In his book “Species”, Noah Harari posits that humans create fictional realities that do not exist in nature such as corporations, nation states, legal systems and money. And money is by far the most widely accepted of these fictions. Because we have all accepted the story that the paper bills we exchange can be traded for actual tangible materials; the system works all over the entire planet. This ability is what sets humans apart and why we are the most successful animal on Earth. By creating stories, we can cooperate flexibly in large numbers.
These stories, although fictional, now could change the objective realities of this planet, including its environment. If humans would like the opportunity to continue to rule the world, it may be time to create new stories.
The human capacity for writing stories is part of what drives us to seek to improve and change our inventions. Many evolutionists now hypothesize that early organisms developed the ability to think as soon as primordial brains started to make plans to find food and conversely not become something else’s food. And what is a plan but a story about a possible future. But sometimes in seeking to make things better we confuse more with better. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the drive to maximize profits.
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” – Will Rogers.
Many of the sayings around money emphasize that money should serve to achieve goals rather than dominate life. Today, as wealth disparity continues to widen, too many humans are more interested in writing tragic stories for themselves rather than making a fantastic fable that includes even the most unfortunate among us.
In “More, Everything, Forever”, Adam Becker describes the reasons why no one needs to own more than 300 million dollars. No individual can effectively use or deploy such massive sums of money in a single lifetime. These vast amounts of money act as a threat to democracy, giving a tiny handful of people outsized control over society. Instead of focusing on objective realities, it can lead individuals to write implausible and dangerous stories about futuristic fantasies, like colonizing Mars, or digital immortality.
Fortunately, there is a place where we are trying to write a more positive story for all humans regardless of status or position. Where human stories reside not only in the books on the shelves but more importantly in the connections and relationships that are written every day. A place where you can create a new story for yourself and your community. A place where the emphasis is on people over profit.
Ignacio Community Library is a center that brings people and ideas together for learning and personal growth. Our mission is to create a space that can help you write the optimal story of your life. There has never been a better time to take advantage of all the library has to offer.