Yin and Yang of currency
Buckminster Fuller would say that unity is plural, at minimum two.
To an up, a down, an in, an out, a good, a bad. Connected, like the two sides of one coin.
Our current sovereign currency is a Yang-based currency, designed through a central authority, made in scarcity, and increasing in value through hoarding.
Those who have it in plenty seek to accumulate more and keep it close. The moment it is taken into a digital or virtual vault, it stops contributing any value to anyone except the person who has accumulated it. Humans have transferred a projection of authority and power to this person with the biggest stockpile, never really examining how they accumulated.
Was their accumulation through hard work, as the myths go? In some cases yes. In many, it was through exploitation, extraction, colonisation.
The Yin currency, or complementary currency, which is the needed pair for our sovereign currency, is made in abundance, decentralised, and increases value when it flows.
Yin currencies need a bounded community. An agreement that we the community will use this currency within our community to support trade and exchange.
Money and currency are a human construct. Once we break our minds from the assumption that we have only the central authority currency, we can all thrive.
To the Yang, we need the Yin. Unity is plural, at minimum two.
Let’s break the chains.
*All credit to the life work of Bernard Lietaer for the thinking behind this.
May 21st 2019
Photo taken May 21st, 2019
