Emergent Behavior
An emergent behavior
or emergent property can appear when a number of entities
of simple behavior operate in an environment together, collectively
forming more complex behaviors.
Anonymous is the emergent behavior of a generation of disgruntled hackers
becoming politicized, in a spontaneous and simultaneous yet completely uncoordinated way.
Just as global warming is the emergent behavior of a generation either in denial or ironically cynical
about the harm our lifestyles cause, while still feeling entitled to all the same luxuries.
Reflecting on how our actions
contribute to the emergent behaviors of the whole
is a good organization principle for a decentralized movement. It embraces the importance of
the health of every part, and the relationships between them. It avoids developing
co-dependant relationships, and leans toward each individual part working to
improve itself and it's relationships to all the other parts
rather than any part trying to impose their idea of order onto others.
"The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts."
Artificial Scarcity
"The technological capacity to produce enough to satisfy everyone's needs already exists globally
and has for many decades. Yet needs continue to remain unmet on a massive scale. Why?
Quite simply because scarcity is a functional requirement of capitalism itself."
Have you ever used an appliance from the 50's and were suprised how robust
it was, that it still worked after all these years? That's because you've
become used to modern products, which are invariably made to break to
encourage a constant flow of business. If appliances were still made to last,
we would have made enough stoves and refrigerators
to last the next couple generations by now. But a truly satisfied customer never comes back -
which is a big problem for businesses (even though it looks more like
a solution for customers and environmentalists).
And that's just one example of artificial scarcity.
The reason scarcity is permanently embedded into our economic system has to
do with the laws of supply and demand.
If a product seems it could be easily made at home, or is apparently
abundant enough that you might find another later on down the
road, then there isn't going to be as much demand for it.
Which means businesses can't charge as much money for it.
So businesses use a slew of techniques to make their product
stand out as something rare and unique, even creating a sense
of urgency around the product ("for a limited time only!").
Unfortunately, as businesses compete for our attention, the
similarities between their messages blend together and what
emerges is a chorus of people telling us we don't have enough.
That we need more. That our lives could be so much better if only we had what they had...
Bombarded by this message we develop a feeling of being left out, and come to believe that money is
the only thing that can fix the feeling.
Which is how our worldview has been slowly funneled into this frantic state that
there isn't enough to go around. It seems true enough, anyhow.
We're running from job to job, trying to keep up on rent, never
able to afford the newest things we feel we need to keep up...
Meanwhile, there is such an abundance of resources that
those same businesses hide or destroy
their own overproduction just so no one can get it for
free (to maintain the scarcity they think they
depend on). This is the real reason we have such an excess
of food, clothing, and other necessities which goes to waste:
not because they're broken or spoiled but
because they're actively destroyed by producers and retailers.
This is also why there are so many homeless even though
they are actually far outnumbered by empty houses:
because banks hold the houses off the market just to inflate prices.
We live in a multi-faceted illusion.
There would be enough to go around if we circulated resources
more altruistically, but generation after generation our perception of resources has
been funneled into an economic perspective that is
consumed by the primary objectives of getting money, and buying things.
And yet to get that money, we must play into the overall
illusion of scarcity ourselves, even going so far as to
physically impose actual scarcity by destroying abundance
where necessary. We've created
a feedback loop of misperception that continuously misleads us all
to want those things which are least accessible to us.
Meanwhile, we've been distracted from the inherent abundance of the
natural world, like the wild edible plants growing all around
us, often much more nutritious than our domesticated
vegetables, yet long forgotten as some
pesky unnamed weed in your vegetable garden.
Gift Economy
Capitalism is simply the emergent behavior of individuals believing
that things can be bought and sold,
and then acting on that belief.
It's the self-fulfilling prophecy of the belief that
there isn't enough to go around, and so we must hold onto what we have
and leverage it against others
to maintain a decent quality of life.
Of course, it is this scarcity mentality that creates the felt experience of scarcity in the first place.
And by depending on a tit-for-tat mentality rather than trusting in the flow of resources
to altruistically get things where they need to go,
wealth accumulates rather than circulating.
And as time has shown, by putting a price on anything, we've
put a price on everything.
Even land costs money, so everything else ends up costing money in the struggle to pay the rent.
And it doesn't do us any good - often it encourages all the wrong behaviors. Trees are profitable
only once they're chopped down and sold as lumber. Tap water is more profitable when it's put
in a plastic bottle and shipped across an ocean.
And in the prison industry, people are more profitable
for every day they're in jail.
Things can be outlawed, but markets can't be stopped. And since scarcity increases demand,
the black market is always booming. Drugs are more profitable when they're illegal.
Sex is still bought and sold. You can still pay for a murder, if you know the right people.
At some point we have to ask - is it worth it to put a price on anything?
Given the viral nature of capitalism in monetizing every last thing on Earth,
it seems the only realistic alternative to capitalism would be to refuse to put a price tag on anything.
This is the idea of the gift economy. Once we rid ourselves of this idea that
everything can be bought and sold, we'll be open to being more generous as well as
more receptive to the generosity of others.
And as we ween ourselves off of money, and learn to meet our needs for free, we find the only incentive left is
to do that which best serves our community. And in turn, our community supports us in our efforts.
This becomes a feedback loop of positivity and mutual aid - and that's something money certainly couldn't buy.
Take the Hooks Out
When something has a price, or expectations attached, those are hooks. Like the hooks in fish bait.
And almost everything in this world has hooks in it thanks the capitalist perspective.
"No such thing as a free lunch".
