I’ve been quieting my soul lately. I’ve been working with young students and just enjoying the presence (and fun) of that act, the miracle of being in a classroom and touching eternity through the presence of these youngsters, spry with potential energy and positive thoughts.
I’m slowly disowning myself from the circus that is our public discourse and life. Clownish politicians plundering the public treasury. Baby-faced tech bros. boosting share prices with lies and pie-in-the-sky. A society frozen and unable to stop a genocide right infront of its face … Need I go on? It’s a circus and I want out of the tent and to be free to live as I believe a man should live.
Underlying all the vexing problems of our existence is the problem of money. Everything, all our actions, our desires, our needs are being monetized. The capitalist crows are busy hanging price tags on everything. Soon even your very breathing will come with a meter and a monthly bill. It all begins with that damn lemonade table.
I’m serious. I’m not kidding. Let me just give a few examples then share a poem I wrote last night while planning a bike trip across America. A trip to be done without money or as little as possible. Stealth camping. Dumpster diving? Why? Well, it now costs more money to camp at a campsite than to stay at a proper motel. I’m not kidding you! And the price of food … meanwhile we throw out most of it, good food. On some level we WANT to pay. That’s how bad it’s gotten.
I was involved in the tech world when fortunes were being made by making apps. The future foretold an app for everything. You want to make money young man? Don’t head west - make an app! Then put up a paywall. Voila! Watch the cash pour in - people will pay for everything, anything.
The basis of this “disruption” was to monetize all human activity. As Andreessen in his clownish manifesto called it, turn every damn living human activity into a pay-as-you-live service. And please contrast that manifesto to this one.
We have apps for toasters. We have apps for our water tumblers. Our watches became personal surveillance devices. There was even an app for your toilet. Turn everything into data! Data is the new god. Electrify, datify everything and then turn that into money! (substitute “data” for “AI” and you get the new but old message.) My wife, she won’t (CAN’T) even drive without an app turned on!
And this process of turning everything in the world into money continues. Think of childcare. Once, other people would look after our children for free. Imagine that! Now, it costs parents 1,000s of $ to have strangers look after their children and this now is considered the norm. Care has been turned into money. Our own love for each other is now a monetary exchange.
I’m busy rethinking my relationship to money. How something, someone has me “caught” and in their grip. How might I get out and fly free, be at play in the world without money? If you have any recommendations, please contact me or comment! I’m looking for a community that is somehow outside the described vortex above.
A Pizza Story
I bought a pizza for a friend the other day.
He wouldn’t eat it.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like pizza.
He loved it.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t hungry.
He was ravenous.
It was that he had no money to
pay me for it.
I said, “Alright then, pay me tomorrow.”
And we dug in.
As I ate my pizza I kept thinking of
how there is so much that is free
so much that the earth feeds me
from her empty bowl.
I kept thinking of how we
refuse this free stuff and
insist that to get value
we must pay?
I’m still trying to figure out
why so many feel so.
Singing is free.
Walking outside is free.
Sleeping has no meter or fee attached.
The soft warm of rain on your skin
does not end with the issuance of a reciept.
Love, loving, is yours to
give and take for free.
The sound of wind through trees
is still free
as far as I’m aware.
The sun shines on us all
regardless of our ability to pay.
Think for yourself.
What is free for you
to do, to feel, to think, to be?
I say this because
the day is coming soon
when they’ll put a
price tag on it all.
Enjoy the free stuff while you can.
There are 1,000s
working in dark rooms
day and night
figuring out ways to
turn what you get for free
into what you give as a fee.
That day when you are broken
(and don’t even know it).
Paying for everything, every day
in every way,
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The monopoly game is changing.
It’s now
Pass Go, Pay $200.
They want it all.
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