Let’s talk about money. I was thinking about it, is it really the source of evil in this world? The answer for sure is not an absolute yes or no. There are many parameters that we have to analyze before reaching out a conclusion. This article reflects some thoughts of mine and of course it is subjective and in no circumstances can be considered as correct or incorrect, true or false or anything like that.
This conversation is about criticizing the modern society and the typical attitude of the people. Do you believe that the money in its current form is a corrupting factor of the human soul? In the following lines, we will analyze some facts to understand if money is an evil construct or not. If you don’t find anything wrong in the world as it is or you feel that everything is just right, stop reading and go here www.facebook.com, or else be warned that you may waste your precious time.
Physical Resources: The Blood of Economy (not!)
Do you play computer games? I love computer games and especially strategy games. Well, in the majority of strategy games there is some sort of economy. It is necessary to expand your empire, tribe, corporation, group; you name it. Most of the games are keeping the economy system simple. Every economy relies on physical resources. So you have to gather resources (some pop resources in strategy games are wood, stone, gold, etc.) to build structures, buy upgrades, do some research, etc. The more resources you have, the faster you can expand. Easy.
This system is the same as in reality, but a lot more complicated due to the higher number of resources. As with the strategy games, the industry needs physical resources to transform them into goods or consumables. As a species, nation, town, or whatever the scale is, there is always a resource harvesting process and then a transformation to useful items. At This point, the process is similar in both cases.
This is the point where the strategy games and reality differ. In the games, the money that you have have a direct connection to the harvested resources. In the real world, this connection does not exist anymore.
Money as a Product: The Evil Starts
With that evolution of the currency, some new economic terms also born and some of them define our lives and future. One common one is the debt. When you spend money that you borrowed, but cannot pay back, you create dDebt. But who was lent you the money and why? How can this trade be translated to the simpler game economy model? It cannot. There is no connection. It is something else that has nothing to do with the process of gathering materials and creating goods. It is just a complex layer of control over the population. We will see why.
This is the first sign that money seems to be linked to the evil. As we know, the money from a handy tool, transformed into an instrument of mass control and contention. It is related explicitly to a person’s freedom. Your freedom stops at the spot where you run out of money.
Unfortunately, money is connected to consumption. You have no money; you cannot consume. Right? No, it is worse. You have no money, you die. You have to make money for a living. Without it, you cannot afford to have a home, and you cannot buy food and of course you don’t have access to the healthcare system.
In the strategy games, the resources that you gather and spend are for the common good of your colony. In other words, your community benefits from the resources all equally (yes I know what this is… but no, I am not a communist). The point here is that you don’t have to worry about helping the poor and the homeless in games because they simply do not exist. The common assumption is that as long as, we are talking about an evolved society of smart and conscious beings, there are no people with uncovered basic needs.
Of course, the reality is different. In a game, if there is for example overpopulation, you just gather resources and build houses for your people. You don’t build houses and then keep them vacant because these people cannot buy them… A structured human society should guarantee all the basic needs of its population.
This principle is reflected in strategy games, but not in reality. It’s because this extra layer of control that is called monetary system. There is no need for a system like that in a game as there will be no fun at all. Apart from that, your society would be doomed in any case. Imagine how many micromanagement parameters you should have to consider and regulate to be everyone happy. Actually, you cannot satisfy them all.
As long as the money is necessary for the human survival, apart from the fact that it is controlled by a tiny percentage of people that have endless amounts of it, the money becomes the primary goal for every human. At this point, the corruption of a virtuous human soul starts. We will talk about corruption in a while.
Domination: Nature’s Fault
But what happens with the people that have passed by far the need of making money for a living. They just continue to make money, demanding more and more. But they know as we also know that no matter what they do, they have so much that would make no difference whether they continue to earn big profits or not. This kind of people such as bankers, multinational corporation CEOs, politicians, etc. just don’t stop. They are addicted making more and more profits, but the reason is other. It is not for survival or consumption because they have so much that can buy anything. It is all about power. It’s all about this dark feeling that lies hidden in each one of us.
