whenever I hear this (about once a year on the Fediverse), I'm reminded that I never got taught the tragedy of the commons in its original form, because in my life it's always been a parable about how a commons needs its participants to get engage in some form of social dynamic with one another outside of their private use of resources (e.g. a village council, networks of trust / obligation) as a means to check bad actors from damaging the commons for others.

it was very popular with certain professors at uni who were using it to argue that we'd inevitably destroy the planet if left unchecked. still, this is placing the blame on the actions of individuals rather than looking at the effect of systems (capitalism)

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Let's not forget or fail to give credit to the great Elinor Ostrom, first woman to be awarded Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics.
Elinor's life work on commons taught us all that Hardin's story of the tragedy was wrong. Your understanding of it as a parable teaching importance of governance is due to Elinor.
Oh, and Elinor did it with both an incredible body of empirical work and game theory.

Oh word? I'll have some reading to do.

She spelled out very specific principles for an effective and durable commons, based on her observations: tn.boell.org/en/2023/04/19/5-e…