The Venus Project : ReDesigning of Culture As We Know It : A World Without Money?
What can save our society and livelihood on planet earth?
Not money : One cannot eat money, or stuff money into your car to get it to run. And since every dollar I earn = debt, because it is owed to someone somewhere, then it certainly wont free me no matter how much of it I have.
Not politics : politicians only know how to create laws and remove my liberties, establish budgets and declare wars.
Not religion : which only creates intangible emotional solace for when I need it, and albeit much appreciated, not lasting against the current injustices in this world and its need to survive.
The true gift then, has to be in being responsible for everything that has improved my life.
Technology : the service providers, ecologists and engineers who have looked to the future, and who still do.
From the simply pencil which allows me to solidify my thoughts to the future that the Venus Project is offering mankind in its resource based model of a future where these previous *systems* listed above, simply no longer need to be supported by our need to be slaves to making more money.
- Zeitgeist Addendum (the movie : 90 min)
For those of you who have followed the Envirowarrior on her journey through the minefield of todays environmental and societal problems, you will already know that my posts have always leant towards the need for new technology, as a way out to the future of 12 billion people. My admiration for those who create it as a means for saving all species, in that future, is perhaps unparalleled.
Imagine my excitement when I discovered a whole new world of thinkers already on the case with a design for a workable cash free, resource based economy, free energy, no more work future?! Not just people; but engineers, inventors, consumers, conservationists, philosophers and environmentalists; farmers and scientists, ETs (J*)and plain ole people like you and me.
Citizens of mother earth and the human race, putting their minds to a future beyond the current money system, which should be clearly obvious by now, isnt working simply as a self evident truth. An antiquated system clearly designed to serve the ruling few, who benefit from our servitude and the Earths resources without conscience of consequences ... but enough about what we already know, how about something many of us may not know about?
Perhaps the best thing for you to do is visit the website and explore this future for yourself, <<here>>.
Introduction :
* ..The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems. As you will see, The Venus Project is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions. Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives, and the consistent application of the best that science and technology can offer directly to the social system, The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium.*
Excited by the idea yet?
I will be running posts on individual ideas and aspects of some of the new proposed technology from this project over the coming weeks, trying to demistify some of the technological blurb; exploring its effectiveness and real ability to make the difference we are all so desperately hoping for yet still unable to imagine.
Can we work without our need for money is removed?
Can we survive without stock Markets and Central Banking?
Can we live without central governments and the judicial system?
Would they really become obsolete under a removal of the pressures of earning money?
Would crime fall if the need for money was removed?
Do we have a choice available at this time?
Please leave your thoughts here, but note that The Compassionate Cynic, Adam 7 has raised some interesting points in a summary of this topic and its ability to function, <<here>>
10 minute promo Video <<here>>
Please Peruse, Read, Reflect, Comment and Enjoy!
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I checked out the link. My initial thoughts are, Too many people have been exposed to what money can buy for them for this to work, and this 'assumption'?:
Isn't that just money by another name?
But they're just my initial thoughts.
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Although the project seems avery promising and positve outlook toward the changed future, I was also thinking that the basic nature of man himself has to be questioned too. We are social animals but we do not stand each others progress, we thrive on other natural resources and thus we harm them. There are many examples like this when man's basic character makes him feel like the diminant speciea and thus I think even if the way of working changes, the world without government, money, stick market etc. We will again create somethings as cryptic as them.....
So what needs to change is our character, our internal outlook and our amount of compatibility....
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It is an interesting study is it not, money, greed, power?
Early days to tell, I agree, but personally, I think the money system as it is, is so intrinsically tied into the fossil and nuclear fuel systems, that when one goes the other may well go with it and that this Project may not go away easily unless they bring in a global one (or two) child policy?
I wouldnt miss money as I see all the evil it causes.
As for the people, I think they are pretty maleable where not having any more debt is concerned, as long as they would be clothed and fed, offered shelter and retain their rights to the liberties and entertainments we have today. But I cant help imagine without the need to make a buck, how each person could pursue their own desire fully.
..um... but I digress into the dream again; you are right in what you say about a token system and it boggles the mind. My daughter feels that barter would have to return, I feel that the 90% of our brains which are not used thus far, may well hold a few answers and am hopeful that the current magnetic polarity shift will unlock a minor percentage of that untapped potential?
