I WANT A DO OVER

So, our economy is tanking. The dollar is losing value. I say, SO WHAT. Let the dollar drop and let the systems that have been empowered by it, fall. Let’s face it. Political systems are not the problem here. The people that have come and gone in offices of authority here in America and abroad have simply fallen victim to the one thing that money has created in society: GREED. And that greed is fed by the willingness of all the people of the world every time they open their wallets. Every time you spend a dollar on ANYTHING, you are feeding a monster that now threatens your way of life, your freedom, your personal choices, your health, your environment, your very existence.

Think about this very hard for a moment. What would happen if the dollar collapsed?

There would be no money to pay workers. There would be no money to import or export goods. There would be no money for war, for military, for schools, for the media. I know what you’re thinking. But there would be no money for food, for rent, for clothes, for transportation! Society will fall into chaos! Zombies will eat our brains. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this is NOT TRUE. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be true.

There was a time in the not so far off past in which human beings lived and survived in small communities that supported themselves, that were largely removed from the trappings of global commerce and government. People knew how to grow their own food, how to barter, how to take care of farm animals, and how to build their own homes. This stuff isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t take four or eight years of college to learn how to preserve your food, to plant a crop, or milk a cow.

The dollar only has as much value as we give it.  

The 1% only have as much power as we give them.

If we can live and be happy with what we have available to us at the local level, we don’t need those stinkin’ dollars, do we? And what happens if everybody decides that they don’t need those dollars? Well, that’s easy. Then the people that have all those dollars, and who are controlling society with them, don’t have anything of value anymore either. What good is a billion dollars of electronic or paper money when nobody wants them? That’s right. If everyone on the planet simply shut their wallets today and turned away from commerce, the 1% would fall right where they stand. Oh sure, they would still have their jets and mansions and power meetings, but without a single dollar in meaningful circulation, that’s ALL they would have. A jet. A pool (that will get green when their staff walk away because they can’t use their useless dollars anymore either). A dusty mansion. Fine. They can keep those things.

You see where I’m going here. We are not victims of the 1%. In fact, WE created them with our purchasing behavior. And we can just as easily unmake them. And we can do it without ever raising our fists or taking to the streets, or whining about how we want them to stop behaving so badly. We do it by starting over, by turning our backs on that dollar, by turning our backs on fiat currency of any kind. We do it by trading things of value for things of value.  And, we decide that fiat currency is of no value to us anymore. It’s that simple.

Is it possible? Of course, it’s possible. But it means that the 99% have to take a look in the mirror. We need to put down our own personal greed and laziness, learn new skills and live a much more simple life. If we are not willing to do that much, then why do we expect that the 1% will willingly put aside their greed and laziness? No, we must be willing to be uncomfortable enough to abandon our own addiction to consumer goods that we don’t really need. That’s right. No more malls, no more walk in closets full of designer clothes, no more electronic espresso makers. And I hate to break it to you, but that’s where we’re headed anyway (most of the 99% anyway). Hyperinflation and the devaluation of the dollar is going to make it more and more difficult for you to acquire those items in the future anyway. The only difference is, if you continue to pay anything to acquire anything, the 1% still profit and the greed machine rolls on.

So, don’t wait for that to happen. Just start an economic DO OVER of your own today. Look at what you have around you that you think you can live without, and then, start living without it. Get accustomed to a nice hand poured cup of coffee in the morning with honey in it. Start liking fresh produce without exotic spices. Learn how to grow a few vegetables in pots along your back deck. If you are a two car family, become a one car family. Throw away your cell phone. It’s giving you brain cancer anyway. Start like this. And during the transition, use the dollars you have left to purchase things only from responsible local merchants. Get everything you need from the 99%. When you stand in front of a store, ask yourself, “Is this store supporting the 1%?” If your answer is yes, walk away. When you go inside a store, and pick up an item you want, ask yourself “Is this item made locally, and will my dollar end up in the hands of the 1% if I buy it?” “Is the production, distribution or use of this item hurting my environment?” If yes, put it down.

Once you get over your initial consumer withdrawals symptoms, you will feel much better! You will begin to look for more things you can throw away and replace with locally made things.  Stop shopping thoughtlessly, grabbing on impulse and desire. Start shopping slowly, consciously, knowing that every item you acquire has a hidden cost to us all. Know that the fate of the 99%, and the children of the 99%, rests on your shoulders. Because it does. It absolutely does.

I’m not asking you to give up luxury or convenience altogether. Just to re-imagine what kinds of ways you find luxury and convenience. Comfort, happiness and joy can be found in surprising places. Joy can be found in the faces of our children that will benefit from our sacrifices today. Trading something you made with your own hands for something somebody else made with their own hands, can be a kind of empowering joy that you will find reward in, trust me. In fact, once you surround yourself with hand-made, locally made, unique things, then the very thought of having mass produced, uncreative, cheap, planned obsolescence kind of stuff, will  begin to REPULSE you. 

Those unnecessary baubles and gadgets will start to stink of greed. Like an ex-smoker, you will find yourself offended by the very thought of these things being around you. It is then that you will know that you have broken your addiction to the 1%. Because that’s really what happened to you. You didn’t come into this world jonesing for a new pair of Nikes. You came into this world unsullied by greed and you learned it when you were very little, when your mother took you to the store and your little hands reached for that shiny thing just out of reach. You learned it when your friends in high school pressured you to wear the latest fashions or drive the coolest car. You, the consumer, were made. You were carefully crafted by the 1%. They hired psychologists, they bribed the media, they spent billions of dollars on high tech, subliminal advertising, they even went as far as to buy up our politicians… all to train your subconscious mind to believe that you NEED the products that they sell.

But, we know we don’t NEED those things. We tell ourselves all the time. We fight with ourselves at the store, but somehow, our subconscious always wins that battle. “I know I don’t NEED it, but I WANT it, and I DESERVE it!” it tells us. Well, it’s time to shut that down. Get the 1% OUT OF OUR HEADS. Show our subconscious whose boss! Remind our subconscious that there is only one luxury that we REALLY REALLY need today.

And that luxury is personal liberty. 

That is really what we are buying with our hard work and shift in behavior. But, if we dismiss this opportunity, and we lean on laziness and greed, and continue to feed our personal addiction to consumer goods, then, well, we set ourselves up to be controlled by those that profit the most from our laziness and greed.

We, the people, the consumers, are ultimately to blame for this mess, and we, the consumers, are ultimately responsible for cleaning it up! If we don’t want a global wasteland for our children, then we need to STOP BUYING products that pollute the environment. If we don’t want the banks monopolizing our political system, then we need to STOP using the banking system! If we don’t want the Rockefellers, the Rothchilds and the Bilderbergs quietly pulling the strings of every social, environmental, economic and political system in the world, then we need to take away the one thing that empowers them to keep doing it!

There are some times when leadership must come from the bottom up. And this is one of them.

We have all created a whopping mess of this planet and I want a “Do Over”.  And I want you to join me. I want you to REALLY make an effort to clean up this mess with me. The mess is too big for any one group, or government even, to solve alone.  And, I assert that it is not responsible for any of us to delegate this job to anyone else but ourselves. So, put your boots on. Get outside. Take a deep breath and fill your lungs and heart with resolve.

It’s time to work.