WHAT IS ACTUALLY WRONG WITH THE WORLD

The following transcript is a conversation between two of the main characters in an audio drama series called "Ruby". The characters are Monet, an arrogant humanoid from the planet Aurora, whose inhabitants form a collective or group mind; and Ruby, the galactic gumshoe. The actual conversation takes place in episodes 17 and 18...

Our world today has a variety of fairly severe problems; among them are homelessness, hunger, disease and war. Fundamentally, the source of all these problems can be tracked to greed, the desire to have more than someone else. Ever since the dawn of human history, we have been forced to struggle to survive. From the earliest cave-people having to fight off animal predators and keep warm right on through today, where the average person hammers away at a job they very likely don't enjoy very much, which probably doesn't quite pay them enough to pay all their bills and be comfortable. Both then and now, there have been some people who have been motivated in one way or another to kill more animals so they can eat more, have more furs to keep warm with; to have more prestige in society because they have more material posessions. This is a defining characteristic of human beings. Today the sabre-tooth tigers we fight off and the furs that we wear are slightly different, we have Bill Gates, the Sultan of Bahrain and other fabulously wealthy people who have the prestige in our society, but it is for the same reason. Because they have more.

The problem with this is, the fact that these people have more means that somewhere in the world, someone has to have less. That's the way it balances out. The people who have less don't have less because they are not as worthy. They don't have less because they are less valuable, or because they have less potential. They have less because some other people have more, plain and simple. The fact is that the people who have more, the people who have less, and everyone else on the planet, are all human beings. They are all alive. They all have their own personal little infirmaties, some may be diabetic, some may be handicapped, some may be obese, some may smell bad, some may have an obnoxious personality, and others may not have these difficulties. But that does not mean that the people who do not have these problems are more worthy to have more material posessions, it does not mean that they are more valuable people, and it certainly doesn't give them rights which are not afforded to those who have problems like that, and other equally insignificant problems. We are all human beings, and as living human beings we all have a right to live. This is why most of the governments in the world have made it illegal to kill other people outside of certain fairly clearly defined guidelines.

The problem is that a right to live doesn't necessarily give people the ability to survive in the world as it is now. In pre-historic times people had to struggle to survive because there was no other option. Today, however, there is another option, and yet people continue to struggle to survive. This is not because it is not necessary to struggle; it is only because, as an entire people, we have not realized that it is no longer necessary to strugglgle. According to R. Buckminster Fuller, the world has posessed the technology for at least 100 years to create a world where nobody has to struggle. All comforts and amenities which are now provided only to those who can afford them, can not only be provided, but guaranteed, to everyone... even those who now have less. The only reason why this has not taken place is because people still believe that they have to struggle to survive. And as technology advances, the ability to provide the "right to survive" simply becomes easier and easier to guarantee.

The concept of wage slavery, as presented in the transcript above, is a pretty accurate description of the modern society in which we live. People are alive, so they have to live somewhere. Unfortunately, most of the places to live are owned by people who have more, and we are prohibited in one way or another from creating our own source of food (whether it is from killing wild animals, farming or some other source), so in order to survive, we have to pay rent and buy food, and in order to have the money to do these things, we have to have a job. Unfortunately again, most people are not able to find a job that they're good at, and that they enjoy enough that they can do it for their whole lives and not get burned out on. Frequently people can find a job that they're good at, but because of the fact that it doesn't pay enough, or because they are required to do things slightly differently than they would prefer, or because they job is not located in a place that's convenient for them, or for a variety of other reasons, people simply don't enjoy their jobs for very long. People are always complaining about how miserable they are in their current job and people are always fantasizing about that perfect job, but very few people ever actually find it. Conversely, some people are able to find jobs that they would do regardless of whether they were getting paid for it or not. But because they are forced to buy food and because they are forced to pay rent, or house payments, and lacking that because they are forced to pay taxes, they are forced to work for money, and frequently even a job that a person enjoys above all others doesn't pay enough to make it worthwhile. Such people end up sacrificing enjoyment for a larger paycheck. The problem is that people can either have a job they enjoy, but that doesn't pay enough, or they can have a job that pays enough, but one that they hate doing. Even people like Bill Gates are subject to this problem. The only reason Bill Gates is any different than anyone else is because he had the tenacity to work hard enough to find a way that he could make money from other peoples' work, along with his own.

There are a number of solutions to this problem. One of the more obvious ones is communism, but true communism demands that the people like Bill Gates give up some of their material wealth so that it can be distributed to those who don't have as much. As a concept, communism sounds like it would work, but so far there haven't been any groups of humans who have been able to make communism work on a large scale. The primary reason why it hasn't worked, again, comes down to greed. There are people who think that they can get more by taking advantage of other people in some subtle way, and that "nobody will notice". People like these have an innate tendency to think of themselves as superior, and to think of others as inferior to themselves. As was pointed out earlier, fundamentally all humans are simply human beings. Fundamentally nobody is any better or worse than anyone else. So communism doesn't work because people aren't capable of thinking that way. Another solution to the problem of wage slavery was discussed in the transcript above, but again, it depends entirely on changing the way people think, particularly the way they think about themselves and other people.

