Wild Nature,
outside commercial civilization,
runs on gift economy
("freely give, freely receive").
Thus it is balanced. Commercial civilization runs on thought of credit and debt ("knowledge of good & evil").
Thus it is imbalanced.
What nation can balance
its own budget or environment?
Gift Economy is Faith, Grace, Love
- the core message of every religion.
The proof is inside you:
Wild Nature is your True Nature,
crucified by commercial civilization.
I haven't been the best at keeping up with blog posts since being hunkered down the past 3 years as the live-in caretaker of my parents (now care-taking just my mom). Though, three years ago, I returned to dealing with money (having to manage my mom's finances and do her shopping) and returned to living sedentary, indoors, using money sparingly, I still feel passionately about moneyless gift economy.
My last few blog posts I haven't spoken much about my personal life - but more about philosophies, since I've gone inward a lot.
Frankly, my heart has often been heavy the past three years, face-to-face with death a lot. The last few months two of my young vagabond friends also died. You never know when somebody will go, so treat everybody as if it's the last time you'll ever see them.
Piano & Musical Saw
Oh, yeah. I want to share some music that my 90-year-old mom, Laurel, and I play together. We've performed a few times at Cavalcade here in Fruita.
TEDx Talk
On January 27, I gave a TEDx talk in Grand Junction, Colorado. I did it on last-minute notice, only having a day and a half to prepare. I'm still not sure if the video will be published, but I'll let you know if/when it is.
New version of the video,"The Physics & Spirituality of Gift Economy"coming soon!
I've also completed editing slides and music into the already-published video, "The Physics and Spirituality of Gift Economy", of the presentation I did a year ago. You may have already seen it, but it is incomplete without the slides.
I also wrote an edited transcript of it. I plan to publish both the new video version and the transcript very soon, so check back here. I've never edited videos before, and knew nothing about it. That means it consumed most my time over 3 months to do it.
I feel excited about it. I feel in my bones I'm onto something. And I hope you feel it too. It's a crystallization of what I've learned from 57 years of living, including my 15 years without money. And there is more to come besides that. By grace I hope to share it all.
Take note that I'm not saying how anybody should or shouldn't live.
I'm not even presenting opinion.
I'm just presenting a simple observation:
From Wild to Domestic From Unowned to Owned From Adulthood to Perpetual Immaturity
Shearing is important for domestication:
Before-and-after photos of natives taken from website, "White Wolf Pack"
(http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2016/05/before-and-after-photos-show-cultural.html)
WILD CREATURES (i.e., weeds*, wild animals, and gatherer-hunter peoples) share 3 common characteristics:
1. They are unowned and don't own.
2. They have the natural right to adulthood, meaning self-rule.
3. They can't legally integrate into civilization, but are set apart into parks, museums, zoos, or reservations, out of sight and out of mind, except during limited times of objectified study or recreation.
2. They don't have the legal right to mature to adulthood (ie, self-rule, living without permission of an authority, such as the right to even freely lay down their heads or the right to freely reproduce by unrepressed sexual union). Even the ruling authorities themselves lack this right.
3. They cannot legally integrate into wild societies, meaning they cannot legally live on unowned land. In the US, for example, they aren't permitted more than 2 weeks on unowned land, and, then, only in highly-controlled, designated zones.
Permission to live unowned on unowned land creates the greatest threat to civilization: Adulthood.
**The root of domestication is dom, also the root of dominion, dominate. Its Proto-Indo-European root is dem, meaning domain or household. It represents our ancestors' forsaking the nomadic gatherer-hunter life for the householder's life of land ownership, the life of the Land Lord, of dominion over others, the life of owning fellow living beings (domestication).
Okay, I’ve had it. This is for my nationalistic, Bible-waving friends: a world history and Bible lesson:
Pride comes before fall
Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar's North Palace Ruins
Notice the great empires of the world--Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Abyssinia, Egypt, Aztec, Inca, etc—all were known for their nationalism, believing themselves divinely favored, supreme above other nations, thinking they would last forever.
