why do you choose to live without money?
“While we may for very good reasons choose to use money, we may not actually have to. […] The monetized life is a life that separates people from community and from nature, channeling our interdependency through an anonymous medium. Money promises that, if only we acquire enough of it, we can be independent.” – charles eisenstein in his preface to the moneyless manifesto
who uses money shifts their dependence to someone (or rather something) else, somewhere else. the moment when what through money remains unseen isn’t there anymore, then will they figure that bills and coins don’t feed them, nor love them, and barely spend any warmth. i’d rather here and now celebrate interdependency and connection with my surroundings, be it humans or bees.
“There was no poverty in the jungle until they introduced money, and all the sudden there’s poverty. […] And you look at people and they’re not happy. They have all these goods, and they’re unhappy.” – daniel suelo
now i wasn’t born in the jungle, nor poor. neither unhappy. however i’ve come to think money isn’t necessary for me to find happiness. it might even be in the way at some point. continuing to use it, to pretend belief in the myth, wouldn’t it be contribution to the seemingly faraway exploitation and humiliation that money allows us to remain disconnected, disconcerned from? i’d like to find happiness and freedom not to the expense of other’s chances in pursuing the same. in fact i think happiness, freedom or love found in such ways is fake and temporary at best.
how about food?
“one may sleep in a tent and travel by autostop or walking, but one can’t live off only wild blueberries.” is that what i hear you think?
at the moment most of what i eat is found in dumpsters of supermarkets, bakeries, fresh markets or domestic trash. sometimes i eat in friend’s places, rarely do i forage wild plants or do strangers offer me food. dumpster-diving i can make sure what i consume is given unconditionally, plus what is thus ‘recycled’ is kept off landfills. much has been written and videotaped about the (food) waste of so-called first world, go find it elsewhere. (trashwiki.org, we-feed-the-world.at/en)