I was reading a book about capitalism last night -- its improbable rise in the 16th and 17th centuries and the reconfiguration of daily life. I mean, we are talking total upheaval here: centuries-old assumptions about work, money, and hunger, all up for grabs. New ways of living invented daily.
The fascination with the Dutch: "How did they do it?"Crop rotation as a brand-new technology: the iPhone of its day.The calico craze!On the bus this morning I couldn't stop thinking about it. Marx wrote "all that is solid melts into air" and (I think?) he said it like it was a bad thing. No way. Let it melt. Everybody on their iPhones on the 1X California bound for Montgomery Street. iPhones didn't even exist five years ago. You'd let a field lay fallow for five years, back in the days before crop rotation. All that is solid melts into air. (I'm talking about 3G, of course.)The title of this book, by Joyce Appleby, is The Relentless Revolution. And it's not over yet. The revolution that started in the 16th and 17th centuries is still unfolding all around us -- on the bus, on the screen, here in the office. For me, every day feels like a revolution lately. It's been true for the last six months or so. No routines; no rituals. Instead, the need,urgent like hunger, to make believe and make new. Writing a book, starting a new job: speed and restlessness. A ticking clock. This morning I established a new republic, sketched out a constitution, pulled on socks, and came to work.Now, at 7 p.m., as I'm sneaking this in, the regime feels shaky. By tonight it will surely topple. Everybody gets existential before bed, right? But I like this. How could you live otherwise? How could you let a field lay fallow for five years? What was life even like before the calico craze?We're lucky. Lucky to be living in a world still melting, even after all these centuries of change. A world made new every day.
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About the author: Robin Sloan is a writer and media inventor in San Francisco. You can find him on Twitter at @RobinSloan
