Politics - Part I: Economy

It's time. 

In a sense I wished this place would leave politics out of it, beyond my explorations of the anarcho-capitalistic ethics but I can't really hold the door keeping the pesky subject of politics out any longer. The world is simply all too weird. 

Listen, the reason I don't wish to care for politics is because that field by its very nature is meant to divide and sow resentment between groups. To a certain degree this is unavoidable because there are undeniably different groups out there in society at large and these needs to find a way to co-exist - violently or not, with hostility or not, the possible path ways needs to be found, explored and discussed and this activity is politics by its very definition.

Still, how you do this can be quite different and today our democratic discourse is simply not honest. To my mind it seems like a theater meant to create and build up existing divisions instead of actually trying to reach agreeable solutions to as many groups as possible. And I guess my own journey plays in too because even if I belong to certain political groups I can't help but hearing the other side even with points and arguments I would agree to. And since the discourse isn't meant to actually find solutions but to either antagonize, troll, the enemy or rally your own troops deeper into the echo chamber all of politics has started to strongly frustrate me.

And I wish I could leave it all behind, but I don't think it's possible, nor particularly wise. The world, our collective human society is in quite a big turmoil and to stand completely on the sidelines with a noble frown steaming of an attitude that all of this is beneath me or something like that is borderline cowardly. I don't wish to do that. So here. This will be a few posts exploring and outlining three concrete stands that I will fight for by the means I can in the future.

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Boiled down properly politics is about one issue and one issue alone and that is the one of economy: how the resources of the world should be divided and cared for. You see, the reason there is a society at all, a reason for us to care about each other in any meaningful degree is because existence here has an aspect of scarcity to it. Scarcity means simply that differing resources doesn't exist in an arbitrary abundance but there is a concrete end to their supply and if group A is in control of a particular resource in question, group B needs to deal with being without it. This aspect creates the quality of value which also means that we can start to talk about an economy in the modern meaning of the term. How we deal with the rationing of resources and objects of value is the same as in what way our economy is functioning. 

Money is a bit of an odd concept. Nowadays it has been trendy to notice that money isn't "real", that it is an imaginary invention by human beings that has at best a very loose connection to actual reality. Money has only value, one rather smugly argues, because we believe in it - if we would stop believing in it the concept of money would vanish, as with Santa, god, or the tooth fairy. Money is nothing without our human beliefs. 

This isn't quite true, I would say. Our imagination or abstract thinking has something to do with how money functions in our society, yes, but not with the existence of money in itself. As I see it, money is the medium wheremeasurements of value is taking place and whenever scarce resources need to be managed and an economy need to form money is the very platform where this managing is taking place. 

Every organism, every agent imaginable involved in an environment with scarcity, is using money. It's just that, most biological kingdoms are using physical dominance as their primary currency of money. Not necessarily violence as such, but the ability to show and demonstrate physical dominance over an area or a series of situations will determine how the resources in question will be used for most, if not all of the organisms we are aware of. To us, this doesn't look much as economical activity but is still a distinct way to manage resources, the strongest, most fitted, individual or group will determine who eats first, gets control of the territory or mates with the desired females. Exactly this is money at work. 

For human beings it works a bit differently. Sure, physical strength (or general survival abilities at least) will never be unimportant to us in this regard but we also have the ability to translate money into objects, physical goods, concrete currencies and here it becomes especially interesting I must say because these currencies, regardless if it is sea shells, pearls, gold bars or bitcoins, are able to form a competition - a market - of being the best suited currency to be used as money. This last step is the only part where human abstract thinking plays in, it's only the decision which currency that is best used as money that is "imaginary", an arbitrary choice, not the usage of money as such, that process is always in play due to us being in a scarce environment. 

When we have crowned a currency as money this resource becomes the true medium of our resource management and it is this aspect which capitalists argue is the reason why a truly free market is the only mechanism a democracy needs to have in order to function. You see, idealistically at least, in a completely free market every unit of the money currency is a vote for how our resources is to be managed. What activities should we perform, what products should we produce and what groups are going to be wealthy are questions we vote on every time a transaction is made. With a completely free market there is little need of parlaments or politicians because the market is dealing with the aspects of politics constantly and without any need for bureaucrats or their regulations, nay, the market exists anywhere value is found or desired and if these markets are allowed to exist without being disturbed by various form of aggression they will carry out the wills of the people involved within them. 

There's more to this picture painted up by the laissez-faire capitalists, naturally, but the core of their arguments still stands in my opinion. We can't avoid money, we can't avoid having an arbitrary amount of currencies, goods competing to be the primary medium of value-transactions- what we can avoid is having an optimal currency, this choice is arbitrary and if we aren't careful we can at any time go back to might is right and letting the most violent and vile among us decide everything we care for in the scope of economy and resources. 

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Actually, to center in on my core point of this text, I would argue this is exactly what is happening globally today and has been occurring, almost entirely unquestioned, ever since the world wars and in an always increasing scale. 

You see, the primary currencies for all major states across the world is what is called fiat, latin for decree or command, and the major aspect of these currencies is that they are entirely worthless on their own. All other currencies are a commodity in its own right and even if a particular ones precise value always is up to debate it always has some value due to the fact that a real commodity needs to be scarce. A fiat currency doesn't have to be scarce at all, ask Zimbabwe if you will, and it's only real property is that the governments of the world demands of its citizens that we use their currency for their taxes and legal markets. This demand, this shameless use of force is in my view the primary reason for all other issues and problems in our societies. The governments, the elites in general, the dreaded 0,1 per cent are holding the right to appoint what is to be money in every group, every gathering, every non-isolated community on earth. This is frankly outrageous because as we found out above in this text this exakt step is an arbitrary, abstract and imaginary activity that we - if this wasn't happening - would switch up every now and then when need be. Gold for instance is the classical choice for money, but hasn't been the only one and it isn't anything special about gold as such, today in this digital age it could very well be Bitcoin or another crypto sometimes or in smaller communities it could be chrystals, base ball cards or whatever else you could think of. But we don't even have the choice because of fiat. Fiats first theft is the human act of imagination. Only because of that these pesky, lousy currencies is vile as hell itself. 

