Hacking at the Roots.There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. - Henry David Thoreau2008-04-30T07:44:41ZUser 584democritus2@gmail.comhttp://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/OrgSpace NewsLog“No money? Without money, I can’t buy anything!”The idea is audacious, laughable, even blasphemous in today’s globalized, branded and capitalized culture; in a strange sense, however, we are in a moneyless society today.Consider the major world currencies: the Euros, Dollars, Pounds Sterling, Rands and Rubles. Do we mine for these currencies? Do we grow these currencies? Do we harvest them from volcanic eruptions or stardust? Are they receipts for stores of value? Are these currencies backed by anything, just as your pay cheques are backed by the currency in a payroll account? Do they represent ownership of anything, just as a stake in a business backs a share of stock?
Wake up, friends: the precious money in your bank account has as much true substance as your dreams and nightmares. It’s been this way, nearly everywhere, since 2000 at the latest. If it’s a love of money we’ve become accustomed to, it’s a love of empty value we’ve received.
I hope that didn't sound too Big-L Libertarian (I was one for many years). Keep reading, there's a point to this.
At one time, most of these currencies were truly receipts for collectible stores of money. As time has gone on, even the money capitalist societies love so much has turned into nothing but board-game currency. It only retains a value, due to the fact that enough people believe that money still has a value.
Consider the Pound Sterling itself: a note redeemable for one Pound (as a weight of measure) of fine Sterling Silver (itself a store of monetary value, defined as at least 92.5%, or just over 22-carat-1-quart, pure silver). Today (as in, the day of this writing), a pound of sterling silver costs £123.95. If you believe that fiat money (what the Pound represents today) has value, then, the British Pound Sterling has inflated nearly 12,395% since the end of the silver standard on the Pound in 1816. This is a 5.031% yearly devaluation per Pound, from 1816 until today in 2008. If you don’t believe that fiat money is worth anything (and outside of trading, it isn’t), then the Pound has seen an infinite devaluation to zero.
Also consider the United States Dollar. The original 1792 US Mint Dollar was a bimetallic (gold and silver) standard, bearing 371.25 grains (0.7734375 troy ounces) of silver, or 24.75 grains (0.0515625 troy ounces) of gold. 1834 saw the first metallic deflation of the Dollar, when the gold value was reduced to 23.2 grains (0.04833333 troy ounces). The dollar’s gold value was later inflated in 1837 to 23.22 grains (0.048375 troy ounces). In 1900, the silver standard was eliminated, though the gold standard stood until 1933, when the dollar was devalued to 13.71 grains (0.0285625 troy ounces). In 1968, the gold standard was shifted again, repeatedly, until unelected bankers and the Federal Reserve abolished the standard in 1971, and beyond into 1975, when the peg to gold was ended by unelected bankers and the Federal Reserve. So, if you still think fiat money is worth something: One 1792 US Gold Dollar would be worth $44.89 today. A 1792 US Silver Dollar would be worth $12.77 today. Respectively, over 216 years, that’s an increase of 4,489% (gold) and 1,277% (silver). That is a 3.97% yearly inflation on gold dollars, 3.666% yearly inflation on silver dollars.
Of course, all this means naught if you understand that fiat money is worth nothing: again, an infinite devaluation to nothing.
But this is not about a return to a gold standard or a silver standard. This is not about maintaining our present zero-standard. And this is certainly not about instituting a materials standard, food standard, housing standard or fuel standard.
This is about no money at all. It then must be asked: in our present world, what do we use money for?
We use money to buy and sell investments, which may return us more money. In a moneyless society, there is no need for investments, because there is no need for returns, gains, profits or yields. Livelihood is the greatest investment of all, and even in the present world, one can improve it without money, nearly as easily as one can destroy it with money. Ownership becomes far less important when money is not a factor. Excess ownership becomes nearly useless when inconvertible to a liquid asset like money.
We use money to buy and sell food. In a moneyless society, food is grown within households, cooperatives, partnerships and large collectives. In times of need or want, this food can be traded or consumed or stored.
We use money to buy and sell clothes. In a moneyless society, clothing and other textiles are made for personal use, trade and gifts.
