Episode 290: The Commons We Chose Against

Today’s episode explores a hypothetical alternate history of the United States, beginning in 1945, where the nation chose a path of “commons” over “conquest.” Instead of a Cold War and a focus on military expansion, this timeline features a “Grand Reconstruction” emphasising public good, social welfare, and communal living. The author of the piece, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, presented as a “historian of the forked world” using a mysterious “device” to witness these events, contrasts this cooperative and equitable trajectory with our own history, highlighting how resources spent on war in our reality were, in the alternate world, used for universal healthcare, housing, and a sustainable economy. Ultimately, Dr. Hoerricks argues that a more just and abundant society was always within reach, implying that the choice to pursue empire was a deliberate, costly decision.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/what-if-we-had-chosen-the-commons

Let me know what you think.