7 Countries Considering Abanding the US Dollar

Brace yourselves as the confidence game begins to unravel….

http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=4726

The Vernacular of Economic Conquest

A major theme at the recent Bioneers by the Bay conference and one that is getting more and more national attention is the issue of Conscious Consumerismm. The assertion is that we can change the world by what we choose to buy. Buy those carbon off-set credits when you fly on a plane or drive in a car. Spend the extra money to green your home. Drink fair trade coffee. I am all for spending your money wisely and with consciousness. Everyone should do this with out exception. It is essential. But there are two problems that I have when I hear people preach the mantra of “conscious consumerism” as the saving grace of the planet. 1) Conscious Consumerism for the majority of the planet is a privilege. Not to say that we should not put everything we got into aligning our values with what we buy. But we need to be aware that this is simply not an option for most people in the world who are restrained to the cheapest goods by a less than living wage. We need to be aware that they are poor largely in part because of a system. A system that has built into its DNA a notion that labor is a commodity. The commodification of labor can only have one effect which is to drive the income of average workers down as technology becomes more automized and capital becomes more expensive. A general income squeeze must result in ever-cheaper goods to compensate for this wide spread lack of income. The demand for cheap stuff leads to less mindfulness as to the process by which commodities are produced resulting in the gradual degradation of our environment.

2) The very fact that we have accepted, “consumer,” as a primary term by which we identify ourselves means that we have fallen inadvertently into the mental and cultural framework that we need to be breaking free of. We need to realize that the term “consumer” as a noun is part of an Imperial Vernacular–a system of words and language that has been re-formed and convoluted by the culture of finance and corporatocracy to control and pacify society. The word consumer’s archaic meaning is to “utterly destroy.” A bit removed from the modern formalized use of the word which has come to innocently mean, “a person who purchases goods or services for personal use.” But even this less indicting use has the effect of subconsciously ingraining a story into our minds that our purpose in life is to perpetually increase our acquisition of the colossal arsenal of products that are rolled out by our industrial and commercial leviathan. But as consumers of the limitless production of modern capitalist industry we are unwittingly consuming, that is, utterly destroying, life on earth at a rate comparable (unsurprisingly) to the staggering growth of our economy.

Again, my intention here is not to undermine the importance of people spending their money in more conscious ways, but to emphasize the complementary need for systemic change. Conscious consumption can, in fact, greatly assist in systemic change. But it will not substitute for it. We need both.

In the world of finance we find that there are similar etymological convolutions that, when inspected, shed light on how the corporate culture twists certain words around so that they hold a second definition that is really the shadow of the first. For instance, “share” in the world of finance is quite contrary to real sharing. Where as a financial share of a company is often reserved for those who own property, sharing is the act of distributing one’s bounty, with others with out, necessarily, regard for their ability to give back in kind. What about the word “equity?” It is worth pointing out the irony of how different its meaning can be depending if you are using it from a social justice context or a financial one.  The word “trust” in the world of relationship, it has a very important role. We cannot fully love one another if we do not trust one another. Yet in the world of finance trust as a noun is an entity who’s function is often to hoard different forms of wealth. Or it is something to be marketed or sold, as inferred in the term, “trust company.” Indeed, it is not a far cry to say that that is what is, in fact, happening.

“Say Hello to My Little Friend…”

