It’s free – claiming our value
Asking for our whole value to be honoured
It is free.
Free webinar. Free social media. Free course.
It’s Free!
When we believe something is free, we have truly debased its value.
You offer a free webinar. Is your time not valuable? Are your skills worth something? How does free enable recognition of the value provided?
Free always has a price. Yet we live in a world that refuses to consider the whole price of almost anything.
The whole price = cost of Mother Nature to produce the raw materials + cost to find, extract, refine, design, market, sell + post-use cost as either pollution, waste, or recycling and upcycling.
If we did consider the whole price of everything most businesses would be in negative profit = bankrupt.
In simple terms, we need to admit the delusion we have been living under, acknowledging that the price of our neglectful accounting will be paid – if we have not already begun to pay for it through the ever-increasing disasters of floods, fires and famine.
The etymological root of the word free is to love. And to not be in bondage. To be clear of obstruction.
I have long considered what it is to offer something at no financial fee. However, I am very deliberate in my choice of words. I refuse to provide things for free, as this is a comment on how I do or do not hold and respect value.
When I use the word free – free offer, free webinar – which I choose not to, I am implying that this thing I am offering has no financial value. Given that our world lives in a monoculture of money as the arbiter of value stating this is free negates its value on our current human metric.
Yet it does have value. It has financial value, skills and knowledge value, time and flow value, often technological value, and perhaps a value to my well-being and yours.
I gave away so much of my value over my life because I did not claim my value as worthy, or I was afraid to ask for a financial fee that honoured this worth – hard to do when you discount your worth. In truth, I wanted to be seen as generous, to be liked, to not be one of those predatory capitalists, to be decent and kind.
We must claim our value, not in a way that is high on arrogance and superiority, but rather as a simple statement of truth, or else we will not be able to offer our value with self-certainty and equitable regard.
Generosity is one thing. Exploitation is another. Giving and giving from empty is just another version of exploitation. We exploit ourselves.
Claiming and naming our value can be very hard for so many. A world of decent humans does not big-note themselves. Big noting is for the crooks and spell casters, those addicted to fame and celebrity.
Once we have named and claimed our value, now we must ask for it to be recognised as an exchange of something. That something does not have to be money. But reciprocity is a Law of Universe. Unity is plural, at minimum two. (R. Buckminster Fuller) Give – Receive. Inhale – Exhale. Energy in – Energy out.
The takers and accumulators are the greedy hyenas from the movie Lion King who eat everything and then starve. Taking endlessly is a zero-sum game: short-term hit, long-term pain.
Free sunlight disrespects the gift of the Sun. It is not about the commodification of the sunlight. Our future as humanity could well have sunlight as energy that is available equally to all humans for a very low or zero monetary price. This act alone would reduce population growth, give people universal access to the basics of our modern life, and unleash creativity now caught in the trap of slave labour to keep the wheels on the capitalist bus going around.
If someone comes to me to take the Syntropic Enterprise Masterclass and they do not have the financial means to pay the fee, I allow them to nominate what they have to bring. At the least, respect for my time and energy, their fellow students, and the process itself. Many people bring so much more. They have written papers, designed graphics and contributed to the community.
I write Sunday Syntropy and gift it at no monetary fee for as long as that aligns with the Pattern Integrity of Syntropic World. It takes about 8 hours to write, edit and record. I do this for several reasons.
I like to write. I have written Beauty of Beginnings every day, 365 days of the year, for five years. Writing synthesises my thinking.
I want to give you, the reader, a safe place to get to know me, my thinking and the models and tools behind Syntropic World. Is Syntropic World a place you could call home, a place you could belong? Are there tools in Syntropic World for you to learn and apply? Do the weekly articles enrich and inspire you to do something that adds to your work and life and our planet?
It is my love letter to you, people I have not yet met, people likely to be up to great mischief for a world with a future for Earth and all her creatures.
I want you to know I am real. I make big and small mistakes. I am far from perfect. But I am learning every single day. I am approachable. I refuse platforms and pedestals.
I write them to invite you to come inside Syntropic World if it calls to you. To take a workshop. To join a public call.
Some people love being in the field of support of Syntropic World. They are happy to support my work through referrals, cheering from the sidelines and making financial contributions, even of the smallest amount. This matters.
Sunday Syntropy is not free. It takes your time and attention to read it. I respect your time and attention and write something worthy of being read. If the worth is not there for you, I suggest you spend your precious time with a loved one or by being in Nature.
If we want a world that does not exploit, extract or colonise anyone or anything, we must end our cavalier attitude to the word FREE.
We must do the hard work of honouring the multiple dimensions of our value, moving through the discomfort of naming it. This, by the way, is what we do in the Synergistic Accounting workshop, so do consider joining us for this starting this week.
We must also grow our ability to ask for our value to be honoured and dignified. To stand in our value and ask to be seen for it entirely. (Again, this is what we do in the Synergistic Accounting Workshop)
When a Syntropic Enterprise is created, it accounts for the whole value of everything. Let us not forget Mother Nature’s contribution. Let us honour our Earth and her creatures by ensuring their contribution, which we have taken carelessly, is recognised on our balance sheet.
Zero exploitation requires a different way of living, being and designing human coordination. We think and act differently about our relationship to value, money and free.
Until the word Free is not a metaphor for the debasement of value, I will continue not to use it.
At some future date, I hope Free is restored to its roots. I gift this as free. For love. And the gift is received and recognised with love.
