Check out two Oregon projects:

The Rogue Trade Exchange and the Southern Oregon Time Bank.

Currency creation is shrouded by mystique and power. It is a collective agreement, a belief of value. So why be victim to the this idea of money? Money, the medium for cooperation and creation, has been used in its current form to consolidate power. Positive interest stimulates the economy to grow, grow, grow. This programming has converted Earth into money.

Are you ready to step into your sovereign authority and declare another way? With another dream of our money perhaps more mutually beneficial relationships will be cultivated through trade of local goods and services. Perhaps in this new dream of money people are encouraged to replenish our natural wealth, the Earth we are part of. Imagine the possibility. Just imagine.

One of society’s most common misunderstandings about money is that it is an object, when it is actually an agreement of trust. According to Lewis Lapham, author of Money and Class in America, “Money ranks as one of the primary materials with which mankind builds the architecture of civilization.” Economic textbooks describe money according to its functions—a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a standard of valuation. Money itself is actually a symbol of exchange that carries value through agreement only. What would the numbers in our bank account be worth if no one would agree to accept them in exchange for goods or services?

In my view money is a social interface of provision, a tool for engaging with others to satisfy needs. As many people uncover their own behaviors and attitudes about money, they realize the way they relate with money is often the way they relate with most everything in life. Lyn Twist, in her book Soul of Money, writes, “Money is a current, a carrier, a conduit for our intentions.”

In dozens of communities across the United States, complementary currencies (CCs) have become powerful tools that generate resilience in local economies. CCs are created in a variety of forms including time hours, mutual credit systems, precious metals, and even seed or energy-backed coupons. Like national currency these new CCs are not mere coinage, they are a whole system of value transaction, exchange of credit, and agreement of mutual trust.

Complementary currencies exist parallel to the national currency, and, by design, fulfill a different role. CCs enable relationships and behavior to develop to match unmet needs with under-utilized resources, providing a way for people to engage in the local economy that is not limited by their access to dollars. Because diversity is a key element in resilient systems, which are able to adapt to change and reorganize wisely, these new exchange mechanisms reflect an evolving economic strategy of regions to encourage trade of local goods and services. New avenues of transaction open as latent human energy is accessed. Southern Oregon has a large elderly population and high unemployment rates, a CC would provide these populations with a means to plug into the local economy. Jeff Golden, local author and radio host, said recently, “Complementary currencies are at the heart of a localization movement.”

The Current System

Currency expert Margrit Kennedy writes, “Money can be made to serve rather than to rule, to be use- rather than profit-oriented—and to create abundance, stability, and sustainability … [Although] money is one of the most ingenious inventions of mankind …[it has] the potential to be the most destructive or most creative.”

The creation of money has more cause than justification, as demonstrated by the $700 billion bailout of the banking system by the US government in October 2008. Where does this money come from? Actually, money is created by the banking system itself. Every dime of national currency in circulation today is printed as a loan to the federal government. This federal debt is backed by the government’s capacity to tax citizens. Each social security number, and attached human’s future taxability, is collateral for the private bankers who create currency. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote, “The process by which money is created is so simple that the mind is repelled.” But these physical dollar bills are only a fraction of the picture. This national currency is then multiplied many times as loans deposited as numbers in electronic bank accounts. This second type of money is created through the magic of fractional-reserve banking, the system used to issue money through loans to individuals and businesses. Federal regulations allow banks to lend out approximately nine times the actual capital (think “currency”) on deposit at the banks. The banks’ multiplication of capital is considered to be bank “credit”— this “money” has never been issued as currency, and thus there will never be enough credit in the system to repay all of the debt. The system only thrives if the credit is re-churned through more loans and increasing debt and will collapse if too many banks demand repayment of debt. Not enough currency to repay all debts in the modern fractional reserve banking system requires perpetual growth and inevitable bankruptcies, concentrating wealth.

The fractional-reserve banking system goes one step further in creating imaginary currency—interest is charged on the loans. According to currency expert Bernard Lietaer (www.lietaer.com), there are three consequences to the charging of interest on money created through lending:

1) Systemic competition is encouraged among participants;

2) Endless economic growth is required for perpetuation of the system, despite falling standards of living;

3) Wealth is accumulated in the hands of a few.

Most of the assets that are called money are not actually physical bills, but bank accounts created through lending, with interest owed. Most national currencies are fiat, which comes from the Latin term “let it be done” and means “by decree.” The dollar’s usefulness results not from any intrinsic value or guarantee that it can be converted into gold or another currency, but comes from a government’s order (fiat) that it must be accepted as a means of payment. The US government relinquished its authority of currency creation in 1913 when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. The issuance of currency was transferred to the Federal Reserve Bank, a quasi-private entity owned by commercial banks.

