Money Vs. Humanity

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We sacrifice our precious time as living mammals in order to receive money.  In doing so, we often compromise our health.  We then sacrifice our money in order to improve our health so that we can continue to sacrifice time for money.  The world tells us we need pieces of paper to be able to live, but what does this look like to an outsider?  How can we really know when we have no outsiders to this system left?

There are 7 billion human beings on this planet, which is essentially a rock hurtling through space on an orbit which just so happens to be the right distance from the sun to allow for liquid water.  Nature decided this, nature put us here and nature will indeed take us away.  Man did not decide any of these things, and money was never a factor in the making of these things, indeed money was not even a concept.

Imagine there is an island of 50 people.  On one side of the island there are 25 people who have everything they need to live comfortably in complete abundance.  They have crystal clear water, good hunting grounds, perfect soil for crops and a beautiful ecosystem bustling with life.  On the other side of the island there are 25 people who have nothing.  They have poor soil, poor hunting grounds, dirty water and are regularly beaten for trying to steal from the other side of the island.  As an outsider you may be surprised by this, you may even be outraged.  One thing is for sure, you would know exactly how to fix the problem.  I’m assuming your suggestion would be that the concept of sharing resources for the greater good should be enforced.  Our world is simply a version of this anecdote with the inclusion of 7 billion people.  The question is not, and has never been “how do we fix it”, the question is and has always been “why do we not fix it”.

Well?  Why don’t you?  This world and everything in it including the natural resources it holds is 1/7 billionth yours.

Society tells us we need to be successful, we need to go to school so that we can get a good job and then we need to work until we die.  Society also tells us that we need to show off our monetary success with a nice house, a fast car and the latest iPhone to boot.  Those of you who have gained these things through what you accept as success have been misguided; you have been sold a lie by the system we live under.  There is no success in the suffering of others.  You may be thinking something along the lines of “well sir, I give my fair share to charity and I pay my taxes”.  I would reply by saying that’s great, keep doing that, but don’t stop there.

Of course, having a comfortable life while others are suffering does not make you a bad person, that would be an unfair perspective to adopt.  We live in a system built upon an idea.  This idea is very old and well ingrained into our minds, our culture and society as a whole.  The idea is that those who work harder and study harder get rewarded with a better life than those who do not offer the same level of effort.  Now this is an unfair perspective to take.  The reason it is unfair involves the moment you come in to this world.  The beautiful few seconds when your body feels the air of the planet for the first time.  So let’s go back to that island.  If you are born into this world on one side of the island, you are instantly condemned to a life of suffering, pain and fear.  If however you are born on the other side of that island, you are greeted with an abundance of wealth and the prospect of a wonderful rich life.  Is the baby who was born on the nice side of the island instantly labelled as uncompassionate? Of course not.  That child will grow up believing that they deserve the life that they have, they will follow in the footsteps of their parents and they will probably fear the other side of the island and come to see them as bad.

Again let’s point out that we experience exactly the same thing in the developed world and let’s recognise one last point.  We have established that being a part of the developed world does not make you a bad person. However, the very millisecond you realise that everything you were taught about money and wealth was wrong and unethical is the very millisecond that you must take action to help change the world. Anything else, in my opinion, does make you a bad person.

Do you agree or disagree? Please share you thoughts in the comments below.

Written by John Murdoch of www.collectivelyconscious.net

This article (Money Vs. Humanity) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to John Murdoch and www.collectivelyconscious.net.

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