The Pulse tries to give you a balance, a balance of the fun with the important. We present the area rock bands, restaurants, movies, activities, art and such alongside columns dealing with ambitious aims as recovering from addiction, responsible energy usage, being at peace with yourself and your life, making the country better for the next generation and so on.
But perhaps it’s more than a balance, two ends of the spectrum. Perhaps I am conveying that the fun is important. Don’t get so wrapped up in taxes, debt, politics, illness or whatever it may be that you forget to laugh or create or have fun. Ultimately, this—music, art, a sense of community and enjoying one’s life—is far more important than stock prices, crime, Washington D.C., taxes, money, and whatever else those other media outlets give so much attention.
A recently watched documentary presented the idea of a society without money. Farfetched, eh? Yes, taking money out of the equation is quite unrealistic and idealistic in the short term, but it’s a very interesting way to approach the world and your day.
What if you didn’t need money?
What would your next step be?
So much of our lives are consumed by money—paying off the debt, buying that insurance, tucking it away in those trustworthy bundles of who-knows-what called mutual funds for retirement, gasoline, keeping the heat and the lights on, an iPhone, don’t forget the mobile service plan, along with cable TV and Internet bills, money, money, money.
I hope after all of that, your work week yielded some money that can actually go to a good cause.
So what if everyone’s most basic needs were met, and there were no money?
There would still be education, but not for money. (Much education is geared towards making one able to make money; or towards the institution charging money for said education.)
There would still be art, but not for money. It could be the best thing that could ever happen to art: filter out all of the people in it just for the money.
Our talented cooks and bakers would still be doing their thing, but not to make money, because it’s their gift, their art, and people enjoy it.
A lot is made of the million-dollar Super Bowl commercials, and being an observer of football, advertising and creativity, I find some of them humorous and interesting. But I’ve noticed something about them that often gets lost; most of the products they talk about are awful!
Pepsi, Doritos, Bud Light, Taco Bell, Coca-Cola—don’t put that stuff in your body! Cars that could probably be made a lot cheaper, efficient, clean and reliable. Buy ’em, football fans! We’ll help you finance one today!
I guess that’s why they need to spend millions on advertising, to convince people it’s so totally socially acceptable and desirable to consume what may otherwise seem unconsumable.
In a world without money, those advertising creative teams would still be creative, but not for the sake of selling corn syrup and swill and inefficient cars, but for the sake of being creative and expressing themselves, and making their viewers smile, think, cry, be captivated, use their imaginations and think freely.
