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The fire must come from your belly, else it must fall, or reconstruct.

In the last two posts(1 & 2), I've spoken about a contributive economy - one which is created by the dynamic of individuals contributing to it, as opposed to just filling spaces that are vacated and being cogs in the ever-growing cyclic machine of the world today. Being a contributor in this economy is rather difficult, despite the noise and jargon the majority of educational institutions in this country make their sales pitches on and the  horn that the majority of the corporate world blows every so often. A contributive economy is one that is constantly original, in the sense that it only starts at the individual's conviction with what he injects into it (and which  plays out collectively, with each one contributing with this principle always intact). He shouldn't necessarily be playing by the rules, unless:

1) The economy serves/has been serving the interests it exists to serve, better than with the method of the individual.
2) The economy has less downsides than when practiced with the method of the individual.

This cannot happen when the economy in question ends up functioning for its own sake i.e is not self-sustaining in achieving its intent which is why it has constantly added in-built supports that only require further support. The fire must come from the belly, else the economy must fall. We are scared that if it falls, all hell will break loose. That's because we've created a monster that actually owns us, and we let it, when we keep adding support to it in fear that it will. We are scared because we haven't really encountered the idea, for ourselves, of active contribution to an economy, or just the idea of what we primarily need in an economy before relevant luxury should even come in. We've been brought up by a flawed one that has never let us out of its sight and the luxury and necessity of which defines our versions of what luxury and necessity is.

This has one essential self-contradiction - it denies its roots. Today, it won't take a step forward unless it can see a hundred steps after that, as clear as sparkling blue water on an ocean. Unless we can predict those steps, we refuse to get out of the mould - and a half-economy filled mostly with greed and an incessant hunger for 'more' which is strangling itself. While we constantly loosen the strangle, we only have that many resources that can actually hold it up. We can only squeeze so much, even if we're squeezing ourselves. We'll be martyrs for nothing, and it will leave us high and dry. The value which we've created in our riches will be nothing compared for the value of staying happy and peaceful, if alive, and hoping to live a few days more with all of that in our pockets, bank accounts and assets absolutely devalued, if not meaningless, when such an economy falls flat to the ground.

The very roots of our economy were hopeless, but necessary. It is like planting a seed that we hope will grow. We had some understanding of how seeds grow, but we had to have hope that the whole thing will sustain, and fill a field, and many more fields creating a growing security, sustenance and growth potential for a growing need. The only reason for a brighter future is a bleaker present, and the cycle must replicate - only this time, we're on the other side. The bleaker present is now and the brighter future is in the seeds we plant. The only problem is that we may not have a perfect foreseeable idea about how it unfolds, which is why we stick to our 'safer' growth graphs but that's what it will take - more risk than the sum of corporate and sales jargon that we belt out can afford. Our marketing agendas won't be able to afford them and we're inherently inadmittedly desperate even if we console ourselves, insufficiently at best, with all that our trained 'expertise' can vomit. The drastic steps we take in our economies today sometimes reminds us of this but we keep those steps to just when things are going to tip over - and then we're back again at making sure the machine runs when the band-aid works for as long as it does. 

What's more depressing is that we have lost confidence in our natural ability to cooperate with each other and make one, without worrying about any particularly academic understanding of what it should be, one that easily flies over our most of our heads. Have we forgotten to be human or have we been ingrained with the idea that a perfect economy cannot be anywhere close? The world almost thrived with a whole bunch of micro-economies before we made a mess of uniting it. Of course, it had its shortcomings, but as if we didn't have any. At least, they didn't cover them up. They rose from contemporary culture and the values of the time and were natural to the age. More importantly, it moved forward and made up for shortcomings in doing so. Society worked before we meddled with it, before we were obsessed with the smaller more important things and built them up into bigger, successful and self-sustaining things. The fire in the belly was from us, and not just from us. We breathed life into it. Now it sucks life out of us. The only thing dynamic about it is its defense.

As opposed this destructive-soon-to-blow-up chaos, a contributive economy keeps the fire coming from the from our own belly. It has a natural means of taking care of the needs of the ones it caters to and is sensitive too - that means its values are straight as well. It responds to need, and can be dismantled when needed and reconstructed to serve purpose. We wouldn't be servicing it. It would be servicing us. You don't build a monster unless, of course, the fire in the belly is coming from the monster itself.

It allows society to respond, individually and then collectively, to problems all round - in this case of demand and supply and every other issue remotely associated with it, most importantly, keeping the values that dictate the interfaces it has with us as solid as rock. If we don't watch our step, we might just become soulless and never ever know it. The best part of this will be that, with this freedom, we can look for open doors to the the unnecessary luxuries that actually take us to more holistic, higher and better versions of ourselves. We'll be well pleased with what we see in the mirror every time we look at it, instead of counting brownie points that we scored that we can claim at another corporate bum shed for nothing that will make us proud of ourselves when we look at that mirror, except for 'more' of that.

We will be contributing to, vibing with and co-creating a world that has way more peace-when-you-hit-the-bed-at-night potential because of the things you did during the day with our lives. We will also be less hungry because we recognise the benefit of this camaraderie as opposed to abject competitiveness that drives us now. It's almost the same as competitiveness except the spirit won't be cut-throat. It will be uplifting and ecnouraging with equal gusto.

When we are stuck with the many problems, which we now react to and simply endorse and defend the mess that is now, we will actually take the innovative, creative steps to advance over them casting the next most logical, reasonable and hopeless seed into the future in line with the best that we can make of the world and really hope to let the potential in us shine. We could also end up just breaking them down and reconstructing them. We won't be dictated by the comfort of a plan that stops letting out the power of our true collective potential over constantly providing life support to an ailing system. One that is self-serving and not humanity serving.

The thing about injecting our ideas and potential into it is that we can make real the potential in us that we dream about instead of cowering in a system that doesn't entertain anything but servanthood to it. We can imagine and explore what we don't know we have yet, each of us individually, together, and reach higher ground that fullly represents our potential and further humanity instead of simply serving an economy. As long we take care of ourselves, along with living our dreams, the economy will take care of itself. It's the means, not the end. In such a natural process, we will not ignore our needs. We needn't fuss over an economy, if we embody it and become it. When we are responsive, and effective, we become original, and more importantly, us. We don't need to tow the line if we don't see the reflection in the mirror. We'll combine our needs and our progress into one sweet ball of dynamism that moves, grows and progresses with us as we move along the same journey - a true living tribute to the power of human potential, not a static goalpost that myopically instills fear in us in the event that it may fall. With all our advancement, we should have known by now that a fear is best destroyed, than entertained - for generations together, at that.           

If there is no bleak present, and we're actually all happy and gay, we actually wouldn't need to do that and all. We will realise that we achieve a bright present, if we don't try - to restrict and box, but just let be and grow according to natural need and not have external greed that doesn't fit in the picture. 'Economy' would just be a word  then, not a phenomenon.

 It won't be survival of the fittest. It will be let's all make it to the end together

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