decided to pay the entrance fee. Others cried no, we are the ones who have maintained the common, were it not for us there would be no commons, we are the wordsmiths who have tilled the commons, made it an attractive and desirable place.
Then those who had paid to gain access to what was once free, to reap the rewards of their own Labour, found they had been cheated.
No sooner had they paid to pass through the razor wire to gain access to the commons, they found there was yet another fence, they were asked to pay again. The lesser Lords, the Squires, had laid claim to their own areas of the Medium commons and were charging for access.
The Lords not only were greedy, they were devious, having locked out the commoners from the commons where they were happy and self-sufficient, they offered a select few paid work within the enclosed commons, pitting one commoner against another commoner.
There was much unhappiness amongst the commoners.
The insidious impact of enclosures is that it deprives us of our culture, privatises it and sells it back to us, turns the commoners from collaborators and producers to consumers and paid labourers.
We are all the poorer, as commoners create a common wealth which all can share.
Between late 1600s and mid-1800s, one seventh of the common land of England was enclosed. Commoners who up until then had been able to pasture their livestock, cut peat, allow their pigs to root for acorns in the autumn, were denied access by the erection of fences. Unable to gain access to these free resources, they became paid workers, either on the land or in the factories.
South Common, a 80 ha open common of rough grassland, patches of woodland, springs, ponds, on a north facing limestone escarpment on the Lincoln Edge, where the River Witham cuts through. High Medieval (850AD –1350AD), Hospital of the Holy Innocents of Malandry and St Catherine’s Priory exercised commoners rights over the common, with the Priory drawing water from springs through a conduit. During this period the people of Lincoln and Canwick also had Rights of Common and grazed their animals alongside those of the Priory and Malandry. South Common is protected by the Lincoln City Council Act 1985 which states that the City Council ‘has a duty to maintain and to preserve the aspect of the Commons as an open space.’ Every resident householder within the city is entitled to graze a horse on any of the three commons within the city boundary. Animals must be registered with the City Council through the City Council’s licensing department.
For the commoners who were once commoners on the Medium commons, prior to the enclosure.
Molly Campbell, Sean Howard, Mirah Curzer, Eric Taubert, augustkhalilibrahim, Shahzeb Akhter, Sherry Kappel, Ré Harris, Rebecca Marie, Michael Ramsburg, Michael Benoist, Michael McQuarrie, Patrick Faller, Paul Brookes, Kevin Acott, Angiest In Seattle, Carl Safina, Nick McGuire, Sally O’Dowd, Brian Culley, Christopher Raley, C. Duhnne, Ben Freeland, K.E. Kimball, Richard Subber, walkerjo lee, Elizabeth Kiem, JONI BERGER, zeke woollett, Jackie Williams, Robert Cormack, Garnet,Menkeroth, A. Sethi, Tahlia Calvisi, Olivia Wolfe, Anna Breslin, Cristian Randieri, Phd, Alya, Stephen M. Tomic, Stefon Napier, blaine steele, David Moser, Michelle Monet, Little Fears, Teri Peters, Hevedar Yousif, Eric Taubert, Wendy Diamond, Allan Ishac, Immanuel R. Knight, Abbie, Amy Sterling Casil, Vito Pasquale, Giulia Blasi David Smooke, Michael Haupt, Paul Dughi, Paul Mason, Michel Bauwens, Renée S, Michael Haupt, babulous, Matthew Deyn, Paulo Coelho, Henry Freeman, Jamie Oliver, Srinath Anantharaju, Jason Stelzner, Violet, David Moser, alto, Ré Harris, Shaunta Grimes, Kathleen Clarke Anderson, Jackie Williams, Mike Essig, Vanessa Praça-Correa, Jeffrey Field, Giulia Blasi, White Feather, Mary Holden, Amy Sterling Casil, Servaas Schrama, James Ardis, Allan Ishac, Paul Dughi, David Graeber, Clifton Middleton, Peter, Elizabeth Kiem, Keith Parkins … and everyone else …
Why are some names in Green?
I do not know. I assumed they were the ones who had paid the toll to gain access to the fenced-off ghetto but not the case as I appear in green, and others who have foolishly parted with their five bucks are not in green.
Those that appear in green, only appear in green because elsewhere in green, which of course still does not answer my question why in green?