We use money to buy and sell toys, tools, vehicles, gadgets and electronics. In a moneyless society, large collectives may still crank these out in exchange for food, textiles, charity or enrichment. This is a tough one. Would we still build CPUs, games, televisions, routers, smoke alarms and cars? Inevitably, yes. It might not be the same large engines driving the market forces past Moore’s law, but then, some say that we move too fast in engineering already. Leveling the playing field for anyone with an idea and a hope may turn out better for us all in the long run.
We use money to buy and sell works of art: music, movies, pictures, paintings, sculptures and more. Ask any true artist worth their salt: you can put a price tag on your art, but the money you make will never truly replace the art you’ve lost.
We use money to buy and sell education. There is an obvious problem with this, as our education dictates largely what we have the capacity to become. Passing tribal knowledge and taking profit out of education – leaving people that only care to teach, rather than scrape by making a living of making humans pass arbitrary, non-real-world testing – might enrich the entire species far more than a for-profit system. This will take time to refine. Time is the one commodity we still have plenty of.
We use money to buy and sell classifications. Rich and poor. Affluent and peasant. Good and evil. Predator and prey. These are largely classifications bought and sold through media, advertising, special interests and people that just do not know better. When none of us has to worry about bank accounts, perhaps classifications are limited, at worst, to tribes and collectives – historically, we see that violent, savage collectives earn those types of classifications. At best, these kinds of classifications will soon cease to exist as civil humanity becomes more important than a balance sheet.
We use money for noble and ignoble purposes. We use money for charitable and greedy purposes.
Too often, we use money in the wrong ways.
Why, then, should we obsess over money any longer?
I don’t have the answer to transitioning to no money. It would take minds far more brilliant than my modest one to come up with the answers. I hope they’re reading, and listening.
Long have I been fascinated with the idea of Star Trek Socialism: that with the right resources and technology, all of us can have clean food, clean water, ample housing, quality education, excellent entertainment, purpose, focus, the end of classification, and unparalleled quality of life.
Think of replicators, star ships, Starfleet, the Federation, alliances and our quadrant of the galaxy as a playground (where we’ve learned to respect as pieces of it, rather than trying to be the masters of it).
This, then, is a type of society where we each have so much we can explore, hear our calling, live it for all it’s worth, passing our discoveries to the next generations, being remembered as pioneers in the fields we’ve chosen to follow. This would be a society where we’re working not because we have to, but merely because we want to explore and give back.
I just hope we’re able to find and build a society like this before we have to go to space, due to ruining our present environment so badly that we have no other choice but to go to the stars.
Even more importantly, I hope we find it before our sun goes red giant in 5 billion years: because we cannot go on the way we have for too much longer.
These are lofty goals, for sure, but at least someone out there is working towards it.
The Free Society Project is our meager attempt to reach this type of society, in a micro fashion. We’re a small collective of peers that seek access to land for farming and housing, possess innovative ideas, received decent education, has a willingness to learn, and intent to apply knowledge for a societal experiment that is sustainable, scalable, and adaptable. We do not seek or expect utopia. We only seek a free society without money, without authoritarian watchdogs, without ownership squabbles, without high politicking, without agenda.
If you don’t wish to join us, feel free to watch us and our progress. We don’t profess to have the Grand Unifying Answer For Society, and we don’t seek control of anything but our own destiny. It’s not perfect, but we believe we’ve worked it out pretty well for ourselves. And if it works for us, it can work for any honest and open collective willing to try it.
- The Lightcrafter ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/__show_article/_a000584-000008.htm2008-04-30T07:44:41Z2008-04-30T07:46:44ZSurvivalLast night I was going for a walk in an inner city. I immediately noticed my senses were heightened, and that my "intelligence" could not stop focusing on it, even though it tried.
That really struck me. First my rational brain analyzes and senses the potential danger just from the general ... These systems for the most part are designed for individuals who best perform in the system. To survive "better" is equated with having more resources at your disposal, and the purpose of life, through the survival mechanism, is to get more power and control through any means necessary, otherwise you will have a hard time surviving.
