"Cop Car Blocking Downtown Intersection on a Saturday Night"
Oil on Masonite, 16" x 24"
by Neil A. Collins, 2017.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Cop Car Blocking a Downtown Intersection painting
"Cop Car Blocking Downtown Intersection on a Saturday Night"
Oil on Masonite, 16" x 24"
by Neil A. Collins, 2017.
Portrait of Pia with face paint
Untitled painting,
Oil on Masonite, 12" x 24"
by Neil A. Collins, 2017. — with Pia Alicia-Pilar Mogollon.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
My response to "Universal Basic Serfdom"
This article came out in 2016 claiming that UBI was not a path towards an RBE or a money free world.
http://freeworlder.com/blog/2016/11/06/universal-basic-serfdom/
Here is my response:
I have read the article and while the author makes some interesting points, I disagree with many of the conclusions. I disagree based on both my own experience and upon information I have read from supporters of UBI.
First point was....
"I’ve yet to hear any credible argument that free money somehow helps you get away from money"
There are many projects such as solar, getting more education, expanding my small aquaponic system, etc... which I would like to pursue but am unable to do so because do not have ANY cash. I barely have enough money to eat and many times have to go to the food bank so I won't starve. If I had a basic income I would be spending my money and time to become self sufficient from the monetary system in the ways I mentioned. Not to mention that I have a strong desire to help others through giving food to homeless people, etc... but that is not possible without money, or any other way to get food.
Basically, I do what I can right now, which without funds is close to nothing.
Another reason this can lead to a money free world is that currently, in this system we live in, HUMAN LIFE IS WORTH NOTHING. Sure, people will talk talk talk about how people's lives matter but in reality it simply isn't the case. A basic income would be one of the first times in history where a person would be recognized as having a fundamental right to exist and even with a little dignity. That actually is a major step towards an RBE. As it stands now, you have the right to exist... IF. If you have a job, if you have a helping family, if you have a trust fund, if you have an inheritence, IF you have a disability which you can get the government to recognize. Currently you have a right to exist IF, IF, IF. If not? You can fucking starve.
Another point by the author is:
"We can’t make an Open Economy happen unless we ‘visionaries’ have the support of the masses. It needs everyone to jump on board for it to work, in the same way money works: it’s a common agreement. Getting those masses on board will be a hell of a lot easier when they are themselves feeling the pinch of the market system (as they are now). However, if we keep plying them with money’s sugary pacifier to stop their minds ‘wandering’, then that will put paid to those ideas for maybe another hundred years or so. (Time we don’t actually have at current environmental / population trends)"
I understand the logic of this but I really do not believe it is in any way acceptable to advocate the suffering and starvation of millions (if we are talking about the USA) and billions worldwide just so they will "feel the squeeze" and get it. This is a horrendous stance to take if a solution is available to avoid such suffering and starvation. Perhaps starvation is some kind of theoretical idea to the author and not a very real threat which he has experienced? I don't know enough to claim that about him but I would never want to punish the 'masses' into waking up in this way. The current system does enough of that already and it hasn't really helped a whole lot. It sounds like some strange twist of Malthusian paternalism to me.
But nevermind the moral cruelty of this point of view, the more important question is would it work? I really don't think so. Currently many people in the lower and middle classes spend much of their time working and are too busy and worn out to take much interest in thinking about changing society or researching ideas to do so. As automation continues to eat up the job market, the stress and competitive instinct will continue to strengthen. After all, this system thrives on competition and is based on scarcity. As people are forced to compete with each other to unheard of levels in the very near future they will more than likely just ;hunker down' on the very behaviors which we want to move away from. Some of those behaviors are competition rather than collaboration, further uneducated and narrow-minded assessments of what causes societal problems and so on.
If people had a basic income they would not need to cling so tightly to the competitive, scarcity based behaviors and ways of thinking which capitalism creates. People would have the ability to learn and entertain ideas which they did not previously have the time to investigate. I will also add that a large amount of the desire for mind numbing entertainment which is seen especially in the working class comes from the need to escape from the reality of struggle and the long hours spent doing things to survive. I am speaking from personal experience.
Then he says:
"As my good friend Rafi succinctly put it; “how does more money get you to no money?”
Simple enough but the fact is it is a different kind of money. Money in which you need to spend a large portion of your time working an order to get is very different than money which is supplied to you based on the fact that you are human and have certain requirements such as food, shelter, transportation, etc...
I am against money more than most people you will meet if you ask honestly the questions of what is money and what is wrong with money then it becomes clear that money given to everyone so that they can live (basic income) is almost not money at all. It certainly wouldn't come with the servitude, competition and mindless drudgery which many of us experience with current 'money'. These differences are actually significant in the way they make people behave.
I could continue but I doubt anyone will read this to begin with.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
9/11/2019
I agree, this gung-ho mentality seems anti-productive to the goal of an RBE. About 2 or 3 years back the Money Free Party was putting out articles and videos about the need for the masses to suffer in order to "Wake them up" to the RBE ideas. One of the most popular articles was called "Universal Basic Serfdom" and talks of this need for the masses and the poor to "Feel the pinch". Fun little way for advocating the starvation, deprivation and likely deaths of millions of people who happen to be on the very bottom, in the most vulnerable position of our society. As Pia Alicia-Pilar Mogollon pointed out to me, this process of capitalism "collapsing" will affect the poor the most, as the well off, the capitalists have resources to avoid the worst consequences of their own actions. Aside from that fact, it needs to be recognized that part of the darkness of capitalism, one of its worst strengths is that it is thriving most when it is in a state of "collapse". That be how it rolls. Capitalism thrives upon desperation, chaos, conflict and problems to be fixed. The more problems, ailments and discord capitalism is able to create the better it is able to subvert people into its own ideology.