As they say; we live in interesting times, do we not.
Thanks for your opinion, I still havent read all of it in detail myself and chewed the facts and welcome a deeper analysis after you have had some time to digest and reflect on this information.
Lilla ...
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It sounds like a good idea but I'm not sure that it's something humanity is capable of... it seems to go against the very nature of humankind, and while if a number of likeminded individuals got together I'm sure this could happen on a small scale, I don't think I could see it happening on a larger one.
~Dianna
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I hear you ... just!
As I said to Daivd we onyl use 10% of our brains, perhaps the answers lie within the other 90% yet untapped?
I sit here desperately trying to think of how this could come about without using the current system and my brain gets fried, and I dont always agree with that business about the stock market, because it suits industrialisation as it is, based on the current central banking/Federal reserve system of money/debt between the powers that be and the governments/freemarket.
What if that collapsed, as it is doing now?
What happens when oil runs out?
What happens when the dams no longer can provide the water needed to use the current piping infrastructure to the people?
What happens when all the Lead and Zinc, Copper and Steel are mined out (current estimates put it all between 2035 and 2060).
What happens when all the coal is gone and all the uranium too?
I'm not saying that it wouldnt cause hardships and even deaths, but we have to go forward as a species ...
So much more to read and digest, and learn before making definite statements.
Thanks for your input (maybe the moldy will unlock all the answers for us soon?) .
Lilla ...
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I have thought about this and the claim tonot need central governments and I tend to agree, because it is the current system of competition (to make more money), perpetuated by the system itself, that creates so much of our violence, greed and manic behaviour.
However, I agree that it would be naieve of meto avoid the truism that every barrell contains a bad apple; but as a whole, I cant help hold the idea that as a species we are just so much more capable, than what we have achieved so far. A system that is so flawed and barbaric, almost primitive in its inception, feeding only a few elite and not the entire planet?
To me we are still in the flat earth period of our consciousness as far as this aspect of our civilisation goes ... I believe though, that we are on the way somewhere else, and technology will help bring the balance required, in some way to get us there.
Other truths of indefinite supply is a self evident truth of this third dimensional reality we call our own.
So much yet to learn about who these master architects intend to make this thing work...
I appreciate you stopping by with your views Atula, I know it is important to you, too.
Lilla ...
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I hear you loud and clear, but its a nice dream, isnt it?
I just cant give up on us being smarter than we have shown so far, as a species that is. As I said, to me our current system is in its *flat earth* period... but then I am a trekkie from childhood and know that these things can work in reality,some people have actually thought it all through ... my task now is to try and undertand what the hell they are talking about! *lol*
I shall hope with you.
Lilla ...
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Well meet for a picnic by the water wheel, out near the green where the bards gather in the afternoons to recite their latest sonnets and poems, tunes and theatrics. Well talk about developing blue roses and ways to increase the food generators output to include, scrummy new pancake flavours and exotic cocktails!
We will design new swimwear and breeds of cats, and ways to film them, all before lunch, and without a care to having to work for a penny to put our veggies on the table, but purely to actualise more of the 90% of our dormant brians.
Our usefulness will be to mankind will be collectively to add our skills and abilities and God given gifts, to share our experiences of the bliss of participation with species from across the glaxy ... working hard only when our brows need to feel the sweat once more for its own sake ... but not in a rustic, dusty hamlet of old; but within glass and concrete and pools of clear water.
Oh, yay .. bring it on!
Lilla ...
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Thanks for your view on this. Interesting and I see your point, but i am left to wonder at the alternatives availble to us as resources dimish. We must realise that we have further to go than where we have currently got to, no?
I hear so many voices on orble and everywhere clamouring about the injustice of patriarchal systems, illegal warfare, crime, opression : world banks and mismanagement of funds where only 1% of the world holds 40% of its wealth?
I hear outcries of sweatshop injustice, third world debt, poverty and starvation.
I constantly research facts, figures and self evident truths that our system is top heavy, eventually unable to support itself and I am left to wonder if that is the pinnacle of our potential as a species?
It is nice to be able to dream of something better, even if I grapple with the logistics of it beign possible.