The fact is that most homeless people in first world countries are not homeless by choice, but by chance. Some catastrophic thing happened to them, or some series of catastrophic things, and they lost their ability to work for a wage. Once the wage was gone, all the things that come along with it disappeared too. There are, however, a few people who choose to be homeless, either consciouously or unconsciously. They have such a low opinion of most of the jobs which might be available to them that living somewhere other than in a regular house is more attractive to them, or they have learned from society that the things they want to do are worthless and meaningless and have progressed from that judgement to the conclusion that they, themselves, are worthless and meaningless. These people are marginalized by society because of the perception that they don't want to participate, but when it comes down to it, who could blame them for not wanting to degrade themselves by doing a job they don't want to do. When a person is told repeatedly that they are worthless, why should we expect anything different when they begin to act as though they are worthless? Is it their fault they feel that way?

When it comes down to it, most people want to do something. It doesn't even have to be something glamourous or creative. There are some people who want to be garbage collectors, there are some people who want to clean houses, there are some people who want to be personal servants. Just because you cannot conceive of doing a job like that doesn't mean that there isn't somebody, somewhere who does want to do it. Why should these people be denied their desires because the jobs are currently held by other people who don't necessarily want to do them, but are forced to do them to bring in a paycheck? And why should those people be forced to do a job they don't want to do, when they would very likely be much happier doing something else?

One of the primary complaints I hear when discussing this matter with people is what to do with the leftover people who simply don't want to do anything. My perception, having been homeless for close to a year, is that there really aren't too many people who are like that. And what if there are? What difference will it make? They will all have the same rights as everyone else, the fact that they don't do anything will not impact their ability to participate in society. It will not mean that they won't be bringing in a paycheck, because nobody will be bringing in a paycheck. It will not affect their ability to pay for things like housing, clothing and food because these things will be provided to everyone regardless of what they do and regardless of what they don't do. These people are alive, human beings on the planet, and as such, are entitled to the same right to survive that everyone else has. And, after spending some time simply surviving and taking advantage of their right to do so, I very strongly suspect that such people will figure out something to do. Most people want to do something, whether it is being a television sports broadcaster, a doctor, a competitive swimmer, a portrait painter, a toilet-washer or someone who crushes rocks for gravel. A vast majority of people will figure out something that they like to do. And if they end up doing something they don't like, nobody will be forcing them to do it, and nobody will be preventing them from changing what they do. In the end, if there truly are people who don't want to do anything, they won't be penalized by being forced out of their homes and by being forced to starve. And if there end up being jobs that nobody wants to do, the technology exists to make it so that nobody has to do them.

Another problem with which people confront me when I'm discussing this matter is how to accomplish such a vast change in society. My personal opinion is that we shouldn't worry about how to do it until it's actually possible to do. If we work out how to do it now, before people all believe that it's possible, then when we've figured out how to do it we would still have to convince people that it can be done. On the other hand, if we change the way people think now, we won't have to work so hard on figuring out how to do it because everyone will already be thinking that way, and there will be more people who have been thinking about it who will be able to provide ideas and help to create the process.

Of course, such a solution doesn't address the problem of greed, but at the same time, it doesn't have to. This is not a solution that prevents people from working to obtain more than other people, and it is not a solution which prevents people from having more than someone else. It is simply a way to guarantee that an individual's potential to be and have what they want is not limited. It is a way to insure that the problems of homelessness, hunger, disease and war no longer have a basis of greed from which to spring. But it is a solution whose accomplishment requires the hardest thing of all, that everyone change the way they think.

The reasons for these problems in society stem from the perception that it is necessary to struggle to survive, but as has already been pointed out, struggling to survive is no longer a necessity, so what can be done? The answer is to work on changing the way people think. Parents should teach their children that everyone is valuable, everyone has a meaning and a purpose, and, most importantly, that everyone has the potential to do exactly what they want to do without having to worry about whether they are going to be able to survive or not.

The very fact that you are reading this now is part of my effort to change the way people think. I have felt very strongly about this issue for many years, and, while I am aware of the fact that I cannot change anyone other than myself, I have attempted to educate others about the possibility of living free of wage slavery because, if nothing else, it plants the seed of thought that may, eventually grow into a society wherwhere everyone is free to do what they want and survive comfortably at the same time.

... and I'm not the only one with this idea: Go check out what Robert Anton Wilson said about it.