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But it's not the only theft it does. Seriously people, look around. The covid-era made this so much worse but it has been going on ever since we left the economical principles of la belle epoque where the gold standard ruled the west and every national currency was worth an equivalent of actual gold. When you are using a fiat currency the elites are free to inflate the numbers of this currency at will and why shouldn't they? Every time they do so they are voting for them to get more power, more resources, more economical space in the region of their currency. The price of it is paid by us and from the bottom up. Please, dear left-minded people, really take this in. Every time a currency inflates the ones with the least of the currency is losing the absolute most in the bargain. Every time the elites are abusing the fiats of the world their are manhandling everyone, yes, but primarily the proletariat itself. The homeless, the addicts, the orphans and the widows are the primary victims for this evil, hellish act. Please, leftists of the world, react to this once again and if you could, do it with precision this time. The problem isn't capitalists, corporations et cetera as such but the medium of fiat they happily operate with and takes the biggest cuts of. They rig the game, as you rightly points out, but the tool they are using is above any other the currencies of fiat. They would be much more close to the servants of the world us anarcho-capitalists so dreamily can say that they are at times. We misjudge them heavily, yes, and fiat is to blame for that mistake of ours.

Another grave aspect of fiat is that it affects everything. We have organised our society as such that no activity, no economical movement can legally be made without involving fiat. This means that all markets are touched by its rigged functionality. This means we can't understand our own economical world properly and see what is worth what and where the actual resources we care for are located and in what amount. Fiat's lousy abilities make every judgement we make potentially erroneous and this is the core reason why our economy seems to be in a perpetual crisis even though we all collectively work our asses of and seem to have enough to let the absolute majority of us live in ease and plenty. Our intuition is correct, we live in a virtual utopia but our measurement of value is totally out of whack and forces us into the hamster wheel of Modern Dystopia against our will. Imagine if the measurements of meters or kilos was in a arbitrary state of constant expansion and that you day by day couldn't know how much a gram actually was supposed to be. I can tell you that much that the quality of everything we would construct would falter immensely and that is exactly what fiat is doing to the activity of money. 

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We must end this. This is not a left or right issue, it cuts right into everything we are, every group, every class, every belief system. Everyone is affected and everyone is subject to the robbery of the elites. I won't say that is the core of our existential problems and there will still be issues to deal with even if we successfully would erase fiat out of our economical worlds but these blood money is indeed the core of every current political problem we are facing today. If it isn't the cause of a particular struggle it is heavily worsening it or a particular issue is used as a distraction for us to not notice or care about the criminally and outright evil treatment of our money systems. 

A distinct problem with this is that I deem it impossible to solve in a democratic fashion. One reason is because the solution is hard to stomach and to sell it successfully in an election isn't very likely. Fiat may be incredibly lousy but all of our practical systems are built around it and to abolish it will be costly, difficult and won't yield much improvements in the short run. We need to find a way to not perpetually be stuck in an economical decline and to be able to use money properly chosen will cause massive improvements in the end, undoubtedly. The switch will run the risk of almost killing the patient, though, that much is clear and I don't see any politician in any country being able to run with the full necessary program on this issue. 

Another reason is that even if a heavy political player would be honorably stupid enough to try I conspiratorially suspect it simply won't be allowed. I don't want to claim exactly who the elites are but it's perfectly clear to me they are a solid group and that they know precisely what they are doing and if any serious player would challenge their fiat scheme they will strike them down and striking them down hard. Some countries, some regions have tried since the world wars and they aren't standing with us anymore. Be irrelevant or be a fiat player, there is absolutely no other option in the eyes of the empire. 

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So what can be done? I'm not entirely sure, but as with any real change it has to start with your own heart and your own mind. If you can see and realize that all political systems that accept the existence of fiat has ruled itself out of being irrelevant, politics becomes much more easy to sort out. Almost all left or right-winged ideologies of today are just irrelevant squabbling for the entertainment and distraction of the voting masses, nothing more. If you refuse to see fiat as something viable you will also notice how to prioritize in existence at large. Leave the societal games behind, they are all rigged in favor of the Party 1984 style and you will never ever win them in a way that can satisfy your being, and start instead to search for the regions of existence that is unaffected by the shenanigans of said Party. It's difficult and rough, but if you begin, the rest will follow you. We need to dare to be leaders here, all of us.

More practically I will suggest this. Start to collect a proper currency, silver and gold is a more than valid option, but it could be anything you fancy, believe in and understand yourself. Don't hoard numbers on a ban account, collect actual commodities that you care for and in times you need to trade try to ask for the option of using a currency of your choice instead of blood money. This is simply because of ethics, most people understand ethical choices because of the climate or animal care, this is simply in solidarity with the lowest among us and due to an aversion against criminal acts such as theft and murder. Fiat is deeply connected with such acts and your gentle heart can't deal with it more than necessary. I don't suggest to harass retail workers or similar with this behavior, learn from wise vegans or absolutists and only bring your ethical stance when it's proper to do so, but then - when you can, try to not deal with fiat in any way what so ever. 

It's a long road ahead of us, but there is only one way out of this modern dystopian version of hell we have tricked ourselves in. Let's begin the journey out of it.