I know that Peter Joseph is not the sole spokesperson for RBE advocates but I do admire his view of the need for a transition. In his book "The New Human Rights Movement" he mentions UBI as one of the steps of transition.
Luckily this Gung-ho,"RBE Now or nothing else" way of thinking is not shared by all RBE advocates.
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So much more should be said on this. Colin Turner himself halfway recognizes the fact that human behavior is a product of the social environment, which is the core realization that mandates an RBE in the first place. The mainstream is still busy believing that "Human Nature" is greedy, selfish, competitive, aggressive, violent and so on... that there is nothing to be done but lock people up who offend and hope for the best, try to grab what you can for yourself and your family, don't help anyone because it will make them lazy and they will take advantage. This is the mainstream current "Zeitgeist" and it is also at the core of justifications for capitalism.
The RBE train of thought, whether it be TVP or TZM or other is the new realization of human behavior being a result of the environment, as I have already been talking about. But this is an important point, the most important. It is a point which Colin knows because he, like the rest of us know that a sane society, a compassionate, intelligent society, an RBE will create humans accordingly, that are creative, compassionate, intelligent, collaborative, etc...
So if one believes this, then how can they not see the reverse??? That further scarcity and further desperation will only cause people to hunker down deeper into the "me first" competitive ignorance? More and worse hatred of "immigrants, patriotic fervor, dogmas, people taking refuge in religious fantasies and cults, shooting and violence, liberals talking of harsher gun restrictions as a cure-all, and far worse leaders than Trump. This is what "the peasants" feeling the pinch has in store for us if the "collapse" of capitalism (with its increased suffering for the poor) is cheered on as the only transition plan.
By this logic:
Run out and burn down food banks, lobby to abolish foodstamps and housing assistance! Let the poor really suffer!! Then they will magically become enlightened to the RBE train of thought even quicker! And those of us with trust funds or paradise like properties in New Zealand can emerge from the ashes to enjoy our utopia, the earth washed clean by the blood of the "peasants". Their sacrifice will be remembered and we will sing songs of their sorrows during our feasts that celebrate our new world!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
9/12/2019
You talk about what is the likely condition for people to "arrive to the conclusion that society doesn't need money to function?"
Was Peter Joseph living in a state of starvation and desperation when he became convinced of RBE concepts?
Was Jaques Fresco living in a state of starvation and desperation when he came up with the RBE concept?
Was Federico Pistono living in a state of starvation and desperation when he joined TZM and began advocating for the RBE?
Was Charles Eisenstein living in a state of starvation and desperation when he became convinced of a money free world and "Sacred Economics"?
Were P. J. Proudhon or Peter Kropotkin living in a state of starvation and desperation when they became convinced of the need for an Anarcho-Communist society that has no money, private property, war or inequality, hierarchy or government?
So much more should be said on this. Colin Turner himself halfway recognizes the fact that human behavior is a product of the social environment, which is the core realization that mandates an RBE in the first place. The mainstream is still busy believing that "Human Nature" is greedy, selfish, competitive, aggressive, violent and so on... that there is nothing to be done but lock people up who offend and hope for the best, try to grab what you can for yourself and your family, don't help anyone because it will make them lazy and they will take advantage. This is the mainstream current "Zeitgeist" and it is also at the core of justifications for capitalism.
The RBE train of thought, whether it be TVP or TZM or other is the new realization of human behavior being a result of the environment, as I have already been talking about. But this is an important point, the most important. It is a point which Colin knows because he, like the rest of us know that a sane society, a compassionate, intelligent society, an RBE will create humans accordingly, that are creative, compassionate, intelligent, collaborative, etc...
So if one believes this, then how can they not see the reverse??? That further scarcity and further desperation will only cause people to hunker down deeper into the "me first" competitive ignorance? More and worse hatred of "immigrants, patriotic fervor, dogmas, people taking refuge in religious fantasies and cults, shooting and violence, liberals talking of harsher gun restrictions as a cure-all, and far worse leaders than Trump. This is what "the peasants" feeling the pinch has in store for us if the "collapse" of capitalism (with its increased suffering for the poor) is cheered on as the only transition plan.
By this logic:
Run out and burn down food banks, lobby to abolish foodstamps and housing assistance! Let the poor really suffer!! Then they will magically become enlightened to the RBE train of thought even quicker! And those of us with trust funds or paradise like properties in New Zealand can emerge from the ashes to enjoy our utopia, the earth washed clean by the blood of the "peasants". Their sacrifice will be remembered and we will sing songs of their sorrows during our feasts that celebrate our new world!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
9/12/2019
You talk about what is the likely condition for people to "arrive to the conclusion that society doesn't need money to function?"
Was Peter Joseph living in a state of starvation and desperation when he became convinced of RBE concepts?
Was Jaques Fresco living in a state of starvation and desperation when he came up with the RBE concept?
Was Federico Pistono living in a state of starvation and desperation when he joined TZM and began advocating for the RBE?
Was Charles Eisenstein living in a state of starvation and desperation when he became convinced of a money free world and "Sacred Economics"?
Were P. J. Proudhon or Peter Kropotkin living in a state of starvation and desperation when they became convinced of the need for an Anarcho-Communist society that has no money, private property, war or inequality, hierarchy or government?
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