As taxpayers we are responsible to repay the principal and interest that the US government owes on its massive debt—taxable labor and productive assets are collateral for these treasury bonds now held by governments, businesses and individuals. The top four holders are currently China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and oil exporting countries as a group (www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt). Many economists say the American government’s outstanding debt is reaching a point where a gigantic national default is likely. Systemic banking defaults have caused massive social and economic disruption in Mexico, Argentina, Russia, and South Asia in the last several decades. Implementing diverse trading systems can alleviate this shock.

National currencies and monetary systems sustain competition and perpetuate the diplomatic culture of international domination and economic oppression. Lietaer said, “Greed and fear of scarcity are, in fact, being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using.” Divide and conquer is the strategy of the ruling class. For the banksters to continue their game there must be competition to distract the masses. Fear, racism, and separation have driven much of humanity to search for happiness and meaning in a dollar. Through this misery of scarcity there shines a deep desire to unite and connect with each other in a meaningful way, and to harmonize human actions with the earth.

Monetary systems shape social behavior. The transformation being implemented in CCs is not about taking away from the haves to give to the have-nots, but rather giving everyone an equal opportunity to generate new wealth in a new monetary system.

Cooperation and Relationships

Natural ecosystems thrive because of diverse elements interacting cooperatively in a balanced, healthy competition. This harmony of forces generates integrity for the whole and supports the component integrity of individuals. When basic needs are met, there is cohesion and rest, and humans dance together in a nourishing rhythm of life, trading with each other and with the earth. Born from this beat is creative generosity.

Many intentional communities are choosing to engage in the creation and harmonious refinement of the systems that record the promises we keep. The Community Energy Bank (www.communityenergybank.org) was founded in 2007 by members of the Shambala-Shasta Community, a group of dozens of settlers based on 466 acres of land in Northern California. This model provides a fair and conscious means of exchange for those in the community. There are five kinds of deposits in the CEB: national currency (a temporary tool), time/work exchange, in-Kind trade (goods brought to the community, like recording studio equipment), co-creative inspiration (original ideas), and elementals (precious metals.) The project incorporates elemental coins made of seven precious metals with Hour/Our Cards that identify individuals and are exchangeable for skills and services.

Real value is not in currency itself, but in the relationship formed through exchange of currency. The word “community” comes from the Latin cum (which means “together, among each other”) and munus (which means “gift”). That dollar bill in your pocket is only worth what others are willing to trade—it is a score-keeping representation of exchangeable worth.

Money as debt has been used as a tool by banks to extract resources and energy, both from land and people. Catherine Austin Fitts (www.solari.com) describes this as a “tapeworm economy.” This evocative metaphor illustrates the parasitic relationships created by the dominant financial system in which desire to consume more is infused in Americans through advertising, much like a tapeworm which injects its host with a chemical to make the person crave sugars that it then feeds on. Modern society is saturated with marketing images that create an insatiable hunger for consumption. Humanity is awakening from the spell of a centralized currency system that perpetuates scarcity, competition and hyper-consumption.

Exchange creates relationship. In Applegate, Oregon Thalia Truesdell and Sioux Rogers created Women Helping Other Women (WHOW), a group which has truly enriched their lives since its inception over twelve years ago. The women share their tools and talent through a simple accounting ledger which records their hours contributed. At monthly potluck meetings, the twenty involved women plan the upcoming work parties. One credit is worth three hours, which is an ideal block of time for a focused work session. By showing up and giving generously, the women all benefit. In addition they learn skills like plastering and fencing from each other. This is a model they believe could be shared to empower other communities. Call Thalia at (541) 899-8741 if you are interested in starting your own group.

WHOW has also evolved into a giving culture. Teams of ladies have appeared to clean house both when Thalia returned from a year in Africa and when a member sick with Lupus was in need. The members also volunteer, doing litter patrol on a local stretch of highway, and creative trades like massages and car lending are encouraged. These activities are a lovely demonstration of how to cultivate prosperity, for, as Saint Francis of Assisi said, “It is through giving that we receive.” Gifting, an integral part of many native cultures including the Pacific Northwest potlatch, creates a shift in social behavior that naturally results in caring, sharing, and contributing to others in many meaningful ways. Real wealth is built through generous giving. Learn more about the Gift Economy at www.helpothers.org.