This has been the status-quo for at least the last 10k years, from the dawn of the change of mankind from nomadic lifestyles to sedentary systems of agriculture, that limited how knowledge was passed. Ideas were allowed to foster that should never have. Like the premise that another man can LORD and control another man under LAW. That some deserve more, that the entire purpose of life is to battle each other for that ultimate power, the power to control the natural and wealth resources of man's general environment.
Our current world is a direct descendant of this type of thinking. It has changed and evolved within its own context, but the root of how people "survive", of why people live has not. During this entire time, it has been a history of one small populace or personalities dominating those around them, and leading conquests "to rule".
This perspective is extremely myopic in its long term plan. The end result of this type of evolutionary thread has many possible conclusions, most of them not good. Lets quickly go back in time and look again at what made an entire animal population CHANGE why/how it lives. Again, I am speaking of the time when mankind learned the knowledge of farming, and mankind stopped being nomadic in nature, and settled into populace centers. Because of this new paradigm, new structures were needed. In the history of the evolution of man, never before had such concentrations of people been viable for such a long time, in one non-changing area. Thus the dawn of "Civilization" occurred.
Of course I am getting to the point that we are once again at such an epoch in history. Mankind in the last 10k years has faced many many changes and survived through out it with the same basic social construct of the few lording over the many. However, during all but the most recent years, the basic means of support of most people was a farming lifestyle. We as a general mass populace now get our means of support more through nomadic means then farming needs. However, the traditional social structures have adapted to make every move someone does a "profit center", which keeps a very rigid and divided social order.
In the ongoing epic of survival of the human race, some realize that under the current systems of unbridled death competition, the eventualities are mostly bad for our very human desires to live freely and with the ability to maximize who we can each become as individuals. To protect that type of human thinking is going to require that those human beings unite, to BETTER survive.
This is all about survival, of seeing a human race as a species of super-combantants in a constant power struggle for domination. Or of seeing a human race of people who can see the futility in such living conditions and want to create an environment that is best suited for the needs of an individual who is able to understand that we are all truly in this together. Not every person thinks in these terms, and trying to convert or educate them is an exercise in futility. I believe the only way is to show them. To show that an empowered group-family-community can use what we feel are beneficial human traits to overcome this bad root of what society is.
Thanks for listening, next article will be how this small but dedicated community can actually succeed in its goals. Hint- the best way to bring down an unstoppable animal is often through a properly evolved virus. :D
Captain Obvious]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/__show_article/_a000584-000007.htm2008-04-10T13:52:56Z2008-04-10T14:29:41ZFreedom and Self-Selection The largest facet of freedom is choice. With every action, whether the action is intended or unintended, it is the underlying choice that defines freedom within a society. A choice that is epitome to the individual, is that of location. Where you live, your home, has a great impact on how you live, and as such should be a large and important choice. In all modern and past societies, few people actually have a choice as to their location. For the vast majority of people your home is dependent on your livelihood. In order to “make a living”, to fulfill your basic needs, within a restrictive society you must have a job. A periodic task that (at least on the surface) helps society around you, in order for that very society to afford you what is needed to fulfill your needs.
This concept is unavoidable, one man cannot run a society, he cannot fulfill his needs efficiently enough to allow him to have time to pursue knowledge or entertain himself (two things help to define the cohesion of society). It takes many people working together to achieve any sort of efficiency at all.
When people become trapped in the status quo, attached to their immediate environment, they lose much of their freedom. People become ineffectual at progressing causing a stagnation or even regression of society as a whole, furthering the already detrimental conditions.
The Free Society Project aims to define the ideals necessary to create a free society. Such a society must have a certain cohesion that allows it to exist in a harmonic state ad infinitum. Part of this cohesion depends on the people within the society, they must see both the individual and the collective, and how the collective serves only to enhance the individual. It is only through the understanding and application of this principle that such a society can truly exist.
The concept appears to be in violation of intrinsic freedom, on the surface. Freedoms are intact so long as choice is maintained; choice that is central to the self-selective nature of a ideal society.
Actions are based on gain, whether direct or indirect; a concept that has allowed us as a species to survive and grow over millions of years. It is evident that in order for a person to want to remain in a society, they would have to gain more from that society than they would somewhere else.
