The soul of money – our invention
Published in Books and Articles, Personal Skills on May 21, 2010
Lynne Twist is amazingly good at putting across the unquestioned answers and the unanswered questions of our time
A fascinating 10 minutes in my view.
Globalsufficiency.org
ENJOY!
I want to share with you my thoughts after watching this video. I have tried to analogy to my personal experience.
A year ago I used to be selfishness; I used to think only about my needs and my wishes. I have written on my wall in my bedroom the Ayn Rand’s quote: ”I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life”. Then I met amazing people, volunteers in different organization, I became active, implicated in social projects, I begun my volunteer work and all these facts have changed my view about life, success, happiness. Now I can say for sure I am living a committed life and I am more happy then before, I have enlarged significantly my network, I have a lot of amazing memories, I have new doors opened now, I am more courageous and more confident thanks to other’s people appreciation and gratefulness,. I feel I can move mountains, I see lots of opportunities in my country, where many people are disappointed and more willing to emigrate, I see resources unused, I see people that need to be helped, I see problems that have to be solved, I see things have to be changed, I see lots of challenges. I want to have a personal impact on society’s development.
People are too busy today to think deeper about their role on earth, to think about their set of values and their contribution on the community, society and world. It is time to give, not only to get.
I feel as if I’d just listened to a sect’s leader… It was at the same time too pessimistic (about people’s nature) and too idealistic (about what can be done about it).
Well, I do agree that people are selfish and selfishness is a “driving force” of today’s society. However, I absolutely don’t consider it as purely negative. If you are a volunteer or help someone for free, isn’t it because of your selfishness, too? Even if you don’t get money, you get – for instance – this person’s (or her/his friends’) recognition instead of it. This of course boosts your self-esteem and you feel better.
So don’t forget alternative currencies:) Public recognition is a currency, alternative to money. And no one’s to blame. To provide you with another example: in my opinion, aristocracy, which is literally “the rule of the excellent” was the best political system ever. Politicians didn’t get money, nevertheless, they executed power in order to gain people’s respect. And they succeed although they had virtually no legitimacy. Why did they do it? Because they were selfish. Was it bad? Not at all. So let’s free ourselves from this insidious framework. Selfishness is not an evil.
What a beautiful video. I love it!
She has a great way of describing and explaining another aspect of money and sufficiency.
We simply don’t know when we have enough – because we only know what we WANT but not what we really NEED…!
So what do we really need? – food, security and shelter?
If, “more always will make you want more and always generates lack in your experience” then let’s get started cutting down on all the stuff we buy all the time. I’m also thinking if there could have been a better way of doing this GreEn workshop, that would not require us all to fly to Brussels – hence using transport, hotels etc. Just a thought…
Elizaveta, thanks for you comment!
And apparently the more you give the more you get in the end so it all works out;-)
If we believes we are all one, then there is no such thing as helping others. You are helping yourself every time! Well, we will talk more about this I’m sure when we meet!
Fabulous!!! really empowers people to be committed.Excellent video especially for the people for developing countries to be committed, because in the post colonial countries people wants to get things more, bigger and it doesn’t matter what will be its negative costs for environment and other people.
I have watched this video for third time, for some reasons, it touches the inner part of me. It is candid enough to put into words those things that run unconsciously on my mind. This made me reflect on my initiative whether it is geared towards sufficiency or the desire for more? It was a good reminder, empowering indeed!
I am completely amazed. Having read and watched the book and documentary called “The Secret” by Rhoda B. I infer that the principles are the same. One thing that touched me though is the phrase that there are no poor people, people may live under oppressed circumstances but that doesn’t mean that they are poor.
The video has some powerful messages and It makes you ask yourself questions like : Am I chasing what you need or what you want? And what is it that could make me feel satisfied?
I believe its important to have an answer to the last question, so that your actions are well oriented and you can feel accomplished also.
I partly agree with the affirmation ” wanting more generates lack”, but this is not always a bad thing, if we have in mind positive social impact and positive change.
The unanswered question from this video is to me actually if the system that is predominantly defining this “chase for more” is the right one (I know, she is talking about personal attitudes towards terms like enough and sufficient, but let me try to put it into perspective). Our (positive) interest based money creation system is ultimately defining this chase: on the long run you (seen as an entrepreneur) can only compete with the market (and so as well with commercial not like us social entrepreneurs) if you comply with this chase. Putting it even differently: If you want to establish something of a long existing (=sustainable value creation) you need to comply with this rules or, as an alternative, you ultimately establish a new economic system (watch the web for articles about negative tax models and their effects on investment behavior). So I think it is a systematic question. Anyhow it´s a good talk, it´s a worthwhile to consider approach, but I think simply not working as long realities look different.