answer a few questions
for me
first of all
why is it that
every time i finally
decide to buy
a full sheet of stamps
the post office
raises the price
of stamps?
-please don't tell
me to buy the forever
stamps, because i find
those boring
secondly, how can the
same person
win the lottery
four times?
i'm not money
hungry in the least
but i have to admit
it would be nice
to have the kind
of security
and freedom
a lottery winning
would provide
-to be able to
go out with friends
more regularly
without worrying
about spending
more than i have
-which is something
i've started doing again
-going out with friends,
that is
-and it's embarrassing
to have to say i can't
go out as often as they'd
like because i can't afford
it, and to hear them say
they'd pay for me
because i don't want
anyone to pay for me
-that would make
me a leech
-i know i have to
play to win
but i know if i did
play i wouldn't win
-i recently spent
a day in a casino
and could only
allow myself
to spend one
dollar playing
games.
-the good news
is that i won
another dollar,
so i came out with two.
1 comment:
From the dawn of human history no one has questioned the idea of exchange. I call this a foundational duality, inherent in egoism, because according to the higher logic of independent souls, the moment you say, “This is mine, it isn’t yours, if you take it I’ll call it stealing, if you want it you must give me something that I value in exchange,” you are exploiting the situation and ignoring the personhood of the other. The ego, unaware of inward consciousness and the value of spirit, immediately assigns value by comparison in the world, at the root level of the thought process. Since it is at the root level, you cannot approach a man about this, or teach him about it. He can only receive what you’d say, through that same mental filter which is causing the trouble. The monks try to renounce material goods, for instance, but exchange and ownership steal into their social situation.
The idea of the humans appears to be, “Let’s divide up the objects, this is intelligent and rational.” It is a step above what monkeys achieve, but the Earth cannot support such squandering of resources, and it is basically unfriendly. Capitalism operates by first denying goods, then allowing access to these goods on the basis of exchange. It is the prior denial which is unfriendly and antisocial, and a carryover from animalistic thinking.
So, the Post Office isn’t going to deliver mail if you don’t pay them, and your friends aren’t going to like you any more if you don’t cough up with the green. The higher view is that all have a right to the fundamental necessities of life, if they are willing to work for the sake of the good of the community. They should not have to pay for this. These things are not denied to them, because their value as spirits-in-bodies is recognized. They ought to eat and sleep in a house first, because they are in human bodies. The rest is determined later, after the basic needs are met.
Such altruistic thinking has always failed among the actual egoic humans. The major reason for this is that they do not like to work. Like the animals roaming in the forest, they’d rather establish their territory and avoid work if possible. All the forms of human society today can be resolved like this, once a more advanced standard is applied somewhere, that they are manifesting small steps above the animal existence, such as hobnobbing with one another instead of having a meaningful conversation, or hiding out with the family instead of seeking friends for the sake of their worthy personality traits.
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