Intelligent Design and Trust

Financial permaculture (www.finalcialpermaculture.org) is an exciting and evolving field of interest. An economic system reflects patterns observed in a natural ecosystem, where communities of contributors take what they need and generate value for the entire network. Financial permaculture—a model that takes a whole ecosystem approach to economics—is guided by principles that can give a positive net return to investments, not only to individuals but also the entire system.

Entrepreneurship is especially strong in southern Oregon and many people here enrich the community with unique skills and crafts, although scarce national currency often limits the possible trades. The velocity of money, or speed at which it is exchanged in a given period of time, is the primary indicator of the health of the local currency system. By watching this flow and ensuring that there is a diversity of goods and services exchanged, the managers can keep the system stable and vital. Lietaer writes, “Local currency creates work, and I make a distinction between work and jobs. A job is what you do for a living; work is what you do because you like to do it. I expect jobs to increasingly become obsolete, but there is still an almost infinite amount of fascinating work to be done.”

Mapping the species and their behaviors in an economic ecosystem is an important part of the design process. By encouraging local sourcing of business needs, local supply and distribution channels that reduce dependence on imports into a region can be secured, and the exchange system becomes a self-reflective mechanism for values. Author and currency designer Tom Greco explains “When properly designed and managed, [complementary currencies] can provide a strong component in building economic equity and participatory democracy.”

The sacred responsibility of stewarding the earth through human relationships has been discouraged by the nature of modern currency design. Feelings of betrayal, anger, and grieving are a result of the current financial manipulation. Transparency cultivates trust, and in many online CC systems reputation is built through reviews and recommendations (like eBay.) Each “bank” account is on display, but instead of being respected for having large amounts of credits stored, merit is based on the number of transactions each business or individual makes and the quality of goods and services that are supplied. This incorporates qualitative measurement into transactional decisions, instead of relying upon the stark quantitative analysis of conventional currency based upon the false assumption that more is better.

In essence, a free-market economy will facilitate exchange at a fair price based on the opposing forces of supply and demand. The indigenous market culture develops relationships through negotiation of prices. This wisdom heals the sterile consumption loop of price tags and self-check outs as the fabric of community is rebuilt through meaningful exchange using CCs.

Currency is an agreement of trust that dictates many aspects of social relationships. If a bioregion were a body, in which different individuals and groups are fulfilling functions of certain organs, than money would be the central nervous system relaying information through the entire body. Internationally, thousands of CC projects are altering the flow of life for many communities. Scale is an interesting factor when designing and implementing a currency system. Here are descriptions of three emerging exchange projects, each at a different scale:

Our NexChange System (www.OurNexChange.com) is a new community currency model which Sharon Miranda, founder of the WebSpirit Community in Ashland, Oregon, has developed with the input of many others. This flexible, elegant, and powerful bioregional exchange platform is an online system that will facilitate and track trading, volunteerism and community service. The model establishes a “community company” that encourages interactive integrity through managing daily operations while incorporating input and guidance from the software developers, economic and social experts, and the traders themselves. Benefits to the businesses include increased marketing through a directory, WebBooths, and customer loyalty. This project will be offered to the public this winter. To find out more contact orient@ournexchange.com.

The Market Bucks program from Blue Fox Farms (www.bluefoxorganics.com) in Applegate, Oregon was imple-mented last year in response to input from members of its community supported agriculture program. Farmer Chris Jagger created a way that allows the 30 families receiving shares to have more flexibility. Instead of needing to pick up their weekly pre-sorted boxes, members were able to instead trade their US dollars for Market Bucks, redeemable at the Blue Fox Farms Grower’s Market stand. Participants are rewarded with a discount (100 Market Bucks cost $90.) Because of this system, the farm has more cash throughout the winter to pay for seeds and farm operation, and the members can buy what they want when they want it.

Currency creation is shrouded by mystique and power. Using CCs, many pockets of humanity are discovering a river of treasure that flows when exchange is independent of national currency. Mutually beneficial relationships are cultivated through trade of local goods and services, while equitable designs of the governance, funding and structure of currency system are emerging.

In this time of global financial transformation, the concept of money is evolving. This illusive shadow of social interface is being exposed, and the old agreements and structures that do not serve the collective are changing. Simultaneously, complementary currency projects are emerging as a powerful tool to develop community resilience.

