Life Is Not Fair

Life’s Not Fair

                Life’s not fair: it’s harsh, but it’s true. Life’s not fair because some people are taller and are better basketball players, and some people have a huge singing range and can stay on key effortlessly, while some people have an aptitude for math like it’s nobody’s business.

To be born with such advantages or disadvantages in life is not fair. We are not all born equal no matter what any constitution says, and that’s just the way it is. We’ve got to work with what we’ve got in this life and learn to accept ourselves the way we are.

                However, there’s another type of inequality that exists, and it’s much more unfair than any physiological or biological difference will ever be: it’s the current, competitive economic system. This system has been built and designed to produce haves and have nots, where billions of people are going hungry, most people are struggling to get by, and a handful of people have everything they could possibly want and more.

                It’s one thing to be ‘lucky’ enough to be born with certain aptitudes wherein one can possibly enjoy a certain skill set throughout their life, which another may never get the chance to do. It’s another thing when you’re born into a country in debt, and you starve from the moment you take your first breath till the moment when you die.

Life’s Not Fair: The American Dream

Two people are born in the ghetto somewhere in the U.S.A, One is tall and a good basketball player, and the other is the same minus the height and skills. The tall one who can play basketball gets discovered and goes on to make millions and now he’s all set, while his counterpart will remain in the ghetto, where he will suffer the consequences of the unemployment, unaffordable education, and the bad economy created by the elite. Basically, he hasn’t got a chance in hell. And no matter how much money his basketball playing friend can make, he can never buy a solution to this problem, because it is global and it is systemic. Instead his millions will go to supporting the system as it is and making sure everything stays in place.  

We live in a world where one can be born  into a country, or a part of a country where no matter how hard you work or what type of person you are, you will go hungry, and you will never get the opportunity to change that reality because of the systemic and inescapable poverty that exists. And then there’s the illusion that in America, there’s still a chance for everyone to ‘make it’, also known as the American Dream. It’s not called a ‘dream’ by accident: dream on America. Take my example of the basketball player- that would be an example of the American dream- but even if every NBA player were to have come from poverty, the fraction of people that go from rags to riches is so insignificant. Billions of people, tens of millions in the U.S. remain struggling, isolated, merely surviving with no future and no hope. The few people who make it out of this situation are celebrated, given media attention and held as examples of what the others ‘could’ become if they’re lucky. To this I say: Good luck getting a loan with bad credit and no assets. Good luck getting a good job with a criminal record. Good luck making sense of the world when you’re born into drug addiction. Good luck being an honest, hard-working individual when you are physically or sexually abused, and you have no one to show you how to ‘rise up’ and ‘overcome’. Good luck becoming competitive in a country where the quality of education is poor unless you can afford Ivy League schools, where a BA just doesn’t cut it anymore, and where poverty is systemic. Poverty HAS to exist in order for the system to function properly, wherein the rich become even more rich every year, and the middle class -the backbone of America- gets chipped away at, crumbles under crushing debt and begins to live hand to mouth, joining the ranks of the poor.  But these are the breaks right? I mean, Life’s not fair after all.

                But this is different, this is a man-made phenomenon. This has been planned and orchestrated, accepted and allowed, legislated and concretized.  The difference is also the fact that this is global, and that starvation and suffering is systematic and long-term.  The situation has been created over generations, and it has gotten out of hand. Now it’s time to just stop, stop, and do something altogether different.

                The Equal Money system is a new kind of economic system. It is being proposed as an alternative to profit-based capitalism. It is being proposed by an international, self-organized group who are committed to change. We understand that in order to bring about change we first have to change ourselves, by going to school, educating ourselves, and getting jobs that will place us in good standing within the system. We are cleaning up our own financial situations and becoming responsible, well-disciplined individuals who care enough about the lives of those who have no chance, to commit our own lives to personal, then systemic, then global change. We are empowering ourselves by learning about what Life is really about: not clothes or beauty, sex, partying, drinking or sports- but rather the global community who need to work together to lift the poor out of their isolation, help the rich step down from their delusions of grandeur, and bring everybody to a level playing field where education, medical attention, food, shelter, communication and transportation are guaranteed to all.

