Year 2219
Article by Selomon
Photo from Science.org
Author’s Note: This is a fictional piece written as a journal entry. It’s my idea for what the future could be. I often think about if I had a child what would the world be like when they are my age? My hope is that the world wakes up and changes course to a sustainable way of living. It really is up to each and every one of us to create the world we want to live in. How do we do that?
One thing I’ve learned about reality, is that it is created by our thoughts, feelings and actions. So if we want to live in a better world with sustainable technologies, we should shift our thoughts, feelings and actions to match that. With that in mind, I wrote a short story about what I would like the world to be like when I speak with my grandkids.
Let me know what you think in the comments below and also think about what kind of world would you like to live in. Think about that while you immerse yourself into my story.
There was once a time when people would say that money was the root of all evil. It was a time of great sorrow. There was famine. There was poverty. The world was split.
I remember hearing stories about a world where money ruled everything. People would lie, cheat, steal and even kill for small, green pieces of paper. To my generation this seems like just a sad fairy tale. It doesn’t make sense that anyone would place such high value on such weak, arbitrary material.
My Grandfather once showed me a paper, “Dollar”, as he called it. I almost cried laughing at the thought of these papers being used to gain things that grow around us like food. I just got back from picking apples, pears, peaches and blackberries in the yard. I can’t even imagine the idea that people went hungry and starved. I would often ask my grandfather, “People actually used tiny pieces of paper to trade for food and land?” It just seems so very strange.
My grandfather wasn’t alive during what he calls the Silly-Monetary-System Era, or SMS. His great-grandfather was around for the end of it. He always told stories about how my great-great grandfather traveled around the country without having any green paper. Apparently this was not an easy task, nor a popular one. I love being able to travel as freely as we do now.
My family has passed down the stories of the old system each generation. My grandfather says we do this so that we may appreciate the progress our ancestors have made. He also said, “We can’t make the same mistakes over and over again. Keep the lessons of our past in our hearts.”
“I don’t believe we are ignorant enough to use paper and invisible, illusionary debt as a way to live Pop,” I once replied.
“There was a time before paper money. People would trade fruit for eggs, chickens for pigs and labor for a place to sleep. The dollar wasn’t formed until 1862 and even then, it was backed by real gold. There was an organization called The Federal Reserve that slowly changed the dollar from a gold note, to a debt note,” Grandfather said.
“What is the Federal Reserve? What is… debt?”
“The Federal Reserve, my grandson, was a group of highly influential bankers who convinced the government to put them in charge of the currency system, the trade system. Debt was their creation. They somehow convinced all of the United States to live by debt. The people would get a house using debt and usually the would die before paying off the debt. “
“But Pop, that seems so silly. Why would people want to be in debt for? Why didn’t anyone put a stop to the Federal Reserve? It’s so obvious that they weren’t doing anything good!”
“You would have to be there to understand. They were masterminds of trickery.”
“I still don’t understand. I don’t think I ever will, Pop.”
“Thankfully you won’t have to,” was Grandfather’s reply.
I suppose paper money played a big role in not only dividing our country, but keeping our technological advancement at a snail’s pace. Without those pieces of paper and debt holding the world back, we have not only explored most of the galaxy with manned missions, but we have also found other planets with other advanced civilizations. They are often more advanced than us and have shared a lot with us on Earth.
I heard during the SMS era they had the technology to power their vehicles and cities without using “oil”. Green paper caused the people to keep using oil instead of more clean and sustainable energies. This I’ll never understand. Why would anyone want to damage our Mother Earth just for the sake of having green papers?
It’s been over a century since the SMS era. Earth is now just Earth. Not United States vs China vs Russia vs all the other countries. There are no borders, no countries, no states. We are collectively called, Earthlings. My grandfather told me about people once being called, “Americans” or “Asians” based on where they were on the planet. That’s interesting.
If history and my grandfather’s stories have taught me anything, it’s that our ancestors must have been living under a rock.
Selomon, born Christopher Closson, has been consciously working with meditation and sound since 2011. His meditation videos on YouTube have reached hundreds of thousands of people. He enjoys traveling the country hosting classes and workshops on topics like sound medicine and astral projection.