making Economy of Joy work

I was thinking about Economy of joy a while ago. I thought about how hard it would be to make even just a small and actually money free economy.

To make a gift economy you need everyone in it wanting, willing and brave enough to actually live with no money. It would be very hard to get everyone that way because normal people who rely on large corporations are afraid to change. Also, with the way the world is now, to make things on land that you do not already own (in Economy of joy you would not own places) you have to pay money which would be not very useful when it comes to Economy of joy.

human societal evolution

My mother and I watched a video today by a evolution biologist named  Elisabet Sahtouris about the evolution of living things (ranging from cells to cities) and I thought it was very interesting (the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrfPRju8hxg) . I am especially interested in human societal evolution.

It all starts with unity where everything is the same then, individuation where some things become different then, tension/conflict where things start to not work so well together anymore, next comes negotiation where things are starting to be figured out then, resolution where most of the problems are resolved then comes, cooperation where everything is going well again last is, unity. It is like a simple story line. I think that as a society, right now we are in between negotiation and resolution.

a diagram by Elisabet Sahtouris

trees communicating and helping each other

awhile ago I posted about Economy of Joy in garden plants but it did not say anything about trees. I have always thought that trees could communicate and share. this video describes it really nicely and in a scientific way which I think is sort of cool.

trees communicating and helping each other

jobs

people sometimes get confused and think that a job is something that is not fun or is hard work that you don't want to do but, that is not true at all. a job is something that you do and get back payment. the payment is not always money (for example sometimes you get back joy or you simply clean your house and get back a clean house (also joy).

often when people do hard work they want something physical back in return so they can hold it and look at and show their friends their treasures. when we make ourselves think that a job is something hard or not fun to do we also make ourselves think that otherwise fun jobs are not fun then, it becomes hard work and you want something physical back.

how would we deal with this in Economy of Joy if you only get back joy?

I guess we just have to start remembering what a job really is.

Economy of Joy in Plants

Recently while I water the garden I have been seeing Economy of Joy in plants. It is in all plants but it is Especially noticeable in rhubarb.
 

If rain is falling everywhere the rhubarb leaf is sort of like a Venn diagram. "O.P." stands for "other plants" and "P." stands for "plant". If the rain lands on the plant part of the Venn diagram it will go into the hole at the bottom of the leaf and feed the plant who owns the leaf. If the water lands on the other plants part of the leaf the water will go off the edge of the leaf to the other plants. If it lands in the middle of the Venn diagram it could go either way.

I think it is really awesome to think about how if plants do economy of joy naturally, does that mean that humans might do it naturally too?

Look around your garden (if you have one) for other plants that do economy of joy.
post your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

birthday parties

At a birthday party in Economy of Joy, would there be presents or, no presents? The words gift economy seem to say that there should be presents but, if there are gifts everyone feels obliged to give gifts and some people might not give them with joy. It seems then that the perfect thing is to say is that you can just give gifts if you want but, if you do that people might still feel bad for not bringing a gift.

I guess the word "gift" in "gift economy" means anything you give with no physical payment except for joy coming back to you, not only objects. If you are talking about birthday party gifts you are usually talking about an object you are obliged to give. If we acknowledge that objects are not the best thing in the world maybe we would live more healthy, less cluttered and, more joyfully.






What do you think a birthday party in Economy of Joy would be like?

Post in the comments.

Economy of Joy: the meaning to me

to me, the Economy of Joy is an economy of people who care about each other and are willing and happy to give to others. mostly you need to give joy. if you give a gift of singing and dancing to someone at the same time as feeling sad that you have to do it, the person will get sadness instead of joy. if you give someone your old drum at the same time as feeling sorry for yourself that you are giving your drum away, the person will get a sad, un-enjoyable drum.
 in Economy of Joy, every person has a job. the job does not have to effect the other members of the community for example, you could be a mother or something. there would be no people who live in giant mansions with servants and once in a while call their employees and say "go make another Save on Foods store over there.



to put all I just said together in to one sentence, I will say this "Economy of Joy is where everyone contributes to the community something (i.e. a service or an object or, multiple of them.) and gets back joy, knowing that joy is the greatest gift a living being could ever receive.

free awesomeness

I love free awesomeness! it makes me so happy!!

here is a link to a place where you can hear about some more free awesomeness.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Forward%20group%20takes%20root%20Vancouver/9915767/story.html

this is awesome!

singing for joy

this is a lovely video about a man who teaches kids about singing and gets back joy. I wonder how many people do these types of things. you never know where these types of things are or when they happen because they are always hidden by the big corporations and businesses. it makes them seem as if they are wearing an invisibility cloak, put on them by the big system. 

get joy!

unsung hero

here is a video of a man who just goes around being friendly to people and helping people and getting back joy. I think it really explains Economy of joy.

I hope you enjoy watching it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU
 

Inportant things for Economy of Joy

The Economy of joy is where you give whatever you can and instead of getting payment you get back joy.   
Like all economies it depends on people participating in the economy.

The Relationship Between Enviromentalism and Economy of Joy

In Economy of Joy, most people would probably not want to wreck the earth. Assuming that a lot of people go into businesses like oil mines, tar sands, forestry, ( other such subjects that completely destroy and rip apart the earth, create global warming and other such things.) hoping for a lot of money and, not really noticing the damage they are doing to the earth, why would they want to go into the business if there was no such thing as money? I definitely would not want to do that!

Now, Economy of Joy would not mean that no one would do those types of things. Many people probably would just want to do those types of things because they think they could not live without the the resources that they can make for themselves and others by doing those things but, at least there would be less of a reason to work to wreck the earth.