Playing Pretend

Reimagining Our World And A Better One

Lets play pretend

We'll pretend that pieces of paper have value and call it money.

Then we'll take the paper away and just record the amount of this made up concept and call it credit.

We'll make people work for these made up numbers to produce and use things that they could have had access to without these imaginary units of value. This we'll call work and wages.

Then when they don't have enough of this money we'll give them some in return for them giving us back more (and working more to do so) and we'll call this process debt.

Of course we control the prices so we can determined how much people pay, which we will call doing business.

And we will own the places where people get things, which we'll call our private property.

Then before long nothing will be available without going through our pretend system. Not food or clothes or a place to live.

Some might try to rebel but there are ways we can enforce this fictional system. At first we'll threaten people's access to their pretend money with a new thing called laws and call what they have to pay when they break them fines.

We won't use violence, not us personally. But if they don't comply we will offer pretend promissory notes to those who will threaten others on our behalf, and call them police.

If they don't fall in line we'll stop them taking part in our new imaginary system altogether and put them in a place called prison.

But most people will be pacified by our newly invented newspapers and television stations through which we can use a process called propaganda - where we give them imaginary fears and stoke their desire for useless things to keep them distracted.

If there is any danger of a great number of them starting a revolution against us we'll pacify them by inventing a special group called politicians, who will say they act on their behalf.

We'll even eventually give them a pretend process called democracy, to let them think they are really making a choice, when we are really the one who pick the candidates and their policies.

We'll fund this process through taxes - some of which will be for bread or circuses to distract the masses, but also to direct more money to our friends through public-private partnerships and lucrative contracts.

But much of these taxes will go towards a military so we can conquer and steal from other regions, and stop others doing the same to us.

To keep people from leaving to get away from such a system - to somewhere where it might be better - we'll mark out imaginary lines to keep people inside and others out, and call them borders, and our region a nation.

We'll tell them other nations are less civilised, that they are foreigners, that they are a threat to us, and call this patriotism when we do it, and racism when others do.

Even though in reality we share the same planet and are part of the same family because we are scared of what will happen if we don't have enough pretend money.

That all seems more like a nightmare, than a fun game of let's pretend. Just imagine if a few people gained enough power to make such a horrible story come true.

Let's pretend again.

Now imagine a world in which no-one pretends those harmful made up things are real.

A world without money where the most valuable thing is life and the most profitable is kindness (rather than selfishness and greed).

A world without debt - where you do not owe anyone anything except courtesy - where nothing you need is owned by someone else who restricts its use (to make profit).

A world where you are are not owned by anyone or anything yourself, nor do you rent yourself out to them for their benefit (so they can be rich while you stay poor).

Where you don't work out of the fear of starvation or homelessness, but out of a desire to be helpful and useful (rather than free from financial insecurity).

A world without rulers, where no-one is born with special advantages. Where power is shared and distributed by everyone, where no-one has power over another, and everyone has all the power they need to do all they need to for themselves (so they can live authentic full and free lives).

A world without countries and borders, where there are languages and customs, but that can be experienced and enjoyed by any and all who appreciate them. Where the human family isn't divided by artificial lines and colours (but are all enjoy the world alike).

A world without the hoarding of excess property, where everyone has a home and food, because there is enough for all, more than enough, and no one is denied what they need to live (as is artificially the case now).

Actually this isn't pretending at all. This is what is possible when we stop believing in the silly story a few people want us to believe to keep them powerful is real, and we stop play pretend and going along with it.

It is what will happen when we take back our power from them, when we make our own choices rather than letting them make them for us.

Of course they'll oppose this if they can, but they're at best just 1% and we are the other 99%, and they can only win by continuing to convince us their made up story is the real one, and getting us to go along with it.

It doesn't take much imagination to see what might happen if we stop playing their game of let's pretend.

Some of these concepts are also covered in the article Countries and Borders: