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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

OPEN 24hrs: a sci-fi short

Open 24hrs

How much do we need money in this world?

Consider this for a moment...

What is money? Motivation is one. And a form of control, another. Intertwined with it being a form of control, is it is an avenue of (and to) power. But power is secondary, because to gain power you must gain a form of control.

Okay. Do we need money? And that question is not "do we need money" as in "will money make us happy" --- its a literal question. Is money needed in our global village? No.

Which is why I find this who economic crisis funny (hey, I'm having a hard time finding work just like everyone else, I'm in the same crunch. But its still funny). How arbitrary money is. Not the concept of money, because the concept is simply a bartering system. But the actual systems money has set up.

Picture this: You can place a hand on someones chest, or feel the veins in their wrist or neck, and catch their heartbeat. This is real. This is actual. But Wall Street, the Stock exchanges, have to use computers to catch whatever it is their catching. Its fabricated. Its digital. Not actually actual.

As capitalist civilizations have progressed, the idea of a bartering society has reduced. A bartering society exists in Africa today -- you want dinner, but have no money. The clerk could say, "I like that hat. Give me that hat. I will give you dinner. But I want that hat first."

See what this does? Removes power from those select people with money to everyone, as everyone will have something someone wants. But what about those people who literally have nothing? Then they are able to work to gain that which they need -- you need clothing or food? Work and your payment will be in food. Do you need something else in conjunction? Then work for someone who will give you such things. And the cycle continues.

How would it work in America lets say? I'm gonna answer a question with a question. Why can't a person work at an G.E. knowing that the mass majority "needs" electricity? Including theirself. This comes with the idea that people are good people. That they're willing to work not only for "the self", but for the global/national village.

GARY NASH decribes IROQUOIS culture:

"No laws and ordinances, sheriffs and constables, judges and juries, or courts or jails---the apparatus of authority in European societies---were to be found in the northest woodlands prior to European arrival. Yet boundaries of acceptable behavior were firmly set. Though priding themselves on the autonomous individual, the Iroquois maintained a strict sense of right and wrong. ... He who stole another's food or acted invalourously in war was "shamed" by his people and ostracized from their company until he had atoned for his actions and demonstrated to their satisfaction that he had morally purified himself."

This type of system, though not an exact replica, existed in Timbuktu. A very advanced society where the people of the world would come to study in their libraries. So its not far fetched to think people have it in their hearts to follow this idea. People today are conditioned. This is what they know.

The internet should have changed this, as the TV was supposed too, make the local village into the global village, bringing people closer. But those under-represented areas where internet is not readily accessible, causes those areas to continue being under-represented.

In general, most artists work for no money. People have passion projects or hobbies that they do for free. So there are things people will do without the allure of money. I think this is what needs to be tapped. That little instinct is what bartering societies are set upon --- it is built into us and money seems to be building it out of us.

The majority of police officers do not join the force for money alone. Its a type of wanting having nothing to do with money. So you wouldn't have to be so worried about the police vanishing...

Until you realize that people are so conditioned to work with money, that the very idea of changing to a bartering system culture shock sets in. As the very walls of what they know are crumbling. People kinda have a hard time dealing with that.

I can see why.

But built within humanity is adaptability. We can roll with the punches if we want too.