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Update Capitalism, Communism, and the Extitutional Stakes of our Politics.md

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@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ Three such practices (among several others) are:
- **Horizontal scaling**: Necessarily spreading on a decentralized basis, patterns of behavior in extitutional space ride contingency rather than asserting universality, so that each scaled reproduction of an extitutional protocol of behavior is a monstrous mutation of its previous form, adequate to the issue at hand. - **Horizontal scaling**: Necessarily spreading on a decentralized basis, patterns of behavior in extitutional space ride contingency rather than asserting universality, so that each scaled reproduction of an extitutional protocol of behavior is a monstrous mutation of its previous form, adequate to the issue at hand.
- **Field Ontology** [2]: Whereas administrative institutions bring categorical hierarchies to their systems - hierarchies which they tend to inherent from the state and which the two, through mutual reinforcement, conceal and naturalize - extitutional space is made up of *field ontologies*, shifting assumptions about what dimensions of the real deserve attention or operative preeminence adequate (again) to the contingency of the encounter. (The fact that practical knowledge often points in the direction of interrelation, intersubjectivity, codeterminacy, etc. is a convenient nod to the technical sense of the term *field*.) - **Field Ontology** [2]: Whereas administrative institutions bring categorical hierarchies to their systems - hierarchies which they tend to inherent from the state and which the two, through mutual reinforcement, conceal and naturalize - extitutional space is made up of *field ontologies*, shifting assumptions about what dimensions of the real deserve attention or operative preeminence adequate (again) to the contingency of the encounter. (The fact that practical knowledge often points in the direction of interrelation, intersubjectivity, codeterminacy, etc. is a convenient nod to the technical sense of the term *field*.)
- **Open Protocolization**: Institutional protocols share (to varying degrees) the two features of being antimimetic (containing some dimension which discourages its reproduction, think military classification, NDAs, industrial secrets) and anti-empirical (resistant to inconvenient truths, interpretations or revisions that may have empirical veracity but be contrary to the interests of the organization or its authorities - see David Graeber's [*Bullshit Jobs*](https://www.are.na/block/3782579) for a wide-spanning index of this tendency.) [*Open protocols*](https://www.extitutional.space/Articles/An-Introduction-to-Open-Protocols), conversely, are maximally memetic and empirically defined - when they reach a status as a stable entity, they have done so by being battle-tested and extremely versatile, structured with minimal uniformity needed to maximally expand the possibility space of its users. (Ex. under the pressure of legal prohibition, the development of the phrase for LSD: *Turn on, Tune in, Drop out*. [3]) - **Open Protocolization**: Institutional protocols share (to varying degrees) the two features of being antimimetic (containing some dimension which discourages its reproduction, think military classification, NDAs, industrial secrets) and anti-empirical (resistant to inconvenient truths, interpretations or revisions that may have empirical veracity but be contrary to the interests of the organization or its authorities - see David Graeber's [*Bullshit Jobs*](https://www.are.na/block/3782579) for a wide-spanning index of this tendency.) [*Open protocols*](https://www.extitutional.space/Articles/An-Introduction-to-Open-Protocols), conversely, are maximally memetic and empirically defined - when they reach a status as a stable entity, they have done so by being battle-tested and extremely versatile, structured with minimal uniformity needed to maximally expand the possibility space of its users. (Ex. under the pressure of legal prohibition, the development of the phrase for LSD: *Turn on, Tune in, Drop out*. [3])
Over the past few months in the Ethereum community, the "specter of communism" has reared its head, as visions of [gitcoin communists](https://x.com/ameensol/status/1889758396166926527) or [soyboy-figureheads-with-marxist-affiliations-who-hate-to-win](https://x.com/singularityhack/status/18867812704551897110) have been said to be tarnishing the reputation and cypherpunk ethos of Ethereum. Most recently, I had a discussion with a member of the community who was troubled by what they perceived to be "techno-communist ideas" circulated at the GFEL conference in Boulder. They were even troubled that the Ethereum Foundation associated itself with the conference, given the perception of those themes being validated. Over the past few months in the Ethereum community, the "specter of communism" has reared its head, as visions of [gitcoin communists](https://x.com/ameensol/status/1889758396166926527) or [soyboy-figureheads-with-marxist-affiliations-who-hate-to-win](https://x.com/singularityhack/status/18867812704551897110) have been said to be tarnishing the reputation and cypherpunk ethos of Ethereum. Most recently, I had a discussion with a member of the community who was troubled by what they perceived to be "techno-communist ideas" circulated at the GFEL conference in Boulder. They were even troubled that the Ethereum Foundation associated itself with the conference, given the perception of those themes being validated.
@ -33,7 +35,9 @@ The many commentators who are quick to remind us of the harsh death toll of comm
Mutual aid, on the other hand, being encounter-based practices of free sharing of goods between peers that have no basis in centralized institutions, is a characteristic of the extitutional field, and really any free social space - it is a universal enough behavior among humans that to suppress or eradicate it totally is an ideological fallacy. It is veridical, realist, whereas communism is defined by mechanisms of enclosure and ideological fantasy. Mutual aid, on the other hand, being encounter-based practices of free sharing of goods between peers that have no basis in centralized institutions, is a characteristic of the extitutional field, and really any free social space - it is a universal enough behavior among humans that to suppress or eradicate it totally is an ideological fallacy. It is veridical, realist, whereas communism is defined by mechanisms of enclosure and ideological fantasy.