Yet they all either ended up backwater countries or vanished, except for ruins. Can you believe Portugal, for example, was once the wealthy world-dominating empire?
Empire vs the Barbarians of Northern Europe Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
Many ancient empires existed long before my northern European ancestors were considered "civilized", calling them "Barbarians" (from their “bar bar” talk, thinking the hairy northern Europeans were so backward they had no real language).
Now, check out the Bible:
The rise and fall of nationalist empires is the Bible’s central theme. Over and over, Old Testament prophets preached against nationalist empires and their leaders’ arrogant, bragging supremacism, extravagant wealth, world commerce, and world domination.
This included, and especially included, Israel.
National pride comes before fall, they kept warning.
And lipservice to God is what made their national pride and wealth most abhorrent to the prophets.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! --Isaiah 14:12
Note another irony: pious nationalists are often obsessed with the Devil, looking for demonic conspiracy around every corner. But let’s sit down and look at the famous, traditional depiction of the Devil in the Bible:
In Christian and Jewish tradition, the famous story of Lucifer and his fall from Heaven comes from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Lo and behold, you find this Lucifer is none other than the personification of nationalist, wealthy, commercial, world-dominating Empires and their arrogant, boasting, extravagantly rich leaders.
Sodom & Gomorrah by John Martin "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." --Ezekiel 16:49
All the Old Testament prophets, not just Isaiah and Ezekiel, warn against nationalism, greed, commerce, arrogant leaders, and, especially above all, disregard for the poor, which doom empires to fall, especially when masked under religious piety. Isaiah and Ezekiel (Isaiah chapters 1, 3, 13, Ezekiel 16) even interpret the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah being due to nationalism, extravagant wealth, commerce, arrogance, and, especially, disregard for the poor and oppressed, with not a single mention of sex.
The very last book in the Christian Bible, Revelation, reiterates this theme: the Fall of Babylon and its arrogant antichrist leader.
Go ahead. Wave around your Bible and flag; brag how your religion and culture and nation is the greatest and divinely favored. See what happens.
A little something for self-proclaimed Christians in Trumpeting America. Not my opinions, just quotes. Judge for yourselves whether or not this is your religion. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of quotes. And that's the point -- an overwhelming mass of testimony. And this isn't even all of it:
"Blessed are you poor,
for yours is the Kingdom of God.
. . . . But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your credit."
--Jesus (Luke 6:24)
"Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?'
So Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but One God. ... One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me. ….It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'"
(Mark 10:17-30)
(See Matthew 21:12–17, Mark 11:15–19, Luke 19:45–48, & John 2:13–16)
"'No servant can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.'
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money,
heard all these things, and they ridiculed Jesus."
(Luke 16:13-14)
"So likewise, whoever of you
does not forsake all that he owns
cannot be My disciple."
--Jesus (Luke 14:33)
"Listen, my beloved brethren:
Has not God chosen the poor of this world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
which he promised to those who love him?
James (Yakov)
But you have dishonored the poor man.
Do not the rich oppress you
and drag you into the courts?
Do they not blaspheme
that Noble Name by which you are called?"
(James 2:5-7)
"Come now, you rich, weep and howl
for your miseries that are coming upon you!
Your riches are corrupted,
and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver are corroded,
and their corrosion will be a witness against you
and will eat your flesh like fire.
You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
Indeed the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields,
which you kept back by fraud, cry out;
and the cries of the reapers
have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury;
you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned,
you have murdered the just;
he does not resist you."
(James 5:1-6)
One Heart & One Soul
"Now all who believed were together,
and had all things in common,
and sold their possessions and goods,
and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house,
they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
giving Credit to God
and having Grace with all the people.
.... Now the multitude of those who believed
Peter & Paul
were of One Heart and One Soul;
neither did anyone say
that any of the things he possessed was his own,
but they had all things in common."