It is a primal instinct that wants us to be higher in the hierarchy, to earn the respect or fear of the others. To be “Godlike.” These people, care about their “legacy,” their family name, their actions, and they get addicted to their power over the people’s lives. It is not about the money; it is about the human nature. Who said that nature doesn’t make mistakes? It is called domination and is one of the biggest, and it is not only in humans but in animals too.
So, as it comes to natural behavior, why is that bad? Because as evolved creatures we have developed consciousness and intelligence. These traits of our brain cortex should control our primal instincts. If we cannot control them, then we are just a bunch of animals in a jungle.
As a member of an organized society, you control your hostility to another person, and you don‘t start a fight, at the same time you don’t flirt with your best friend’s wife, and you don’t steal from a store even if your instinct is telling you the opposite. We have invented laws for keeping our primal instincts under control. Otherwise, an organized society wouldn’t exist.
It’s All About Survival
The human “weakness” of the need for more and more power to dominate the lives of the others is also a primal instinct that must be suppressed in an organized society. Well, it didn’t happen. How is the money linked to this faulty human element? Money is power, is freedom, is knowledge, and is leverage.
As the means of power evolved, domination changed too. No matter who you are, if you are healthy, strong, intelligent, knowledgeable or whatever traits you possess, if you don’t have money you are considered weak. Eventually, you will lower your terms to get some cash because your survival depends on it.
On the other hand, If a cancerous, unhealthy, fat, arrogant, malicious, and mostly hated “Godlike” offers you an opportunity to earn some bits of money when you are empty, he “saves you.” He just buys a follower. You see a savior in his face, and he is seeing a worshipper in yours, confirming that his deeds can be compared to that of a god’s. This is domination, a major flaw in our nature that our societies didn’t manage to confine.
All these stuff bring the corruption of the average human, not only the powerful. As the society doesn’t care about its members’ needs, earning money became the number one target of all. People became so focused on this objective that they forgot that they cannot buy happiness. People overvalued their primary goal leaving behind everything else. They became disrespectful and selfish. Their motto was changed from “I think therefore I am” to “I consume therefore I am.” Most people are giving up their beliefs and virtues when an opportunity for a “big score” shows up.
So, is the current form of money the root of all evil? No! It is not the root; it is just the backbone. The root is our thirst for power, it is an instinct since our existence, and we cannot remove it from our nature. Theoretically, this illness should have been contained when the man invented the Law, but even the Law has its price.
As long as anyone can collect unlimited amounts of money, he can accumulate unlimited power as well. Unlimited power means that you are above the Law. Who is above the Law? A god. Who creates a Law? A god. Who establishes the laws? Powerful people. Why? Because you, that you don’t possess that much power to be unable to hurt them.
If we make a summary of what we discussed above, all the evil signs of the money:
- Freedom stops when the money
- No money, no life. Literally!
- Enforces the primal instinct of domination.
- Corruption
“Alternatives Please!”
But how could we avoid that outcome? Well, I believe that if we had kept it simple, then we would have thrived as a species. We could have done it like in the strategy games.
As long as human activity and evolution depend on physical resources, we could just produce the same goods based on the harvested resources. The money would exist only as a mean of controlling consumerism, in a way that products can be affordable to all the people. The state would cover all of the basic needs, such as housing, feeding, healthcare, etc. Money still keeps the identity of the trading tool, but it is just that.
Actually, in this type of society money doesn’t exist. It is just a limit to what each member can consume taking into account that production is based on limited physical resources. This type of economy makes it impossible for anyone to amass massive amounts of money and power but still provides a decent way of living for all people.
This is another topic I would like to write about later. Also, it is the economy model of the “Project Athena,” the first human colony that decided to form a social-economical system that will avoid the mistakes of the Earth people. It is part of my free ebook that I am going to publish on this site shortly. I hope you will like it.
