The Ark

Whatever floats your boat...

In this era of foreclosures, layoffs and debt, it is time for us to ask, "Why must we pay to live on the planet we're born on?" I am starting a global movement to get people to ask that question. I have a video introducing my plans to do a documentary and book on the subject, but as it has a fundraising pitch at the end, I didn't put it on this site. But it is uploaded on VIMEO at
http://vimeo.com/16299789 and all of you are welcome to view it and send it on along with the project page URL at http://kck.st/btAWg6 The project web site is http://endmoney.info/

Views: 15

Comment by Geoff on October 29, 2010 at 5:29pm
a fundraising pitch at the end
Comment by TheEndOfMoney on October 29, 2010 at 5:32pm
Geoff, I said that up front. What about it?
Comment by BlancheNoE on October 30, 2010 at 6:52am
Kellia, I think Geoff is pointing out the irony of calling for the end of money and then asking for money. Now, being that I've been a frustrated independent liberal since I've been cognitive, I understand the concept and lure of fighting fire with fire. I have engaged in it myself and I have derived a certain guilty pleasure of late from seeing liberals finally fighting down and dirty as the covert radical right has been for so long, BUT, it does muddle the message of intent. Another problem I see with this project is that the audience that might buy into it, no pun intended, can't even scrape up the funds to see their dentists. You're not going to get people who *have* the money to spare, to donate to this particular cause, thus you'd only be taking away power ( you are asking for power in the form of money ) from those who have the least of it.
I promise you this : If you write that book, I'll buy it.
Comment by TheEndOfMoney on October 30, 2010 at 4:24pm
I like your promise because it means you plan on sticking around! But if I don't get the money--and this is an all or nothing program, either I make or exceed goal or I get nothing -- I may never write the book--for sure the video documentary won't be done. I will be too busy stuck looking for jobs and "earning a living". Yeah, I know people write books in their spare time but quite frankly, at my age (55) and health status (post two full strokes, 3 mini strokes and a heart attack) I am tired of that struggle. I don't want to work "for a living" AND do a complex project. It certainly won't get written very quickly if it does. I am hoping the fundraiser will give me the freedom to focus on one thing.

The reality of the world as it exists now, which I address in the video, is that one needs money for documentaries, books and artwork for movements. Even with donated labor, the materials cost. Yes, I am having trouble getting donations from those I think have money, as well as trouble with publicity; I have heard from only one of the journalists I know personally that I wrote to about this. I don't think the message of intent in muddled if people actually see the video, and think about the fact that I have to cope with the way thinks are now while trying to present a vision of the future.

I don't see myself taking away power from anyone of limited means. People who give are doing so of their own free will and donations can be as small as a dollar. The poor have the same right as others to spend any discretionary income they do have as they choose?
This is not a tax or a price; it's a donation.

There are two women in the New York City area who are doing free store and local currency experiments as art projects. But that have gotten grants for their work. One way or another, in the world as it is today, one needs money to carry these projects out. That's why I'm asking for money.
Comment by BlancheNoE on October 30, 2010 at 6:08pm
Let me revise my last statement : I promise you that *if* I am still around, I will buy your book.
Organ transplant is risky business and there is no guarantee I will get one in time. My point was, I think you shot yourself in the foot with your subject matter and the way you're going about it. I believe in you and I know if you want to write this book, you will, regardless of extenuating circumstances. Writers and artists,...*true* writers and artists just do what they do no matter what. I don't want to work either and would love to have the time ( and my voice back ) to do nothing but work on an album but I don't have a choice because if I lose my insurance, I'm dead, literally, but even as I was getting sicker and losing my ability to sing, I still managed to get 2 songs done before I lost my voice completely. I did it by working my ass off to save the money to buy the technology I needed to do it and then learning that technology. Keeping on keeping on is just what we have to do on this planet.
You should keep doing what you're doing as far as participating in those art experiments and collecting material for your project and maybe even learn how to apply for grants. I invented a garden tool and couldn't afford to get a patent attorney so I went on line and learned patent language and patent law and was able to do it myself. It cost me a total of about 300.00 instead of 5-10,000.00. Of course I didn't have the financial backing to manufacture and market it and eventually let my ownership expire,...but MAN it felt good just to get the papers with the official seal on it. I'm rambling now. I hope you find a way to do what you want to do I just think you might want to approach it from a different angle. In essence you are saying that you want more of that which you hate. Like I said,....maybe a different angle.
Comment by TheEndOfMoney on October 30, 2010 at 7:05pm
Yes, a different angle entirely. I believe that your point of view, which is the common one, I'm not singling you out, is exactly why we have the "starving artist" syndrome. It is the reason why creatives get the shaft while weapons designers are rolling in bucks. The true artists get it done some how. Doing it for "Love" in a world of money while trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors.