(Acts 2:44-47 & 4:32)
"...persons who are depraved in mind
and bereft of the truth,
imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
…But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation,
into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires
that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is the root of all evil;
it is through this craving
that some have wandered away from the faith
and pierced their hearts with many pangs."
--Apostle Paul (1 Timothy 6:5-10)
"Then Peter said,
'Money and gold I do not have,
but what I do have I give you.'"
(Acts 3:6)
Note that all the recorded early Christian leaders (that I've found so far) unanimously agree that Jesus & the Apostles meant what they said:
Amma Syncletica of Alexandria
(? to 350 AD)
"Those who have endured the labors and dangers of the sea and then amass material riches, even when they have gained much desire more. They consider what they have at present to be nothing, and reach out for what they have not got. We, who have nothing that we desire, wish to acquire everything through God."
--Amma Syncletica of Alexandria (died 350AD)
Augustine (354–430 CE)
"Those who wish to make room for the Lord must find pleasure not in private, but in common property…. Redouble your charity. For, on account of the things which each one of us possesses singly, wars exist, hatreds, discords, strifes among human beings, tumults, dissensions, scandals, sins, injustices, and murders. On what account? On account of those things which each of us possesses singly. Do we fight over the things we possess in common? We inhale this air in common with others, we all see the sun in common. Blessed therefore are those who make room for the Lord, so as not to take pleasure in private property."
--Augustine (354–430 CE)
Tertullian (c. 160–c.220 CE)
"I now come to the accusation that most of us are said to be poor; that is not to our shame, it is to our great credit. Men’s characters are strengthened by stringent circumstances, just as they are dissipated by luxurious living. Besides, can a man be poor if he is free from want, if he does not covet the belongings of others, if he is rich in the possession of God? Rather, he is poor who possesses much but still craves for more. And so it is that when a man walks along a road, the lighter he travels, the happier he is; equally, on this journey of life, a man is more blessed if he does not pant beneath a burden of riches but lightens his load by poverty. Nevertheless, we would ask God for material goods if we considered them to be of use; without a doubt, He to whom the whole belongs would be able to concede us a portion. But we prefer to hold possessions in contempt than to hoard them: it is rather innocence that is our aspiration, it is rather patience that is our entreaty; our preference is goodness, not extravagance."
....
“We who share one mind and soul obviously have no misgivings about community of goods.”
– Tertullian, 160-225 AD
Basil (329–379 AD)
"You are like one occupying a place in a theater, who should prohibit others from entering, treating that as one’s own which was designed for the common use of all.
Such are the rich. Because they were first to occupy common goods, they take these goods as their own. If each one would take that which is sufficient for one’s needs, leaving what is in excess to those in distress, no one would be rich, no one poor.
It is absurd and disgraceful for one to live magnificently and luxuriously when so many are hungry…If one who takes the clothing off another is a thief, why give any other name to one who can clothe the naked and refuses to do so?The bread that you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold that you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor. … How can I make you realize the misery of the poor? How can I make you understand that your wealth comes from their weeping?”
– Basil (329–379 AD)
Teresa de Ávila (1515-1582)
"Thank God for the things that I do not own.
.... Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God.
....It is quite important to withdraw from all unnecessary cares and business, as far as compatible with the duties of one’s state of life, in order to enter the second mansion."
-- Teresa de Ávila (1515-1582)
Clare of Assisi (1194-1243 AD)
"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing.
.... O blessed poverty, who bestows eternal riches on those who love and embrace her!"
-- Clare of Assisi (1194-1253 AD)
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD)
“We who once took most pleasure in the means of increasing our wealth and property now bring what we have into a common fund and share with everyone in need.”
– Justin Martyr, 100-165 AD
Irenaeus, 130-200 AD
“And instead of the tithes which the law commanded, the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor. And he said to love not only our neighbors but also our enemies, and to be givers and sharers not only with the good but also to be liberal givers toward those who take away our possessions.”
