Money is a tool, how it is used matters.
However this tool itself has properties that shape how it is used. The tool is a product of our relationship with reality and the tool shapes our relationship with reality.
The relationship with reality from which it was born was one of violence and conflict, of scarcity and fear, of oppression and control.
Our current money is like a knife.
It cuts and separates.
It is a weapon that can wound.
It slices up the world.
Making it easier to consume.
You wouldn’t use a knife to close a wound, likewise money in its present form can’t help us heal the world.
What if money were like a living thread like Mycellium that could join, combine and heal?
Money isn’t real.
It is useful (and harmful) shared story of Value.
It has Value, because we all agree it has Value (or more importantly those who are able to control access to what we need – eg. Land, agree it has Value and demand payment in it).
Yet its power lies in the threat of Violence.
If this sounds strong, try not having money and see what happens to you.
Denial of service.
No access to food.
No access to land or shelter
Basic human rights are denied
To be denied the right to shelter is an act of violence.
To imprison people for being denied their right to shelter is an act of violence.
Destroying someones shelter is an act of violence.
Money is like a Knife.
It allows us to separate ourselves from our needs.
It abstracts and disconnects us from our Values.
It cuts away the deep webs of value and service embedded in our world.
Causing us to neglect that which sustains us.
This mental blade, perhaps does more harm to us than any other weapon ever fashioned.
The power in money is the ability to separate in order to extract and control.
Money is the blade that makes the cut.
Between Human and Nature. Between Human and Community.
Between Us and Real Value.
Yet there is an opposite power the Blade caused us to forget.
The power of the Living Thread – Mycellium
Before knives we would have to tear our food with hands and teeth.
Every time we did we would see the threads.
The fibres in every being and the fabric of life that connects them.
But when we slice we tend to forget.
We slice through the threads, without a care.
Yet the power of these living threads runs deep.
Despite every cut, and every form of violence and suppression.
Still we find ways to grow together.
Fungi provide us with both metaphor and reality of the Living thread.
An ancient teacher.
Survivor of 6 extinction events. Regrowing the Earth each time.
Their mycelial strands will grow even if cut.
Seeking, healing and reconnecting.
They join and connect living beings.
Sharing and distributing information, and nutrients.
Establishing deep symbiotic relationships.
Transforming waste into food and habitat.
(Mushrooms can already transform: Plastic, Radiation, DDT, Cigarette butts)
Check out this great Video for more info.
What if our Money were like fungi’s living threads instead of like a knife.
What if we rewarded Connection and Attention?
What if we rewarded transformation of ALL wastes to Food, Energy and Habitat?
What if we rewarded making information more accessible to all?
What if we rewarded everyone for exploration, and discovery (even Failures).
What if science, invention and entrepreneurship weren’t gated communities limited by access to funds?
What if we rewarded caring for each other, the world, and the systems that sustain and care for us?
It’s time we changed how we Value and relate to the world and each other.
It’s time to make money like living threads.
And grow a culture of Infinite Win!
The Infinite Win 