Dear Monetary System,
I have been wanting to write to you for a very long time. To be exact since at least 2008 where my country and the rest of the world experienced an economic crisis due to an internal problem of yours. To begin with I would like to thank you for providing the framework with which we, humans were able to organise our lives for centuries. Instead of existing 'without purpose' we learn as soon as we come into this world that in order to eat, drink, have a home, have clothes and a bed, get education etc we need to work within your framework, sustain a job and earn money to spend. It does truly make sense how humans needed to create a system in order to be able to manage the wealth that exists in this planet for their purposes. I know you have worked hard along with aspects of human nature such as greed to strengthen your place in human life across centuries and you have done so very successfully, even creating byproducts such as credit cards and bonds to facilitate that process. I have to admit my relationship with you has always been one of many contradictions that has been hard to reconcile. On one hand, I understand that having lots of money gives me access to many things that I may want to have, such as a nice house, beautiful clothes, trips to interesting destinations etc . At the same time, the lack of money allows for people to die due to hunger and thirst, live in dirty conditions, not have access to education and beautiful clothes. I have always felt privileged to have some access to these things knowing that some people have more access and other people have less access, but I never understood how I got to have this status. I certainly do not believe I am in any way 'better' or more worthy of them than anyone else in this world. Maybe that is a question for God to answer and maybe not... Since your system is a man made one, then God's intervention must have occurred indirectly through man's will, I imagine. Your crisis that begun in 2008 with global consequences was the first warning sign I saw since my birth that you are not as stable as we thought you were. The situation with the corona virus reinforces this realisation. You are definitely flawed and, as a matter of fact, you have become a dangerous weapon in the hands of man as in your name people continuously die and suffer. I will not lie to you, I have been angry with you for a very long time for playing that role. However, I understand that there is a shared responsibility here. Under your name humans found an excuse or, better, a way to exercise control over one another. If one 'owns' or 'manages' earth's water and your are thirsty, then your survival depends on that person. If you do not have money to pay for the water, then you are twice dependent on that person. I find quite hard to understand, though, why humans do charge one another for things that are provided to them freely by nature. Nature does not send a monthly bill to all of us for the oranges, lettuce, wood and all the resources she provides to us, why do we? With all the respect for whatever you have been and done for humanity, I feel that you are collapsing and we are in need of a new system. I feel humanity needs to create a system that is going to reflect its whole true nature. At the time of your creation, we felt you were the means to an end and that 'end'is most likely completed now. For a while now we have become the merciless ruler of this planet with precarious values who is depleting its resources with the YOLO (You Only Live Once) motto. Driven by greed and arrogance we have been deciding who is going to eat and live or not having to eat and die, who is going to have access to education, who is going to be healthy, who is going to have bigger houses, fine clothes, 'exotic' adventures. To a large extent we have been controlling or being controlled by one another on what we can and can not do in this life. You have helped us to see and experience what it means to become slaves of our own instincts. You have helped us to make reality many dark parts of our human nature such as selfishness, brutality, greed, injustice, pain, suffering etc. For all these we are grateful to you. Call me a 'dreamer' but I have a strong belief and faith that humanity will start gradually to turn into another system based on real values acknowledging that all humans are equal and deserve to have access to everything that will help them create meaningful and fulfilling lives. It does not make sense, dear monetary system, to continue with you as our main system. We are passing byers on this planet and the recent events showed us that values such as life itself, health, mental and emotional peace and happiness, appreciation of freedom and nature are much more valuable to us than money and guess what, they can be free! The main reason for people to group together and organise ourselves in societies is that we can help one another, take care and look after one another trusting that one's thriving is everybody's thriving and not at the expense of the others. Even if we do not consciously acknowledge it, I feel we are getting stronger and wiser through life's continuous lessons to choose a different way of living. Under the recent threat, the majority of us have felt grateful for everything we have. During lockdown, we appreciated our walks in nature, the freshness of the air, the cleanness of the atmosphere and the waters, the reappearance of animals near us, the relaxed pace of living without having to work and live in frenetic rhythms only to end up being in debt to our artificial bank accounts and our souls! Now that your system has shown us all its vulnerabilities and limitations, I do hope that humanity will integrate previous lessons and will accept the not so easy challenge to create a just, peaceful, full of gratitude, enjoyable and fulfilling world for everyone to live in. If it is not in your hands, neither in God's, maybe it is in our hands... With love, Panos
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Panos GoumalatsosCounsellor/Psychotherapist, Archives
March 2023
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