                We understand that REAL change can only come from a change within the system. That we have to ‘be the change’ as they say, by becoming the politicians, by becoming the educated, by becoming the rich, by becoming the system, in order to change the system from within. We need to become the system to change the system, not fight the system.

 If you are unsatisfied with the way things are and if you agree we need to change, I propose you join the Equal Money movement by learning about it, learning about Desteni, and then empowering yourself to become the system, so that you truly can ‘be the change’ that will change the world. It’s about time, but it will take time. Real change is slow, but there’s a lot to do.

Here are some of the principles of the Equal Money System in simple English:

No human being may profit off of the work of another, one human hour of labour has the same value across the board. If you want to be rich and have more, you simply have to work more. Profiting off of the work of another is called slavery.

The value of money is not backed by gold or market shares, but by Human Life. We are all born with the same worth; we all have intrinsic value which is inseparable from us. When the human dies, the value dies, no value carries over to be passed down the bloodline creating family elites. We are one global family and each member will be considered.

- This not only makes sense, but helps to deter corruption while we re-educate ourselves till we understand that equality always pays in the end. It eliminates the constant fear of not having enough, eliminating the ‘you OR me’ mentality, and nurturing the ‘us’ mentality.

Within an Equal Money System there will be two parallel systems, one for basic requirements and one for luxuries.

-          It’s not the same as communism. If you want more- you can have it, you just have to do the work yourself. If you don’t want to work, you don’t have to, but you will only get the bare minimum in life, if you’re cool with that-so be it! If you want to work 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours a week only, that is fine because you are only ‘sacrificing’ luxuries by working less.

Basic Needs System: All basic needs will be met, giving the human peace of mind and security, eliminating the need to simply survive, giving each human value so that he and she can understand what it is to value others and respect life. Educating him and her to be responsible, considerate and caring custodians of the earth and the plant and animal systems  upon which we depend for our survival.

-          How can we value others if we don’t value ourselves? How can we value ourselves when our societies only value money? How can we value the earth when it pays to destroy the earth?

-           When a child is born he or she is immediately granted a bank account, the balance in the account will last the child’s entire life, the money can only be spent on basic needs for that child and the well-being of that child.

The Luxuries System: Entertainment and other luxuries will be provided wilfully by humans, and paid for by money which represents man-hours of labour. Entertainers will be paid per hour worked the same as doctors and veterinarians and teachers. If you want more luxuries, you work more.

Profit will not exists, thus cheap products and excessive packaging will cease to exist, among other things, drastically reducing pollution.

-           Everything that’s related to cutting costs will cease to exist. Such as using harsh chemicals, (because ‘green products’ are too expensive and don’t work fast enough).  Advertising and all the waste associated with it will cease to exist: therefore, false advertising, and ads that are emotionally manipulative will cease. Products that self-destruct after two years will have no place here. Fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics and other high-yield producing techniques will end. Pesticides will be reduced and replaced.Cheap waste removal such as waterways and landfills will be drastically reduced with the aim of only producing so much waste as the environment can effectively handle. No more slave labour, no more inhuman working conditions. No more child labour. No more child sex trade. No more insurance-based suicide.

All decisions will be guided by the principle of what’s best for all, and voted on in democratic elections where each person has a vote.

None are free until all are free. None are equal until all are equal.

There will be a four year mandatory work period for all human beings. Once schooling is complete, a 4 year mandatory service in work towards the functioning of society is required for the running of the system.  4 years is nothing compared to today, where many people have to work a lifetime after schooling is complete, if they were even lucky enough to get an education. We have to work for our whole lives in order to survive; even the idea of retirement is becoming something that is no longer tangible for most.

Leaders will lead as equals, and will be voted in by the people.

For more information visit www.equalmoney.org.

What is Abdication?

Abdication:

Usually refers to self-responsibility- when one uses justification, excuses, validation, beliefs, blame or denial to not take self-responsibility for one’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions, words or deeds- one is abdicating one’s self-responsibility as Life.

