"The less conscious we become of The Commons, the less real it becomes, the less we care about it and for it, the more threatened our lives become.
As the Commons degrades, individual suffering begins to increase, but we may only see that as INDIVIDUAL suffering, instead of in its larger meaning: as a symptom of the suffering of the community, the eco-system, the world. The personal is, in the end, collective, social, political, ecological. The progressive whittling of our identities from living beings in a living world, to humans, citizens, workers, consumers leaves us with progressively less power, less vision, less meaning, less context. Individually tied into the vast machinery of political economy -- the vast production and consumption of goods and services, ideas and entertainment, power and frivolity -- we become focused on the details of pleasure, comfort, security and income -- and anxious about losing them. Money looms large in individual and familiar lives, and time disappears into schedules. We mistake pleasure and fun for happiness, and lose touch with each other, the real world, and our own hearts and kin." Tom Atlee does an excellent job at explaining in a simple but comprehensive overview why the Commons are essential to use and what are the consequences of gradually forgetting about its role/value in our society.