Walking Within Wisdom #14 September 2, 2019
“Money does nothing, PEOPLE do EVERYTHING!” ~Michael Tellinger, Ubuntu Contributionism
Last week I walked a total of 32.96 miles and swam 7,500 meters (a slow week for me) AND BOY did I learn a TON!!! Overall I think this walking thing is working ;-)
So although I was not walking during this wisdom presentation yesterday, this subject and work is NEVER far from my mind… Instead of Walking Within Wisdom I may have to re-title this particular segment DRIVING LONG DISTANCES WITHIN WISDOM as it took me two and a half hours (I would have driven further btw) to get from Denver to Pueblo (Colorado) to listen to my dear friend Rebecca Gretz present about “Ubuntu Contributionism: A New (NON)Economic Paradigm”
Some of you may know that I have been spending a good deal of time in Walsenburg Colorado. My work there is based on the ideas/values of Ubuntu and contributionism and last year we purchased an 1898 School House (pictured here), started growing food, chickens and started collaborating with the community to lay the groundwork for this new paradigm.
If I haven’t talked your ear off about this work and would like to know a bit more please see this short video that talks about the movementhttp://bit.ly/onesmalltown
There have been ups and MANY downs in the past year and despite all of that we are still working on it!
Although we tried to record Rebecca’s presentation, sadly it didn't work out that way. So I am going to do my best to recap Rebecca’s wisdom with some of her slides and images...
Rebecca started off with a question:
Are you happy with the way the world is now?
There was all sorts of feedback from the audience, for the most part, the answer was a resounding no…
Rebecca went on to describe…
IMAGINE…
•a world without the need for money.
•a world where you do what you love to do everyday.
•a world in which everyone uses their natural talents and acquired skills for the benefit of all in the community.
•a world where there are no boundaries to progress in any area including energy, healthcare, science and the arts.
•a world without strife, famine, war, and disease. That is UBUNTU CONTRIBUTIONISM!
The next question… Why imagine a world without MONEY?
•Money is an artificial framework-an intermediary that comes between people and the resources they need to survive
•Money, or the lack thereof, causes stress, depression, anxiety and sickness for individuals and families.
•Money is used to destroy the environment and deplete planet resources
•Money is used as a tool to enslave the masses.
•Jobs, often, do not match the talents and interests of the people
•The need for money puts a barrier between people’s desire to pursue their passions and the means for survival (i.e. starving artist)
•The need for money interferes with people’s access to resources to achieve their goals (i.e. business, education, healthcare, charities, research)
These ideas are far from new, new age or just coming from crazy people like me. Buckminster Fuller was talking about these ideas 50 years ago, in 1970 Fuller said,
“We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.” R. Buckminster Fuller
So you probably want to know, what is UBUNTU?
Ubuntu is a word from South Africa meaning: I am who I am because of who we ALL are. Basically the most collaborative word on the planet...
A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good. They have self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong to a greater whole. They are diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, or when others are tortured or oppressed.
Rebecca then showed this image of beautiful children in a circle and told the story of an Anthropologist in Africa...
An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: “UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”
THIS IS THE WORLD I CHOOSE TO LIVE IN…
SO what is Ubuntu contributionism you may ask???
•A blueprint for a new social structure envisioned by Michael Tellinger.
•It is an actual “plan of action” that outlines the steps necessary to achieve abundance for all.
Michael (and we all) ask that you keep an open mind .... These concepts are foreign to most of us who have been raised in a capitalistic, oligarchic society...
In his blueprint Michael even outlined a five point mantra
1. No money
2. No barter
3. No trade
4. No value attached
5. Everyone contributes their natural talents and acquired skills for the greater benefit of everyone in the community
So you may wonder why no barter and trade… Barter and trade continues the system that something has more (or less) value than something else and thus just replacing money with things. This also goes for using a different form of currency like bitcoin.
I also want to insert here, please don’t misunderstand, we are not all Pollyanna (well maybe I am) we understand we will need to continue to need money, barter and trade as a bridge as we are literally building the wings of the plane just before we take off… These ideas and movement takes time.
Rebecca Gretz went on to talk about Ubuntu basics, some of the work we have (and haven’t yet) been doing in Walsenburg. What kinds of talents and skills we are looking for in this first phase and:
We want to invite all inventors, healers, scientists, artists, food growers, etc, to our community–without funding limitations or need for profit, they will come up with new cures, technologies, etc. Other cities and towns will want to establish this for themselves when they see how successful our community is. It will be a domino effect that changes the world…
She then concluded with a quote from the former Former National Coordinator for Ubuntu USA
“We can no longer wait for the systems that enslave us to save us.We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, and the time is now.” ~Starr MacKinnon, PhD,
OF COURSE there was much much more here, my Ubuntu brothers added to the wonderful conversation and I even talked about how I got involved. I would be happy to talk to anyone who would like to know more AND
If you would like to learn more:
Read the book Ubuntu Contributionism by Michael Tellinger
Go to our friend Michael E. V. Knight channel moneydoesnothing.com
Look at any of the Ubuntu Facebook pages likehttps://www.facebook.com/UbuntuPlanetUSA/