“What’s Going On?!?”:

The aforementioned factors that affect our lives can be shortened into a rather finite list—time, money, power, control, fear, compliance, force, position, speech/communication, tacit knowledge, precedence, and influence. Added to these terms are the other parts of our cultural structure that utilize the previous concepts to construct a tangible system—cash, taxes, caste, wealth, stigma, change, constant, cycle, and inheritance. Taking each one of these terms into consideration, I will examine them and expand upon their meaning and context. Together, they form the basic fabric of how our society works, and their application will reveal the balanced, yet skewed way in which the world works. Take, for example, the first group of five words: time, money, power, control, fear, and compliance. Everything in our world revolves around time—our birth, death, money, traditions, rituals, customs, economy, politics, and pretty much anything else you could think of that people tend to do. Our money is directly linked to time; for each hour of labor and effort, people are able to produce a certain amount of tangible goods or services. The acquisition of wealth is a major force in our systems of government and commerce. We trade time and money (which could be considered two forms of the same thing) for other goods or services to capitalize on their utility. In the past, money was more directly connected to physical commodities and/or precious metals; however, within the last century money has become inextricably valued upon time and labor. We use printed paper currency and electronic credits to summarize our currency’s value; these forms of money are referred to as fiat currency, which is a unit of money that has value simply due to an authoritative decree by its issuing government or entity. The term fiat comes from a Latin phrase meaning, “Let it be done”; I will touch more on this concept later on. Much of our system also revolves around money—its acquisition, expenditure, and accumulation. Our current cash-based economy involves what has become known as a “floating” currency—meaning it has no direct value tied to physical commodities. The money supply (i.e., the number of paper bills or electronic credits) in circulation can be manipulated in and of itself; it does not have to be directly tied to commodities in order to have “value.” This is a very dangerous situation, as in the wrong hands the control of this supply can dictate a whole host of factors in a culture such as our own. We have created a predatory culture, one where the weak are preyed upon by the strong to establish their own ascendency. Arguably, this vicious cycle has been going on for all of recorded history, as there have always been the classic social divides between the rich and poor. I have, personally, experienced this mentality all of my life; many people have interacted with me and displayed this twisted sense of physical gain over ethics. Profit has become the god of our era; instead of idols or ancient myths, we now worship class, wealth, power, and control. Again, all of these factors have, to one degree or another, always existed in all human cultures; however, never before have they had such influence. People may need money to buy the things they need to survive, but the thirst for a never-ending source of wealth has created an unnatural imbalance in our system. All accumulations of wealth take time and human equity to gain; it is this basic limiting principle that provides the basis for sustainable growth and prosperity in any culture. To attempt to circumvent this principle is to prime civilization for its own self-destruction.