–Irenaeus, 130-200 AD
Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD)
“Private property is the fruit of iniquity. I know that God has given us the use of goods, but only as far as is necessary; and he has determined that the use shall be common. The use of all things that are found in this world ought to be common to all men. Only the most manifest iniquity makes one say to another, ‘This belongs to me, that to you.’ Hence the origin of contention among men.”
– Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 AD (Paedagogus, 2)
Ambrose of Milan (340-397 AD)
“Nature has poured forth all things for the common use of all people. And God has ordained that all things should be produced that there might be food in common for all, and that the earth should be the common possession of all. Nature created common rights, but usurpation has transformed them into private rights…God gave the same earth to be cultivated by all. Since, therefore, His bounty is common, how is it that you have so many fields, and your neighbor not even a clod of earth? ….You are not making a gift of your possession to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his."
--Ambrose of Milan, 340-397 AD.
John Chrysostome (347-407 AD)
“The rich are in possession of the goods of the poor, even if they have acquired them honestly or inherited them legally.
Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs. When you are weary of praying and do not receive, consider how often you have heard a poor man calling, and have not listened to him. The dispersion of property is the cause of greater expenditure and so of poverty. Consider a household with husband and wife and ten children. She does weaving and he goes to the market to make a living; will they need more if they live in a single house or when they live separately? Clearly, when they live separately. If the ten sons each go his own way, they need ten houses, ten tables, ten servants and everything else in proportion… Dispersion regularly leads to waste, bringing together leads to economy.”
Cyril of Alexandria (377-444AD)
– John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD
“Give away these earthly things, and win that which is in heaven. Give that which you must leave, even against your will, that you may not lose things later. Lend your wealth to God, that you may be really rich. Concerning the way in which to lend it, Jesus next teaches us saying: ‘Sell your possessions, and give alms, provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail’ … Worldly wealth has many foes … but no one can do damage to the wealth that is laid up above in heaven.”
– Cyril of Alexandria, 378-444 AD
Gregory of Nyssa (330-395 AD)
“All things belong to God, who is our Father and Father of all things. We are all the same family: all of us are brothers and sisters. And among brethren it is best and most equal that all inherit equal portions.”
– Gregory of Nyssa, 330-395 AD
The Twelve Apostles (Pushkin Museum in Moscow)
“Share everything with your brother. Do not say, ‘It is private property.’ If you share what is everlasting, you should be that much more willing to share things which do not last.”
– The Didache, c. 90 AD, (Did. 4:8)
"...their property held them in chains . . . chains which shackled their courage and choked their faith and hampered their judgment and throttled their souls… And our Lord, the teacher of the good, looking to the future warning us against this, saying: ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’
Cyprian of Carthage (200-258 AD)
If the rich would do this, riches would not be their ruin; if they stored up their treasure in heaven, they would not have an enemy and a thief within their own household; …. But how can those who are tethered to their inheritance be following Christ? …. They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves. The apostle was pointing to our times and to these very men he said: ‘Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’"
– Cyprian, 200-258 AD, (The Lapsed 11-12)
Lastly, the testimony of a Roman pagan in the 2nd century AD:
Lucian of Samasota (c.125 AD – 180+ AD)
“Christians despise all possessions and share them communally.”
– Lucian (pagan author), 2nd century (Peregrinus 13)
Here's my debut blog/vlog, after over a year sabbatical of not blogging! And I must admit I feel excited about publishing this video, "The Physics & Spirituality of Gift Economy." This talk is a crystallization of years of what I've learned living without money.
Thanks to my friend Cullen Purser for filming this talk.
I dare say you'll hear things in this talk you've never heard before... that I know of. Yeah, that I know of. New buds on a tree blossom all over the tree, so perhaps you will witness this same blossoming in other parts of the world. They are not from me but from the Whole.
My dad passed away over a year ago (February 19th, 2016) a month before what would be his 88th birthday on March 23rd. Then, it felt gloomily auspicious that on March 23rd, 2016, my moneyless comrade in Germany, Heidemarie Schwermer, passed away. So it's been me living with and taking care of just my mom since then. 2016 felt like one of the darkest years of my life. And I haven't been able to bring myself to blog until now.
