All play a part

Who to allow in?

Rachael questions whether they would allow more people to join their little paradise. What do they do if someone floated in on some driftwood hoping for salvation? A profound level of sympathy would be shown towards those that arrive having left a place that has become uninhabitable.

The four all agree that if anyone were to join, they must respect the current leadership and abide by the rules in place. Claudia has been horrified when people joined their church expecting long standing members to change their ways to suit ideas these new characters have. These new people didn’t just make suggestions and see how they went down, instead they infiltrated the organisation and, bit by bit, transformed it into something very different to how it was before. Ben was involved in a political movement and also recognised a similar pattern take shape, despairing at the way things crept up and went against the grain of the foundational principles that attracted so many to it in the first place.

Dave asks a more profound question. Who owns the earth, are we right to claim this island for ourselves? Both Claudia and Rachael make the obvious remark that they were there first and most certainly don’t feel inclined to have their spot ruined just because other people have messed up their own island. They don’t want to sacrifice too much nor go beyond the call of duty to help others. Certainly not to such an extent that they will miss out on key things. They have plans to have children of their own and want to put them in the front of the queue ahead of outsiders. Dave can see that there is no shortage of space on this island. They can fit more people in, a lot more. It will mean longer waits at the well, more noise and more disruption, but potentially more things getting done too There is a trade-off between some attractive benefits against less serenity and loss of control. New ideologies may not be particularly welcome now that so many principles have been established and enjoyed.

Claudia has another worry; what if they are invaded, not by one person but a large group? They can’t fend off a large attacking force. They can potentially talk with their neighbouring island communities and form a pact so that nobody is subjected to such perils. Nevertheless, they are vulnerable. An island community would be commended if it throws its arms open to visitors, especially if there is something there of geographical significance.

Ben has spent the most time building a place called home and treasures it deeply. By sharing it with the others there is a connection and shared ownership that spreads out to the boundary of the whole island. It won’t be just Ben that would feel somewhat cheated if it was taken away from them against their will. All of them understand that it is rough for people who live in a failed state and don’t feel they have the means necessary to put things right. It can be tough for people to leave their place of birth due to the changes developing there. Some will stay put, maybe because they are too old or too weary to leave and whilst it is regarded as unfair, will look upon it as an evolution that they are stuck with. Sometimes it is a case of trying to make the best of a bad situation. Not all relish relocating. Everything gets more awkward once all the places with the fine geography begin to fill up, so there is an incentive to remedy problems at the source.

Some people keep themselves to themselves and concentrate on making their own area as good as it can be. It can become a beacon for others to consider emulating. However, Claudia saw people not bothering to do that. They were more focused on spreading an ideology as far afield as possible. Hence, we are faced with invaders by force or by stealth. Some play the long game, waiting for sufficient traction to spring a new way of life on all of us. An individual will attain power, cement it, dominate, and show little restraint when pushing objectors aside. A fungus punctures the apple’s skin, forms a tiny dot but in short order consumes the entire fruit turning it into a fetid mush.

Philosophy underpins everything, including the principles upheld by a nation state. Those principles however are open to interpretation. Some principles are prioritized over others. The ruling bodies decide which principles to focus on. Constitutions mention the need to ensure self-reliance in all things. Defence, agriculture, commerce and so forth. People in charge take it upon themselves to ensure that no stone is left unturned getting defences in place but spend so much money on that, that agriculture, business, and other commerce become neglected. The aims are useless if not adhered to in a measured way. Paranoia and propaganda take the place of prudence.

There is no money as such on this tiny island nor any need for it yet. Neither is there any thinking that things in the shared pool belong to a distant body. Likewise, a collective share and share alike ambition is fantastical. Ben has made the best hammock and loves it dearly. Make no mistake about it, it has been made clear that there is no wish to have Dave, or anyone else anywhere near it. Sharing has its limits. When Ben wants to lie down, Ben wants to lie down. Ben gets aggravated by always having to turf Dave out and then always be the one cleaning and de-crumpling it. People find that no amount of favours can really compensate for the option to have what is theirs when it suits them most. Ben is not mean nor selfish and like the rest will share many things, but a free for all is a naïve dream. It will remain as that, just an idea that never sees the light of day. Whilst they all fall into a blissful level of cooperation, they respect each other’s preferences where practical. Convenience comes before romantic thinking. Ben would rather spend a few days making an extra knife to keep sharp and keep in the draw so that it is always there when needed. Dave would rather have just one communal knife, one they all can use, but then who is the one that leaves it at the other end of the island and forgets to return it to the kitchen. Make an additional knife or use the time to make something else? That something could be something for all to use or something for just their sole use. Either way it makes them richer in effect. An additional knife eliminates the bugbear of waiting for someone else to finish using the communal one. Well-meaning principles can be great on paper but hopeless in reality. Community-ism schemes only work if everyone is exactly the same in every single respect. Individuality has to be banished along with freedoms to choose for ourselves.

