»One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have
christened reality is an even greater ILLUSION than the world of dream.«
– Salvador Dali
Spanish painter, writer and
sculptor
Living nature, as we experience it, is always
positive. Negative figures are a mathematical concept which enable us to
describe complex procedures simply. However, they do not exist in the nature we
are able to experience. Or have you ever seen an apple tree on which minus 100
apples were hanging? Definitely not. Everything material that we know exists in
a positive amount. Either a positive number of apples is hanging on the tree or
no apples at all.
When nature makes new products, for example
apples, no negative apples are created on the other side. The apple tree does
not have to take out a loan first in order to be able to produce apples. And it
does not have to pay any taxes for it. It simply lives intrinsically in harmony
with the surrounding nature – that is how creation takes place.
On the other hand, our money is created
through debt, as already described. One person’s assets are another’s debts.
One person’s credit balance is another’s debit balance or - expressed in
mathematical terms – one person’s plus is another’s minus. Assets and debts are
balanced overall and together they amount to »zero«. In economics this is known
as the law of balance. In gaming theory this is a so-called »zero-sum game«.
Behind this is the view of the world that humans themselves have no creative
abilities and thus cannot create anything. According to the zero-sum dogma, you
have to take away something on one side when you want to add something to
another side.
Therefore we take it as a complete matter of
course that we have to rob nature to obtain comfort for ourselves, that we have
to exploit the Third World countries to obtain prosperity for ourselves – in
short, that others have to lose when we want to win.
You will probably not have noticed the zero-sum
dogma at all up to now. We meet with it all the time and everywhere in life so
that we take it absolutely for granted. The human mind is used to thinking in
opposites: right and left, top and bottom, poor and rich, light and dark, dead
and alive. The negative numbers were invented for quantifying these opposites,
with the number »zero« representing the middle or »normal« state.
Examples of supposed
negativity or opposites
For measuring the temperature the zero point
was arbitrarily set at the freezing point of water. Positive and negative
temperatures were defined in this way. Although this is practical for us in
daily life, for we thus mark an important difference for us – »water v. ice« –,
in reality the absolute zero point is not reached anywhere. It can only be
approached with great effort. The actual freezing point of water is (plus) 273°
Kelvin.
The charge of electrons has been arbitrarily
defined as negative. The minus pole in electricity in reality describes a
surplus of electrons which is striving for equilibrium.
Day and night are felt to be opposites.
However, they are only the two sides of our earth. Neither is shadow the
opposite of light. Shadows are places with less light than the surroundings.
It is suggested to us that we live in a world of opposites.
However, thinking in opposites is only a method for our mind to establish
differences.
What is the biological difference between an
African and a European? The main point is only the colour of their skin. These
two human races must be 99.99 % the same. But the human mind picks out the
small difference of 0.01% to construct
an opposite and – even worse – to educe racial conflicts from it.
How great is the difference between the two
Christian confessions in reality? Probably not greater than 0.01% either.
Nevertheless religious wars were waged because of it and countless people burnt
alive.
People of different religions, convictions and
political views are still human beings. The difference between them will not
even approximate the 0.01% mark.
Our mind is an extremely precise instrument
when it comes to recognising the finest differences. However, we recognise
commonalities better with our hearts. “It is only with the heart that one
can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye”, as
Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince says.
Could it be that we need to bring more heart
into our economy if we want to promote the common interests of human beings and
nature in a sustainable way?
- The zero-sum dogma is contrary to nature. It leads to robbing, exploiting and fighting.
- Living nature as we experience it is always positive.
- The mind perceives differences, the heart commonalities.
- We need a monetary and economic system in which heart and mind complement each other symbiotically.
