Roots and Money

cities can isolate us from our context - the planet

This week I've been writing about our relationship with the planet with which we live. Specifically, I've tried to show that we need the planet, we are part of a big context, but, living as we do in houses and cities, we don't think this way automatically.  

That oversight will kill us - literally and spiritually. 

So why do we mess this up?

Let's get back to basics, to the root of the problem (the root like a radish, radical). The root problem is that it is easier to see the world as us/not us :: subject/object. We objectify other people, groups of people, animals, and everything that is outside us. We turn our surroundings into objects, things that are only valuable insofar as they are valuable to us. 

the drone fatality app

Strangely, we can do that collectively. When I fail to see the value of some thing, and you do, too, we support each other. That's how slavery happens, or nationalism. And that's what we as a species are doing as a planet. 

Humans are treating the planet like it's the Soviets in the 60s.  

And that's really dumb. It's dumber than the cold war. 

In the cold war we could say that this other group were people like us, not demons or strangers, and we could relate to them. In this case we are part of the planet. We are living things made from carbon. We are filled with bacteria. We are the planet as much as moss or lava or atmosphere. 

When we fail to relate to the planet, we fail to understand ourselves. 

What's the radical, root solution? 

It almost definitely has to do with $$MONEY$$. Money is how we turn subjects into objects, and objects into numbers. Money is how we measure the worth of things relative to ourselves. Money is the high that keeps us addicted to objectification - rewarding us when we objectify really really well.

The first step to being better at relating is understanding our personal relationship with money.


Do you know the point of your money? Do you know the source of your money?