h. Living Without Money

My reply, 12May'14:

I truly don't understand the fascination with people who say 'they live without money'.

Wake up! They don't! They just live on *other* people's money (in a world where everything works with money) and there is nothing original whatsoever about volunteering, or being kept by others - all children are kept by their parents: we're supposed to grow out of that at some point.

And there is certainly nothing original about slavery or in working for low wages, for that matter.

Frankly I find it very depressing to see that promoted as something revolutionary.

I also agree with Buckminster Fuller: If we want a more humane society we'll have to create it - and it will have to start with depriving the rich (the 1%) of their power to exploit everyone else. If you imagine for one moment that they will notice you not buying their products, or your 'withdrawal' from consumerist society, you are massively delusional. This cannot be done individually, by any kind of "life-style".

Changing (as opposing to trying to escape) the system requires a strategy, hard work, commitment & great fight companions. And thankfully there are lots (but not enough?) intelligent, focused people making concrete plans toward that.

But they tend to have climbed out of the "me, me, me" mentality that wants to have paradise just for me and on a plate by tomorrow.

That's just escapism ... and the reason 200 species went extinct today, and that 20,000 kids died of hunger today, is because there are millions of incredibly spoilt westerners (like me: the ones who most CAN do something about this) trying to give themselves the illusion of escaping the rotten system they hate so much, instead of using their massive set of privileges (which includes their ability to direct their money into *building* the alternatives) to bring that system down.

Changing society is a big job, and it needs a big plan, or at the very least a brutally honest look at the scale of the problem, and at just how much power we actually DO have. The real point is not to 'get rid of money' but to get rid of oppression & exploitation. They are NOT the same thing!

If you can't think of a viable, realistic strategy to co-create the kind of society we all DO want to live in, try reading the Deep Green Resistance book. It's the best strategy I've seen so far, together with the Integral Permaculture Designers Manual (free on the web).

But if you have a better plan for ending slavery of all kinds, including that of humans, great! Power to you. just DO it.

But please don't indulge the dangerous illusion that escape is going to work for anyone (including you). There's quite enough Weapons of Mass Distraction used 'officially' on us on a daily basis to keep us lost, separated & ineffectual. We really don't have to add our own to the arsenal.

Weapons of Mass Distraction

from the Urban Dictionary: