This is an old piece I found in my facebook notes. I've got a larger audience now, so I thought I'd share it with you.
We
hear so many cliche's of MONEY all the time. Root of all evil this,
makes the world go round that. Money is the main problem of this
wretched world, the lust there of, the desire to be adorned with
material riches and wealth is a driving force for many to succeed, but
the failure to do so is also a melancholic stress enhancer for some who
can't seem to get out of the rut they find themselves in.
Money
itself is not evil. It's just paper (or cotton/linen whatever it's made
out of), but these flimsy wafts of greed drive us to many extremes, just
to get our hands on it. It gets in between family members, like when a
old relative dies, and everybody wants a piece of the boodle, sometimes
fueling fueds that last for decades. It creates rifts in friendships,
when friends lend it to each other, sometimes never returning it, and in
doing this, loosing a friend because trust is broken. It instigates
greed, when people will try any and every way to try to increase their
earnings, whether it be legal or illegal, not caring about the people
that they harm in the process. Prejudice thrives because of it, as long
as there are rich and poor, there will always be prejudices, above and
beyond racism and xenophobia. If people have a lot of it, or even just
more than someone suffering without it, they almost always have a
condescending attitude to those that don't have money or who are poor.
Like one time my mom and I were chilling at Milky Lane, when we heard a
girl behind us, who just finished her cone, her mom wanted to throw
away her serviettethat had the Milky Lane logo on it, but she
remonstrated and said, 'NEE Mummy, wag, ek wil dié saam my vat oppie
trein, sodat almal kan sien ek was by Milky Lane!' Riiiiiight. . .moving
on. . .
It drives people who have low will power (sometimes
even the strongest mental strength can be broken down by stress and
abject failures and disappointments, but it's still no excuse) and who
have been guttered and batterred by life, and are stressing about where
to get money from, to alcohol abuse or drug abuse, which ironically
degenerates their lives further, rather than improving it. (duh) The
allure of wealth and material things sometimes incites lustful
goldiggers (from either sex) to leave ones they're with, instead opting
for flashiness and money instead of comfort and love.
I don't
even think I need to say anything about the collosal effect money has on
the mind of people who become miscreants and criminals, who will kill,
abuse and assault, steal and rob to get what they believe they need to
get to fulfill their selfish desires. Then there are those that covet
and envy those that are better off than them, leering at them
begrudgingly, sometimes even avariciously, desperately wanting what they
want, feeling indignant, accusing them of not deserving their
happiness, when they don't even know the person properly, or what
they've been through to get what they have. Even if it seems like that
person does not deserve what he has, who are you to judge? Stop being
obtuse about life, stop being angry, stop being melancholic, try to stop
being frustrated, no matter how irritating your circumstances are.
Improve yourself, work hard, persevere in this, and then you won't need
to complain, because good things come to those who work their asses off.
Just
imagine, a world where money, wealth and riches are NOT a factor. A
world with no NO MONEY. I'm not saying ALL problems will be solved by a
moneyless world, I'm just saying that is surely will be a better place
to live in.
Just imagine these scenarios, no matter how farfetched they are.
If
aliens, filled with sanguinary fury for the human race unleash a
pernicious attack on Earth, killing us left right and centre with amino
acid-based gravatationally-interdimensional plasma cannons that blast
each and every of our pathetic little cells into another universe, do
you think your money will save you? Do you think the richest person on
Earth will be spared? That he can strike a deal with the alien
ambassador with his millions? Nope. His money is worthless. And he'll be
bludgeoned like the rest of us.
If you die and go straight to
the gates of hell, because your life was life lived with malice,
backstabbing and filth, do you think you can coerce good ol Lucifer to
send you to Utopian bliss by giving him a fat suitcase of goldbars and
diamonds? He'll probably send you straight to the edge of heaven, let
you see what you're gonna miss and hurl you straight to where you
belong; the Valley of Fire and Brimstone filled with the wails of those
who were impetuous and stupid, just like you.
Money is not
valuable. It might be to our society now, but then again, the things we
value are dumb. There are much stronger things that the human race
totally neglects, that are way more powerful than money, and that wealth
will never be able to buy, because the best things in life come from
within, and not from a Gucci bag.
We're so used to it, that it's
hard to see it in any other light. We see wealth as an indicator of
achievement, accomplishment, experience, talent, hard work, etc, but
just think about it, a world where there is no money, no greed or
backstabing. A world where intelligent bartering would be the norm, and
no money would have to be exchanged, ever, it would be peaceful, world
leaders and the super rich bankers would have no hold on the denizens of
the world, there'd be no debt, no interest and depreciation, nothing!
No using of oil as a trump card or a ticket to start wars. There'd be no
more striking, because there is NO money to worry about! No
discrimination between rich and poor. Just think of the advances in
technology we'd be able to achieve, if it didn't cost billions upon
billions of dollars to build things, we could build marvelous machines,
enormous buildings housing thousands, creative inventions that will
revolutionize the way we live and think! No wonder other intelliegent
life doesn't even glance our way, their intelligence and technology is
not driven by profits and losses, but by making their world a better
place to live in peacefully. we claim to be intelligent, but show our
ignorance by thinking the way we do.
I know we'll have to change
our ways of thinking, and that a lot of people WON'T be able to even
think so ebulliently or live that way, but it's worth a try. (heck, even
I will struggle to not want to be well off and secure my future for my
kids, etc, because that's how we grow up, it's programmed into us, but I
digress)
This is my hope for the future, that in the next 100 years we'll be able to carve out such a world.