Broadly speaking, capitalist ideology has been implemented under more free and open social conditions. But structurally, it is always in danger of following the same patterns, and in the past has undeniably done so (though most often in the global South). Consider the [actions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_squads_in_El_Salvador#cite_note-alc-26) of ORDEN and the White Warriors Union in [El Salvador](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-09-mn-1714-story.html) or the [Contras in Nicaragua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras#Atrocities), under the documented support of the American government, in violently suppressing, through torture and spectacular executions, agricultural cooperatives and small businesses that might have threatened the hegemony of the United Fruit Company and other large corporations. Like communism, capitalist ideology at its worst has been known to preach free markets and libertarian values while depending on astounding acts of coercive [state intervention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27état) to fulfill [missions of](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton#Iraq_War) centralization, monopolization and capture. Broadly speaking, capitalist ideology has been implemented under more free and open social conditions. But structurally, it is always in danger of following the same patterns, and in the past has undeniably done so (though most often in the global South). Consider the [actions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_squads_in_El_Salvador#cite_note-alc-26) of ORDEN and the White Warriors Union in [El Salvador](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-09-mn-1714-story.html) or the [Contras in Nicaragua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras#Atrocities), under the documented support of the American government, in violently suppressing, through torture and spectacular executions, agricultural cooperatives and small businesses that might have threatened the hegemony of the United Fruit Company and other large corporations.
Like communism, capitalist ideology at its worst has been known to preach free markets and libertarian values while depending on astounding acts of coercive [state intervention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27état) to fulfill [missions of](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton#Iraq_War) centralization, monopolization and capture.
From an extitutional lens, none of this ideological mystification speaks against the role of markets in facilitating channels of dissent, pluralism, and empirical inspiration.[5] Markets have been for centuries and remain a place for open values to express themselves under coercive regimes. [6] This is the key point: both general positions, and many more between and among them, have their coercive, reductive, administrative embodiments in an institutional form that depends on enclosure, capture and unreality, just as both have their *extitutional* embodiments as vectors of open experimentation, practical adequacy, and dissent. From an extitutional lens, none of this ideological mystification speaks against the role of markets in facilitating channels of dissent, pluralism, and empirical inspiration.[5] Markets have been for centuries and remain a place for open values to express themselves under coercive regimes. [6] This is the key point: both general positions, and many more between and among them, have their coercive, reductive, administrative embodiments in an institutional form that depends on enclosure, capture and unreality, just as both have their *extitutional* embodiments as vectors of open experimentation, practical adequacy, and dissent.
@ -57,16 +61,17 @@ On the third day of the ETH Denver regen stage (secured by Gregory Landua, Kevin
> >
>**Mutualism is it!** >**Mutualism is it!**
I am partial to collective, cooperative, positive sum behavior - but I have no ideological allegiance to it, and I would never appeal, under any circumstances, to a coercive centralized body to enforce and maintain this behavior over and above competitive or rivalrous coordination markets. **The overton window is open, the ontology is flat - my allegiance is extitutional.** I am partial to collective, cooperative, positive sum behavior - but I have no ideological allegiance to it, and I would never appeal, under any circumstances, to a coercive centralized body to enforce and maintain this behavior over and above competitive or rivalrous coordination markets. The overton window is open, the ontology is flat - my allegiance is extitutional.
To those who are engaged in an anticommunist witch hunt, I pose two challenges: To those who are engaged in an anticommunist witch hunt, I pose two challenges:
- Locate where any actions by the Gitcoin community or the Ethereum Foundation have endorsed coercive restrictions on economic behavior, and I will disaffiliate, and champion your anti-communist cause until such discourse has been stamped out of the space. - Locate where any actions by the Gitcoin community or the Ethereum Foundation have endorsed coercive restrictions on economic behavior, and I will disaffiliate, and champion your anti-communist cause until such discourse has been stamped out of the space.
- Present to me your politics of "operational capitalism," truly libertarian (pacifist and grounded in free association and pluralism) so that me and my crew can have assurances that by capitalism you don't mean "selective use of state intervention to the ends of freedom and captured access for me and people who look like me."
- Present your politics of "operational capitalism," truly libertarian (pacifist and grounded in free association and pluralism) so that me and my crew can have assurances that by capitalism you don't mean "selective use of state intervention to the ends of freedom and captured access for me and people who look like me."
This binary is stupid - Ethereum as an extitutionally oriented community is well equipped to move beyond traditional politics and focus on the issues that matter: coercion, free association, open protocolization as a safeguard against the former and distributed ledger technologies as a tool to expand and optimize the latter. This binary is stupid - Ethereum as an extitutionally oriented community is well equipped to move beyond traditional politics and focus on the issues that matter: coercion, free association, open protocolization as a safeguard against the former and distributed ledger technologies as a tool to expand and optimize the latter.
**This post is a first knowing contribution to [extitutional.space](https://www.extitutional.space), a knowledge garden and affiliate of the [Open Civics](https://www.opencivics.co) "Open Protocol Library". In coming months, [The Open Machine](https://theopenmachine.net) and friends will be working to push the discursive gravity away from old political binaries - and even away from the blockchain - to the broader extitutional space, asking how distributed ledger technologies and other strategies can serve the project of creating an empiricallyimaginative, ontologically open post-coercion society.** **This post is a first knowing contribution to [extitutional.space](https://www.extitutional.space), a knowledge garden and affiliate of the [Open Civics](https://www.opencivics.co) "Open Protocol Library". In coming months, [The Open Machine](https://theopenmachine.net) and friends will be working to push the discursive gravity away from old political binaries - and even away from the blockchain - to the broader extitutional space, asking how distributed ledger technologies and other strategies can serve the project of creating an empirically imaginative, ontologically open post-coercion society.**
### Notes ### Notes