Two years ago, after 15 years of living without money, I had to put my moneyless lifestyle on hold to be the live-in caretaker of my aging parents. One year ago, my dad passed away.
Ironically, I’ve had to manage my parents’ bank account, go shopping, and deal with the bureaucracy and culture shock of it all as well as go through the grieving process. This time has give me the opportunity to delve inward, to process ideas from the previous 15 years of living moneyless. It helps me empathize with a world trapped in commerce.
I’ve watched these ideas blossom into epiphanies. And these epiphanies are crystallizing into a coherent science, philosophy, and theology of gift economy. Gift economy (meaning economy without money or conscious barter) is already the law of this infinite universe all around us. Now I am grateful for the opportunity to share these epiphanies with the public.
You can't see most my slides in this video, so I'm including the slides separate for reference (List shows slide numbers that coincide with video times):
I'm still in Fruita, Colorado, caring for my aging parents. It is heart-breaking, watching their bodies and minds fade. It's a time of grieving. But there is also a blessed time of intimacy with my parents, and there is something intensely rewarding about this, doing a proper good bye. The only worthy reward is the reward in doing.
I continue to have many thoughts about slow, prolonged suffering within domestic civilization. I might write about it later, as I deal with this lesson presently.
.........................................
Meanwhile, other matters. Here's something I just wrote & posted in facebook:
A militant fighting for a minority is called a terrorist.
A militant fighting for the majority is called a patriot.
Every nation was founded upon terrorism.
Terrorism is the mathematical result of patriotism.
Patriotism and terrorism are the life blood of all monetary economy,
pumping through its arteries and veins.
Patriotism is patriarchy,
pledging allegiance to, bowing to,
the Pater and his Prostitute Mistress Mammon
and their bastard son Terror,
Prince of World Economy.
((Notice the little Terror is disrespected, being a bastard and all. But know he is Prince, destined to become Pater, Ruler of the Majority, as Pater's own Pater was once also a disrespected little bastard Terror)).
It's taken me a while to adapt to my new life of living with and caring for my aging parents, living with compromise.
It's taken me a while to fully realize how precious a privilege this is.
Front yard of my outdoor home at the Colorado River.
(I snagged this pic taken by my friend Amber Stone)
Yes, I'm still living with my parents in their house, part time. Part time means I also have a camp near the Colorado River, to help me not lose touch with the realworld.
Ironically, though I still do not have, take or use money, I keep my parents' financial books, and I help my dad with shopping. And, of course, we live in a house owned and provided by my wealthy uncle (and, yes, I am grateful for his generosity), utilities paid through my parents' social security, which I would otherwise choose not to live under.
We could totally live well on scavenged & home-grown food alone, but it's hardly possible to get two 88-year-olds to fully agree to that. But, amazingly, unlike most 88-year-olds, they gladly and wholeheartedly eat the bulk of their diet from my scavenging & home gardening. And I love to cook. Cooking is a forte of mine.
There are lots going on around Fruita with prime friends, as well as family, I'd like to talk about in future posts. In the mean time, I have other things to share.
After many months of feeling dried up, I have been experiencing epiphanies the past few weeks. I have posted some on facebook, and I'm sharing them with you here:
Musings on the Persecution Complex
Overcoming the taste of Death
All of us, without exception,
will give up all our possessions,
voluntarily or involuntarily,
and return to our nativity, the earth.
There is no taste of death (no sense of loss)
if we do it voluntarily.
Voluntarily means doing exactly what we want,
not because we have to.
You have only 2 immutable choices:
Give it up because you have to,
or give it up because you don't have to.
When we don't voluntarily give up possessions,
we identify with them,
we think they are our selves.
We say "thank you" when somebody compliments our possessions.
And we are offended when somebody insults our possessions.
Most of all, we think any challenge to our possessions is persecution,
even if it is simple suggestion of sharing.
When our possessions, our whole identity, is challenged,
we live in fear, fear of persecution.
