Block One
Welcome to the Governance Accelerator Program for Bankless Publishing! If you haven’t already, please take a look at the program overview, and the as they will help guide you through the program.
Governance Accelerator Program
Written Assignment Instructions
Block One will consist of four weeks of exploration and provide a foundation in critical thinking and writing. We will look at four pieces that are designed to point your thinking toward …
your thinking.
As stated in the Written Assignment Instructions, there are no wrong answers, only bad logic. You’ll spend these first four weeks understanding how to rationalize your answers and improve your thought process through writing. You will then use this skill set in the next set of blocks.
For the reading, please download the PDF to your device for review in whatever app you will use to read and annotate PDFs. For your assignment, refer to the questions below the PDF, and answer them in accordance with the guidelines in . When you have completed your writing, either provide a link to your Google Doc or send your assignment as a PDF to me via Discord DM.
Written Assignment Instructions
WEEK ONE, WEEK OF AUGUST 15
Reading: Radical Thought by Jean Baudrillard (PDF)
Questions:
- How does Baudrillard juxtapose Radical Thought with Reality?
- What does Baudrillard mean when he says “Reality, in general, is too evident to be true.”?
WEEK TWO, WEEK OF AUGUST 22
Reading: Afraid to be free: Dependency as desideratum by James M. Buchanan
Questions:
- What does Buchanan mean when he makes the claim that “persons are afraid to be free.”?
- How does this work into the idea that governance is everybody’s responsibility?
WEEK THREE, WEEK OF AUGUST 29
Accelerator Call Reading: “Is a “Decentralized Autonomous Organization a Panopticon?” https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3488663.3493791
Assignment Reading: Albert Camus and the Ethics of Rebellion, by James E Caraway
Questions:
- What does Camus refer to as the absurd?
- How does the absurd influence our perceptions regarding reality?
WEEK FOUR, WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 5
Assignment Reading: “Tools for Conviviality” by Ivan Illich, pages 61 to 67, section titled “Radical Monopoly”
Questions:
- How does Illich differentiate between a monopoly and a radical monopoly?
- Pick one:
- What ideology in Web3 serves as an example to Illich’s conveyance of a Radical Monopoly? (I am looking for something specific here)
- What are some examples of attempts to institute Illich’s Radical Monopoly in our global political climate?
Just for fun, Extra Credit*:
Questions:
- What past reading is this reminiscent of?
- How does this tie in to our understanding of the challenges in governance? You are welcome to draw from examples of popular classic literature in drafting this piece.
*If you do the Extra Credit, this piece will serve as a freebie for a future assignment that you are not able to complete, or simply don’t want to.