COMMENSAL ISSUE 95

Dear Theo,

Well, my inertia cannot easily be excused, I bring up the rear in terms of age anyway (or lead in terms of how you think) better to write now than never, its been a year and a bit since I 'joined' you. I can say I have been busy with my school subjects (including taking A-levels early) and with work concerning British involvement in the European Project, but as with all things there is a time to begin and this is my time here in PDG. I have enjoyed reading the issues of PDG over the past year and I offer my apologies for not giving a contribution to it, I therefore plead with you to respond to my donation. If you are still a 'Lurker,' (I believe this is becoming a piece of PDG jargon!) and have not yet written anything, WAKE UP!! You will get something out of it.

I am preparing an article on 'Pure Choice' concerning the definition of a 'Living Creature,' and whether some creatures are any different to machines. Also, I am preparing an article on 'Pure Democracy.'

Here is my first contribution to the newsletter:

THE WESTERN WAY IS ALSO A FLAWED ONE

Apathy is experienced in all walks of contemporary 'western life'. When I asked a group of scientists who continually take coffee breaks in the work place whether they were in any way addicted to coffee, they answered, "No...we are just addicted to not working!" And it can be an addiction, people will do anything to escape from the claws of hard graft, even though in our capitalist state we should be compelled to work because it brings forth heavy 'rewards'. Those who do not work hard are supposed to fail and go into poverty, but how hard is hard work ? No-one applies themselves 100% to a job because it is not worth it; we expend our energies in other worthwhile causes.

The purpose of work is to gain money to expend in activities we like doing and to buy food to survive. In our society, money is needed as much as food and is therefore necessary for life. We use it as a drug, enticing people to come and work for us; it is what makes the world go around. Money is the prime motivator in our world; people do jobs "for the money" and people get happy because of money. It seems to work well but there are pitfalls: like a drug, people develop a tolerance to money and get greedy for more. Employers need to give more money to workers to motivate them.

But is money a false motivator ? In essence it doesn't really have a natural value. Should society as a whole have to rely on this to motivate the whole public ? It is true that money can compel a workforce to work harder and more efficiently or is there a more preferable way ? Could this false motivator and 'drug' be causing profound problems in our world.

We recognise money as synthetic and unnatural. Money does not bring happiness because you always want more; it causes greed and suffering. Money can cause debt; money creates rich nations and causes poor ones. It causes wars and starvation and poverty, just the flow of money from one country to another causes stock markets to crash and virtual futures markets to collapse with the livelihood of a few million farms with it. Money has false value and is evil and corrupting.

Because money is false and 'empty', does it cause us to feel the empty and worthless ? Does it cause disillusionment in society and apathy towards government and ‘rebelism’ in the younger generation who wish to break out of the synthetic world. It is seen as a barrier that must be broken out of because they do not wish to be moulded into, 'model citizens.' This ‘rebelism’ is almost an act of self defence which gradually dies as they are standardised.

(See Frank Walker [C94/6] he goes someway to explaining this inherent disease in our state systems but the education system is only one aspect of this standardisation. The silly rules he describes are the spark that ignites 'real crime’, later in life.)

People turn to apathy when they feel that they as an individual do not count for anything. In our world everything is standardised and ordered, everything is 'brought into line’. Natural variation is a recognised quality in our human race, every being is different, every soul has its different edition of how the world is presented to it. Our modern world squanders this resource and standardises all aspects of our life, our communication, our freedom and liberty until we feel as though we are but a statistic on a politician's plate. This causes the disinterest in elections and politics and results in ‘rebelism’ and depression of the people at large.

How can we rectify this world mess we have before us ? I don't think it would be appropriate to say, "answers on the back of a postcard..." but if we just remove ourselves from society for a moment and imagine we are an alien race looking upon lonely earth, observing all the complex systems and communications we would see how pathetic we actually are. We would see that Third World countries are starving and in conflict because of the monetary system and greed we impose on them. They would be able to see our errors much more clearly. We discriminate against other countries because they do not conform to the "Western Way" of government, law making and humanitarianist contradictions; there is no room in our world for variation.

(Isn't it interesting that only democratic countries can enter the EU ? Is any country properly democratic ? Does the fact that 'true democracy' is impracticable make it necessary to put up with a weak alternative ? Is democracy the best way to govern ? See John Neary / Democracy [C93/37-38]).

Sometimes I think that our state systems are long due a format, a wiping away of everything that has gone before in terms of monetarism and government and nonsense traditions that only serve to hold us back. An end to currency as the staple source of motivation for the workers, this is a way to destroy class and greed. Maybe people can gain their motivation from doing other people a good turn and receiving good gifts back ? For example, the farmer gives the produce to the baker who bakes the bread to give back to the farmer. Could systems like this make the world go around ? It seems to me that it would be a better world to live in for everybody, this would encourage variation in the human race because variation would be needed to fulfil all the jobs required. People would do the 'good turns' because they wanted to help someone and not necessarily get something back in return. These systems would make it unnecessary for there to be a government to oversee good business, there is no profit to be made so there is no greed. Motivation does not have to derive from self benefit.

Comments ? Have you any answers to the questions? I will update you on my latest thoughts on this matter as it matures and unravels in my mind. I thank you for being a kind reader, and I hope this will stimulate hot debate in the PDG.

Paul Cadman - I now Join the 30%

Paul : Good to hear from you, and I enjoyed your exhortation of others to take part. I look forward to your future offerings. That said, I was in less than total agreement with the substance of your articles above !

People don’t desire money as such. Money, after all, is a proxy for the things that it can buy. When held in excessive quantities it brings power, again because of the things it can buy, though often only the threat of its use is necessary. So, maybe your real opponent is materialism, or maybe competitiveness. You point out all the evils of money. Yes, it can lead to debt, but only if our projects go wrong. But it does allow us to engage in projects without an immediate payback, or to buy time. Should we all stay at home with mother into our fifties, or are mortgages OK ? I might also add that money is a cohesive factor in society - in that it only has value in a stable society.

Your solution sounds a bit like Communism, and we know what a success that turned out to be. It is a fact of human nature that some are more able, aggressive, acquisitive, .. , than others. They can only be restrained by laws that can themselves only be enforced by people who are motivated to do so. Alternatively, their energies can be channelled - or they can be given the opportunity to exercise them in ways that are not overly destructive.

Utopia always seems to end up worse than the corrupt society it replaces, so lets be content with our half a loaf.

Theo