I Believe

As we grow up and reach puberty the world opens up and everything becomes possible. With youth comes the belief that a world where everyone has enough and money is not an issue. It's a simple formula. Everything that needs to exist or can exist needs only vision and workers. No one needs to be a slave because we are all together. We are all humanity together.

It isn't until we come face to face with bureaucracy and costs and the brick wall of the haves and have nots that the terrible truth sinks in that the cost is higher than imagined. Politicians learn this lesson quickly and they compromise faster than a drugged out whore needing money for a fix. Down to their knees they go. Let the bargaining begin.

Some politicians decide to try another path. They will compromise but only long enough to get enough power and money and backing to force the system to its knees where they are in charge and all others must obey. Take that!

Instead of fixing the system or finding a way to eradicate the system so the utopian dream becomes reality, other paths call to us and like a fat wo/man every method - new or old or simply reworked - promises the end result of the perfect body and no more problems with weight loss. The dream of building and living in Utopia is the siren call that ends with dead dreams, anger, frustration, and the descent into madness and compromise.

Some find solace and a safe place in writing and reading books set on fantastic worlds and universes where Utopia becomes possible again. It's all an escape. If we can't have it in our own reality we will find a reality where it exists and to hell with the world where roses have thorns and carry poison in its glorious aroma.

And then there are drugs, the ultimate escapism. Sex falls into that realm.

The point is that Utopia is real and it is obtainable, but first we must throw off the masters enslaving us with bureaucracy, broken promises, and the ultimate carrot on a stick -- wealth.

Driving around the country I have seen vast fields where a house sits abandoned, windows broken, and the detritus of years of abandonment piled up in the corners and empty rooms where drifts, hoboes, and transients squatted for an hour or a day or a few weeks. A way station on the road to nowhere from nowhere in particular. I often thought that the empty house was a waste left to rot and return to the earth from whence it came. Why not let whoever want to maintain the house live there? Who would it hurt? So what if they planted a garden or harvested a few bushels of food from the land (although one might consider not doing that since Monsanto and various poisons meant to help plants grow and kill weeds and vermin were likely used and every bushel comes with a death sentence) and live happily in peace. Water and electricity could be provided, the water by a well and the electricity to run the pump to move the water could be provided by tapping into the utility poles and taking what one needs. Solar panels could provide electricity too. The house wouldn't rot and return to the earth and the rooms would be filled with people living their lives instead of providing a place to shoot up and tune out.

Is it really all that difficult to create a society where no one has to steal from anyone else to live? The wealthy would not have to give up their wealth because there would be no banks and no coins and no money exchanged anywhere. Buildings would still be planned and go up. Services like phones, power, water, food, clothing, and everything else needed would still be available. People would still work and do what they did before the need for money was tied to the stick as the carrot to motivate people to keep moving forward. No one would enslave anyone else and doctors and medicine and professionals of every stripe and class would continue to do what they chose to do. The only thing we wouldn't have is a master -- anywhere.

It wouldn't be like an all-you-can-eat buffet where people eat too much to take advantage of the deal because it doesn't last. In a world where everyone has enough it wouldn't be necessary to take more than you need because you might not ever have the chance again.

I had watched a movie where people could go into huge warehouses and take what they needed without checking out or paying anything. Walk in. Get what you want and need. Walk out. The inventory would be replenished and more would be available for the next person(s). The goods would still be manufactured and distributed and taken and the engine of the world would continue to work. People would still sweep the floors, stock the shelves, and remove the products from the shipping containers, disposing of the packaging. Food would not be wasted. People would continue to work. People would continue to pick up what they needed and garbage men would dispose of the trash. No one would need to advertise their product over anyone else's product. Quality would be maintained and no bureaucracy would need to exist to make sure no one tampered with things. Less waste would need to be disposed of because no more advertising or fancy packaging would exist. The world would be simple. People would still go into every kind of business from building and sewer and garbage to preparing and producing food. Once there was no need to compete for money and the only goal is making the product or service the best it can be, there would be no need for bureaucracies or people deciding what does and does not need to be done. The only competition would be within ourselves.

Builders would build houses. Resources would be provided to build the houses. Workers with the special skills needed to build the houses would still show up to work. People would show up to move into the house and movers would help them move. Those who wished to keep house, scrub floors, take care of children, babysit, plan parties, and everything else would be available to do the work because there are those who choose that form of work, not for a paycheck but because it is how they want to participate. There is a job for everyone and everyone gets a job. There is room for people to try different jobs until they find the job that fits.

Philosophers and artists and artisans and protectors would still exist because people would still need guidance and help with figuring things out. Nothing would change except greed and shaming and bullying. None of that would be needed. Admittedly, it would take time to get to the point where the nastier facets of personality would fade and disappear, but it's worth working through to get to a better place.

It seems naive, but it's really a simple way of life. Some people would take advantage at first as they learned that their struggles and fight to have everything would diminish with time. It isn't necessary to gather up everything when so much less is needed. So what if you don't have the latest model car or boat or plane or clothes when what you get is the best that can be made and manufactured? When there is no need to hedge the bets and cut corners to lower costs since there is no cost, the need to get the best deal fades with time because every deal is the best. Made by the best. Offered to everyone without restriction and made to last.

There would be no need for socialism or governments stealing from the rich to give to the poor because there would be no poor. Everything is available to everyone without restriction. Without cost. It would be Star Trek without replicator technology. Everything possible is made possible by someone with a dream and someone willing to make it happen.

That is the world we all want to live in an its the world we dreamed of when we were younger before we sold out or were forced to realize that even a piece of a dream will cost our souls and our integrity because compromise and money are the name of the game. I don't know about you, but I would prefer the world wake up and realize it is within our reach as soon as we decide that money is not the obstacle. What stands in our way is learning to cooperate. Not compromise, but cooperate so each person can have their dream and help someone else have theirs. When no one loses, there is no longer any need to step on anyone else to get ahead.

That is all. Disperse.