2. Deprogram Consumerism
For the past half century or so we’ve been socially programmed to accept consumerism as the new cultural paradigm, thus changing the way that people interact and relate to one another, and even to themselves. Now, the individual is easily lost in the angry seas of corporate marketing, propaganda, promotions, gimmicks and sponsors. This is a place where the ego can have a field day, but also a place where detachment from reality is itself a preferred new form of reality.
We are constantly being primed to compare, compete with, criticize, judge and out-do each other. As a pissing ground to prove ourselves to one another, we are offered a rather astonishing spread of consumer products, lifestyle options and services. Choices in the marketplace become critical to the fabrication of self-identity.
Insecurity is the psychological pump of the economy that keeps the debt machine moving. In the present paradigm, money is positioned as the chief force which can alleviate insecurity, and if money can do that, then even debt servitude is a small price to pay to for the feel of security. It is of course a lie.
Overcoming and the insecurity and fear that fuel consumerism is largely a personal task and is a natural part of conscious evolution.
3. Detach and Have Fun With Alternatives
Any effort that you can make to withdraw your consent and tacit support of the current system is another chink in the armor of the Gods of Money, and opportunities to undermine these crooks are abundant. Pay cash whenever you can, buy a used car, toss your credit cards, re-use stuff, try living without money, abandon big banks, divest from the Ponzi scheme stock markets. Use payment intermediaries like Pay Pal to bypass banks, invest in physical assets like precious metals or land, and develop independent streams of income for yourself.
Have you ever tried bartering to acquire something you really wanted? Do you have a Bitcoin purse or know much about Ubuntu and the giving economy? Have you checked if anyone in your area has already started an independent currency, or have you thought about time-banking as a means of getting your roof or some other big project completed without even using cash?
Anything is possible, and if energy is withdrawn from supporting the status quo and re-directed to the imagination and practice of creating something better, then over time alternatives will emerge that will bring us closer to an equitable economy. Human beings are graced with abundant creativity and ingenuity, and if we detach from the current system, even in little ways, we weaken its grip on our reality.