I recently watched Cracking the Mayan Code, a documentary which highlights language as a key component of culture and describes how Spanish conquistadors forbade the use of the Mayan language and destroyed their written texts. Conquerors throughout the ages have systematically repressed native languages and imposed their own. Language has great power because it expresses and creates a shared story. Linguistic colonialism demands that natives speak the language of the conqueror. A command-and-control hierarchical currency model similarly demands the exclusive use of the political power’s system of trading. If currency is a linguistic phenomenon, then how can we, the people, claim more power in how we communicate value?

Rosenblith uses the lens of living systems to analyze economic exchange, using a newly coined term “symbionomics,” whose Greek roots are symbio (living together) and nomics (management or naming). The foundation of symbionomics is the assumption that naming and marking flows creates feedback loops. The Symbionomics Institute website (www.symbionomics.com) explains: “One lesson we have learned from the industrial age is that an economy is not separate from the world around it. ‘Economy’ comes from Greek oikos (house) and nomos (managing) and conveys an image that a house can be managed separately from its community and surroundings. That hidden belief of separation has allowed people to maintain an illusion that economies are independent from each other, from their environment and from the welfare of the people whose activities they’re built from … we are exploring and creating integrated models for understanding the interconnected systems of commerce, culture and nature. One thing we have discovered is that much of the traditional ‘wisdom’ about economics is too mired in industrial era assumptions to illuminate living systems in the information age.”

A currency is a tool used to mark flows in collectively agreed upon ways. The design of each currency affects the flows and behavior in the society. We pondered what the symbolic DNA is that will encode the emergence of new social organisms. The modern “economic crisis” is evident in a breakdown of social systems and in a collective confusion about how to define and exchange value. It seems that to create an evolution of our social organism, coherence depends upon shared language.

What currency protocol could enable innovations not yet dreamed, like the advent of the printing press and the world wide web, which catalyzed unimagined evolution in our society? Could there be a “metacurrency” that could implement a common language between currencies? This is a new field of inquiry emerging from an international group called the Metacurrency Project (www.new currencyfrontiers.com and www.metacurrency.org).

Crystal Arnold: What is your definition of money and currency, and how do you distinguish between the two?

Alan Rosenblith: Usually, the words currency and money are used interchangeably, but within the Metacurrency Project community we draw a distinction. Currency is any tool that allows you to shape, enable or interact with a flow. Imagine the animal tracks in the snow that tell a story of a flow of activity. Similarly, we use currency to track flows amongst each other. That includes money—every time a financial transaction occurs it tracks a flow of goods or services. But currency also includes other things that mark flows in the social sphere, like drivers’ licenses, college diplomas, grades, and USDA-certified organic stamps. These tools are used to mark particular flows of a current. eBay’s reputation system is another example—in addition to a monetary transaction, one can also rate the experience one had with the buyer or seller, and that creates a record that creates trust among the members. Your rating has tremendous value. We don’t normally conceptualize currency in this expanded sense. So money is a subset of currency that is specifically designed for reciprocal exchange.

Currencies are symbol sets, and can be defined as a linguistic phenomenon. A lot of people mistakenly think money is some thing of value. Currencies are symbolic, and therefore in the domain of language. That’s a different frame than conventional economics uses. The question becomes, “How do we use these symbol sets as we’re marking different flows and creating feedback?” You measure what you treasure, and you treasure what you measure. What you measure and mark deeply affects societal behavior. Today the main focus is on marking monetary exchanges, quid pro quo, something for something. Other types of economic interactions and arrangements are invisible, so that feedback process doesn’t happen as readily. That whole line of inquiry constitutes a whole unique domain.

To understand the Metacurrency Project, one needs to think in new ways. How is it different from other systems, most of which are proprietary, such as commercial barter or local exchange systems?

We are creating a new protocol—although software will implement this protocol, it is more than this. It’s like the level of the web, where specific websites use protocols, http and html, to put themselves on the web. This is how to distinguish it from other software that tracks exchanges, records loyalty or builds reputation. Metacurrency is developing a common language between currencies so they can communicate and interlink in various ways. The web is hyperlinked—any document in the web can refer to another—similarly, currencies could reference and communicate with others. Nobody owns English, it’s in a higher domain, the commons. If someone could own English, that would be a big problem, severely hampering communication. Similarly with protocols, this has to be in the commons. This does not detract from or compete with existing currency projects, this is on another level.

It can be hard to understand how this is non-enclosable and open-source, because in our hierarchical, pyramidal social structures we associate trust with authorities. Our financial system is obscure and secretive—the Federal Reserve Bank is not fully transparent to the public, yet people continue to believe that protection and trust are ensured by authoritarian control. How can open-source models have integrity through self-regulation?

