It's an old idea, but why do we never talk about the Commons? It's an important concept for modern liberal thought. Even if you don't exactly know what it is and where it comes from, you probably use the concept in your thought processes (if you're liberal or progressive.)
The trouble is that no one really talks about it. I've not seen it come up in diaries. Lakoff meantions it in Don't Think of an Elephant but says that it's not well-known enough to be a good frame at present. Why can't we make it one? I'm sure that even many conservatives would see the merits of the concept of the Commons.
Some of you are wondering what the hell it is, and I'll do my best to explain it. The basic idea, as it's been pushed from the 1960's, is that while many actions are favorable for your own best interests, the results of those actions can hurt everyone. Eventually, as everybody performs the same actions, everyone hurts eachother (and themselves) more than they helped themselves in the first place.
Okay, here are a couple of examples. You are a sheppard in a village that has a physical Commons, where anyone can graze their sheep. On your own land, you know that you can only let your sheep graze so much before they destroy your pasture. Thus, you limit the number of sheep you keep on your land. On the Commons, however, you can have some extra sheep. If there are no laws forbidding it, you will put as many sheep as you can on the Commons, as will all of the other sheppards of the village. Soon, the Commons is unusable for the purpose of grazing sheep.
Another more modern example: you're driving your car on an inefficiently designed East-Coast urban highway. You can choose to switch lanes a lot to get ahead of traffic, but in doing so, you slow down the other motorists. Now, a bunch of other drivers have the same idea, and you are slowed down by their (and your own) behavior. I'd like to take a moment to plead with fellow Massachusetts drivers to end this terrible behavior.
The concept of the Commons can apply to a great many things. It is easy to see how it applies to the environment, as that is a natural Commons. When a factory pollutes, it is harming the natural world, and eventually such harm will impact the factory's profits. Unfortunately, that one factory hurts everybody more than it hurts itself. The sum of all of the factories' pollution does hurt the one factory quite a bit, but the one factory cannot be responsible for the other factories' practices, just like you cannot be responsible for other drivers' behavior on Storrow Drive.
The labor pool is another example, along with health care, taxes, and a whole host of other political arenas. In every case, the trouble is the lack of rules. If an outside agency could come in and tell people that they could not use some method or company policy, then the problem would be addressed. Without this outside force, of course, people would just continue screwing everybody and ultimately themselves. This outside force must be government. It takes money to enforce laws and research how best to prevent damage to the Commons, but that is one reason we pay our taxes. We must pay in to protect everyone from behavior that hurts the Commons.
I think that unless you are some sort of really crazy libertarian, you should understand the above. Use it in your diaries and your comments. Use the idea when talking to others. We should make the Commons a frame that everyone can use. Even if the conservatives use it, at least they would be talking about the common good. Let me know what you think.