WAY Outside The Box

After sharing some of my views concerning a way of life in which work would not be a central factor, I received the following response:

"What is the alternative to work if you want to eat regularly? You
can't even grow your own food without buying seeds first and that takes
money."

Although I had shared my views with a number of family members, this is the only response I received. Evidently, only one person had the time, energy, and care to ask a single question and present a single view of their own. I cannot thank this person enough for not automatically ignoring or dismissing my contrbution, and for being open-minded enough to even ask a question. I sincerely hope my answer is equal to it:

First, let me say that I agree with you.

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." (- Albert Einstein)

There's no way to accomplish this all at once. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Western Civilization won't be unbuilt, or revamped, in a day. The first step, though, is to change the way people think. We are living in a world where the old boundaries between groups of people are blurring and dissolving, because the real action is taking place on a global level; the internet and the economy are both globalized. Also, the boundaries between present and future are weakening, as we begin to confront the possibility of our own self-extinction. As strange or unnatural as it may be for them, in the beginning, people must begin to think about the big picture, and the root questions, or radical questions (the Latin origin of the word 'radical' is literally translated as 'root').

We have to honor the lessons of the past. Visonary scholar, Terence McKenna, repeatedly said that, when a civilization finds itself going down the wrong path, and wishes to correct itself, the smart thing to do is to return to the place where it went wrong. Otherwise, we just get more and more lost. But, what can you expect from a patriarchal society, which, like many men, refuses to turn back or stop for directions? We could stop for directions by consulting the few outposts of indigenous tribal peoples still left in the world, and especially in the Amazon -- that is, before we rape and pillage their lands, then assimlate them as wage-slaves, all under the banner of progress and free enterprise.

We can also learn from a study of the ancient Egyptian and Indus Valley civilizations, which were both founded in temperate climates, near rivers which flooded predictably, twice every year. They had only to toss seeds on the ground and let the cattle walk over the seeds. Everything they needed grew with hardly any labor. In Egypt, this allowed the people to have enough free time and energy to build pyramids, but I imagine we could find better uses for our time. In the Indus Valley, they built the first apartment buildings, and the first underground sewage system (which would, some 4,000 years later, become the envy of Mideaval Europe). The people of the Indus, some 3,000 years before the birth of Christ, had already "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks" (Isaiah 2:4) Few weapons have been found. They did not have standing armies, nor practice the art of warfare. The people worked far less than we do. They used their time to reflect on the mysteries of life, to examine themselves, to develop thier higher capacities, to develop relationships with one another, to appreciate nature, to create works of art, etc.

'Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe’er contented, never know...
How various his employments whom the world calls idle,
and who justly in return esteems that busy world an idler too!''
~ William Cowper

Some of the communities established by early Christians, just after the time of Christ, are especially exemplary. For one thing, they did not believe, as we do, in the concept of private property. Seed was not something you had to buy, or even plant, really. Orchards were not owned, seed was not hoarded. Do you see that we could cover this earth with fruit trees and all manner of useful vegetation, if we were not hung-up on this ideology of greed; of every man for himself? Is it work, to pluck an apple, or peel the husk from an ear of corn?

There is no work in Eden, and there will be none in the Kingdom of Heaven On Earth. Not really. What little labor is required would be undertaken eagerly and voluntarily, not under compulsion, but according to man's natural desire to be productive. That desire would not be perverted, and made to serve destructive ends, as it is now.

What we need is a Resource Based Economy. Much of the thinking and planning has already been done, and many people support this movement. The scientfic branch of this movement is called The Venus Project, and is rooted in the idea of Jacque Fresco, a modern day DaVinci. The activist arm is called The Zeitgeist Movement. At this point, we can begin, at the very least, by changing our thinking, and becoming spokespersons for a new vision. We may not get there, our children may not get there, but if we do our part now, our grandchildren or great-grandchildren might.

There is a lot to say, but thank you for reading this much.

The only questions we can answer are the ones we ask, -- which is why it is so important to keep an open mind; not to close the books, but to allow for the possibility of unforeseen methods and perspectives, and to actively seek them out. Our society is designed precisely to make this sort of independent inquiry difficult, by keeping us busy and stressed. Once, the structures we created were expressions of communal impulses, which served the people; now the structures are extremely hierarchical, designed to serve the few, and be served by the many.

A few quotes from thinkers:

"I came into the world to disagree."
~ Maxim Gorky

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule, the majority are wrong."
~ Eugene Debs

"A reasonable man conforms to the world around him, but an unreasonable man expects the world to conform to him; therefore, all progress is made by unreasonable men."
~ G.B. Shaw