Let us explore fractal sovereignty. Sovereignty means the ability to self-determine, and fractal means self-same on every level. Think about political struggles, which are couched between putting the emphasis of sovereignty on the individual versus the group. At one extreme would be the Ayn Rand libertarians with full sovereignty on the individual; the other end would be communism and fascism, and in these ideologies the individual is subsumed by the state. There has been a polarization of ideologies, but can we move beyond either-or thinking to transcend and include? Both poles are equally valid. The way we conceptualize that is through fractal sovereignty—fractal is self-same on every level. So fractal sovereignty is like an open space conference, where groups are sovereign to make the rules appropriate for the group, but individuals are sovereign to self-place, and information and data is completely portable. This reasoning leads to an un-enclosable design—if any part can be enclosed, it is no longer self-same on every level.

Can you explain how this relates to the gift economy? You mentioned this sphere of flows is largely invisible and not tracked, and yet gifting has provided the social glue for many tribal cultures.

Even within the gift economy, you have many symbolic tokens that show status. Imagine a tribe of hunters: when someone takes down a woolly mammoth, they might get a symbolic talisman bestowed upon them by the tribal chief. In the tribal setting, this is more efficient than the market economy as long as it’s small scale. The big question with the gift economies is how do they scale? The advent of writing helped scale society, because it enabled non-proximate and non-temporally bound relationships. It created a vast new configuration of relationships. Since we’re defining currency as a linguistic phenomenon, these same patterns apply. Imagine parents trying to sell breakfast to their kids—even with the best interest-free LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) or time-dollar system, the gift economy is clearly more efficient here.

In other circumstances, we naturally participate in and create symbol systems that allow us to coordinate activities. To build personal relationships, quid pro quo agreements initially are the foundation. There is attention to maintaining relative balance. These agreements are like a pioneer species. So how do you create the next succession? To do that, communications technology is important. Like the printing press, one can talk about how everyone should be literate, but the printing press was the technological innovation that created that social possibility. Similarly, a technological innovation around currency could create new wealth literacy, an expanded capacity to express wealth to one another in a more holistic way.

A multifaceted understanding of wealth is more relational and based more on our networks than on physical, material goods alone, but some people argue these tools make us too technology dependent. Yet the true value is in the relationships created. People become enamored with money as well as the currency systems and the technology, but by using an exchange system you can create quality relationships with people locally and globally. Through connection we develop a reputation and rapport, and this is value created beyond the technology itself. What does this mean for communities and organizations looking for solutions that complement the national currencies? How will we continue to facilitate trade and build resilience and stability in our own communities?

Looking through the lens of living systems, any group of people behaving in a coherent fashion constitutes a social organism. In the case of ant colonies or beehives, their intelligence is far greater than the individual insects. So when social groups are seen as distinct species, we find that today many social organisms are not operating beyond the limbic brain and are engaged in territorialism, and battle over resources. While individual humans may be very smart, collectively the organisms aren’t behaving very intelligently. Most of these social organisms are hierarchical, operating with “pyramidal intelligence.” These types of organizations are limited, because they don’t have the capacity to become very complex. At each level of command and control, there is a simplification of what’s happening at the lower level. You don’t get as rich a complexity as you would in a networked organization.

Imagine if a body stopped being able to metabolize sugar, digest food or breathe, the organism would no longer be functional if these flows were paralyzed. Looking at social organisms the same way, currency tools can generate the flows that create healthy social organisms. How can currencies catalyze those new species of social organisms? Currencies help constitute these organisms, much like DNA. Not in the chemical or biological sense, but in the symbolic sense. These abstract symbols are what constitute a unique organism. In your own community, this lens is valuable. The model is only as good as what it allows you to declare into existence.

Through this living systems lens there is currently a clear breakdown happening in the body of humanity. Consider the many ways that we are dysfunctional—in living together, sharing resources, meeting individual and community needs—you are proposing an evolution in our species, a radically different language and way to relate to one another.

What archaic architectures are built into the systems we have depended on? The platform of pyramidal intelligence is collapsing, because there are more efficient systems coming into being. For example mass media is built on centralized control and filtering—the New York Times’ motto is “all the news that’s fit to print,” which means a lot is filtered out. This was a matter of practicality; it was expensive to print and distribute the newspaper, which required concentrations of power and wealth. Today anybody can reach millions of people by starting a blog. The same power of the printing press for the New York Times is now in everyone’s hands. Also, third-party record keepers are based on centralized architecture. What if a currency didn’t need some centralized organization to manage it? The architecture of the third-party record keeper records all of your financial transactions. What if data were secure in and of itself, and you no longer needed a central depository? The system would become more efficient and resilient. This is the kind of social architecture and thinking we need to build sustainable and resilient communities.