I say all of that struggle is a waste of energy that could be put into actually doing the thing we want to do. We need to abolish this struggle and not celebrate the ability some people have to overcome it, and of course don't get me started with what I think of the obscenity of someone like you having to work to maintain insurance when you are sick and need to conserve your strength for getting better. I let my blood pressure go up too high as it was with Obama's Greater Health Insurance Industry Profits Act of 2010.

You said, "Keeping on keeping on is just what we have to do on this planet." I don't believe that. Keeping on keeping on is not an immutable law of physic. We can change the game on this planet. But to do so we have to change our thinking. Acceptance of the way things are now will not do that.

Unless you were interested in learning patent law, you wasted a lot of time and energy, not to mention $300, just to get a bunch of papers. Was that your goal or was it to see your invention in the marketplace? Money prevented the latter. I want to see a world were people can make their inventions, their art, their health discoveries, etc freely available. But mostly, right now, I want people to question seriously why they have to apply for grants, get financial backing for inventions and art exhibits, in short why must we pay to live on the planet we're born on? I bet you a lot of people take concepts like paying, owing, earning and deserving for granted. But it is time we called the whole thing into question. Unfortunately, getting the message out takes money in today's world. And that's the reason I'm asking for something I hate. Believe me, I wrestled with that conundrum for years. This project wasn't conceived last month.
Have you seen the video? That's a better explanation than anything I could say.
Comment by BlancheNoE on October 30, 2010 at 7:25pm
@ Kellia- Very good counter argument. It makes me want to read your book. I hope you write it soon.
Comment by TheEndOfMoney on October 30, 2010 at 7:47pm
@That Girl. So many people ask me, "What are you going to replace money with"? But that is putting the cart before the horse. We must first look at the values that undergird our current system, which is why my project asks, "Why must we pay to live on the planet we're born on?" Have you every really thought about that?

I don't think you have seen my video. Watch it (it's nine minutes long), and you will see that I am not against work, rather I want to see work liberated from the concept of working "for a living." Why must we work for a living, aren't we already living?

If you are concerned about what will happen to the weak in a moneyless world, I ask you to look at the world today and ask the same question.

I am not an incrementalist, which is why I am trying to make my project into a global movement. Incrementalism gets you BS like the Greater Health Insurance Industry Profits Act of 2010. And we don't have time for that BS. The current system is collapsing and it will take many of the weak down with it. We are going to have to replace that system sooner than we think, so now's the time to look at what values we will carry forward.

As for today, there are examples of the gift economy all over the place. This web site is one example. So is your own life. You have family and friend and this circle gives and takes without a tit-for-tat accounting. The diversity of people can assure that we will have folks to do the things that are really needed. But we need to honor all forms of work and not give heaps of glory to a guy who throw a baseball at 90 mph while the guy who picks our vegetables lives in a shack. (And I'm a baseball fan).

Check out my video.
Comment by TheEndOfMoney on October 30, 2010 at 9:00pm
@ThatGirl, Yes, people need to learn to share. Some already do. See SharingSolution.org as just one example. Widespread sharing will happen when people realize their happiness and well-being are better served by sharing than by competition, which is why I want to be more focused on values rather than practice right now. There are other people who are doing the practical, (I do expect to be giving some practical examples in the book and doc, but I really think the values have to come first for the practice to grow beyond experiments and small intentional communities.)

We need also to think outside the Western patriarchal box as other cultures have had and do have other ways. Feminism, in the sense of women having their own power rather than just trying to make it in a man's world, will also contribute to the effort to make the world a more sharing place because women seem to be more comfortable with the idea of cooperation rather than competition. (I do think that is cultural rather than genetic).

There is a place for localism here. In fact, the change starts in local communities. But the idea has to be global. As they say, Think globally. Act locally. My job as I see it, is to get people to think globally. Others will come up with the local solutions. I don't claim to have all the answers and in fact, the more people who get thinking about this, the more possible solutions we will have and I think that is good.

There is something to be said for realism which explains why I am asking for financial backing (The information on my website is free and I intend to make the book and documentary available free online if the project gets funded). But I don't what to be tied down to what is considered realistic in today's world. Things don't change when that happens.

I have a question for you: How do monetary systems benefit the weak? I see what happened to Dennis Abrams and I see the demand that we are of profit to someone else for our survival as a crime. (Literally. In a world that demands that we work to buy the things we need to survive, laying someone off is an act of assault, putting the victim in fear of life and limb).
Comment by LtAdams2247 on October 30, 2010 at 9:25pm
Looks like your book is about done. just copy and paste these comments here, no fund raiser needed ;-)

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