Wanted! More “Back Forty” Retreats
Indeed, we here at “Greenwood Cottage” are in agreement that the workers as well as the rulers of our world are in need of a retreat to a “Back Forty”. By this we mean, we think it is critical for the Minority of Humanity, i.e. these rulers, who are constantly worried about that bottom line, their preferred seat on the stock -exchange and their golf cart to listen to the voices of Nature as well as the voices of the people – those who govern by the heavy hand of taxes and false promises. This minority needs to experience the common denominator of those lives they are attempting to control in the name of Profit and Ego (their god).
It is important for the workers of the world along with the machines and devices they operate, should recognize that they are the “majority” and should be treated as such. Do they, the workers of the world, realize that, without them and their machines, the “Corporations”, the would-be “rulers”, would soon find themselves without a “corporation” from which to establish their rule?
On your “Back Forty”, I suggest that you let yourselves become intimate with the Natural World. When you do, I am sure that you will learn a whole lot from this experience.
(1) The first thing you can learn is that these natural things around you were all created by the same “Life Force”, and from the same “Life Stuff”, as each of us were. This being so, then it stands to reason that we must all be related and therefore also interrelated.
(2) When you can now conceive of this relationship, then you should feel obliged to treat each of these “Life Units” with respect and dignity. With a little more contemplation, can you not we arrive at the conclusion that these “Corporate” board members, including the ‘stock-holders, are also members of this one “Life Force” and they alone are not to blame for today’s mess that this Planet of ours finds itself.
According to that modern saying, “We are all in this together” and we each play a part according to our uniqueness and ability. Because my part happens to be different from your part does not mean that it is any better or any worse. My part seems to be best for me.
What a diversified world we live in! Oh my, how we have messed things up by trying to play some other person’s part for which we are not qualified!
Now let us consider that ancient, revered and much respected system, which we now accept and quarrel over, for the distribution of goods and services. Of course I refer to “The Money Price System”. Although this idea has served many folks, especially the rulers, and would-be rulers very well, let us consider the great amount of crime in the world-society today resulting from the use and the abuse of the “money system”. In our human society, money in any of its many forms has become to be considered the prime necessity for life.. Billions of people are suffering because of the lack of it. Many more made ill trying to get it. Things, even the stuff for which we have no real use, have become status symbols, for which many of us strive as the ultimate aim in life. Ever since the dawn of civilization and the birth of “Money”, wars have been waged among nations and within nations for the purpose of obtaining more riches, more money and therefore more prestige. This commodity (money) is very addictive. Behold Las Vegas! Behold Bay-Street! Behold Wall Street! Behold the money markets the world over!
Consider the many Corporations, which have been and still are being constructed for the purpose of obtaining more than their just share of the world’s wealth. The munitions manufacturers exist for the express purpose of supplying devices, primarily to be used to destroy the other nation’s wealth as well as to kill their people, who stand in their way. This is usually done in retaliation for their ‘having gotten to the bank first’. Is it not true that, since “munitions corporations” are in business to design and build instruments of destruction, they are not an asset of any sort to any civilization?
Is there not another way to fairly control the distribution of goods and services from the producer to the consumer?
Yes, that other way is what this website is all about! The answer will be found when you become curious enough to not only scan; but to read about it in my little book, “The Other Way…”
Are you afraid to even contemplate this other way? It is very simple in principle, perhaps too simple for political minds to comprehend. It principally requires the use of ‘computer-age’ technology, which is daily becoming more and more entrenched in our daily lives. Yes, it is as simple as asking or requisitioning for ones requirements, using a specialized sort of credit-debit, ID card registered in the bearer’s (customer’s) name. Rather than contacting the customer’s bank, this new card, the “Global Share Card”, would, via a computer net-work, contact the computer station associated with the “Industry” involved with the production of the good or service requested. In the case of a piece of merchandise, it would be ‘debited’ from their warehouse stock and credited to the customer (bearer of the card). Thus, the customer becomes a shareholder having a share in the operation of that “Industry”. This would tend to keep it in operation, producing, high quality, reliable products and services all in the public’s interest.
Using a similar procedure, the manufacturer would then requests parts and or raw materials from their respective sources to maintain suitable inventories to keep the plant in operation.
So the cycle continues, (consumer to producer, producer to raw materials to producer to consumer) a balanced cycle, controlled principally by use of the consumer’s “Global Share Card”.
Every “Industry”, whether producing goods or services, would, in accordance with its operating “Global Charter”, share responsibility for its judicious use of raw materials – with an eye to conservation as well as the prevention of any kind of resulting pollution to the environment.
Each human being, living on this planet Earth, with this new economic system would thus become a producer as well as a consumer having equal status, as such with every other human being, producing and consuming in a balanced, shared economy. Well, I suppose I have already told you all about this scheme many times before, but it is worth repeating just to make sure that the ideas are thoroughly understood. Let us not forget “We are all in this together”, supported by all of the elements of Nature, which are provided for our sustenance, either directly or indirectly through our many Industries, which we operate and control to suit our many, various needs.
Your friend and sharing neighbour.
Timothy Haystubble Grass Roots Philosopher