Like time and air, it does appear to me that to be truly happy, Man was not meant to own many of the things we struggle for today. Every day, everyone is issued 24 hours, and all the air that is needed. No one accumulates more than they need of each. No one can own time. Money and all that it represents is strong in my mind among the things we shouldn’t own individually or have in reserve. Man, it seems wasn’t meant to accumulate money to buy the things we hustle money for.
Our world promotes personal enrichment, even at our and others’ expense and the peril of the environment. But that is not optimal and sustaining. I used to live in an Estate where everyone wanted to own a borehole. Regardless of the dangers to the environment and risks to themselves, everyone was geared to owning one. In line with the thinking that we were not meant to own everything, I suggested that up to 4 neighbors can share a borehole. I reasoned that we simply needed a regular supply of water to our homes; we didn’t need to own boreholes. To the credit of that community, this was adopted and in at least 2 instances up to 8 neighbors even shared a borehole. You see, we do not need to own everything!
Maybe like air, time, we shouldn’t own or rather accumulate money, the same way we cannot ‘keep’ time for future use or store air generally or own water if we live by the riverside.
What is money anyway? It is just access, tickets, values that can be attributed to someone, resources valued & quantified & evaluated. In the cryptocurrency era, it is simply what people say it is. In reality, it is just a means to an end, although, sadly it has become an end in this mad world and that sickens me! Many, many people’s goals in life is to make money. Just a few people can, in clear terms tell you what they need the money for. When those who know begin to reel out their reasons for the mindless pursuit of money, you will soon realize it is just a craze for more and more that detracts from life and does not add to happiness in any way.
Imagine a world where the stated purpose is:
“We shall utilize our resources to ensure that everyone reaches the greatest heights of their abilities & that everyone lives optimally!”
In this model, backed by a blockchain, for example, Administrators faithfully manage the resources of the community for its advancement.
- Everyone has access to programmes to help them develop all their natural abilities. The human resources are maxed to be premium at the highest capacity – Scientists, Doctors, Teachers, Footballers, Garbage Collectors, everyone at their very best. Everyone works at self development until there is no more competency deficiencies!
- Everyone works! We are all endowed with something the world needs & our existence is made meaningful as we explore our talents and contribute fully. With all our abilities at their prime and meaningful work available, everyone produces as best as is possible, utilizing all capabilities and time efficiently- a tailor for a few hours, a music student for a few other hours. A tour guide another few hours! Here, all contribute to essential services – a few hours a doctor, some other hours a volunteer doing school runs or an attendant in the communal food bank.
- Everyone gets exactly what they need, no more, no less just like a buffet – come eat enjoy all the meals in the world, and tomorrow, assuredly, we will have the same or even a better assortment. Of what benefit would it then be to hoard plenty food at home?
- We have built array of homes, those for a single adult, only couple, couples with children according to their number. However, if you need an apartment not specific to your need whether larger or smaller, you can have it, provided you can care for it! You want some customization? Simply walk into the Office designing Homes and speak to Professionals eager to have your suggestions.
- All kinds of appliances, furniture toys, etc will be produced and free for you to pickup and make your homes comfortable. Transport? – Simply walk into the communal garage and take what car catches your fancy or what you need. We will provide public transportation in all routes though.
- No waste. Every output is an input! Nothing is allowed to waste.
- There is full cooperation by all. No strife-ridden competition. We all work as one to solve our problems.
- There is justice, fairness and love. With the ‘strong’ protecting the ‘weak’.
- How do we compensate our high flyers? We shall give them commendation letters, build monuments to them. Name Bridges, roads, parks, buildings and the like after them. Give them more resources like Gold, Silver, Food, Bigger Houses, etc? That would be insulting; they already have those for free for being members of the Community. Imagine bottling up some air and giving to an Achiever as reward today. How would that distinguish him from others?
Are you thinking of a communist society? Nay, this is far beyond communism. Communism’s ‘Each one according to his needs’ excludes the utopian world I imagine where it would also be ‘each one according to his ability with eagerness and purpose’. Everyone is happy to work. There is complete freedom to stay or to leave. Did you not notice also that there would be corruption? Not Communism and not Socialist Capitalism.
Today, most of the resources we gather are never used. Most end up as figures on a screen, the real resources used by Banks and other Institutions to enrich themselves! What then is the need of holding so much value if it does not add value to you or to others? Then we resemble the rabbit that works all summer gathering too many nuts to the detriment of other rabbits. By the next summer, he still has enough nuts to last 2 Summers but needs to gather fresh nuts and no one wants his stale nuts from last summer. Complete waste of effort! Why complicate life dedicated to amassing wealth that is never used and never necessary?
Today, a lot of the resources that are used reek of gluttony. Let us illustrate with a bed. We sleep in a corner of a bed every night. Some very rich people have a home with 20 Bedrooms, that is 20 beds but he can sleep in just one small corner of one bed. Worse of all he has houses with many bedrooms, yes, beds all over the world; in addition, he has hotel reservations in many cities where he has locked down beds. One man! Many of the beds, no one would ever lie in, just like the figures on the screen in Banks.
Imagine, in this world I envision, these beds are available to all that need them! If he also needed the beds in any city in the world they would be available to him. Nothing is allowed to waste, even a bed!
When I studied Agricultural Marketing I found out that the world has enough food resources to take care of everyone a million times over! Hunger is a problem resulting from the inequitable distribution of the world’s resources. This inequitable distribution malaise is the reason we accumulate all the things we insist on owning, which ought to be readily available to everyone like air and time.
‘But that is food, we are talking of gold, diamonds and precious metals’, you may retort. Sad that you have been deceived! There are enough gold and diamonds in the earth’s crust to ensure every human on earth has over a hundred tons each if we choose to share them out. Even if you may object to this, are you aware that there is a countless number of planets in our galaxy that are made up of almost all the metals we consider precious? So where is the scarcity?
What do you think of a man who begins to bottle and store large quantities of oxygen in your locality? Or of a man by the Ocean who stores water for future use? You’d consider him sick. This world that promotes such wanton accumulation of other resources is sick and needs to go. We have been debased by all the political and economic systems man has practiced that have subjected us to such levels of debauchery.
Another angle to this whole madness of wealth accumulation is the fact that we truly didn’t produce anything. Our life, intellect, and the World’s natural resources are gifts from a Benevolent Maker. We are just appropriating based on our strengths what should belong to all. How is one’s contribution better than another? We are all parts of the system as shown clearly in the recent Pandemic where the Garbage Collector was more important than the CEO & if we have worked hard, all should get a share of the bounty instead of concentrating it in a few.
I believe a just World will come that will rid us of this ‘own, own’ mentality; a world that will ensure that all earth’s resources are used for the benefit of everyone on earth. That World would do far beyond all that I imagine. I know that world is nigh because I have seen visions of it and have read of it as revealed by the Creator.
Related Article: https://welikrus.com/surviving-civilization-by-pius-jerome-ogbaje/