Today’s secretive and manipulative financial system—including centralized banking, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the way fiat currency is created—has generated much fear and anxiety because we are dependent on this third-party record keeper and its pyramidal structure for our very means of survival. For the majority of humanity, using national currency is now the primary way of meeting needs through exchanging goods and services. There is so much volatility in the markets, with boom and bust cycles that I believe are engineered to consolidate power and financial wealth. We are being victimized as long as we are complicit in this dominant system, giving up our power to this structure which is not calling forth the qualities you speak of: resilience, a diversity of choices in our relationships, and in how we interact and exchange. Can you summarize the type of qualities this structure and language foster, and does this relate to the transformation of our social organisms?

We are transforming out of the Industrial Age economy. A lot of businesses with Industrial Age models are severely challenged, like newspaper and music industries. Two key points are: 1) seeing currency as more than just money gives us a wide variety of tools for creating the kinds of healthy flows that we want to be having in our communities; and 2) sovereignty is important on all levels, not just individual and group levels, but the architecture of our systems themselves should allow fractal sovereignty, on all levels.

Entering into a declarative space: What social oganisms do we want to give birth to? In the Cambrian Age, there was an explosion of new species. I encourage people to find the possibility for this in our own creativity. Not all of the species will work—this is just nature. Tapping into this perspective gives me immense joy and empowerment, the ability to step into the new world we want to create together.

Crystal Arnold earned a BS in international economics from Southern Oregon University and is creator of Money Metamorphosis, offering workshops, telecourses, and financial coaching for individuals and couples (she is offering a free coaching session for ST readers). She is an advisor to the Rogue Valley Resiliency Fund, which utilizes local investments to create a resilient local economy. Contact her at crystalconsults@gmail.com or (541) 227-3577, and follow her blog at http://moneymetamorphosis.us

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“Since 2000, North Dakota’s GNP has grown 56 percent, personal income has grown 43 percent and wages have grown 34 percent. The state not only has no funding problems, but in 2009 it had a budget surplus of $1.3 billion, the largest it ever had.”

There are several emerging models of interest in the banking sector, the Unified Field Bank and the Common Good Bank. Transparency and accountability are essential to a sustainable financial industry with integrity. So let’s use common sense to evolve this industry to serve the people and encourage systemic prosperity, as the Bank of North Dakota has done.

Our attention is a precious resource. We are bombarded with advertising images and messages, and sensationalized fear-mongering on the news. No wonder so many are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and scattered these days. It is time to reclaim our inherent powers. Look at Lynne McTaggart’s Intention Experiment and how we are coming together in unprecedented ways through the Internet to focus our collective intention for healing and transformation. As Margaret Meade said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Sharing the Field of Plenty

By Crystal Arnold

Wealth is defined by the context of a culture. The indigenous Inuit believe that wealth is a deep understanding of the natural world. The collective meaning of value, wealth, and money are transformed by the experiences of each generation. Imagine for a moment (really do) the trajectory of history and look at how the economy of a place reflects the changing beliefs of that society over time, in people’s relationships both to one another and to the Earth. My study of economics has been guided by quantifying the flows of energies within a social-ecosystem. Essentially, measuring the rate and direction of these flows reveals important values that serve as forces for the function of society. Primarily this has been measured through money exchanged, but many economists are looking at other quality-of-life indicators that paint a more holistic picture.

Do you consider yourself wealthy? Do any judgments arise as you ponder that question? “Wealth” comes from the Old English words weal (well-being) and th (condition), meaning “the condition of well-being.” A holistic sense of wealth includes the quality of loving relationships, health, an ability to tap into passion, and the skills and gifts we embody. Many societies across history have agreed to a survival construct that wealth is achieved by accumulating scarce assets garnered through competition. In the last century, an incredible boom of material creation was afforded by the discovery and implementation of petroleum. In this first decade of a new century, attention has been focused on accumulating debt-based money and growing the monetary measurement of the GNP (gross national product), a limited metric (see sidebar.) This concentration upon debt-based money and production as measurements of value and progress has come at some cost to our social networks and local communities. For when individuals participate in the global marketplace using anonymous currencies, people become primarily workers, replaceable commodities with roles to fill in exchange for money. In another story of wealth, the people instead are an integral part of an intimate web of community that sustains all members and stewards natural resources for the generations to come.

