OFF TO THE OTHER SHORE

or
The Tragic Impotence of Money

¶
I. CONDITIONS

We’re born naked. We die naked. As not only religion but also logic suggest, no matter how much funds we raise throughout our worldly journey, in the face of Ultimate Reality, even the most beautiful diamonds and castles merely amount to worthless lumps of mud. There is of course the argument of safeguarding relatives and loved ones, putting our kids on golden thrones and what not – but, honestly, can we really ease their various, vastly unpredictable hardships – emotional havoc, insights into political corruption, painful encounters with our tragic human condition – with monetary ailments? Besides, are we doing such an apparently altruistic act really unconditionally, with only their best interests in mind, or do we actually expect a return-of-investment where we need them to do certain things in exchange, behave in certain ways, before our hard earned juices change bank accounts at the end of the day? As most of us haven’t been loved by our parents unconditionally, there is usually a wicked agenda involved in how we interact with others. Most exchanges are burdened with crooked meanings beyond the actual surface transactions. Like the sticky fingerprints we leave as soon as we touch it money involved in human transaction inherently corrupts any relationship through its conscious and unconscious strings attached – its conditions.

Looking at this dilemma from the diametrical opposite side we can say that for the most important things in life, the things that make us innately human – virtue, integrity, loyalty, love, warmth, grace, comfort, in short everything coming straight from the heart – cannot possibly be paid for with any amount of money. How could they? They wouldn’t be what they are – unconditional, uncorrupted, honest and pure energy radiating from deep inside us. Primal, unspoilt, adamant Truth.

The monetary system currently in place, bolstered via banks and their ever tightening grip through outright quack game theory (pioneer John Nash later refuted its applicability to people) has led to an ever widening gap between us, castrating our exchange of something genuine and honest. We are increasingly entangled in a world of lies and abuse, which at its very end leads to a complete breakdown of any real, intimate bonds. We are essentially artificially rendered into monkeys in a giant chess game in which the only way to solve our ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ is to always lie, no matter what. Under the pretext of a shamelessly capitalist biased Darwinism we have been theorised into mere rats stumbling in a maze with trap doors continuously threatening to sack us, compelled to fight for the limited resources of cheese with our equally trapped game playing peers. If we manage to achieve the game master’s ever increasing targets we might as well be rewarded with the bonus of proceeding to the next level, an even tighter but also more ‘rewarding’ maze. So much as to survival of the fittest.

Basically living our lives in the present framework means that any virtue we have, any internal values dear to us, we better keep hidden from everyone else. Not only would we dangerously embarrass ourselves with vulnerability and openness. In the instigated rat race the more of those values we might display, the more jealousy and patronising we attract from our co-players. Competition is tough and we better swallow the generously prescribed Prozacs to keep the spirit of internal alienation alive. In a way through the absence of any higher beliefs ‘career’ and ‘money’ have gained a ludicrously spiritual dimension. We’re conditioned to be thoroughly empty inside and instead stick external values on our ageing hulls like glittering medals distracting from the suffering zombie underneath.

¶
II. REALITY

Waking up to this reality we frankly ask ourselves:

Why should we really care about targets and bonuses and other dehumanising agendas? Why should we care about yet another reality tv show or other mind numbing crap we’re supposed to watch on our giant plasma screens? Why should we care about any supposedly bigger picture of the world the media blasts into our increasingly washed out brains? Ultimately why should we care about this or that or any other political rhetoric conjured up to ensure ’social stability’ and ‘economic growth’ for that matter?

Since the only reality relevant to us is how we feel about ourselves and as a result how we interact with people around us. Who are we affiliating with and how genuine are those bonds? Are we not because of (programmed!) insecurities trying to escape any real, intimate contacts with other people? Are we compensating our lack of self esteem and inner values with an inexhaustible hunger for status and money in order to be ‘loved’? Are we caught up in a seemingly inescapable cycle of conditional interactions and therefore unable to ever relax with people, open up and trust?

Is there a way out? If there is then it is definitely not an easy task as money has become the binding agent firmly cementing the prison walls between us. Perhaps re-evaluating our internal, intrinsically human assets is a start. But this requires purifying our selves in the midst of daily survival and it can’t be achieved without our full attention and commitment. Myriads of old, deeply ingrained patterns need to be changed. Only then can we regain control over matters of time, headspace, virtue, health or integrity. In other words, if there really is any (Darwinian?) struggle in life then it is the one inside of our selves. But then again, the abandoning of external values also means that we’re up against everyone else still fiercely subscribing to them. Nobody really wants us to succeed with breaking free as it would make the trap they’re stuck in all the more more painfully obvious.

¶

III. FREEDOM

How could we then survive the revolutionary act of breaking free from it all? Also how is it going to work out for those who make it? How about those who stay? What new, all-improved framework can ensure bread and preferably butter as well as a roof atop our although now clearer unfortunately also more vulnerable heads? Will those in power, the game masters / bullies, ever step down and let us just get on with our lives? Well, if the ‘victims’ stop being victims they’ll bloody well have to. Those patronising others into their values and beliefs are ‘happy’ only on the surface they’ve established for themselves. Because of their internal emotional reality – distrust, anxiety and the lack of ever being genuinely loved by someone, without ifs and buts, unconditionally, they have to compulsively resort to all sorts of forced entries into other people’s bodies and minds. ‘Body counters’ therefore have also got a hard time to escape their own prisons – even though they might look like shining palaces from the outside. Every bully has to doggedly monitor their tight grip on others and it’ll be exactly when they feel weakened by too much entanglements / ‘reponsibilities’ when their victims will suddenly turn the tables by letting go. Complete abandonment and the realisation that everything they seem to possess has been built on a lie is definitely not an easy thing to take on board. Whereas those who manage to simply walk off will instead regain nothing less than their virtue and integrity. True, unconditional freedom – a higher although perhaps initially harsher since unknown reality – is awaiting.

True, some of us might not survive the free fall into existential freedom. But more likely than not we will, having gone through life-long training in rat race prison, as our hitherto trapped confidence and authenticity will attract other like-minded people who’ve only been waiting, like ourselves, for the time to come where they can be real again, meet and mingle with their new-found purity, innocence and vitality.

As to how exactly this will work there is no definite answer. It won’t be an easy journey that’s for sure. True freedom per definition means that everyone has to find an answer for themselves really. All we have to do is reach the other shore, the shore of becoming human again, where we can be giving and receiving unconditionally. It’ll be an utopian, paradisiacal island where we as truth seeking, blossoming children are free to tackle our individual slices of reality. Maybe we will die on the way there, drowned in the vast sea of the unknown. But also maybe life and death are ultimately more serious than we have thus far come to believe and reaching the promised land inside of ourselves is our only chance and goal.

¶

reinhard schleining
london, october 2008

© 2008, all rights reserved