Perhaps it is all a matter of perception?
either way, it will be interesting to see how this developes over the coming decades ...
Lilla ...
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Perhaps, and of course it is an admirable dream, and I am a firm believer in working toward your dreams.
I hope humanity can someday achieve this, and we are running out of time. But I am a cynic, and there is that shred of doubt in humankind that will always keep me from believing it would work on a large scale.
I will keep reading, and keep hoping, and perhaps someday it will actually happen-maybe even in my lifetime, though I doubt I will live long enough to see the day. Perhaps some of my friends will still be alive-and I know they, too, would be proud to see humanity reach that point.
We have come far in the last century, further than in all the years before it. Perhaps we will continue to go far, and even at some point reach this goal.
~Dianna
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That would be a BIG achievement indeed, wouldnt it?
Let us hope that our collective hopes can be enough to tip the scales towards a better future, for all concerned, those reincarnated and those who are not.
I appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you.
Lilla ...
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i think about how our potential is wasted with menial tasks and the ratrace all the time - couldnt have said it better myself!
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The thing about money, both bad and good, is that it offers a perceived value, which means it can be used to stimulate far more 'work' than a resource could.
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Thats all from a man who believes so ardently in technology as the way into the future?
As for money, I don’t really understand your point here, bear with me, because the point of this project is to stop the need for work for money as the main aim for work itself. For example, you pursue the type og thing you want to do most, weighed up against your input helping the collective whole. Sort of like a commune in Belieze. There will always be those who want to be farmers, others who want to study science, those who want to teach etc and the idea is that without money, we can all contribute to the collective : each with his own skills. That may frighten some who like laying about, no doubts, but then we always need bards, actors, musicians and those already acused of being layabouts, poets.
As I said, the full logistics of it are a bit beyond the 10% of my functioning noggin, of which not all is on/line right now after a huge curry veggie lunch.
I DO get your point about its location though. well put.
*yawn* I am finding it hard to even write this response, sorry.
Going off to have a power nap.
Lilla ..
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I`d be pretty happy to trade off skills and deeds for what I need - back to the old way of life where everyone could spend their days doing what pleased them... don`t they say that we should choose a career in something that we love and the money will follow?
Well perhaps we should be doing what we love as a trade off for what we need? I have thought long and hard about this concept and it`s something that I think would radically change the world, not so much in the OBVIOUS ways, but more in the characters of humans and the ways that they choose to live their lives.
Heaven on Earth? Perhaps it`s not just a dream, after all!
Ash
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Absolutely! God knows I try to do it now, but money seems to get in the way, always causing headaches over itself and its uses.
I truly believe that without it, crime would fall so dramatically as to almost make the penal system obsolete?
Of course there will always be a bad one in the barrell, but there are substances now that can fix DNA strands which are damaged.
Wierd Sci~fi or blessed release from slavery? THAT is the question indeed. Especially if you have seen Logans Run!
Nice to see someone else who can see possibility here too... you'll have to join Morgan and I on that picnic of ours (the more the merrier)
Lilla ...
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it is a nice idea, that utopian society, where everyone is equally kind and considerate...however..
I think that part of human nature is being different and wanting what others have, if that is removed, maybe some other form of this nature, even more anti-social, will be created...however.. maybe not!
So, my basic problem with our society is, not that people and companies can make a lot of money, but, too much emphasis is placed on greed and profit, when the emphasis should be slowly shifting towards feeling rewarded, and accomplished, by helping others in need, giving back to society without expecting a return, other than knowing you are contributing towards creating a more harmonious, happier and safer enviroment for all to live in.
At the moment, rampant capitalism, without a social conscience is all we have and it does not work, and never will work, for the community as a whole.
Until we can get the super rich to see this, that, just being able to afford security guards and bullet proof limmos is not the answer to societal problems, I fear we will be doomed to repeat the same mistakes we are now reaping, the ugly rewards of today, eg; subprime market collapse.
cheers and very thought provoking and mentally and spiritually stimulating post, as usual, Diamond Lill!!!
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I can't help but hear John Lennon's Imagine in my head at this moment.
Nothing personal but I don't think it will fly.
