solarpunk memes

if you give people the opporturnity to do something that is convenient for them and fucks over others, far too many will do it. You need rules preventing that. The custom not allowing people to put more cows is that rule keeping things intact.

Exactly. And people, naturally, follow rules. Social rules, cultural rules, religious rules, how many people obey the law even when there is zero chance anyone will ever punish them for breaking the law? Humans are inherently hierarchical and tribal and have an instinct to obey authority.

That is to say, when there is a community, and there is a resource, that community will naturally produce rules to govern use of the resource, and people will naturally follow those rules. Coercion is rarely required. People will simply internalize, as children, that good people follow the rules.

Which is why the tragedy of the comments is something that occurs only in crisis situations. When people are desperate so they break the rules and take more than they need. When the people formally living there have been killed or driven off and the new settlers don't know what rules to follow to maintain the resource. And when people have been poisoned by a mind virus that valorizes selfishness and prioritizes individual profit above all else, so they believe it's right and moral to harm their neighbors for their own benefit.

Capitalist economists will tell you the tragedy of the commons occurs whenever and wherever resources are not privately owned. They lie. The tragedy of the commons occurs when capitalists are allowed to teach children that selfishness is a virtue.