Tragedy of the Commons: How Colonizer Mentality Is Still Wrecking Regenerative Living

“It’s called tragedy of the commons, and it can ruin intentional communities before they even get going.” -Vesuvius the Dreamweaver

That sentence landed like a gut punch. We were deep in forest roads, foraging, talking about invasive plants, and how beautiful yet fragile the ecosystem was. Then, just like that, "V" named the shadow that still haunts even the most "green" initiatives today: the unchecked use of shared resources that leads to collapse.

🚨 The Problem: When "Sustainable" Still Means Selfish

Even in the eco-village and permaculture worlds, the ghost of exploitation lingers. What starts as a well-intentioned act—grazing animals on open land, letting horses run meadows, building a family garden—can become a slow march of destruction when we forget that nature isn’t just ours to use.

“That’s one environmental science aspect that isn't emphasized enough… when there’s a public resource and there’s no limitations on it, somebody is typically always going to over-exploit it until it’s fucking destroyed, and can’t regenerate.”

Whether it's a literal meadow, a water source, or even community time and energy—when we approach with entitlement instead of stewardship, we erode what was meant to nourish everyone.

We heard a living example right in the car:

“If a farmer or somebody wants horses and they buy really good ones from Europe, they may feed them native [European] plants during the travel here [U.S.]… the horse poops on a trail, the seeds aren’t all digested, and then you have invasive plants growing here.” -Dr. Max the Elixirmancer

Translation? Imported prestige > local harmony.

And this is where the disease of "ownership" infects the soul. When you think it’s your horse, your land, your food… you lose sight of the commons. You justify contamination because you're “just one person.” But that’s exactly how erosion starts—silently, incrementally, innocently.

🌱 The Solution: From Possession to Participation

The antidote to the tragedy of the commons is conscious limitation and regenerative reciprocity.

Ask yourself:

• Am I participating in this land, or am I possessing it?

• Am I thinking seven generations ahead, or just one season? [Native Wisdom]

• Am I adding complexity to this ecosystem, or just extracting from it?

“There’s so many good things I just saw, but I’m like, I can’t get any of it.”

That’s reverence. That’s restraint. That’s love.

When you start to see the meadow, the lake, the community garden—even the town sidewalk—as something you belong to, rather than something that belongs to you—everything changes.

We need more eco-warriors who will walk past the medicine when it's too close to the road or lacking enough quantity to reproduce easily. Who will teach their children that not picking is sometimes the deepest form of foraging?

“Don’t pick those! Please! Use the ethical foraging only take 10% rule,”

This is the revolution. This is sovereignty. Not in what you take—but in what you choose not to.

✊ Final Word: Grazing With Grace

If you’re dreaming of building community, going off-grid, or living in harmony with nature, start by healing any colonizer behaviors that remain. Don’t just plant seeds—ask if the soil wants them. Don’t just raise goats—ask if the meadow can hold them. Don’t just build—listen.

And maybe, just maybe, if we all learn to graze with grace, the commons will thrive again, and your eco-village will too.

“Asshole farmers be like, fuck you, we have to put them [livestock] somewhere… and it’s just a big fight in the natural world. Or how you see mafias in Italy illegally fishing by using bottom-trawling nets which ravage seabeds. You can think of this like a hunter burning down a forest to catch a wild boar. It's straight criminal.”

But it doesn’t have to be a big fight, where we act like crabs in a bucket. We can use permaculture and solarpunk philosophy to fix our scarcity issues, so let’s stop fighting nature. Let’s rejoin it. ✍️ Explore More Blog Posts – Deep dives, wisdom drops, and soul-expanding insights for sovereign and sustainable living.

📰 Read the Magazine – Revolutionary voices. Soul-rich articles. Community-powered change.

🎙️Listen to the Podcast – Unfiltered conversations, spiritual fire, and mic-drop awakenings.

🔥 Join the Fireborn Guild – A private space for initiates walking the path of power, rebirth, and truth.

🏡 YES2U Academy – Courses, challenges, and trainings that rewire your life from the inside out.

🛍️ Shop Intention-Fueled Products – Ritual goods and self-activation tools designed to awaken your essence.

👕 Wear the Message – Visit the new #YES2U Merch Shop to embody the movement—literally. Statement designs, soul-coded slogans, and empowerment you can wear.