Advantage 94 – Promotes swarm intelligence in humans

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Nature does not know a teaching space, only masterpieces«.

– Johann Peter Hebel

German poet

Have you ever observed a swarm of migrating birds gathering to fly south together, twittering wildly, flying around a little here and there, and then suddenly flying off without any recognisable reason in a closed formation as if they were a single organism? They change their flight direction together in a single moment without even two birds colliding. The strongest birds fly at the front so that the others can take advantage of their wind shadow. When the birds at the front are exhausted they join the ranks behind and other birds take over the leadership. All this happens seemingly automatically. 

Or have you ever observed a bee colony or an ant heap? How does each of these small insects know what to do so exactly? The queen cannot take care of them as she is too occupied with reproduction.

When a group of individual beings begins to behave more intelligently than would be possible for the individual members of the group, we call this group intelligence or swarm intelligence. Behavioural scientists have been investigating this phenomenon in animals for a long time.

And what about human beings? Can humans also possess swarm intelligence or does a group of humans rather develop »swarm stupidity«, as critics claim? This is an issue for complexity research.

Two requirements seem to be crucial for success:

1. A clear objective
2. Only a few rules.

Ailing businesses have been restructured within a short time in this way. The staff were convened and committed themselves to the common goal of saving the company and making it successful again. It was made clear to the staff that absolute confidence was placed in their competence. Each of them knew best how something was to be done in their own job and what possibly needed improving. Accordingly, a simple rule might be: everybody does their best. After a few months the company was in the black again and the staff were proud of their achievement: together they had helped save their enterprise and were able to go on working under good conditions.

What was possible for this company can also be accomplished by the whole of humanity. After the introduction of the Natural Economy of Life we will also look back in pride because together we helped to save the »enterprise of humanity«. And – God willing – we will be allowed to go on living under good conditions.

In our case the goal is to survive together in worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. An objective that considers the good of the individual as much as the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. The simple rules have been copied from nature. They are the fundamental rules of the Natural Economy of Life – the threefold good and the threefold creation of money derived from it in conjunction with the principle of transience. If we can agree on this, humanity will develop swarm intelligence. In this way we have excellent chances of finding our way back to paradise together.

Advantage 95 – Only possible together, no ego-trip

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The only school of genuine moral sentiment

 is society between equals.«

– Harriet Taylor Mill

English author

The Natural Economy of Life cannot be misused for propaganda purposes. It has to reach people’s hearts and minds in order to spread. It has no enemy stereotypes and no idols. We are all equal and there are no leaders and followers, so ego-trips do not work here. We either succeed together or not at all.

In my youth I already felt the impulse to concern myself with this topic. At the beginning I did not know at all what I was studying. It was simply an inner pressure to enquire, question, seek alternatives, try out models and make calculations. I was repeatedly tormented by the question as to why there is so much poverty in the world when everything exists in abundance.

At first it was hard for me to interest other people in this subject. It was not until I started to send out the Joytopia story over the internet that I got a positive response. In 2001 my partner Margret Baier and I founded the Joytopia Academy (today Gradido Academy) to initiate a research project on the Natural Economy of Life. It was supposed to be a free network of free people and it still exists as such today.

We soon became aware that a great gift had been given to us, connected with the clear assignment to pass it on. We can only pass on this knowledge to people who want to accept it. Dear reader, it is up to you to decide if it makes sense for you or not. If it makes sense for you you will likewise pass on the information. And when the time is ripe this gift will reach the whole of humanity.

Advantage 96 – Appreciation of life

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Some people don’t know 

how important it is that they are there.

Some people don’t know

how it does good just to see them.

Some people don’t know

how comforting their kind smile is.

Some people don’t know,

how pleasant it is when they are near.

Some people don’t know,

how much poorer we would be without them.

Some people don’t know

that they are a gift from heaven.

They would know it if we told them.«

– Petrus Ceelen

Belgian priest, psychotherapist and author

The name gradido is derived from »gratitude«. The »a« in gradido also stands for »appreciation«. The inner attitude of gratitude and appreciation towards our fellow humans and life is an important step towards personal quality of life. No matter what situation you are currently in, you will feel better from day to day if you cultivate gratitude and appreciation. You will discover more and more things in your life which you appreciate and can be grateful for. Logically, this enhances your personal well-being.

Conversely, if you do not cultivate gratitude and appreciation daily, the all-too-human urge to criticise and seek mistakes will pull you down further. »Seek and ye shall find« applies equally to both positive and negative things.

We can observe this particularly well in old people. They have developed into what they now are depending on their habits. Some of them come across as grateful, appreciative, positive – even almost naïve because they do not seem to perceive the many bad things in life. But mostly they are happy and it feels good to be near them. The others find something that is not in order everywhere. They complain here, criticise there – and seem to have a good knowledge of all the evil around them. They do not feel happy because they see the world as bad and it is much more difficult to get along with them. Nobody is purely one or the other and we all have both aspects in ourselves. We can, however, assume that the people who have a positive impact on us regularly cultivate gratitude and appreciation consciously or unconsciously.

As everything lives from attention, the gradido appreciates life in all its facets. As »living money« it follows the Natural Economy of Life: it follows the cycle of life, the cycle of growth and decay. The gradido shows its appreciation of life already in its creation. Everyone who uses gradidos will regularly be reminded of that. When the gradido is used as a currency, all people worldwide receive a stimulus to appreciate life with each payment transaction. With the feelings of gratitude and appreciation of life the awareness of the need to protect and preserve life also increases worldwide. As everything lives from attention, the gradido values life in all its facets.