Yet wealth in the modern sense is based on the discrete and separate self that accumulates goods, driven by an underlying obsession with “the future” and a deep fear of separateness. In other words, people believe their wealth creates security. Their measured amount of “assets” is protection, a barrier from the outside world. Within the boundaries of contract law, an individual builds “a secure future” with private ownership. Author Lynne Twist explains, “The myth of ‘not enough’ gives us unfortunate permission to leave people out.” How does each generation choose to allocate and direct their assets to build wealth? What is the cultural story and need influencing this behavior? Within this cultural belief of scarcity “It’s our job to accumulate more than we could possibly use or need to distance ourselves from ever being one of those poor people who gets left out” Twist says. So what is the baby-boomer generation now facing as the story of wealth changes?

At the October 2009 Economics of Peace Conference, organized by the RSF Social Fund (inspired by Rudolf Steiner) and the Praxis Peace Institute, nearly 300 people gathered for one week in Sonoma, California. People converged from diverse backgrounds: social justice, community organizing, complementary currency, microlending, social media, and information technology. Speakers shared insights on salmon economics, the predator state, slow money, sacred economics, worker-owned cooperatives, and time banks. Innovative ideas are arising at the edges of mainstream culture; conversations about the quality of community investment, exchange, and ownership were dynamic. From the mythological to the practical, the conceptual to the actual, people are engaging in conscious co-creation of a more just economy.

Sacred geometry is the study of patterns of nature in physical form. What if this concept was applied to our understanding of human systems—like the economy? The fundamental design patterns of the natural world are expressed in social systems. I find metaphor useful when discussing the economy, so here it is…the need to move from a pyramid of wealth to a tipi of wealth.

The pyramid is a significant symbol, from ancient temples to the pyramid of the all-seeing eye on the back of the dollar bill. It is connected with power, control, and secrecy. Look at the pyramid schemes of the financial markets, the greed and domination allowed at the expense of the many on the bottom. A pyramid is designed to be ironic, both impenetrable and inescapable. A pyramid shape is formed if we map out the derivatives on one mortgage, or the debt created by your deposit into a fractional-reserve banking system. Let us explore wealth as not a pyramid but as a Native American tipi.

In this conical shape, the circular base is the mythological foundation, the story of humanity, who we are, what our purpose is, the archetypal underpinnings of our existence. The tipi has many poles that spiral and cross and are interdependently connected. It is made of local resources and designed to be adaptable, transportable, and a comfortable interface with the natural world. Of the four load-bearing poles, two opposing pairs are in perfect balance. In this metaphor of wealth, each pair of poles can be considered yin and yang in nature. One set represents exchange systems and the other sources of value. Currency expert Bernard Lietaer says that yang currencies “promote competition among the participants and that they are created through patriarchal values and society.” All of our current national monies are yang. Yin currency “promotes cooporation among participants, tends to occur in more ‘egalitarian’ gift societies and is generated out of community needs and situations.” Examples of yin currencies would be complementary currencies and local exchange systems.

The other set of poles represent sources of value, the masculine spark of human ingenuity and technology and the feminine Earth of physical and material resources. Founder of Acres magazine, Charles Walters, speaks of environment as a cornucopia of ever-producing wealth. From his agricultural-economist perspective, he acknowledged that society has failed to respect this primary source of value, the living planet of which we are a part. Carry the metaphor one step further; imagine the fire of the tipi is the fire of creativity and passion. What would the skin covering the structure be? Perhaps a tapestry of relationship, woven by connection, each generation building on top of the last? This includes information, the internet, the social network of relationships that invite each individual to more fully express their true potential and share that value with their communities. These mutually beneficial relationships sustain and protect the individual. As opposed to the very solid stone pyramid, the skin of the tipi defines open space within. This invisible field is alive with potential, as quantum scientists are beginning to understand. As Yochai Benkler says when speaking of the information age, “Social production of goods and service, both public and private, is ubiquitous…. It is the dark matter of our economic production universe.”

This conical form spirals from the base of mythology. Jean Houston says, “Money is directly connected to our survival and nurture. It’s a manifestation of the Great Mother, and at its archetypal level money is related to abundance, generosity, and the sheer prodigality of life itself. It is the terrible obsessions and collective neurosis with regard to money that create poverty and deprivation.” Money is an information system, and its design influences our behavior. Lietaer says, “Money is a projection of a subconscious of each society.” So will we choose to re-mythologize money into something that supports instead of distorts?

