Protecting the Commons

The clash between sophistry and philosophy is a very old story in the western world. It's depicted very concisely in Plato's Gorgias (400ish BC) for example. For the sophist, there's no philosophy because there's no truth. There's only word tricks and con games that can provide an advantage to a person or a group so they can obtain more. Therefore any argument about the greater good is a rhetorical pose and a ruse to dupe the audience.

Science, modern science, that is "Novum Organum" age of reason science is a formalized mechanism for ascertaining the truth, that is, the truth that can be tested by formal means like lab experiments. However we often see it used for propaganda purposes, which are, as many authors point out, completely alien to the underlying philosophy. Lifetime actor "scientists" end up promoting various NWO/corporatocracy ideas in the name of "science".

Similarly, "science" can help the corporatocracy seize the commons, or manage the commons for its own ends. In this form, "science" is just sophistry in a lab coat. A good example of this is promotion of GMO's, that is, industrial agriculture, by sciencey people like Neil Tyson or Bill Nye.

Our treatment of "the commons" is really inextricably linked with a way of life, that is the set of conscious decisions people make about how to live well, or justly, and those ideas about what's good or just come from people's gods, and from an ability to ~see~ the commons at all. In the United States, for the most part, the natural world is paved over and out of mind. It only becomes visible when there are serious problems--such as toxic algae blooms in Florida or the Great Lakes.

Photo of Florida Algae Bloom
Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post via AP