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The Museum of Vestigial Desire

Co-operatives

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We have desire for co-operation when we want something out of the system. When we need to give, we are competitive. Competition is just a logic that enables us to isolate ourselves and keep what we accumulate just for ourselves. Co-operation is not linked in an absolute fashion to the pursuit of a common good. Co-operating towards a common goal, having common interests or objectives or otherwise does not betray a strategic sync. It can also just be a very practical arrangement.

Co-operatives are an under-used legal form. People do not want to accumulate a profit but they register a company. People do not want to be non-profit but they register trusts. Social activity is so monotonous because legal forms of organisation are not understood and used appropriately.

We propose that specific kinds of activity be organised using legal forms that are appropriate. We propose that co-operatives be re-considered. But to re-consider co-operatives, co-operation has to be properly understood. What does co-operation entail?

When we think about co-operation, we think about an expansion of the idea of the self. Self-interest is included in the idea of co-operation because the self is the collective. How does an expanded self operate?

An expanded self is always in the process of self-discovery because the entire scope of the self is never fully mapped. The expanded self is a misnomer of sorts. Expansion still refers to a boundary of some sort. But sometimes no boundaries exist. The entire scope of the landscape is open. All the land that is illuminated by the starlight is under occupation. Under whose occupation? Who is the overlord? There is no overlord. The land is controlled by a force that cannot be singularly identified or isolated.

If the self is not contained. how can it be extended? This brings us closer to considering the question whether co-operatives are the natural pre-ordained form for all entities. The question has no real answer. Co-operatives imagine that everyone’s agendas must be in sync. What we observe around us and within un though is that none of our agendas are in sync. We find that we all want different things. Why are we so free that we can desire anything we want? Can some limitations not be imposed on us? Can we not deforced to behave?

We respond to force with force. For us to feel weak and obliged to comply with the narrative imposed on us, we need to be coerced and manipulated. We need to be threatened of dire consequences. Nobody is serious while threatening. Nobody is actually going to take the trouble to destroy us. We do not matter so much to them. We are only matter to ourselves because we do not have a choice. There is no separation within us and we have to love ourselves because that is the thing to do.

Co-operatives are proliferating a false imagination. And it should be rejected.

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