In order to maintain the state of self-selection that is necessary to sustain the progression of society, people must be free to chose their surroundings, they must be free to chose who they support and who in turn supports them. While this is not possible in mankind's current condition, it is something that will have to be overcome; it is something that will have to be implemented in any society that intends to offer true freedom, and choice in any matter concerning oneself.
Thusly, self-selection is an ideal that benefits the individual, and the society as a whole.
-ThePredator]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/__show_article/_a000584-000006.htm2008-04-08T18:19:52Z2008-04-08T18:29:24ZGeneral Information about FSPWe are very happy to have found a home where we can openly discuss our work and who we are. Our hope is that we can end up working with many many groups and slowly build an economic center that can support those in our current society that find their environment not sufficient to true human happi...We are very happy to have found a home where we can openly discuss our work and who we are. Our hope is that we can end up working with many many groups and slowly build an economic center that can support those in our current society that find their environment not sufficient to true human happiness.
We will be explaining more of our core ideas shortly, and incrementally. Two of the first "projects" that we would like to share with the general community will be announced shortly. Articles of Societal Foundation and a series of papers dealing with a historical perspective of mankind and what it means for future societal development.
We believe a good society should be designed with the best structures to facilitate human harmony, personal growth, individual accomplishment, and the "divinity" of the self.
It is time as a human race, to take the training wheels off. No longer do we need oppressive dogmas regarding Kings, Gods, Governments or Corporate authoritarianism. The Articles of Societal Foundation will be a collective attempt to define what such a society values, and how it is structured, and making an announcement of what it means to be a human being.
Again, we do not come here with "the only answer". We have developed a skeletal structure for both how/why a good society functions and how to develop this system NOW, within our current political/legal framework. We need as much help as the communities can give.
Thanks for listening, and it is good to be here
Captain Obvious ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/__show_article/_a000584-000005.htm2008-04-06T07:12:10Z2008-04-06T07:32:02ZMisconceptions by CapitalistsIt is a common misconception that a society under voluntary labor and without currency would fail due to lower productivity when compared to other models such as Capitalism, and as a result would have a lower quality of life. When comparing such a society to a Capitalist society, the definition of...In Capitalism, the goal is to make profit. Because of this there are hundreds or thousands of the same products with variations trying to compete. One would imagine that such competition would result in better products, but it has come to be the opposite. Products are made as cheaply and quickly as possible, this typically means the use of materials that are harmful to people and the environment such as non-renewable, non-recyclable, and toxic materials. Another problem is planned obsolescence, the planning that a product become obsolete to a newer model or stops functioning within a short time frame, this creates a constant profit to those creating the products but results in hardship on consumers and the environment due to excessive waste.
In our idea of society that shares resources, has purely voluntary labor and has no currency, there may be a lower level of productivity for goods when compared to Capitalism but the quality of goods and life of people are far higher without the desire for profit. Goods are made, for free, by people that desire to make them; this results in products made with health, quality and durability in mind. To allow for variety in goods, people can run their own shops like in Capitalism. However, these shops or businesses would receive resources for free and the resulting products would also be free. Those running the shops would be doing so because they enjoy it. The motivating factors for productivity in this society would be doing what one enjoys, helping society, and receiving praise or honor by other people. This idea stretches to all ways of life in this society and would result in better service and higher quality of work by people, rather than being motivated by money like their Capitalist counterparts.
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what it is you would want to spend your life doing if you could choose anything? Whatever it is, you are immediately limited on your choices due to Capitalism. In our idea of society you can be whatever it is you want to spend your life doing. The only requirement is that someone performs well enough in any occupation so that they are not a danger to others. The possibilities are endless, and it is time to move on to a system about humanity.
~Aegis]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/__show_article/_a000584-000004.htm2008-04-05T10:58:54Z2008-04-05T11:23:16ZWelcome to the ratrace.I'm 17 now, just about to take my A-levels. I do well, I get into the university I want, get a degree, get a job. Welcome to the rest of my life.
I was at a party recently. Kids with dyed hair and catchy tshirt slogans. What are they going to be doing in 10 years? Most of them, I think, will be s...Do they really? Sure you can have green hair now, you're 17! you are just learning how to express yourself. Green hair after university? Good luck getting a good job, friend. Good luck having a comfortable life. You can be different, as long as you are different in Their way. As long as you are the same as everyone else, you can be different.
