A Question of Greed

I'll come out right away and say I support Bernie Sanders and his attempt to become President. That said, let's talk about greed.

What is it that causes one person to become so greedy he'll step on his own mother to pick up a stray dollar, while another person will go out of his way to remain poor?

I will admit to big dreams when it comes to money, mostly due to my writing taking off, but mostly, I'm content with a place to live, food to eat and decent Internet. I'm not driven to make more money than I need.

I suppose some of it is genetic, look at the Koch Brothers and the Walton family. I will never understand how people will go out of their way so they can have more money. They even go so far that they'll hide their earnings in offshore accounts.

But off-shore accounts aren't free. Neither are bribes. For that matter, neither are donations to charities, So I'm guessing everything is carefully calculated so as to pay the least amount of taxes possible, right down to the legal fees required to make everything go as smooth as possible.

Power corrupts, or so I'm told. I've never had any real power. But what if the corruption exists not just in the genetics, but in the soul itself? I've heard that babies learn to hate and be greedy, they aren't born that way. But what if instead of Nurture over Nature, where children are taught to hate, or something happens that changes them into uncaring monsters, something else is responsible?

And I'm not talking about genetics, or brain damage, I'm talking about a damaged soul. No one really knows what the soul is, though my stories and dreams often stray to what makes a soul. One of my characters even goes so far as to say that souls are made of the same thing as everything else: atoms. So what makes one soul different from another?

I'm a real believer of reincarnation. Once the body dies, the soul finds an unborn body to inhabit, losing most of its memories in the process. I won't get into what makes a soul to begin with, or if there's such a thing as human-only souls, but what if, in a previous life, a soul gets physically damaged? Say, the body gets burned, and an atom or two of the soul gets destroyed?

I've already had visions of victims of the atom bombs, those at ground zero who got vaporized, having their souls completely destroyed in the process. *Shudder*

Anyway, what if damaged souls are responsible for overwhelming greed and lust for power, lust for war and destruction?

Something to think about, and one of the things that keep me up at night and my imagination humming.

New book: Foxism: An Alternative to Capitalism

What follows is the introduction to a new booklet I'm writing.

Introduction

Ursula Le Guin, a writer whose work I admire, recently proposed that science fiction writers come up with ideas on alternatives to Capitalism. I’ve had the ideas that follow in my head for some time, churning as to what the details would be, what the pros and cons would be, what could go right, and, as my imagination kicked in, what could go horribly wrong.

I call it Foxism, perhaps out of a feeling of vanity, perhaps out of a desire to be remembered, A lot of social systems are named after their founders: Marxism, Taoism, etc., and some of those founders and authors are remembered well by some, reviled and ridiculed by others. If I’m remembered, I hope it will be positive.

It takes all kinds to make this world we live in. Foxism isn’t going to work for everyone. Those that embrace it will have to forego greed. Those that are greedy will consider it absurd. It will take a lot of work and cooperation. It will take a full embrace of the technologies that are available to do the menial tasks no one wants to do and to make the lives of every community members as comfortable as possible. 

If greed must be eliminated, so too must violence. Patience must be taught and so too should tolerance. But that doesn’t mean there will be no pride, no sense of accomplishment, no reward for hard work. It just can’t be in the form of money, or power.

So if you live for money or power, this system is not for you. But read on, you might learn something.

My Philosophy

I had originally posted this on the Yahoo Contributor Network, but I'm not getting any hits on that, so screw them.

I'm not rich, or famous - yet, but I have lived life, though not as fully as I'd like. I'm sharing with you a few things I've picked up on my own over the last 51 years. 

1. I'm Agnostic, but there are aspects of religion that I admire. Some of the Ten Commandments, but not all of them: Don't Steal. Don't kill (I am a pacifist, killing and murder are the same). Sometimes you have to lie, but sooner or later the truth will come out. Adultery? Come on man, you can do better than to punish our inner nature. And speaking of punishments, I don't believe in an eye for an eye etc. I don't believe the Death Penalty is a valid deterrent. Yes, lock murderers up, but putting them on Death Row only costs more money. The money we spend on prisoners needs to go to educating them, treating them. 

2. I don't believe in Heaven or Hell, but I do believe that when you die, your soul just moves to a different body. I believe that because Nature doesn't waste anything. I think there are a finite number of souls on each world, because as man's population grows, the population of other soul-carrying life forms goes down. I think a stillborn baby is just one without a soul, for whatever the reason. I think ghosts are souls that have baggage that has not been stripped away with death, and until it does, they wander. I have as much proof of this as any other philosophy. 

3. We are defined by how we treat others. We as people, and we as a country. In any modern nation, there should be no poor, no hungry, no homeless, no sick, mentally or physically, who can't get help because they are poor or have no insurance. Everyone, regardless of their job status, should be provided for. If there are no organizations or philanthropists who can help, or they can't help enough, then government must help. Failure to do so only means that there is a segment of the population that no one cares about, and that is intolerable. 

4. That said, we are ultimately responsible for our own actions. If you find 3 and 4 contradictory, you're trying too hard. 

5. I believe that greed and lust for power are inherent, but the worst of it is taught. Just like intolerance. 

6. I believe there is someone for everyone. Unfortunately, that someone may be half a world away, or you might have screwed up the relationship early on. I know I did. That said, I stated earlier that adultery should not be punishable. I don't think it's a sin. I think it's human nature. I think marriage is a good thing, but with the divorce rate as high as it it, I have to wonder what's the purpose of marriage? 

7. I believe that one's sexual nature should not stand in the way of anything. I think sexual preference is determined by the soul, and does not change when you move from body to body. 

8. I believe that souls are manufactured by a force of Nature. You can call it God, but I have no name for it. It just is. I don't believe a soul can be destroyed. I believe it is infinitesimally small. I believe someday we'll find a way to locate it and learn about it. 

9. I believe that someday man will go beyond this solar system. I don't know how, but at the least we can build a generational spaceship capable of holding a few thousand colonists who can go to the closest stars and see if they can be inhabited by man. Or rather, their descendants will make that trip, because though we might extend our lives, the trip will take a thousand years. 

10. I hope that man does not wind up destroying himself before then. I've lived through the Cold War, when Civil Service would run drills every now and then, and on TV the stations would run test of the EMS, designed to warn us if an attack was pending. Really pointless in this day and age. Still, I think we can learn to work together to overcome our differences. The alternative would be Earth-shattering. 

11. I believe we can shed ourselves of the dependency on oil. In fact, I believe we must or that war from 10 will take place. Like we made the change from hunter-gathers to farmers and beyond, we must make that change from oil to solar. The technology is there. Use it. 

12. Last and hardly least, let us remember that our future is our children and grandchildren. Let us educate them. Let is teach them to get along. Let us teach them to hug. Let us teach them to lead. Let us teach them to make a difference. That is where hope lies.