> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.co.school/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Loose ends and the winds of change - URL: https://www.co.school/notes/loose-ends-and-agrarian-justice/ - Published: 2026-09-17T19:17:33.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-18T04:28:15.000Z - Description: In which the task of building community alternatives falls, as it happens, to us. - Author: Kevan Gilbert - Tags: Notes I was camping at [Fintry](https://www.fintry.ca/?ref=co.school) this summer (lovely spot), and in my only-mildly-comfortable camping chair, under the shade of our camp awning that was about to blow away later than night (unbeknownst to me; I had forgotten to tie down the ends), I read a tiny little self-published book from 2010 I had found on the shelves of our local library. It's called "An Other Kingdom: Departing the consumer culture" by a triple-author collection of Peter Block, Walter Bruggemann, and John McKnight. These writers are all exploring the idea of how we restore neighbourliness, sharing, and alternative economies in the face of constant crises brought about by over-consumption. Style-wise, it's a rather odd collection of collaboratively written essays, through a spiritual and justice lens. It's not at all academic, and feels more like you're hearing these writers and thinkers chat with each other around under their own camp-shade awning. This trio did an interesting thing with their book: they published their friends' and colleagues' critiques to their draft, *as part of the book*. Therefore it ends in an abrupt shift into co-creation. Rather than feeling like the authors got the final word, the quite literally turn it over to you, the reader, to continue, via continued learning and experiments. *"What if we tried this instead?"* writes one of their friends. *"This reminds of another book,"* suggests another. *"I would have done this differently,"* intones someone else. And then there is a bibliography. A big one. With websites. And write-ups. Before I needed to return the book to the library, after returning from camping, I visited the sites, subscribed to newsletters, and followed groups on LinkedIn. Given that the book was written 16 years ago, some of the sites are gone. Some of the writers have passed. And yet, there is a remarkable legacy that has been left. These are breadcrumb-trails into the world of alternative eco-system building that people older than me have been pursuing for generations. Experiments that have been tried, organizations that have launched, work that is underway. Like – is this torch being passed to me and you? One newsletter I subscribed to, stemming from this breadcrumb trail, is from the [Schumacher Center for a New Economics](https://centerforneweconomics.org/?ref=co.school), and into my inbox this week tumbled this missive: ### [**Sharing Income from Common Wealth: Thomas Paine’s Perfect Policy Proposal**](https://centerforneweconomics.org/events/sharing-income-from-common-wealth-thomas-paines-perfect-policy-proposal/?ref=co.school)**.** ### > "In 1797, Thomas Paine, hero of the American and French revolutions, published his last major pamphlet, **Agrarian Justice**. For thousands of years, sedentary societies had been racked by poverty, discontent, and violent upheaval thanks to unequal access to land. Redistribution of land had been a common cry of reformers and revolutionaries throughout that history—but even when such reforms succeeded against odds, conditions always deteriorated again. In this short essay Paine offers a simple and brilliant solution. It is not necessary to redistribute the land itself, he says. It is sufficient to redistribute *wealth that flows from the land*. Paine proposed a tax, a trust, and universal dividends. Common wealth dividends would ensure that every citizen can enjoy a fair share of the bounty of the Earth that is their birthright. > > Paine’s pamphlet fell on deaf ears in the 1790s and then fell into obscurity. But his solution was too good not to be rediscovered or reinvented by others—and it was, at least three times. In the late 1800s, American journalist and political economist Henry George came up with a very similar program of land reform. In the 1970s, Governor Jay Hammond led the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund to share Alaska’s oil wealth with all residents of the state. In the 1990s, entrepreneur and futurist Peter Barnes envisioned a Sky Trust to cap carbon emissions and share the wealth generated by permit sales—and invented the concept of carbon dividends that is central to climate policy debates today. Each of these three schemes was developed independently, but each of them recapitulated Paine’s logic. And each one, arriving at Paine’s solution from a different angle, offers us new insight into what makes Paine’s proposal so advantageous." \[The rest of the write-up leads into an invite to an upcoming talk at the Centre; in-person somewhere in Massachusetts, but a recording will be available later. [Read more about it here!](https://us5.forward-to-friend.com/forward/preview?u=69d509d113032e3126c4543ce&id=c0dd839fa3&ref=co.school)\] These ideas...the ones from Thomas Paine, the ones from Block and Bruggeman...take years to take root. People work on them during their lifetime, and then they blow away. Experiments are tried, projects are undertaken: the Sagrada Familia of cultural change, where even after a century and a half, the work is not done! But they come back to us, in different moments, because it's nobody's job except ours to keep them going. Back at Fintry, my awning blew over because I hadn't tied down the ends. The wind picked up, and carried it towards our tent, causing much panic, no damage, and many memorable stories. In the spirit of awnings and the writers of An Other Kingdom, who also didn't tie up any loose ends, I leave you with this: Isn't this interesting? What would you want to do about this?