I do not believe in money. I do not believe in property. I do believe in an organized system to maintain peace, and to care for each other and the world we share. In "this previous post" I advocated for no ownership and proposed an alternative but similar system. I won't rehash the entire post here, but I will give a flavor of the philosophy in the two quotes below:
"Then if we are associated for the sake of liberty, equality, and security, we are not associated for the sake of property; then if property is a natural right, this natural right is not social, but anti-social. Property and society are utterly irreconcilable institutions. It is as impossible to associate two proprietors as to join two magnets by their opposite poles. Either society must perish, or it must destroy property."
--Pierre Joseph Proudhon; (1809 - 1865)
"The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say 'this is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had someone pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: 'Do not listen to this impostor. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!'"
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1854
Money and property are imaginary constructs that have bounced around between an organized system of opportunity and a bureaucratic system of ensuring status quo. Today we reside in the latter and this gap between opportunity and control is ever-widening. We are so caught up in divisive politics and pretentious grandstanding that there are no more good guys; there is no more common ground; and in this moment, there is very little societal learning and growth. Today, to be a moderate is to be indecisive; to sell out; to be a coward. But to pick sides is to perpetuate stupidity and ignorance. Yet pick sides, we must: the multi-mega in-your-face industrial size stupidity? Or the burrowing duplicitous contemptuous rat-face ignorance? We must choose the lesser of the evils.
I despise what we have become. And I realize that what we have become did not begin with elections in 2016; nor did it begin with the financial crisis of 2008. We have been working towards what we have become for decades. To give one person or one event all the blame (or credit) is to overcompensate; each one of us have contributed to this problem.
I would like to believe that we have reached the vertex and that our chaotic ineptitude will begin its transformation into energetic abundance; and perhaps the "energetic" piece will prevail sooner, but any sort of universal abundance appears to be some number of decades away. Regardless, we must begin.
And if we must begin with energy, I believe anger to be a fine impetus. I said "here" that I believe we should be angry; and I also said we should have a method to rationally prioritize that anger. If we can learn to consistently practice rational thought, which is most important when listening to the rat-face left or the in-your-face right, (especially if you are an enthusiastic member of the other side), then we have begun the process of transforming anger into energy. And once I have some momentum from consistent rational thought, perhaps I can focus that energy on productive output toward abundance.
If you find yourself agreeing that yes indeed, the other side should absolutely learn to practice rational thought, then you are still contributing to the problem. If you find yourself agreeing that yes indeed, both sides should absolutely learn to practice rational thought, then you are still contributing to the problem. It is only when I say, "I must consistently, in all circumstance, practice rational thought," that we will begin to move toward abundance; knowing that, on our current trajectory, tomorrow's abundance is today's presumption; tomorrow's desire is today's entitlement; tomorrow's despair is today's insolence.
And tomorrow's regret is today's fear.
Grow up!