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This is the truism of the day. I will not cry to see it fall, although I would not want to starve from a lack of supply during the chageover... and it is exactly this point that has me wondering, and perhaps the problem that scares everyone. How to make the change to the new system sitting in the 11th percentage of our brains?
Just beyond the horizon, but as yet unattainable (as yet) because basically we have been a slave race since we first got here/stood up/left the sea/beamed down. A worker race. Slaves to our needs for shelter, food and warmth and then to the man who exploits us for our labour with a system that only offers trfling transient pleasures as a substitue for our energy, time and lives.
Complacency of the people is a hard dinosaur to get rid of, isnt it? History shows that crisis is a good motivator and that is the part that scares us all I guess, not that this future could work perhaps?
As for the super rich seeing anything but their bottom line profit thong? well I am always reminded of the story of Moses, funnily enough, except this time *the new man* will be carrying a pitcher of water, just like an Aquarian
Thank you for another of your thoughtful comments.
Lilla ..
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You are not alone in these views, and no offence taken although I didnt think I was suggesting Utopia, as that would involve no work at all wouldnt it? I appreciate your dropping by with your viewpoint, despite it being very dystopic, and perhaps even a little myopic? Yeah I know, Pessimists are never dissapointed *chuckle* I could just never get the hang of it, is all (pessimism I mean, despite my fathers valiant efforts to make me one). To me, life is to be experienced and i would feel a little dissaponted if i couldnt feel dissapointment every now and then.
I certainly must have the space to Imagine, except I like to do it before a crisis makes me aware of the need for change. Top heavy systems have no where to go but to fall, becuase gravity works.
Lilla ...
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I am not so much a pessimist as a son of the cynical Punk driven 80's.
'London Calling' and all that.
We were promised paradise in our childhoods only to find that it did not exist on the unemployment lines.
Yet I do consider my self an optimist just no an utopian one.
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disastersystem and finding solutions to the ever pending problem on having come to rely on non renewable energy sources for the lousy profit of a few meglamanics.I wouldnt be able to agree more with you than to say we must all be vigilant at all times, least we be dupped again and buy into even bigger untopian slavery, but as my engineer heart knows, we must develop soemthing new and someones got to start thinking about it... and some people have, thats all.
Please disect it yourself, many things are iffy.. and we are aware of them becuase we have had all the BS thrown at us that is almost imaginable, who isnt a little cynical?
Or alternatively you can look at how one person could seperate themself from another. How would someone be any different to another person if they have no possessions to create that reference point?
Money is not a bad thing. Neither are governments or religions. It just so happens that these three factors (have and always will) lead to war. Rather than the thought of abolishing these and leaving society in anarchy, wouldn't it be more proactive to instead find a way to create balance?
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You raise the quintessential points here well. At the time I wrote this post (and to this day) I believe that this is what the Project Venus people are trying to do... it almost seems as if they have left the logistics of money and war (and all those things based on todays *system*) out of the equation, to try to deal with the anarchy that is always present at the transition of *sytems* ... in this case form a society based on fossil fuels to a more logical, less arrogant approach of using what is renewable and in abundance, instead.
I think we can be too quick to label things as communist based on past experience, wherever there is a move towards social oneness; rather than looking deeper into the self rule movements of communes that did work : not to emulate them, but to see what DID work within their system, which when added to what DOES WORK in our current capitalist system, perhaps marry the two into some form of hybrid resource based semi~socialism?
Gosh I am no city planner, but I did like a lot of what I saw in this model, for one thing, I at least felt it was heading towards the very answers you mention... and why not without the *man* dictating everything we do and say. Why not spread the wealth a little more if it means the survival of the entire species and ALL its races?
!0 years of using these models would turn the entire pollution problem of this planet around, we have so much power in our technological advantages... if only we can put them to use in time...?
So many questions to answer, sadly with time running short, maybe not before a catastrophe or two. I hope not for my childrens sake.
Thank you for your great comment.
Lilla ...
just go to below site and help the project
Really Long Link
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I am already a finnancial fan but wanted to say what a wonderful idea to list the link for those wanting to help out, not only that, but a chance to read a little more about how this is all envisaged without the need for communism as we know it.
Again, thank you for your thoughtful effort, I appreciate it.
L