In other words, any time one points to something outside of self as the reason for one’s internal experience- that is abdication (of self-responsibility). This is because nothing and no one is responsible for how we experience ourselves in this world. Everything we think, believe or feel can be traced back to an experience or to genetics, and even then, parents can’t be blamed, they couldn’t help it then and they can’t change it now, but self can change from within it. Within this process we must first change ourselves, and then we change the world. This is the responsibility of each human being, and anything other than taking responsibility for this is an abdication of self-responsibility. Responsibility to self is responsibility to all that is Here, because all is one, therefor everything that is here is you, and everything of you is Here.

Some examples:

1)      Belief as, for example, religion, as an abdication of self-responsibility: When one places one’s personal power outside of self in the belief of a higher power, giving that belief the power of judgment and the responsibility to come one day and save us. When in reality, the only judgment is self-judgment, the only responsibility is self-responsibility as all as one as equal, and the true source of power always comes from who we are as Life.

2)      Justification as an abdication of self-responsibility: When one justifies, for example, being in an abusive relationship or having an addiction, instead of facing these things, standing up from within them and taking the self-responsibility to change them. In a sense this type of behavior indicates that one perceives the situation or addiction to be ‘bigger than’ the being themselves, when in reality, everything we experience, we have created and therefore we can un-create. We are equal to everything we have created and experience. However, we created most of the consequences we are currently experiencing over long periods of time, where we continuously and consistently repeated patterns until they finally became, for eample, an addiction or a pattern (of abusive relationships). It takes the same amount of constant continuous application over the same amount of time to free oneself from these internal prisons, and it’s absolutely worth every second of ‘effort’ because the alternative is to continue to be a slave to that which each one has accepted and allowed themselves to become.

3)      Validation as an abdication of self-responsibility: Seeking validation from anything outside of self places the responsibility on to another to decide what is or is not valid within self. Only each individual person can validate themselves, and the only reason one will ever seek validation outside of self is if they have not gone through the process of doing this for themselves. Self-validation is similar to self-acceptance, and it empowers human beings to not have to rely on others to give them completeness, but instead to complete themselves and become complete wholes within the greater whole. Oneness within, oneness without, equality within, equality without. What is valid? –Who one really is as Life. Complete self-honesty about who one is in context of all of existence, whether one’s actions, words and deeds consider, respect and honor all that is here as existence as one would consider, honor and respect oneself. Considerations such as these help each person determine what within self is valid, and what is dishonest, greed, deceit, etc… so that one can rid oneself of anything that one decides is not valid, to slowly accumulate the validity of Life.

4)      Excuses as abdication of self-responsibility: Excuses are usually used to justify or validate reasons why one did or did not do something one knows one should or should not have done. You either did it, or you didn’t do it, it is necessary to take responsibility in either case, because when one takes responsibility instead of making excuses, one can then take the self-responsibility necessary to make the appropriate correction.

5)      Blame as an abdication of self-responsibility: When we blame others we place the responsibility upon them to change and make it right. When something appears to be ‘not right’ within self, only self is to blame. Therefore, self is responsible to change self and correct the situation. This too empowers each person to be able to make necessary changes without having to wait for or depend on another to do it for them, which is abdicating the responsibility to them. No one has the power to change your inner experience but you. When we don’t take the self-responsibility to change ourselves, we can fall into the tendency to project this frustration, resentment and powerlessness outwards, and in effect, blame others for our experience (instead of taking responsibility for ourselves).

6)      Denial as an abdication of self-responsibility:  Denying there is a problem, for example, refusing to acknowledge the suffering in the world is a quick and easy way to not have to do anything about it, not having to feel responsible for it. Sometimes we fear that feeling will be too much, in the form of the horror and guilt one would feel if one had to admit one is responsible for the starving to death of a child. Denial abdicates the responsibility to do something about it because one will just not ‘go there’. The truth is, we are responsible for this type of atrocity, and we’re also responsible for the suffering we have endured within ourselves, in the form of, for example, suppression and compromising ourselves and enslaving ourselves to so many things. We have to wake up and really see what’s here and what we’ve done, so that we can snap out of this denial and start to repair the damage.