Murmuring Futures

Beyond Capitalism, Toward the Otherwise

In a world exhausted by burnout, environmental collapse, inequality, and surveillance, many are quietly—sometimes secretly—dreaming of a world beyond capitalism. But dreaming alone is not enough. We must also think critically, ethically, and courageously about what futures we are told are impossible. And why.

What if we dared exploring several radical futures that are often dismissed or rendered unthinkable by dominant capitalist narratives? What if we dared examining common critiques of these futures, and offer counterpoints that invite deeper, more nuanced reflection?

It is not a manifesto, but a murmuration: a loose formation of thought, spiralling, strange, and collective. Chaotic, yet strangely consistent.

1

A World Without Work as We Know It

The Vision:

A future where work is no longer moralized or coerced, and people are not valued by their productivity but by their relationality, creativity, and presence. Time is not optimized, but composted—used for care, ritual, rest, art, and community.

The Critique:

"Aren't all living beings functional? Bees pollinate, moss clings. Humans must work or they'll decay into laziness. Who would do the necessary dirty jobs?"

The Response:

Yes, beings have ecological roles—but those roles are emergent, not imposed through coercion. Bees also dance, dolphins play, crows mourn. In reality, humans are creative and contributive when not forced. Experiments with Universal Basic Income and cooperative models show people do not stop working—they shift to more meaningful, often undervalued labor like caregiving and community work.

A living metaphor: starling murmurations. These swirling flocks move in harmony without leaders, plans, or coercion—just simple principles. This is "anarchy done right": decentralized, resilient, and functional.
2

Technology as Common, Not Commodity

The Vision:

Technology developed relationally, ritually, and regeneratively—not for surveillance or extraction, but for care, mourning, kinship, and collective sense-making.

The Critique:

"Technology has to be a product to be sustainable. Control is needed—for patents, for safety."

The Response:

Control-for-safety is often a disguise for monopoly. Open-source, community-driven tech proves alternatives exist. Real safety comes from trust, accountability, and transparent governance.

3

Legal and Ethical Rights for Non-Humans

The Vision:

Ecosystems—rivers, forests, etc.—granted legal personhood to reflect their sovereignty and role in balance. A shift from domination to co-stewardship.

The Critique:

"That's anthropomorphism. Rivers can't consent. Forests don't talk."

The Response:

Corporations have legal personhood. Why not rivers? Indigenous frameworks already treat land as kin. Consent here isn't verbal—it's ecological feedback: floods, droughts, collapse.

4

Time Beyond Linear Progress

The Vision:

Time that is cyclical, ancestral, fractal—where collapse is transformation. A letting go of endless growth and the need for transcendence.

The Critique:

"Time is linear. Without capitalism, we regress."

The Response:

Capitalism's version of progress is a myth. Many cultures thrive without it. Collapse for some is liberation for others.

Starlings again offer a clue: perception, not speed, is what allows adaptation. We don't need faster systems. We need different ones.
5

A World Where We Aren't Brands

The Vision:

Life not as a performance or market product, but as lived presence. Identity as relational, not curated.

The Critique:

"Branding helps connect. Performance inspires."

The Response:

Performance under capitalism often reflects access, not worth. Algorithms flatten desire. Real intimacy needs space and slowness, not branding.

6

Collective, Non-Medicalized Mental Health

The Vision:

Care as infrastructure. Mental difference as part of being alive. Healing as relational, not privatized.

The Critique:

"That's dangerous. It'll lead to chaos."

The Response:

Most aren't lazy—they're overwhelmed. Collective care models already work. Crisis is communication, not always pathology.

Murmurations as More-Than-Metaphor

Capitalism doesn't just take land and labor—it colonizes imagination. It teaches us to fear laziness, softness, nature itself.

But starlings show: decentralization isn't disorder. Complexity doesn't need control. Resilience doesn't need hierarchy.

This is not a call to utopia—it's a call to compost. To murmur. To remember. To think-with. To begin again.

note: this work was inspired by a fully written "blueprint for a just society"

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