Torn between this title or ‘Promoting Sane Solutions In A Crazy World’. Eventually using the ‘ ‘ quotes won the day. The point is, as all you Free World ‘Crazy’ people know, presenting the idea of a moneyless society to your family and friends can be an uncomfortable, unpleasant experience at best, and, at worst can lead to you becoming isolated or even suffering broken relationships. So, after talking to many people on this topic, and from my own personal experience, I thought it might be useful to present these seven tips for presenting our ‘Crazy’ Free World ideas to newbies in a positive and respectful way.
1. DON’T LABOUR THE POINT
The cliché ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’ exists for a reason. No-one is going to agree with your ‘crazy’ ideas until they can see it for themselves. The problem with convincing people is not that they won’t agree, but they can’t see the logic of it themselves. Once they see the logic, they will come. The more you force the point, the angrier you will both become and, of course, they, in turn, will associate that anger with those ideas.
2. GIVE PEOPLE TIME
For most people, seeing the logic of a free, moneyless society is utterly counter-intuitive to everything they already know about life, so for them to arrive at your ‘crazy’ logic, they have to force new neural pathways, and of course, they probably don’t want to do that. I like to think of someone arriving to the ideas themselves via a series of switches and relays in their mind, or like a ball finding its way through a maze. So don’t expect eureka moments from your friends straight away. It takes time. (We’ll see why later)
3. PRESENT THE IDEAS, THEN LEAVE IT
Find the best way for you to present the ideas to someone, be it the FWC video, or maybe something from The Venus Project or a Zeitgeist movie. (I think Addendum is the best) Or just explain the idea in your own way, perhaps by casually starting a conversation about money, or debt, or inequality, or poverty, or banker’s bonuses, or corruption or the environment, or pharmaceuticals, or waste…. Choose your weapon wisely!
By introducing them to the very concept of a moneyless society merely by mentioning it, you may be creating a sufficient question mark in their mind for them to seek more infomation. (Of course, don’t be afraid to poke them occasionally with a ‘well if we didn’t have money, we wouldn’t have that problem..’ every once in a while. 😉
4. CHOOSE PEOPLE WHO YOU THINK WILL AGREE
Maybe that sounds like ‘taking the easy way’, but there’s a good reason. Trying to convince your most hardened stock-broker or real estate friends is just going to make you angry, make them angry and nothing will be achieved except that they will gain animosity for you and your ideas, and you may become despondent. So don’t try this at home folks! A movement such as this will only spread from the edges outward through like-minded people. You can’t drop idea bombs on Wall St. and just expect them to agree.
It’s better for everyone if you find people who you think would be willing to take the ideas on board, or at least give it a fair hearing. The movement will grow faster that way – and the others will soon find themselves outnumbered, or see the ideas coming to them later through their own more respected peers.
5. BE RESPECTFUL
When you are questioning someone’s core beliefs, it is personal. These beliefs are part of their personality, their way of life, so an attack on their beliefs is, in a way, an attack on them. So be gentle and respectful. If they’re not ready, just walk away.
6. BE POSITIVE+
Change is coming anyway. Most people are already unconsciously aware of this, they just don’t have a shape or name for it yet. They know ‘something’ is coming. Although most people are not actually thinking a moneyless society, the force of change omnipresent in the world today is huge. Hundred of millions of people, young and old, from all over the world are now mobilised and demanding change. Eventually this unstoppable force and technology will catalyse our new sharing economy, so know that you are not alone. You can afford to be confident and assertive.
To most people, change is coming – but they don’t know what. You do. Your positivity will inspire, so let it shine!
7. REMEMBER, THIS IS YOUR JOURNEY
You may find, as I did, that when you begin to speak of such ‘crazy’ things like a moneyless society, people will start treating you differently, or simply avoiding you. I admit I made lots of mistakes in the past by labouring the point too much and getting angry with people who didn’t agree with me. I guess I got carried away in my own excitement.
Ultimately I lost interest in those people and they lost interest in me, but I also gained the friendship of some amazing new people through my work that have infinitely enhanced my life more than I ever imagined. The point is, your awakening is a journey – YOUR journey – and it’s probably not over. Prepare for the fact that you might lose the love and respect of some people along the way – if even just for a while – but you will find amazing new friends in our own crazy little community here and elsewhere.
From my work with FWC and from my own personal experience, I’ve found it necessary to devote some time pondering why coming to the ‘realisation’ of a moneyless society is such a difficult process, when, once you understand it, it makes so much sense.
The problem is with the suspension of belief. It requires the simultaneous suspension of many common beliefs before you ‘get it’. Here’s a quick round-up:
- First you have to entertain the very idea of a world without money. (That’s the first belief suspension)
- Next you have to imagine that people will still do things without money. (That’s the BIG one)
- Next you have to understand that people will do things they wouldn’t particularly like to do.
- Next you have to see that greed is only borne out of scarcity and not human nature as some would have you believe. (Another biggie)
- See how technology can actually be implemented to create abundance and optimise society instead of just producing junk electronics.
- See that all people are basically good and will help each other without reward. (A biggie for some)
- See that society can be an autonomous, self-governing, self-regulating. system
There are plenty more, but the point is, ALL these beliefs have to be processed simultaneously before you can begin to accept that a moneyless society is possible. So tread gently.. 🙂
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