Advantage 97 – Appreciation of human dignity

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Human dignity is inviolable.

To respect and protect it is the duty of all state authority.«

– Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany

article 1, section 1

The »di« in gradido stands for »dignity«. To appreciate, respect, esteem and foster the uniqueness of every individual – herein lies the deeper sense of the creation of the first amount of money. It is used to finance the unconditional participation which makes an active basic income possible for everyone.

Gradido means »thanks« and with the basic income of 1,000 gradidos the community calls out to every person »A thousand thanks for being with us!«. In this way every person, no matter who they are and what they can do, is always being welcomed by the community – in a dual sense. On the one hand, they can contribute their inclinations and abilities to the community, whereby the community supports them by all means possible in developing and living their full potential. On the other hand, they receive their active basic income, which permits them a life in human dignity, every month in return.

By helping each other to develop our full potential, we sensitise one another to become curious about other people’s inclinations and abilities in a positive sense. We want to know what is hidden in our fellow humans and help them polish their inner diamond and let it shine.  

Everybody brings something with them into the world that they can contribute to the community. It is often claimed that people with disabilities cannot contribute anything but nothing is farther from the truth. Possibly we »normal« people merely lack the imagination to uncover the hidden treasures in our fellow humans but we can all learn this ability. We should already start at pre-school age and make this discipline one of the main subjects in our schools.

When everybody receives the opportunity and support to make their inner diamonds shine, how bright will it be on our earth? How much compassion, sympathy and love will we feel for each other? Might it be that our greater compassion and love automatically extend to the whole of nature surrounding us?

Advantage 98 – After the pattern of nature

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»We need not view nature as our enemy to be mastered and overcome but learn to cooperate with nature again. She has four and a half billion years of experience. Ours is much shorter.«

– Hans-Peter Dürr 

German physicist

Nature is a living masterpiece. She has existed for billions of years and generates life over and over again, thereby following universal laws. The laws of nature apply to everybody without exception. We have the choice either to observe them of our free will or be reminded of them in a painful way. If we want to learn how to use the laws of nature for our good we are well advised to observe nature and take her inventions as a model. 

In technology this method has long been known as »bionics«. Every aircraft constructor studies the flight of birds before he launches his »iron bird« into the air. Bionics does not means copying everything one hundred percent. Everyone knows that, unlike birds, aircraft do not flap their wings. Their outer covering does not consist of feathers but metal or plastic. They need a runway for taking off and landing but, on the other hand, they can fly much faster than birds. With the aid of bionics, those properties which serve a purpose are transferred to the object in question.

It is the same with the economic bionics we have developed. We do not need to copy everything to be found in nature. If cannibalism is not acceptable to our ethics, we should not translate the model of »eating and being eaten« to our economic model. Instead, nature offers us more appropriate models, such as cooperation and symbiosis.

The same applies to the »survival of the fittest«. In the animal world physical strength is limited to a natural extent. No animal has the possibility to reduce entire nations or even the entire world to wrack and ruin. Due to technological development humans have this possibility; and in business strong companies have the capacity to squeeze all weaker ones out of the market, thus putting an end to them. Therefore it would be absolutely fatal to translate this model to modes of behaviour between people: neither in politics nor in business should the law of the strongest be allowed to rule.

Ethics and religion have given us quite clear guidelines - »liberty, equality, brotherliness« and »Love your neighbour as yourself«, for example. Which inventions of living nature we translate to politics and the economy must first be decided by ethical criteria.

We have to observe the laws of nature, by choice or by force. We can indeed deny the cycle of growth and decay and call for constant economic growth but then the natural law of transience will hit us all the harder – through economic crises, natural disasters, poverty and wars, even going as far as the complete extermination of humanity. However, we can also choose to build the cycle of life into our monetary and economic systems and achieve worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. 

Advantage 99 – Prosperity for all

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»Nature knows no problems, only solutions.«

– Carl Amery

German writer and environmental activist

How often we get to hear that prosperity for all is not possible. For those who claim this it is a pretext not to have to concern themselves with the Natural Economy of Life. If they studied it seriously, they would probably come to another conclusion.

Here we are not practising social romanticism but exploring nature’s laws with regard to their applicability in politics and the economy. Natural laws always function the same and they function for everybody. We can learn to use them for our benefit or we can ignore them and perish. Let’s take the example of gravity: if I try to deny gravity and simply jump out of the window, I will possibly not survive it. However, when we use gravity to drive water turbines, we can generate electricity with it.

Thus seen, humankind has two possibilities, either to perish or achieve worldwide prosperity for all. Nature has appropriate solutions ready for either alternative.

Advantage 100 – In harmony with nature

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Nature can’t take a joke, she is always true, always serious, always strict;

she is always right and mistakes and errors always come from humans!«

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German poet and naturalist

Another counter-argument is that worldwide prosperity for all would destroy the environment. But this only applies if we go on as hitherto and even then we would probably destroy ourselves first. Nature would then have many millions of years to recover again. Worldwide prosperity for all is only possible in harmony with nature.

Thus our choice become even clearer: either we humans kill ourselves or we create worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. The Natural Economy of Life offers us the basis for the second alternative.

So let’s get going together! In the next chapter you will learn how simple that is.