Have you realised that the world, if not the universe, is a single organism and all the people, all the organisms are inter-connected and depend on each other for their welbeing? Do you feel a greater responsibility to the universe than just to replicate the molecular patterns and social memes which make you you? Have you perhaps devoted large chunks of your life to some Work? This mystical experience is sometimes called a 'dissolution of ego' but unfortunately most egos don't stay dissolved for long!
There is a lot happening right now, and I sense that for coordination purposes it needs presenting more widely. It is always tempting to plough our own solitary and often unyielding furrows, but I believe we should be looking around more and appreciating supporting and connecting to what works.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn recounts an almost constant stream of dissent, protest, uprisings, revolts, strikes, walkouts since Europeans discovered the New World. For every action the wealthy elite reacted with greater violence, legislation, propaganda and war-mongering.
This concluding chapter, written in 1980, reflects on this pattern of dissent and asks what has been learned and what would a successful revolution in the United States look like.
This is a proposed API to allow a mobile phone to connect to a community exchange platform. The essential functions are concerned with browsing, and later posting offers and wants, and with registering exchanges with other members of the system.
Since 2008, when the financial collapse began, I have been acutely aware that in the event that things get out of control, and complementary currency solutions cease to be an appropriate response, I have no bolt-hole to run to, and no special skills that would endear me to those who had the foresight to buy land and learn to produce food on it.
I've been reaching out with Drupal to the LETS movement for five years and to the time banking movement for three. I focused on these because I believed that they had the power of collective decision making, they needed good advice and because getting them all to use the same software framework would be efficient, enabling them all to put more resources into core activities.
Most of my readers will probably have heard of the travails of the Bangla Pesa project in Kenya, which is facing a court case for forgery and is now seeking to raise EUR 47,000 to defend itself in court and, if successful, to replicate the model elsewhere.
I want to save the world.
To see the flag of peace unfurled!
I hurt too when via my screens
Come gangs and drugs and pregnant teens,
Black potbelly-babies, bombs and shit;
Besuited leaders, don't get it,
They huff and puff and blow hot air;
When real change is just to share!
And when they catch that subtle light,
They will know that I am right!
They'll give me thanks one day
For showing them the only way.
One day I'll make them effing see
What's best for them is more of me.
write a short engaging/actionable text (approx. 2 pages long) as a sort of tutorial/step-by-step instruction on starting a complementary currency system for EC Responding Together programme
If a community currency was simply a printed note or an accounting system, then you could make a 1 2 3 recipe for starting one in your community, like boiling an egg. However this approach is unlikely to succeed, because a currency is more than just tokens and symbols.
Since 2008, when the financial collapse began, I have been acutely aware that in the event that things get out of control, and complementary currency solutions cease to be an appropriate response, I have no bolt-hole to run to, and no special skills that would endear me to those who had the foresight to buy land and learn to produce food on it.