Property and theft

I've been thinking about how much of human history involves one lot of people murdering another lot and taking their stuff. It's been very much on my mind this week with the #lifestylechoice furore raging all over the internet. For those who don't know their hashtags from their memes, you may have heard that our dear leader, Tony Abbott, justified the latest attempt to separate aboriginal people from their traditional lands in WA, by saying that the government could not afford to keep propping their 'lifestyle choice' as if it was all Club Med and cocktail umbrellas out there. Other people are far more convinced that this is all about making it easier to set up mining leases with as little interference as possible. It makes me pretty angry.

But, it's not just Australia and it's not just in the history books. This kind of dispossession is still going on, all over the place. Israel looks like they are going to return their right wing government, strongly backed by 'nationalists', which means there is not much hope for any kind of proper resolution with the dispossessed Palestinians any time soon. Indonesia is still committing 'slow motion genocide' against West Papuans. Indigenous people in South America are having to defend themselves against constant attacks by miners and loggers. In the USA, Native Americans have said they are ready to go to war to stop the Keystone Pipeline encroaching on their lands. Tibet and China - well, just because you don't hear a lot about it in the 'news' doesn't mean it's not still going on. The shocking things that go on in African countries all the time in the name of commerce of one kind or another are almost too numerable to mention. Russia has annexed large tracts of the Ukraine - the bits with the oil and gas on them of course.

How can we stop spending trillions of dollars every year globally on 'defence' if people cannot learn to stay within their own borders and respect international law (or any laws at all)? If we can't stop wasting so much money on war, how can we ever hope to share the Earth's bounty fairly and bring about any kind of peace? Feed the hungry? Educate the children? Heal the sick? Repair the environment? Save the planet? Anyone think any of these things are more important and more beneficial than building fighter jets and cluster bombs?

It's easy to blame others for their misfortunes and say their populations are too large, or their governments are corrupt, or claim they are to lazy, stupid or drug addled to help themselves. But in truth, a major cause of suffering in the world is rich people 'helping themselves' to stuff that rightfully belongs to poor people.

I sometimes like to fantasise that the rule of law might one day replace the rule of men with guns. I like to think that perhaps people will get so sick of the terrible injustices committed every day by a greedy minority they will actually do something about it. Like what? Like beefing up the ICJ so people who break the law will be prosecuted and punished? Like funding the UN sufficiently so they can actually be the international police and peacekeeping force we obviously need? I have always been a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. Maybe one day these sorts of ideas will be discussed on the 'news' and on TV panel shows as seriously and as often as shark attacks and bank interest rates? Until then, we'll have to make do with the internet.

Free money?

Recently we mourned the passing of Leonard Nimoy, the actor most famous for playing Mr Spok, in Star Trek. It got me thinking about the way Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, imagined an entire society, the Federation, where money had become obsolete. There is simply no need for it. Replicators make any kinds of goods that people could wish for, including food, so there is no scarcity. There is no need to hoard anything if you can just press a button whenever you want something. What work still needs to be done that can't be done by machines, is done for its own enjoyment and for the betterment of the common weal. I guess there might be some people in this utoptian future who were too lazy to work, but so what? What harm would they be doing in such an abundant society? Most people prefer to have something useful to do. It makes you think.

It is obvious to many people apart from me that the way we have organised our world is not sustainable and cannot continue. All this grubbing after money and destroying things in the process is no good. But what is the alternative? What has to change? Some people would have trouble even imagining a world without money unless, of course, they are Star Trek fans. But believe it or not, not only is it possible to do without money in the real world, it is the normal and natural way to live. People have lived without money for far longer than we have lived with it. Cash money is quite a recent innovation. Not that long ago most people had little use for it. Everything was made, grown, hunted or traded. Imagine a world where people had enough of everything; food, decent shelter, whatever tools they needed, but no more than they needed. Imagine a world where there was no such thing as a billionaire? Do you think that would be a better life or a worse one than the lives we live now?

It's not strictly science fiction either. Robots and replicators are already being used to make things and do jobs that people used to do. Nanobots are no longer just a fantasy. Money these days is virtually meaningless anyway as governments just print more if they want and nobody bats and eye. As our governments flail about trying to come to terms with the mess that has been created by the 1%, maybe it is time to have a major rethink about the role of money in our society and indeed, the role of 'work'. Instead of trying to fix new problems using old fashioned remedies, and giving the unemployed, the homeless, the sick and the poor a good kicking at every opportunity, perhaps we need to think a bit more imaginatively? I don't have the faintest idea about how the transition away from money would be made and what the obstacles would be, but it's a nice idea to think about, isn't it?