Who is
Peter S. Baron?
Peter S. Baron, also known as Pete, is a connector. He explores the interconnections among various aspects of life, linking each to the movement for a cooperative world. From identifying the overlap between Taoism and mutual aid, Gaia and decentralization, Westside Gunn and the zeitgeist, to Kevin Garnett and lightning, he finds connections everywhere. Once you get it, you can get it everywhere. When you are seeking out universal and pluralist truths, you will find them in all areas of life, no matter where you look.
Authored Books
If Only We Knew: How Ignorance Creates and Amplifies the Greatest Risks Facing Society
If only we knew. If only we realized how subtly our lives have been influenced, how quietly the elite have shaped the world we live in. The ultra-wealthy have guided us into a reality where their interests come first, but their grip is not unbreakable. Beneath the surface, they manipulate the structures that define our daily lives, but their control depends on our continued participation. Every day, we—the masses—reproduce this system by living out the lives capitalism has imposed upon us. We’ve been manipulated into sustaining this exploitative machine, kept ignorant of our potential to live securely and flourish through cooperation. Yet, the power to break free has always been ours. We can see through these illusions, reclaim what’s been quietly taken, and reshape our reality—by us, for us—through collective action and mutual aid.
You see, the wealth of the elite isn’t built on mere dollars and cents but on distraction, on a labyrinth of lies that keeps us stumbling. Capitalism is a relentless machine, feeding off human suffering to keep its gears turning. Ignorance acts as the oil that keeps it running smoothly, blinding people to the exploitation beneath, and allowing the system to grind on unchecked.
With the people’s attention turned inward—fighting for low-wage jobs, struggling to pay rent, caught up in shallow political debates—the wealthy elite stay firmly in control. The elite use their control over information to pit us against each other, fueling racial divisions, maintaining mass incarceration, and allowing gun violence to devastate communities. Meanwhile, they keep us unhealthy with poor working conditions and restricted access to nutritious food, only to charge exorbitant prices for healthcare when we inevitably get sick. They construct the illusion of a meritocracy but stack the deck in favor of those with wealth, social connections, and cultural capital, making real upward mobility nearly impossible. Even if some climb the ladder, the system requires a vast majority to stay at the bottom, providing the cheap labor that keeps capitalism running. This society is built to ensure not everyone can thrive, protecting the elite’s position at the top where they profit from those below. While we scramble for survival, they quietly consolidate their wealth and power.
Their symphony is chaos. Insecurity. Fear. And suffering, always suffering. This suffering feeds their system, lubricating the gears of profit, grinding down humanity into desperation, into endless cycles of selling and consuming. Selling ourselves, our time, our bodies, our souls. Buying back fleeting comforts, scraps of meaning, anything to fill the void left by what we’ve lost.
They build ignorance. They breed it. They don’t just ask for our surrender; they make sure we never even know we can live another way. They craft a world where alternatives seem distant, utopian fantasies drowned in cynicism. The elite guard the gates to knowledge, locking away solutions that could heal society's wounds. They hide the wisdom that could empower us to flourish, to be free. They’ve dulled our senses, numbed our curiosity, silenced our intellectual hunger. They beat us down, day after day, so that even as the storm of social risks grows darker, we cower. Afraid. Fractured. Defeated.
If Only We Knew lays out the framework to understand exactly how the elite preserve their dominance. No longer can the elite hide behind shadows, keeping us in the dark. The wisdom we need has always been with us, buried deep in the lived experience of our communities, in the stories and resilience passed down through generations, and in the power of our individual selves. Together, we will rediscover this well of knowledge, see through the fragile house of cards the elite have constructed, and recognize that their power is not invincible. It’s built on our consent—consent we are now ready to withdraw. The future is ours to reclaim, and with clarity and solidarity, their rule will crumble. We are waking up, and hope is on our side.
From Competition to Cooperation (In Progress)
Under capitalism, society is driven by a ruthless ethos of competition, a perpetual race where the finish line is ever-moving. The race for profit demands constant acceleration, pitting isolated individuals against one another in a relentless struggle to sell themselves—labor, skills, and even dignity—on the market, all for the currency they need to buy the necessities for their survival. Since profit must endlessly expand, so too must competition intensify, fueling an ever-worsening spiral of human suffering, exploitation, and desperation.
From Competition to Cooperation offers a way out of this vicious cycle that has entrapped humanity for generations. The way out is cooperation. The book lays out a sweeping, transformative vision of a future where labor is slashed to just 150 hours a year for every person, liberating the rest of their time for pursuits that genuinely fulfill the human soul. This radical reduction of work is made possible through a strategic integration of cutting-edge technology, efficient resource management, and a collective reorientation toward values of sustainability and community well-being. While bold, the plan is rooted in concrete, actionable steps.
In this envisioned society, money, state power, formal laws, and hierarchical structures vanish. Instead, it operates through the principles of free agreement, mutual aid, decentralization, and consensus-based governance. The path to liberation is not merely a distant goal—it is something we build and embody in the present. The future we seek to create emerges through living it now. From Competition to Cooperation serves not only as a guide for achieving a cooperative society but also as the operating manual for how such a society would function, merging the blueprint for liberation with the method of its realization.
From Competition to Cooperation speaks to a generation crushed beneath the weight of a system they neither created nor consented to. It calls out to the young and disillusioned, the activists demanding change, the pragmatists trying to make sense of a broken world, the worn-out workers, and the restless minds who dare to ask if this—endless drudgery, rampant inequality, and environmental collapse—is truly all there is. This is for the person who wakes up each morning with a gnawing sense that something in the fabric of our world is profoundly wrong. It’s for those who see their paycheck and feel the suffocating realization that it will never catch up to the relentless pressures of modern life.
This book speaks directly to the millions who have marched in movements like Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, or Occupy Wall Street, each a cry of defiance against the interlocking chains of oppression and exploitation. At a moment when Gallup polls show a staggering majority of Americans disillusioned with the country’s trajectory—from the economy to our moral compass—From Competition to Cooperation is more than just timely; it’s an urgent call to action. It addresses the deep dissatisfaction boiling under the surface, offering not just critique but a roadmap toward a world reimagined through cooperation, justice, and sustainability.
From Competition to Cooperation seeks not just to stir your imagination but to galvanize you into action. It serves as a diagnostic tool, revealing the deep-seated ailments of our current social, economic, and political systems. Yet, it is also a prescription, offering tangible, step-by-step measures to build a society where mutual aid isn't a radical concept but a lived reality. This is a book that doesn't merely aspire to change minds. It aims to build class consciousness. It aims to change the world.