We are indeed a very stupid species, and I will attempt to explain and bolster this contention. It may have beeen De Tocqueville who said, "those who learned nothing yesterday, will undoubtedly repeat the same mistakes as they did yesterday". It seems to me that, as a species, we have gone day after day making the same mistakes. I will offer a few noted examples of yesterday's lessons to illustrate my point.
Money is the root of all evil
As I'm sure you are aware, belief is the mortal enemy of all things worthwhile. Money is actually not the villain here. It is our blind belief in its use and value that is the source of all things bad. It was bad enough when money was backed by gold, but now we place our misguided faith in worthless, pretty paper, and multi-sized, metallic discs (made you might note from our most worthless metals). It is almost belly laugh funny that we have accepted these trinkets (no less worthless that the beads traded for Manhattan) as the ultimate goal. The fortunate among us work all year for 100,000+ pieces of paper, whose worth is determined by the people we work for; by the people who dictate the quality of our very existence. I'll trade you Baltic Ave for Boardwalk if you can tell me how this makes any sense. That we assign arbitrary value to the costs of anything is ludicrous. The stuff it's made of was already here; we simply have to put it together. And the notion of scarcity as the driving force of value is almost schizophrenic. Anyone whose been to western Oregon can tell you that there is no scarcity of land in the US, yet you can easily shell out a million scraps of paper for shelter, which should be a basic human right. It should be ok... if I want to build a log home on the median strip of Route 128. Where does the 'Commonwealth' of Massachusetts get off telling me that they own that land. But I digress. Let's look at money for a few minutes. We sold the 'messiah' for a few bucks, yet given the scarcity of messiahs, he should have been worth a lot more. In strictly monetary terms, you average slave from west Africa was worth a whole lot more than the son of god. Shit, we fought a war over their 'value'. And automobiles amuse me as well. We are going to run out of gas sometime. And don't bring up the Prius, or the Volt. They still need oil, or the motors seize. Yet many of us will still spend the equivalent of the GNP of many of the world's countries on something that will be obsolete in this century. We have always taught our children to defer their gratification. Unfortunately, we are not setting the best example. So I will ask...why is it that we adopted such a ridiculous economic model, while maintaining that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? While most of you don't share my belief that we should dismantle all governments, perhaps you would consider this. Make government service volunteer. I mean, it's good enough for the kids we send off to die in useless wars (unless you consider the acquisition of more money a noble cause). Let's simply start over...and make shelter, food and medical care fundamental and cost-free human rights...world fucking wide. Let's throw heat and electricity in there as well. Guarantee each and every human being a standard of housing with land... a healthy needed-caloric-intake-level diet...the most advanced medical care. There need not be any monetary outlay. Take only what we need from the earth, and leave the earth what she needs. Yes, we have to chip in some labor, but we needn't assign any monetary value to it. We could simply say that it was the right and kind thing to do.
Look at it a different way. We are running out of things to do. We don't make things anymore, and computers can take over what manufacturing we have left. We need doctors, although we could use a few more who give a shit about their patients, and care a little less about their Mercedes (and maybe a few who seek cures that don't kill you). How many could that add up to?And yes we need software engineers, and trash collectors. And that's it. If we get rid of government, we get rid of lawyers, soldiers, spies. We get rid of religion, we get rid of differences. We get rid of countries, we get rid of boundaries. Most of us will be left to create what we can, create what we want. We might even find the happiness that seems elusive to all of us disconnected by trying to make more than the next guy.
Quantum mechanics, which most of us will never understand, leads logically and mathematically, to an phenomenon known as entanglement; where two particles, no matter how distantly removed, are connected across the multiverse. If such a thing exists, and it does, at the most fundamental level of our reality, then how can anyone deny that we are connected in even broader ways. It is simple construction. I, personally, know that this entanglement thing is the real deal, and I am a much happier pauper for it. Across the vast expanse, I learned that I have something of value to say...and should say it...even if everyone else thinks I'm a fool.
Happy Boxing Day everyone!
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