No love without expectations. No shelter without paying for it. Living in a world of such deficit, many
feel they have no choice but to leave the hooks in and pass 'em on, in hopes of profitting a bit themselves.
But just because you paid for something, whether in money or pain, doesn't mean you have to
pass on the hooks. Pay forward the beautiful things, but not the ugly ones. The love, not the hate.
Someone needs to be the strong person who can bite the bullet, and take the hooks out.
By refusing to pass on the same strings attached, and instead giving freely to those most likely to pass it on
without putting the hooks back in, you can be the one to stop that cycle here and now.
$lippery $lope
"What about using money to end money? We could run an ad campaign to persuade people to
turn away from capitalism. Or buy land to start a commune."
The problem with using money "just a little more" is that it's a slippery slope with
no end in sight. It leaves money the primary objective, attracts the destructive
forces of greed and self-interest, and risks becoming a sort of
non-profit industrial complex which uses the distant, imaginary goal
of one day no longer using money as nothing more than an excuse to continue turning a profit.
(Much like State Communism used the imaginary future of a communal worker-run state as
an excuse to maintain totalitarian control.)
Money has always been a matter of convenience, and as long as people believe in it there will always
be something that is easier to get with money than without. But it is convenience at the
cost of other's comfort or even survival. What's important is making the
connections, cultivating the community, and pooling the resources to make it all happen for free.
Which is why we would be wiser to focus on distribution, which is good for everyone, everywhere. Such a force
will inevitably draw in more and more people, and with them more knowledge of living free,
as well as more resources with which to build from.
Beware! If you get it in your head that even just a little money can help the cause, you become the
infiltrator of capitalism pissing away all of our efforts to distribute resources. We would no
longer be embodying the values of distribution if we help you get a squat only to have you rent
out the rooms. Nor would we be helping distribution by getting you a free bike only for you to sell it.
If you're putting the hooks back into things, you've fallen out of line with the values of distribution.
Mass Media
The definition of a word or phrase in the minds of the people is a living thing, extremely dynamic, and highly affected by the ebb and flow of culture and historical significance. But most importantly, it is affected by the most recent uses of the word. In a sense, a word is redefined with every use.
Mass media, employing all the latest research in psychology and mass manipulation, has developed an incredibly strong influence on the worldview of an unprecedented number of humans over the past few decades. And because mass media is inherently motivated by profit, it is laced with the messaging of a multi-billion dollar advertising industry, which uses any and every word, phrase, or concept available to divert people's attention toward consumer products, consumer experiences, and a constricted consumer outlook on life.
With the battle over words and concepts growing fierce, the phrase "sharing economy" has arisen out of necessity as there was once again no commonly accepted way to refer to the idea that hadn't somehow been co-opted or slandered beyond recognition. It's a powerful phrase, and a powerful move by the ones who coined it to adopt the language of their aggressors by using the word "economy". While economics has always downplayed, ignored, or obscured any form of sharing or giving because of the nature of economic formulas, and the immeasurable nature of love and gratitude, the phrase "sharing economy" strives to return the idea of sharing and giving to the arena of economics by portraying it as an alternative economy rather than a non-economy. And by putting it in economic terms, one might have hoped the phrase could remain more resilient.
Unfortunately, even as new of a phrase as it is, businesses have already caught on and have been completely misusing the phrase in their ads, propagating it's misuse far and wide. This creates a huge obstacle for any new concept, movement, or community still trying to gain traction by eclipsing it's original meaning and obscuring it's existence. Especially when it goes against the profit motive. In this case, a phrase that was made to catch someone's eye, ignite their imagination, and lead them on a path of discovery to a world of people who believe in a more equitable world, might instead be ignored as a meaningless for-profit slogan that's been overplayed a million times.
That's why as fast as our concepts are being co-opted and commodified, we must be creating new words, new concepts, new meanings, and meanwhile fight to retain or return a sense of meaning to the words and concepts we already have. Here we've chosen the word "distribution" to try to return to the world a way of referring to the concept of altruistically circulating resources, giving to where it will be most wisely put to use, and will ultimately help to conspire toward a world of greater abundance and access to resources for all.
Here and Now
Studies have shown that people instinctively help each other when there is no time to think.
Yet, given time to think, we have a plethora of ways to justify not helping one another.
Perhaps our only hope is in learning to turn off the mind, and turn on the heart. Our minds have
become so cluttered with culture and mass media, our hearts have been shoved deep down under layers
of baggage. We have arrived in Babylon. Language has become uprooted, co-opted beyond recognition.
There are no more meetings or discussions that can help us, because we quite literally aren't speaking
the same language, even as we use the same words. Perhaps our only hope is to live in the moment, act from the
heart, and stop letting so many words and ideas distract us.
In this pursuit, learning to quiet the mind, if only for a few minutes every day, is indispensible.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Your comfort zone is closing in around you!
It's enslaving you!
To what? Safety. Normalcy. Habit. Routine. Boredom...
Here's a bit of advice.
It's hard to learn how to live outside of a cage you've been
in your whole life without leaving the cage. Which is why
you've got to break out!
Necessity is the mother of invention, so if you're still using money then you're
likely making little or no progress in learning to live without it. You can do it!
Find some free resources, or just find your inner stubborness and combine it
with your burning passion, and just stop using money!
Besides, there's sort of a spiritual aspect to it, too. You're only innocent
until you understand what you've been participating in. After that it becomes urgent
for the health of your own psyche that you promptly find ways of correcting
your behavior and start doing the right thing.
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