Return to Athens/Delphi: David's Pi_ge Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 10:03:54 -0800 (PST) From: bk472@scn.org (Jim Anderson) Message-Id: <199801281803.KAA29683@scn.org> Reply-To: bk472@scn.org Sender: owner-positive-futures@igc.apc.org Subject: RE: Getty and Richness To: positive-futures@igc.org This was posted by Marlin Nissen: > I would deeply question what wealth really means when I read comments like > Getty's. Are those the words of a deeply satisfied human that has everything? > Not for me, they sound quite bitter actually as compared to others offered > by St. Francis, Jesus, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Nearing etc. who view inner > richness as the better path. What does it mean to be rich ??? Only my > heart and gut can answer that question. My stay in Central America with > Mosquito Indians showed me a great deal about the difference between > affluence and happiness !!! <<And that's the point, isn't it.
I'm afraid I'll have to own up as the one who posted that quote - in the context of whether those people who have achieved Financial Independence and are living off interest income ought not to give away this wealth to the vast majority of people who are much less well off. And the point I was trying to make, perhaps poorly, seems to have become buried under the general disapproval of the rationalizations the wealthy make to justify the status quo.
Rather than our wealth, or our paternalistic "aid," what I think many of the indigenous, struggling cultures require of us is our absence - the absence of western corporate exploitation, the absence of missionary activity, the absence of bleeding heart condescension. We need to leave their forests alone, leve their land alone, leave their culture alone, so they can use the wisdom and traditions which have provided them peace and security long before our supposed "advanced" civilization came on the scene - and which will, probably, if we don't wipe them out completely, provide them peace and security long after our technological civilization crumbles.
In fact they may well have more to offer us than we do to them. I believe many of the traditional indigenous cultures have much more to offer us in the richness of living a truly meaningful life in community - sitting in front of a modern TV set comes in a pretty pathetic second to this richness.
But modern technology is sooo seductive. I stayed in a village in a very out-of-the-way island in Greece in the early 70's. They had just aquired their first automobile and 6 mile gravel road upon which to drive it. Also, the tavern where it had been traditional to play music, talk and even dance had aquired a TV set... The TV set and the car had won, hands down. It was disturbing and quite sad. It seemed most of the young people on the island couldn't wait to get away and many of them dreamed of coming to America and getting rich. And our presence there, and our stories about the way of life we lived, may well have contributed to that.
The point I was trying to make, again perhaps poorly, is just as you have said it; it was about "the difference between affluence and happiness." It is far, far easier to give someone, or some cause, money than it is to raise one's own consciousness or to effect a change in the consciousness of another. And it is not money that is going to save the planet; it is human consciousness. But many people, all over the world, seem to think that money can solve all of their problems and they will do anything in their power to get their hands on some. A poverty stricken beggar is not virtuous simply because he is poor - beggars, like the wealthy, can be either wicked or virtuous.
If by doing small things, like recycling or putting in fluorescent lights, one can thereby raise one's consciousness and maybe influence others just a little bit, I think that matters more than where one is getting one's income at the moment. And if large numbers of people begin to change their awareness and begin to realize the true nature of wealth - which is, as you say again, inner richness - then the whole game can change. Instead of pursuing corporate jobs and lots of stuff people will pursue that inner richness. And maybe it won't be too late to find some way to learn from the indigenous cultures our corporations are busily wiping out.
This changing consciousness is perhaps the greatest threat to the sociopathic nature of the corporate world. It's like that old saying (which I don't remember exactly) "The only requirement for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." And by doing small things, seeing the small successes they generate and feeling the small feelings of accomplishment from doing them, we can begin to gather strength to do ever larger things. And doing small things is much better than doing nothing.
It is this, I think, rather than any grand redistribution of wealth, that will provide us our way out of the mess we find ourselves in. And (I just can't seem to restrain myself) I have another quote:
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