Recently I had a conversation with a colleague at Goddard where I was explaining the current monetary system using the allegory of cocaine’s effect on the neuro-chemistry of the brain. Basically the thinking is this: cocaine, and other opiates such as heroin, give people a euphoric experience by flushing the brain with an un-natural dose of exogenously produced neuro-transmitters— the stuff that allows every brain cell to exchange the electrical activity that make us happy and smart. Instant euphoria, what more could you ask for? But we all know the cost—the inevitable “crash” and physiological degradation, the dependency, the bad dreams. This depression comes from the gradual displacement of the drug with the bodies own ability to produce its own fresh supply of home made neurotransmitters. This often results in a completely downward cycle which ending in a total systemic breakdown. And the more addicted one gets the more one feels that they cannot get enough. The world, and particularly the US is now plunging into the same fate as our dear friend Tony Montana. Tony Montana was the notorious cuban drug lord of the 1983 film, Scarface, starring Al Pacino. However, the primary drug of choice, in our case, is not cocaine but money. The effect of money on society is quite similar to cocaine’s effect on the brain and body. Money, when you break it down, is the institutionalization of trust. Credit, which is the basis of money, comes from the Latin, credere, which means ‘to trust’ or ‘to believe.’ Of course the sacred quality of trusting another, in nature, is not a monopoly of the banking system. Trust is a natural part of being human. It is cultivated by relating to one another in a non-stressful environment with respect, love, integrity and authenticity. The idea of being ’sold’ trust, presented to the average person, may seem like a crazy idea. But this is in fact what the banking system does. No wonder many banks, maybe yours, refers to itself as a ‘trust company.’ Both the public and the government are essentially sold the publics own collective credit back to itself at a ‘competive’ interest rate. The imposition of a base interest rate on society, means that people are compelled to compete with one another to make the most profit so as to stay above the looming steam roller of compounding interest. Money has replaced ‘organic’ trust in the same way that cocaine replaces the naturally produced neuro-transmitters in the brain, stimulating similar behavior in the macro-economy with its cycles of manic booms followed by the categorical ‘recession’ or ‘depression.’ Our government’s unquenchable desire for economic growth is a reflection of this reality. In terms of money, (and, according to Michael Ruppert, in more literal terms as well—see from the wilderness) America is now playing the principle narcotics agent to the world. Our power to create the worlds default reserve currency has given us the ability of funding our titanic trade and federal deficit. In our arrogance, we think we can just get away with siphoning real economic resources from the rest of the world with our almighty promissory notes. But America is at the end of the line, just like poor Tony Montana, locked in his room, friendless, isolated, surrounded by authorities, with nothing but a giant pile of cocaine on his desk and a globe inscribed with the words, “the world is yours.” The government has clearly been wary of the day when our creditors make a run for all their money that we don’t have, which is why half of the money we raise from the rest of the world goes to financing our beloved little killing machine. World, ‘Say hello to my little friend.”

Towards an economic system as if the earth and her people mattered

Welcome to my blogsite, the Tao of Money. The name for this blog came to me a few years ago when I was organizing the money conference at Bard College. Not far before the conference was to occur, I was worrying about the name of the conference which was, “Local Currencies in the 21st Century.” Something wasn’t working about that title. I wanted the title to be more broad but evoke a sense of intrigue and wonder and a sense of the transcendent.  This conference was delving into new levels of looking at money that are very outside the mainstream academic understanding of money. The “Tao of money” seemed to express that more suitably. In the end, it didn’t fly. So I put it on the shelf for use at some later date–maybe for a book or something. Well, here it is. Let me be clear, when I say the Tao of Money, again, I don’t wish to give the reader the sense that this is a place to gain super hot investor secrets that only Warren Buffet knows. My intent is this: to explore the history of money in its relationship to the evolution of human consciousness.

The Tao means “the Way.” In the dictionary it is described as “the absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself the principles of yin and yang and signifying the way, or code of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order.” (New Oxford English Dictionary). The knowledge of the Tao is something that appeals greatly to me. It contrasts greatly with the western orthodox idea of God. Because it emphasizes the essential unity of duality and that cosmic creativity is more of a universal flow of interchanging forces, light and dark, taking place in the eternal Now. The point of this blog is to explore the relationship of money to this larger cosmic priniciple that exists in the Tao. in terms of its relationship to the evolution of humanity. I believe that we are emerging out of a period characterized largely by dualistic thinking which has created a false relationship to the rest of life. The money system, as it is a construct of this mode of consciousness, operates from this world view which has the effect of fulfilling the feedback loop. We believe that we are disconnected from the rest of life and from one another so we have created a system to mitigate “the risk” of separation and ultimately the possibility of death. It is a natural by-product of living in a divided and broken world–but it is this self-imposed money matrix that further inflames this point of view.

I must give credit to my late friend and mentor, Michael Murphy, who started this conversation nearly 5 years ago in 2002. Many thanks to Susan Witt of the Schumacher Society for providing me with a place to nourish my evolving thinking and education since 2003. His work can be viewed at www.revelation2seven.org/.