Convenience matters. People pay for convenience. We could share the use of cars but the choice of models would be lacking. It also means ignoring the mess some leave them in. We would need to be patient waiting for one to be available. We can’t personalise a shared car. All to benefit from a relatively small reduction in costs. The fuel costs would be more, not less, as the shared car needs to be moved empty to each person wanting it. The wear and tear on the brakes and tyres etc. and the depreciation in value are dependent on the mileage, so no savings there. Only a little of the capital costs is saved, not much for all the aggravation that it entails. Idealists ignore our unwillingness to change for dubious benefits. People want to retain a way of life yet are willing to cut back if there are clear advantages. If you have concerns about your personal consumption and the impact it has on the environment, you can choose to earn less. Only by earning less does one use less.

We may tinker more, adjust more, and attenuate our activities reducing the harm, but it will not halt the inevitable. Humankind has always been inclined to travel a course towards a calamity of its own making. Vested interests conquer. We need constant rewards, rewards today at the detriment of the future. I mentioned before, the rat wired to an electric circuit and its craving for more and more until it dies. We too can’t muster the will to disconnect the cord. What will be will be.

In an economy with market forces prevailing, those that do the jobs that are the least enjoyed are paid more in compensation for doing what others are less willing to do. In a controlled sharing economy, it would be nice to see all the plum favoured jobs handed out fairly with an abundance of volunteers to deal with the grim ones. However, rather than working hard on the work that needs to be done, people become adept at proving why they should be treated better than the rest. The people that support the party in power get the beachside houses, the rest get allocated a tiny grim plot on a flood plain.

Before coming to this island, Ben used to buy first class tickets but go without other things to pay for them. Exercising freedom to choose. To buy those tickets Ben saved money by buying second hand furniture rather than fancy new tables and chairs. We need not be envious of Ben. Let Ben do what he wants.

It is hard to adjust the system to make it more equitable and remove the wealth imbalance without capsizing the whole ship. People have tried setting punitive taxes and are keen to have redistribution measures in place. The more they try to make it fair the more iniquities and grief they cause. People get fed up with the system and make plans to escape before the borders are locked down to stop people from leaving. As things get progressively worse, those in command are constantly suppressing uprisings. Once it becomes extremely out of balance, Claudia’s nightmare becomes evident. Only those in charge are in the lap of luxury and the rest scrape about in the wasteland. The social principle is respected but feared in equal measure. Those that espouse it are habitually in a comfortable position already. They want to drag down those that want to work and be rewarded for their pluck. The wealthy have the means to move before it gets out of hand whereas the less well-off are not so fortunate. Those with the right tenacity at the right time will always prosper and you can’t make money selling expensive goods and services if everyone is too poor to buy them. There is a certain degree of natural regulation, but there will be periods where some appear to have too much but measures to deal with it can create bigger headaches.

Your island may be blessed with some coconut trees. You can harvest them. You can eat, and drink from them. Then make some maracas out of what remains. What you can’t do is borrow them. You can only consume what you have. An I-Owe-You, the promise to pay back an amount you borrow. Big states generate lots of these. Eating the fruits that you expect to have tomorrow makes the policy maker appear decent. However, it is nasty practice that puts a strain on the next generation. The citizens get the impression that money grows on trees and that they can spend ad infinitum. One of the four had a sibling who took from their savings jar and kindly bought them a few things with some of it. It felt nice to be given gifts until they realized later how generous they were. How much fun it must be to spend other people’s hard-earned money.

The general populace is capable of counting a few coconuts. Understanding big numbers is another thing entirely. Economic facts are hard to comprehend and difficult to put into perspective. The same data can be interpreted in all manner of ways leading to no end of strife. Some will argue that funding a scheme will only cost two percent of a nation’s productivity. That doesn’t sound too bad. However, it could be four percent of the nation’s tax income. Both facts are true, one demonstrates the real effect on the government’s budget. Truths can be misleading.

No matter how badly politicians mess up, they are rarely held to account. They walk away unburdened by the problems they created. The mess is left for others to deal with. On this island they will attempt to address this by regular evaluations of what is going on. There will be proper punishment for serious negligence, so that at the very least it serves as a warning to future governors.

Racheal has charisma which is not coupled with competence. Claudia is dour and has a dryness that is not coupled with aspirational zeal. Leadership strengths are coupled with downsides. We may do well to call on someone with a chequered past to halt a slow slide into dystopia. Such people are less afraid to take on the blinkered stoics that keenly watch us flounder further towards dystopic disaster. We my wisely harness the devilment within a bad person to assassinate a very bad actor. The bad used to kill the utter bad. A dry, or dour, or charisma filled soul would be the one we prefer to act on our behalf, but they merely delay the inevitable.