Nobody actually wants money, not really. They want what the money means, what it stands for. They want food, shelter, water to drink, the security to plant their life in an area that won't be uprooted against their wishes, and to have options in case it does. But more than that, deeper than that, what we all want, fundamentally, is autonomy.
Control over our own time, mastery over our own lives, and the claiming of our birthright to act according to our own nature. To choose how each precious day will be spent during the only fleeting life we have. But how much of our time is actually spent on our terms?
Subtle coercion acts in the shadows of our culture, guiding our hands and pulling our strings, influencing how we think and what we see. Destiny is not determined by grand decisions, but is crafted through the countless choices of mundane life. By being denied the true autonomy of choosing who we become, we are denied the true honour of meeting who we may become.
This way of life is a moment in time. An era of history that will be long forgotten before the sun so much as yawns. Yet here we all are. Side by side at the table of a societal game that keeps going and going whether we're ready or not.
We learn by playing, and no tips are given. No time to breathe, no time to think; we need to keep playing otherwise we'll sink into poverty and drown in despair. Running the risk of becoming someone that people see on the street and avoid making eye contact with, for fear they'll recognise their own humanity in our eyes. Coercion is a sly and subtle beast that acts in ways unseen. Skulking about beneath the assumptions that busy minds don't question.
A choice is made whether we play or not, but 'not' means that we will starve. Is it truly fair then to say that the choice to play is ours?
A distinction is to be made between work and toil, two aspects of effort. Work is the word given to a natural function of the human as an organism.
We work for resources by farming, hunting, and harvesting.
We work for infrastructure by designing, building, and maintaining.
We work for each other by entertaining and educating, caring for, and managing ourselves.
All of us are creators by nature, and all of us are capable of doing so. As people, we need projects, something to work on or towards, some way of feeling useful from which we derive our purpose. Something that we can look at with pride and know that we have made it.
Toil, on the other hand, is work for work’s sake. An ultimately meaningless waste of time and energy that smothers the light of our spirit the longer we do it. Shit work is shit work, yet shit work done for a purpose has meaning. But to know that what we pour our energy, our creativity, our genius, and ultimately our limited life into is of no real benefit to anyone, while we do it, distorts the heart and erodes the soul.
Existence becomes aimless when we lose sight of our inner light. A system sustained by meaningless toil does nothing more than train meaningless people who are trapped in a mind prison built from complexity. Toil helps make some people rich, while work helps a lot of people. How much of our labour force is truly beneficial and not just toil to keep people busy so that these crusty wheels continue rolling?
Some people believe that humans are inherently lazy, and that given the means to survive without toiling, they would do nothing but rot on their asses. But to hold this view is to misunderstand humanity and oneself. It betrays the view holder's own inherent laziness, lack of creativity, and their guilt at the enjoyment of their own leisure. Conveying a belief that work is, in a way, the sole point of life, instead of the means by which it can be improved.
A belief like this can only exist in one's mind if they have yet to grasp what it means to be human. Given the ability to live without toil, many would likely rest, but only for a time. Within the space to breathe and think, curiosity inevitably takes our hand and leads us to skills, ideas, and art forms that have an interest in working through us. It is curiosity who first sparks the flames of passion that light our way, and only those who carry this flame will ever achieve true mastery of their craft. As with it comes the willingness to lose oneself to the work, transforming it into art.
Only from such a state can creativity flow unimpeded from the soul and give birth to true innovation. Passion that serves purpose, not profit. How much innovation would the world see if everyone was free to find their dream? We praise those who came from nothing, but how many of us could not escape? How many legends were ground down by poverty before they ever had the chance to try?
Poverty exists because it is not our priority to fix it. If it were, it would have happened. Our attempted remedies to poverty serve only to make the lives of those less fortunate slightly more bearable. But this is akin to slave masters giving their slaves nicer food. Food quality is not the root of the evil; it is the institution of slavery that must be ripped out.
Peppering the slave with finer things is a wicked act to do as it only serves to help the slave endure the status quo. The true act of compassion is to free them. To restructure the system so that slavery no longer exists.
Support for those in poverty comes in its current form as a bucket beneath a leaking pipe. It fails to address the root cause due to the flawed assumption that the pipe will always leak. That poverty is a natural phenomenon and not a byproduct formed by the inefficiency of a system not fit for purpose.
This is not to say that the system is flawed, rather, that it is functioning exactly as intended.
The majority of us, in this era, are motivated by fear. Fear that we won't have enough, won't be enough, and won't be able to protect and care for those we love. What were once weights shared by our community now rest on our individual shoulders as the past decades have seen the methodical erosion of communal compassion and social safety nets.
The philosophy of our time is one of isolation and competition, where there is 'us' and there is 'them.' Resources are scarce, so we had better get in quick and shaft whoever we need to, because everyone else will do the same to us. A mentality that breeds minds so confused they hoard more than they could ever need, which creates those who are in need.
The existence of an uncared-for underclass is spoken of by our leaders, in politics and business, as a failing. But it is, in fact, a function of this machine. A threat that instills the deep-rooted fear of 'you could be here.' What better motivator to willingly sacrifice our autonomy and compete with one another than a nightmare we can see? We wouldn't want to end up like one of 'those people' now, would we?
Yet we don't know their life, their story. Our side-eye glance as we avoid them in the street is blind to the cruelty that scars their soul. How fortunate are some, to live such lucky lives that they can look a suffering human in the eyes and their only thought is 'get a job.' A life lived in unappreciated ease warps a mind to think thoughts like these.
That, or the deep spiritual betrayal one feels when they sacrifice themselves to this way of life, learning too late that glory comes to those chosen by chance. Their betrayal is buried, it's too painful to accept, so instead it fuels a fire of frustration that burns without direction.
Political factions harness this rage and give them someone to blame, anyone to blame. Minorities, immigrants, women, and those in poverty, anything other than the system that still syphons their life. It can't have been for nothing, they did everything right. Unable to acknowledge that they were exploited they become valiant defenders of the way things are. And so by fighting over crumbs, the peasants destroy each other instead of realising that we're strongest together.
This really resonated with me, thanks for sharing your wisdom with the world!