Divine Neutrality

Up to even 100 years ago a large fraction of people in the world lived without using money! Most people managed on subsistence farming and barter. Or they were peasants or serfs or share croppers. They were fed, clothed and housed by their masters; not paid a wage. Occasional small quantities of money sometimes changed hands but people’s lives did not depend on it.

Our lives do depend on it. Excepting a very few extreme outdoorsmen or women we all need money to live.

That we need the material things - water, food and shelter - is understandable. But money is not an ordinary material thing! Proof: A monied (wealthy) person need possess no specie at all in his pockets nor need he have it in a vault. His ‘money’ is entirely a matter of figures in a ledger. The material thing called specie - dollar bills, euros, pound notes, yen etc. - is not the same as money. It is only one form of it; used when relatively small quantities are involved. There is no vault in the bank holding your bank account money in specie. Only the poor have their wealth in specie!

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The image shows one of the stepping stones leading to my house. In mixing the cement I asked myself, “What words deserve being set in stone?” My choices are set in stepping stones. They are observations about the mechanics of being; notes on how the world is. No complaints, no visions of how the world ought to be, no fantasies, no prayers. Just pithy surmise from observations.

In stepping on the stones, most people take no notice whatever, that they are walking on words. A very few say something to me on the text content. And one person demonstrated considerable strength of character in saying of the text shown in the image that he didn’t know what it meant. He said what others dared not say. Only inner confidence allows one to profess ignorance. I respect people who can do it.

I offer examples below to illustrate the text, “Nothing so hinders understanding as notions of justice.”

The first example is this: In medieval times, items were held to possess ‘intrinsic value’ - a just value. The price of an item should be its just value. People battled over the just value of a thing. People argue over it today!

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Free giveaways generate buying. Chris Anderson, in a recent article in Wired Magazine, rejoices in the idea. He perceives a new business paradigm in this form of selling. The article is called, “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business”.

It’s a confused and disjointed article burdened with irrelevancies and embarassing ignorance (on the solution to Zeno’s Paradox). But Anderson gives instructive examples of how money has been made out of free giveaways. Entrepreneurs take note.

What these examples exemplify is this: giving something away can induce people to buy things they don’t need. It expands the conscious menu of purchasable choices. It creates more in the world to buy.

Buying generates economic activity. General prosperity rises with commercial bustle. Economic activity produces jobs, consumes resources, generates waste and yields an increase in the level of general satisfaction. In good times even art and philosophy prosper. Thus the creation of a ‘desire to buy’ makes society wealthier! Wired Magazine rejoices.

Merchants prosper and order goods. Manufacturers buy materials and hire workers. The money paid out empowers consumers to generate further economic activity. And so wealth grows. When wealth grows we’re having ‘good times’.

Why can’t we have unending good times?

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Among many people who were not bold enough to do it, my sister, Simma, confessed to seeing no humour in this cartoon.* Wherein lies the humor?

You are a seeker. You have heard of an enlightened one. He is a hermit who lives in a cave in the side of a mountain. You must struggle to get there. The arduous climb symbolizes the struggle to attain nirvana - become enlightened. In clothes befitting the nakedness of your soul and your readiness to become a devotee you ascend the mountain. And, at last, just over the last ledge your struggle is to be rewarded. You will see the enlightened one, an ascetic bearded prophet of great age.

Instead you see a 40 year old hairy man dressed in woman’s underwear, wearing a wig and made up like a hooker, sitting in the lotus position. But then, this astonishingly silly figure speaks the words that his appearance illustrates. And these turn out to be the most profound words imaginable: Disillusionment is enlightenment!

Disillusionment, something mourned by many as the loss of innocence, is declared to be the kernel of enlightenment. By a man whose very appearance embodies disillusionment to the seeker.

The power of this cartoon is of biblical proportions. It is Michaelangelo’s David of cartoons. A masterpiece. Because it speaks profundity through humor.

The pealing away of illusion is surely enlightenment.
And the pealing away of illusion is what disillusionment means.
Disillusionment is enlightenment.

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