“The fascinating thing about standard economic stories is exactly that: they assume that everybody wants that kind of closure. That all human relations are forms of exchange, because if everything is an exchange then it's true that we're both equals. We walk up, I give you something, you give me something, and we walk away. Or I give you something, you don't give me something right now, and you owe me. So if we have any ongoing relationships at all, it's because somebody is in debt.” IfsWantGivingHumansKindStoriesFormWalksEconomicRight NowStandardsGive MeRelationAssumingDebtFascinatingOngoingHuman RelationsClosure Author:David Graeber
“People don't have an ongoing relation unless it's a form of debt because everything is an exchange, so ongoing relationships are incomplete exchanges, and therefore one party is probably to blame - more likely than not, both are. Sociality itself seems to become like a matter of sin, and inherently wrong.” PeopleMatterSeemsFormSinPartyRelationBlameDebtOngoingIncomplete Author:David Graeber
“The best way to think about anarchism is as a combination of three levels. On the one hand, the sort of instinctual revulsion against forms of inequality in power; on the other hand, a reappraisal of what one is already doing in egalitarian relations; and then the projection of these principles on all sorts of relations.” ThinkingWayHandsFormThreeLevelsPrinciplesRelationBest WayInequalityCombinationProjectionAnarchismRevulsion Author:David Graeber
“We don't live in a capitalist totality. Capitalism couldn't survive as a totality anyway. We live in this complex system and we already live communism and anarchism in a million forms everyday.” FormMillionsCapitalismComplexesEverydayCommunismCapitalistAnarchismTotalityComplex Systems Author:David Graeber
“What about precarious labor? It's actually not the most efficient form of labor at all. They were much more efficient when they had loyalty to their workers and people were allowed to be creative and contribute - you know that what precarious labor does is that it's the best weapon ever made to depoliticize labor. They're always putting the political in front of the economic.” PeopleKnowsDoeMadeFormPoliticalCreativeEconomicFrontsWeaponsLaborWorkersLoyaltyEfficientBe CreativePrecarious Author:David Graeber
“[A] great embarrassing fact… haunts all attempts to represent the market as the highest form of human freedom: that historically, impersonal, commercial markets originate in theft.” HumansFactsFormHighestCapitalismEmbarrassingTheftHuman Freedom Author:David Graeber
“States created markets. Markets require states. Neither could continue without the other, at least, in anything like the forms we would recognize today.” StatesTodayForm Book:Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years Source: Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years