Beliefs we cling to are no less our possessions.
Our most cherished religious beliefs are possessions, dogmas.
A challenge to our dogmas is perceived as persecution.
Paradoxically, if we are to find the truth of our religion,
we must give up all possessions.
That includes all beliefs we cling to.
Paradoxically, only then can we understand faith
when there is nothing more to cling to,
nothing more to possess.
There is then only the unseen, the un-thought.
When there is no more possession,
there is no more loss,
meaning there is
no more taste of death.
Immortality is freedom from possession.
The Persecution Complex of the Dominant Religion
I grew up white Evangelical.
I sincerely believed we were the persecuted minority,
all outsiders our enemy.
"You always love your neighbor as you love yourself."
Simply describing what is brings light to what is.
All resolves itself in the light, which does not command, does not force, does not control.
In the light all that is illusion vanishes, all that is real remains.
This is the Tao The Broken Spirit Behind the Machinery of "Free Market" Capitalism
If our spirit (empathy) has been broken through abuse, we become machines without empathy, and we want to deregulate unfeeling machineryand we want to regulate life.
"Free market" is an oxymoron.
Free means no money.
"Free market" is called "laissez faire economy."
This is Orwellian doublethink.
Laissez faire means "let it be" or "hands off".
Natural ecology is the only balanced
laissez faire economy.
Laissez faire is impossible in a money economy,
as history never ceases to show us,
because the very nature of money is control of the balance of positive and negative, credit and debt.
True laissez faire, in fact, is the philosophy of living without money.
Invention of money is loss of faith
in the laws of physics and ecology,
fall from grace, fall from gratis.
True laissez faire is faith in the very law of physics and ecology:
For every negative there is always an equal positive. For every credit there is an equal simultaneous debt.
All life is already balanced - we've just become blind to this.
You can try laissez faire for machinery or
you can have laissez faire for life.
You must choose one. You can't have both.
You can serve (work for) money or
you can serve (work for) life.
It is impossible to do both.
The market is a machine, without empathy.
Machinery has no morality, no life, to self-regulate.
Ecology is life, whose essence is empathy.
Empathy is self-regulating morality.
Life has already regulated itself for eons
and undomesticated life already regulates itself in balance
as we observe all around us.
Those who deregulate machinery must regulate living beings.
Those who deregulate living beings must regulate machinery.
None of us wants to be regulated ourselves,
We all want laissez faire for ourselves.
So we deregulate what is like ourselves,
and we regulate what is unlike ourselves. If our spirit (empathy) has been broken through abuse, we become machines without empathy, and we want to deregulate unfeeling machinery and we want to regulate life,
and we regard empathy as silly naivete.
If our spirit triumphs through abuse, we become life, compassionate, and we want to deregulate life and regulate the machinery that would otherwise regulate and abuse life,
and we regard empathy as the essence of life.
When we have life, machinery serves us.
When our spirit is broken, we serve machinery.
Laissez faire of life is the spiritual concept
that all life balances itself outside our control
(Like "Tao" in eastern tradition, "Grace" in western).
Attempting laissez faire of machinery is materialistic
(materialistic means matter without empathy),
In other words, deregulating machinery is based on desire to regulate nature,
based on the concept that nature needs our control;
It is based on our loss of faith that the laws of physics and ecology actually work.
"Free market" capitalists hijack such profound spiritual concepts for marketing purposes.
They have hijacked religion, as they hijack music, art, food, and all life, stripping it all of empathy.
Money has upset the balance of ecology.
True laissez faire can only work for life, not money.
It's the same principle as a tight rope walker losing balance when consciously trying to control balance, when the left hand tries to know what the right hand is doing, not letting it be.
Hot off the press!
OUR FAITH® & OUR WORLD-DOMINATING EMPIRE® UNDER PERSECUTION
BY A HOMELESS BUM
& HIS EARLY FOLLOWERS!
