The Meaning of Life and Other Vegetables

Hello everyone. Continuing from here, I’m going to say some things about Abundance.

If the need to trade could somehow be eliminated, the practical need for money would be eliminated too. Then, those who suffice with a secure life, basic comfort and moderate thriving could stop fueling those who never suffice, and crave money and power for the sake of money and power at the expense of everyone else (including the planet and everything on it). The former could instead focus on supporting and nurturing each other. What the latter will or won’t do will become less and less relevant, because the former will be self-sufficient as a population. Eventually, the latter will dwindle and decline because no one will unwittingly serve their interests.

As above – “If the need to trade could somehow be eliminated…”

That’s a big if.

But is it?…

Where there’s an abundance, trade is unnecessary. For so long – practically, since the dawn of humanity – we’ve objectively had scarcity rather than abundance, so the notion of scarcity and the need to trade are very powerfully ingrained in us. We’re conditioned to think in terms of exchange. No matter what we do or give, the question arises in our minds, almost automatically – what do I gain in return? But suppose you had endless abundance – you wouldn’t care about gaining anything, anytime, and you would give, and do, out of pure volition – the giving or the doing would serve some basic emotional need, or simply put: “feel good”.

The problem now is not scarcity. We have more than enough for everyone, of everything, and we have a fantastic capacity to generate even more; actually, in a better, more sustainable way. You’d say “but this abundance doesn’t come for free; someone needs to provide raw materials, work, knowledge and skills.” True; but this is – again – the scarcity / trade mindset speaking. Let’s consider work for a moment. Work is a resource I have in excess (I can do more work than I actually need for my survival on a daily basis). I wouldn’t give my work freely only because I’m short on other goods (or resources), for example electricity. But what if I had free, unlimited electricity?… What if I had free, unlimited <anything and everything I need>?… Not in the greedy, hoarding sense; but in the secure sense. In the sense of knowing that no matter what, my real, basic needs will be met for the rest of my life, and not from some huge stockpile that I hoarded. In that situation, I would choose to work, because it’s satisfying for me (for whatever specific reasons). True, cleaning toilets isn’t particularly satisfying for anyone, but designing and developing toilet cleaning robots, or self-cleaning toilets, or toilets that don’t get soiled, or even inventing something altogether better and more clever than a traditional toilet – can be very satisfying and challenging. Technologically, we’re ready to make that leap, and the only thing currently holding us back is our conditioning and our slavery to the current system, in which we trade our work for a fraction of its worth while others hoard irrational wealth. Those individuals will never be able to enjoy all that wealth themselves (or even with the “aid” of their dear ones), yet they are unwilling to put it to good service of billions who actually need it – literally starving, or dying of technically curable diseases.

As understood long ago, the goal is (and always has been) redistribution of the wealth, and now we’ve come to the point that technologically we have literal abundance – enough for everyone, of everything; so that redistribution doesn’t mean a zero-sum game. The only thing stopping us from abundant (and sustainable) redistribution is irrational greed, aided by an age-long, deeply seated conditioning for trade.

The way to eradicate the trade conditioning is by starting to give freely. If you can afford to give freely, just do it. The more the better, and the more often the better. How much? When to stop? You will know. Don’t give away something you feel you really need or cherish, and don’t work for free if it overburdens you, or you really need that time and energy for doing something else that feels necessary. This is a good state of mind, because it makes you ask yourself: “Do I really need it? Do I really cherish it? Is the other thing I’m working on/for really important/necessary for me? Or am I only acting out of fear of the future, or out of conditioning that every exchange is trade and that everything I give or do has a “mental price tag”, and therefore I’d be deprived or wronged if I gave it freely?”.

Just give.

Freely.

Without keeping account.

Whenever you feel like it.

As much as you feel like.

And don’t be ashamed to stop when you feel it’s time to stop. Don’t feel bad when you don’t give, because the whole point is to feel good about the whole thing. It’s okay not to give when you don’t feel like giving, because you are already giving something / sometimes, and that’s so much better than not giving at all and just hoarding for an imagined frightening tomorrow. Tomorrow won’t be that frightening because there will be someone else who will be better off than you, and they could help you then – it’s called solidarity.

We hoard only because we’re effectively brainwashed that no one will come to our aid in time of need, and therefore we have to prepare for the worst and sit on a stockpile that can last forever. In some instances this has effectively become a self-fulfilling prophecy: People believe so strongly that no one will ever help them if they needed help, that they are always busy accumulating, protecting themselves and insuring themselves for the worst, and have no resources and good will left for helping / giving others; hence, in that environment no one is helping anyone else, and the initial assumption is proven right. It’s a vicious cycle that can only be broken by a conscious decision and a proactive effort to help others.

Once many of us will make free giving a way of life, we will all have abundance, will need money less and less, and gradually drain the super-rich from their power over us.

Giving has many forms and we’re only limited by our imagination, though a good place to start is to look around and see who nearby is in need of something, or what problems can come closer to being solved through the modest free giving of one individual – You (or I). Donate food, let a homeless person have a shower, plant a tree, volunteer private lessons. There’s only one thing you shouldn’t do: Don’t donate / give money directly (it’s okay, however, to buy the seedling you are planting) – this will have the side effect of reinforcing the money economy. Donate your time, your energy, your skills, your knowledge, your talents, your passion, your ideas; and if you feel like it, you can also donate food, clothes, blankets, shelter, furniture, a bicycle…

Have a think about it…?

Peace to all.