Organic Social Capital (OSC) presents a speculative concept of a society where one’s social status is attributed to their care towards the flourishing of nature. It shifts the meaning of the idiom "blood, sweat, and tears" about hard work to prioritize labors of care for ecology over economy.
Ecology over Economy
Welcome to the world of 2045. It is heavily influenced by the principles which governed our society in 2022: optics are everything, and acknowledging the collective focus on the climate crisis, governing bodies have used the prominence of social media platforms and influencers to redirect what status “looks like.” Much as how material objects such as luxury fashion, real estate, ambitious careers titles, and travel have previously been regarded as markers of high-success, in order to gain visibility and notoriety in the 2045 world, one should invest in and expand their knowledge about maintaining a flourishing environment. This future built society exists paralleling our current pursuit of social capital, but in this world, nature is the most valuable asset we own.
For a flourishing life.
Growing one’s Organic Social Capital mirrors the “blood, sweat, and tears” mindset by quantifying the input of attention and human byproducts which naturally contain nutrients for plant growth as a tangible currency. Similar to traditional measures of value, like GDP, OSC quantifies and compares human output, but now the paradigm shifts to prioritize an ecology of care, nurture, and community health.
The Manifesto
The world of Organic Social Capital follows a set of values outlined in a manifesto to encourage a mindset whose objective is to de-prioritize a human ideal of “survival” to instead focus on the longevity of our full environment. The values are as follows:
Relinquishment
We relinquish the need for humans to roam the world forever. Human reproduction is deemed an unviable endeavor considering (lack of) access to wealth, health, resources, and love.
OSC (Organic Social Capital)
Our society exists due to the pursuit of social capital and nature is the most valuable asset we own. The more it flourishes, the higher one’s OSC.
Soil to Soil (Dust to Dust)
We have accepted eventual extinction as a collective species as we no longer believe in death. We look forward to returning to the earth once our bodies have been expunged.