"COMMUNISM: 1 a : a theory advocating elimination of private property b : a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed" (Webster's Dictionary)
"Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need." (The Bible, Acts 2:44-45)
"Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common." (Acts 4:32)
Confirmed by our® witnesses:
"Christians despise all possessions
and share them communally"
--Lucian of Samosata (c. 125-180 CE)
Assyrian Pagan Author
List of the WANTED
For Sedition Against Our Empire®:
Jesus Christ
(from a painting in Rome, 530 CE)
"One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me.". . . . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." (Jesus, Mark 10:21, 25) So then, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. (Jesus, Luke 14:33)
Iacov
(James,
brother of Jesus)
Listen, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that Noble Name by which you are called?. . . . Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you. (James 2:5-7 & 5:1-6)
Augustine
"Those who wish to make room for the Lord must find pleasure not in private, but in common property…. Redouble your charity. For, on account of the things which each one of us possesses singly, wars exist, hatreds, discords, strifes among human beings, tumults, dissensions, scandals, sins, injustices, and murders. On what account? On account of those things which each of us possesses singly. Do we fight over the things we possess in common? We inhale this air in common with others, we all see the sun in common. Blessed therefore are those who make room for the Lord, so as not to take pleasure in private property. Let us therefore abstain from the possessions of private property— or from the love of it, if we cannot abstain from possession— and let us make room for the Lord." (Augustine, 354–430 CE)
Basil
the Great
"You are like one occupying a place in a theater, who should prohibit others from entering, treating that as one’s own which was designed for the common use of all. Such are the rich. Because they were first to occupy common goods, they take these goods as their own. If each one would take that which is sufficient for one’s needs, leaving what is in excess to those in distress, no one would be rich, no one poor." (Basil the Great, 329–379 CE)
Teresa de Ávila
"Thank God for the things that I do not own." (Teresa of Ávila, 1515-1582)
Justin Martyr
“We who once took most pleasure in the means of increasing our wealth and property now bring what we have into a common fund and share with everyone in need.” (Justin Martyr, 100-165 CE)
Irenaeus
“And instead of the tithes which the law commanded, the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor. And he said to love not only our neighbors but also our enemies, and to be givers and sharers not only with the good but also to be liberal givers toward those who take away our possessions.” (Irenaeus, 130-200 CE)
Clement of
Alexandria
“Private property is the fruit of iniquity. I know that God has given us the use of goods, but only as far as is necessary; and he has determined that the use shall be common. The use of all things that are found in this world ought to be common to all men. Only the most manifest iniquity makes one say to another, ‘This belongs to me, that to you.’ Hence the origin of contention among men.” (Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 CE)
Tertullian
“We who share one mind and soul obviously have no misgivings about community of goods.” (Tertullian, 160-225 CE)
Ambrose
“Nature has poured forth all things for the common use of all people. And God has ordained that all things should be produced that there might be food in common for all, and that the earth should be the common possession of all. Nature created common rights, but usurpation has transformed them into private rights… God gave the same earth to be cultivated by all. Since, therefore, His bounty is common, how is it that you have so many fields, and your neighbor not even a clod of earth?” (Ambrose of Milan, 340-397 CE)
John Chrysostom
“The rich are in possession of the goods of the poor, even if they have acquired them honestly or inherited them legally.” “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.” (John Chrysostom, 347-407 CE)
Gregory
of Nyssa
"We are all the same family:
all of us are brothers and sisters.
And among brethren it is best and most equal
that all inherit equal portions.”
(Gregory of Nyssa, 330-395 CE)
Cyprian
"They think of themselves as owners,
whereas it is they rather who are owned:
enslaved as they are to their own property,
they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.”
(Cyprian, 200-258 CE)
Cyril
of Alexandria
“Give away these earthly things,
and win that which is in heaven.
Give that which you must leave,
even against your will,
that you may not lose things later.
Lend your wealth to God,
that you may be really rich.
Concerning the way in which to lend it,
Jesus next teaches us saying:
‘Sell your possessions, and give alms,
provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old,
with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail’