Clearly another story is emerging. Author Charles Eisenstein describes how the old story has brought humanity to the pinnacle of separation and how culminating crises are catalyzing change. He is sharing with the world a more beautiful story. This sacred economy of the gift springs from gratitude, compassion, truth, and quality attention. He speaks of networks of reciprocity where we are not separate beings having a relationship, instead we are a nexus of relationship. Many indigenous cultures believed wealth was being at the center of a flow of giving and receiving, in intimate connection with the Earth and a tribe.

The World Wide Web is part of the transformational story, as networks are becoming a primary source of value creation in the information age. This platform for sharing in abundance is radically different from the value created in the industrial age, which arose from an intense materialization fueled by petroleum and championed by the United States. The consumption of much natural capital in this period is directly connected with the story of the economy, money, and the Earth. Benkler speaks about the information age ushering in an economy of sharing and “social production.” He says, “The networked information economy [is based on] decentralized individual action—specifically, new and important cooperative and coordinate action carried out through radically distributed, nonmarket mechanisms that do not depend on proprietary strategies.” Systems like “time banks” encourage exchange within the care economy, with many unmet needs in our aging population, this is becoming increasingly important. By connecting through the web, yin behaviors are activated, such as collaboration and sharing through networks of relationship and information.

So what is the root of value? It comes from the Latin valorum meaning, “to be worthy.” Author Mark Anielski notes that “often we associate value only with monetary expressions (prices, costs, returns on investment), but real value, valorum, is found in the things that make life worthwhile: genuine wealth.” The dominant economic system encourages and values competition and the conversion of nature into cash. The design of compound interest drives relentless consumption and discounts the future. In modern economics, value is measured through currency, as determined by supply and demand in a scarce system. Why is the supply of diamonds kept artificially scarce? This keeps the price high and rewards corporations with increased profits. Additionally, there is never enough currency in circulation to repay all debts to the banks, plus interest, and therefore in its modern design currency is inherently scarce. Thus the foundation of the modern monetary and economic system is scarcity.

The emerging generation is adept at utilizing interconnected webs of technology that include social media and open source methods to co-create systems of collective intelligence. Collective intelligence promises to stimulate a transition into a wealthy culture that is sharing the field of plenty. Alan Rosenblith is a thought leader in the emerging generation. He directed and produced the film The Money Fix. He is involved in the Metacurrency Project and says, “We are creating an integrative participatory approach to collectively design the measure of flows. With open currency we can determine our own measure of value.” In projects like this, a platform is built that enables players to prosper.

Another example of this trend can be found in the Evolver social network (co-created by author Daniel Pinchbeck, which is bringing people together using online-communication tools and live monthly local meetings around the country.)

Evolver is a new social network for conscious collaboration. It provides a platform for individuals, communities, and organizations to discover and share the new tools, initiatives, and ideas that will improve our lives and change the world…. We see the creative chaos of this time as a great gift and opportunity to rethink, reconnect, and reinvent. Evolvers appreciate pristine mountains, open source economics, and the precocious laughter of small children. Evolvers belong to the regenerative culture of the future, being born here and now.

Virtual tools can also be used to cultivate healthy local food supply chains. Because at the heart of our food production are relationships, direct, real, intimate relationships between producers and consumers. One organization fostering this is FarmsReach (9), founded by a team of technology, agriculture, and sustainability professionals in San Francisco and focused on putting our country’s farmers on the web. Using FarmsReach, buyers can source local, sustainable food. Producers can show what is available and coordinate deliveries and orders.

Judy Wicks, co-founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) spoke at the conference. She elucidates that it is intimate connections around food and the land that binds a community. Her restaurant and community reinvestment fund have been “sharing collective joy for a new way of living.” Food and money are intimately connected, and they are both the focus of a growing movement of decentralization as smaller bioregions begin to introspect more to meet local needs. An Eskimo family Judy lived with believed that “it is belonging, not belongings, that creates wealth.” Indeed, in the emerging story of wealth, relating gains precedence over acquiring. Perhaps sharing the field of plenty as we acknowledge our interdependence will be the next evolution in the story of wealth.

At the recent Economics of Peace Conference, organized by the RSF Social Fund (inspired by Rudolf Steiner) and Praxis Peace Institute, 300 people gathered for one week in Sonoma, California. People from diverse backgrounds, social justice, community organizing, complementary currency, microlending, social media and the tech world converged. Speakers shared about salmon economics, the predator state, Slow Money, Sacred Economics, worker-owned cooperatives and time banking. Innovative ideas are arising at the edges of the mainstream, from the mythological to the practical, from the conceptual to the actual, new ways of engaging together are sprouting.

Read the full interview here.