Back to the ratrace. Remember your first day of school? Wasn't it amazing? There were all these people, and a nice lady to tell you exactly what to do. There's no point in not doing what she says, she's smiling! Sometimes she might give you some colouring to take home and bring in the next day. As soon as you get home, let's sit down and do that work! You love colouring, and look how your parents smile!
Now you are 10, the work is a bit harder but hey, you've been doing what they tell you for five years, why stop now? And after all, they obviously know what's best... they get PAID to do this kind of thing.. and they are so old and wise. Sometimes theres a kid that might do something reactionary, maybe that kid was you. 'What do you mean you didn't do what I told you? Your parents are going to hear of this!' Not the parents. They are so disappointed. And everyone knows. The WHOLE CLASS. You'll probably never be able to go to school again because of the embarrassment. No way are you going to do that again.
17 now are you? Well done, you got all the way through, and even carried on when it 'wasn't compulsory.' But everyone knows that's a lie. It's compulsory if you want to have any kind of life at all, desperately searching for that Easy Ride. You might be thinking to yourself that some things the teacher says is wrong. You definitely don't enjoy doing all that work they tell you. But you suck it up punk, otherwise you're going to fail your exams. That's right, FAIL. And you'll be worse than those people who didn't even get here. You'll have wasted our time and yours.
So you get the results, you worked your ass off. You are at the University you want to be at, doing the degree you want to do. Everybody's telling you that you are Free. Fucking yeah. You are free to have the most fun you possibly can, and meet new people. You might even like some of them! If you are really lucky, you might even learn something that actually interests you.
But those years... they've flown by. You have a degree now mate, what are you going to do with it? You are a full-blown adult now, you should probably grow up. Don't be immature! Get a job; we need more monkeys at the typewriters: Othello hasn't quite been finished yet.
Oh who's this again? I remember you from my whole life. You were 'teacher' before, you've changed a bit. I have to call you 'boss' and you won't teach me anything any more. Still though, you tell me what to do, and what to think. It's a good job I accept this otherwise you'd have to tell the WHOLE OFFICE. I'd probably never be able to go to work again because of the embarrassment. Anyway, my whole life people have been telling me that this is what's going to happen. There's so many of them... and they said it so loudly. Who am I to speak up against them?
-- Xaz.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v584/__show_article/_a000584-000003.htm2008-04-03T20:25:50Z2008-04-03T20:25:50ZSomething to value“Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”
Often seen as a symbol of mere juvenile resistance, this attitude is actually a positive attribute of humanity, and can teach us how to better live and solve the issues that plague our societies. The potency of this statement comes from the less obv...Think of what else it tells you. Mankind wants as little shackles as possible, that is where we have been heading, to true human freedom and we owe it to the future of our race to continue this great journey. We also owe it to that desire for freedom for ourselves. To not answer that call is to embrace the continuing infringements against the free human spirit.
Like all peoples who have done so before, we are faced with the same obstacle. Power condensed into the hands of the relative few. This is where the power lies, and this is the force that benefits in the overall enslavement of humanity.
To continue the demand for freedom, is to realize that it is more then resistance to the will of others. The same correctness in “fuck you, I wont do what you tell me” not only applies to others, but it applies to the person protecting their own freedom. It is our duty to know that to others, we can easily be the oppressor and the only solution to real collective freedom, is to have a working understanding of this idea. From that point, it is clear why authoritarian rule of any kind is wrong.
Don’t tell me, I won’t tell you. But where does this leave us? A bunch of kids who refuse to get along on the playground? No, we use that attitude to firmly defend our own authority and learn to live in a manner that respects the authority of others. This is the path to freedom that the human spirit desires. This is how humanity learns to grow up from the destructive childhood from our past history, and the human-childhood that our social structures are designed to facilitate.
To a person who does not need to be ordered and forced, in fact refuses to be, our social order is greatly lacking and disrespectful to the human character. Another way can be had that is designed from the ground up to enhance and increase the dignity of mankind. A system not based on the deadly competition of resources (which is the ultimate cause of authoritarianism in current social systems). A system based on the shared goals of freedom, advancement of knowledge, advancement of peaceful living conditions, and human exploration.