It was a bright day in a dark room. That’s where Vikid, the Superhero of Truth, liked to reside while thinking of wonderous schemes. He had just defeated Liar by setting his pants on fire… a fun little story, found at this link.
This day he was pondering over the Nature of Wealth and how it related to the age old questions of Mind & Matter.
Along his wondering he had chanced upon a book called “Superabundance” , written by a Think-Tank Wonk, who claimed many a fantastical thing.
The Wonk wasn’t wrong but what he said had many implications worth considering.
Wealth was a product of Thought over Matter,
however people perceived it as limited.
They reasoned it was governed by material things.
The Wonk was also hampered by a one dimensional unitary focus on Economics and Pollyanna-thinking.
However, this didn’t bother Vikid. The book wasn’t designed to be The Only Answer. It was another piece of the puzzle he wished more people would engage in.
“What was an iPhone to a Cat or Farming to a Dog?”, he wondered.
It made no sense except to thinking beings.
Now, physicists showed us that,
matter = energy.
E equals em cee squared i‘twas said.
The idea could be used to generate power from an atom for good or bad, or lie dormant as it had since the beginning.
Sand rearranged as chips could calculate the weather or sit inert in a desert, baking under the Sun forever.
The point being that, there was no practical limit to wealth on the planet. All we needed was imagination and cooperation.
Mind over Matter
NOT
Matter on the Mind.
Which was nothing other than
Craving.
We were not running out of Sand or Energy.
And that “Climate” discussion,
Net f’ing Zero,
an oldskool eschatological obsession.
Exactly the opposite of common understanding.
Which spread from person to person
from Malthus to Marx,
from Thunberg to Thanos,
threatening half of life in existence.
There was no reason to fight as nothing was running out…
except for our own patience and self-esteem.
So what were we fighting about constantly and,
more importantly why?
Mind had a habit of crystallizing to matter.
Thought had a habit of reducing to belief…
and the number of false beliefs vastly outnumbered the true.
This being the result of the law of large numbers and other statistical blunders.
Old thoughts about scarcity were rife in society, leading to fear about availability.
The power-hungry,
always scared about losing control
of ill gotten goods.
The power-starved scared of losing
what little they had and
losing favor to the power-hungry.
Each in turn trying to grab what they could, by any means. Slaves to each other and their own beliefs.
But it didn’t have to be that way.
There could be plenty for all.
Not through some cock-n-bull theory of “Redistribution” or preoccupation about “Capitalism”.
But through creation.
Mind creating Matter and
Matter creating Mind.
Mediated through non-aggression and liberty.
The trick was to see that the limits we placed, were put there by ourselves. The horrors we created were created by us. The subservience to Power at the cost of dignity was a self inflicted wound. Power was not to be feared and not to be hated. Power could be enjoyed, shared and put to productive use without sacrificing love, culture and a deep respect for history.
This wasn’t about singing Kumbaya or going Hippie. Those were false prophecies.
It was about putting mind over matter through fearless study. It was about facing the Demons of Society and beating them with uncensored discussion and honesty.
Vikid opened the curtains and let the light in. The room sparkled with promise.
“Thanos, I’m coming to get you.”, he whispered under his breath.
He smiled at the prospect. Until next time…
for this was,