[Note: This file is a combination of 33 smaller files to form a 158 page book. It was edited with MS-Word using a Courier 12pt font to provide a perfect readable text file on the IBM via the "TYPE" command. This slight modification was done to provide a readable one-file document(for all computers) to those who have internet access. dmw@sioux.ee.ufl.edu-3/7/93] I WAS ROBOT (Utopia Now Possible) by Ernest Mann Within these pages you will learn how one Robot transformed himself into an almost free individual human being. You will also see how we can create a nearly Utopian world, on Spaceship Earth within one year. About the Author: The author was in business in Minneapolis for 20 years. He gained enough knowledge in Economics in Business College and in practice to retire in 1969 at the age of 42. Since then he has had the space to observe economics from a different perspective and has had 21 years of time to travel to many countries, read, observe, discuss, think, evaluate and form his own conclusions about the economic situation, politics, religion, life and individual freedom. This book is a gathering of some of the best issues of his free news letter, the "Little Free Press" in which he has shared his observations and conclusions since 1969. They have been revised to exclude most of the duplications and update notes have been added. The character in this book is real, and any resemblance to fictitious persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No, No, No Copyright, 1990, Ernest Mann. No world rights reserved. Any part or all of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any language, in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, offset, rotary or flatbed press, magnetic or other record, with the prior agreement and herein expressed written permission of the author. A Public Domain Book Little Free Press, 1011 6th Avenue NE apt 21, Little Falls, MN 56345 USA (612-632-1965) ISBN: 0-9620301-0-4 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-80274 This book is dedicated to all little children. Let's create for them -- a decent world to grow up in. CONTENTS 1. Human Robot 2. Waste Burner Waste 3. Jailed 4. Missing Pieces 5. Truth 6. Meaning Of Freedom 7. Becoming More Free 8. World War III 9. Utopia Now Possible 10. Making Changes 11. Wanted: Volunteer Crew 12. What Can Farmers Do? 13. This Moment! 14. How To Become A Millionaire 15. The Problem And Solution 16. Talking To Myself 17. Like Being Squeezed? 18. Slave Management 19. Warbucks Family Memo 20. Warbucks Communique 21. Warbucks Leaving Earth 22. Out Of The Rut 23. Letter From Mother 24. More Electricity? 25. Life Can Be Beautiful 26. What Is Happiness? 27. Simplify? 28. Purpose 29. Good Life -- C. O. D. 30. Memoirs Of A Drop-out 31. Good Health Is Easy 32. Changing Games CONTENTS OF BOLD STATEMENTS A Song An Hour A Day Be Ruled Caesar's Circus Changes Check List Class Status Common Sense Constant Get Started Groups Help Wanted Hope Ignorance Laws Mind Newsletter One-Way Ticket Our Time Is Limited Pay System Prevention Priceless Economic System Progress Pyramid Seven Wonders Slave Attitude Ten Years Things Time To Live Time to Play Total License Triumph Two People Volunteers Volunteers Wars What Will Happen There is no enemy. Only ignorance --of a better Game to play. 1 HUMAN ROBOTS I vaguely remember a science fiction movie of "Flash Gordon" back in the 30's which showed all the workers in some city moving around like robots. The hero tried to talk with them but they didn't pay any attention. He then noticed that all the workers were wearing the same kind of helmet. He took off one worker's helmet. The worker seemed to come out of a trance and told our hero that while they wore the helmets they were literally slaves and had to do whatever they were told by their Master. In the book, "Brave New World," the people were given a drug called "soma" each day as they finished work. As I recall, this kept the people in a blissful unconcerned state of consciousness until their next work day. It has occurred to me that I have worn the helmet. Except my helmet was in my mind. I was getting soma too. I even paid to get it. Intake Time In my intake time I watched TV, listened to the radio, went to movies, listened to records, background music and tapes, glanced at billboards, read magazines and newspapers. During this time I also took one or more of the consciousness altering drugs. These addictive drugs included nicotine, caffeine, alcohol and sugar. Some people used harder drugs. The drugs may have made me more susceptible to the programming that I was receiving. My Programming My programming was achieved by many methods. First of all it is important to remember that most of the mass media is owned or controlled by big money people. They not only use the old methods such as; slanting, falsifying, exaggerating, omitting, monkey-see & monkey- do, loaded words, hypnotic music, etc., but are also now using many new subliminal methods1 of implanting ideas, opinions, fears and desires into our conscious and subconscious minds without our being aware of it. They were able to program me almost as effectively as computers are now programmed. Dependency I was dependent on these various programming media for my "entertainment." I thought I actually enjoyed the movies, TV, radio, etc., that I was being programmed with and for which I had to pay plenty. I thought I enjoyed the drugs on which I was dependent. You can't imagine how many barrels of coffee and show cases of sweet rolls I went through. I didn't know they were addictive. I had lost or had never learned the art of entertaining myself. I allowed others to do my thinking for me. I had very little time to figure out things. So I just did what was expected of me. I was a human robot. Merry-Go-Round I was 10 years a salesman and 10 years in business for myself. During most of that time I went blindly around that old merry-go-round of working, spending and trying to pay my bills by the 10th. There were many times I couldn't pay by the 10th and I would try to borrow money from the bank to pay bills. (You know what they said, most of the time -- "Ha, ha, ho, ho!") So I sorted the bills and paid only the most imminent and stalled the rest. One big bummer! Who has time to do any important profound thinking about life, pollution, wars, etc., at a time like that? My thinking time was totally occupied with finding a way to make a buck and trying to keep a reasonably happy family. I don't recall that I, even once, asked myself if I were happy or if I were doing what was for my own best good over the long run. A Rut I went pathetically around and around that wheel (endless rut) every month, always trying to get a little ahead of the game. It was not unlike a grave with both ends kicked out, like a robot programmed to work, spend and pay. Like, I was in the groove, man, but I didn't know how to remove my helmet. I didn't even know I had one. Background Music I think that I might like background music if I were not trying to talk or think, that is, providing I was sure that there was no mind conditioning in it. TV Kickout Somewhere along the line I got mad at my TV addiction and gave my set away. It was almost impossible for me to turn the damned thing off until the program was over or until I was exhausted. I'm now happy that I did this, especially since I've learned about the subliminals bombarding TV watchers. I don't need it. My subconscious must have told me to get rid of it. I rarely take in any of the other news media or movies any more. This leaves me with more time and inclination to do some thinking for myself. In fact, I would not even dream of voting for anyone to represent me and to make laws against me anymore. In Business I was taught in Economics class, in business college, the rule, "Charge all the traffic will bear. (and a little more so that you can come down)," that I must make a profit and the more the better. Then it sounded logical, so when I went into business it seemed quite natural to follow that old rule, so I did. I didn't stop to realize that everyone else would be using that same rule on me too. That for everything I would buy there would be someone trying to get all they could out of me. This kind of economics ferments trusts, monopolies and cartels. So those with the most, make the most. I didn't worry about the workers in foreign countries who made only a few cents a day on the imported products that I bought, until I visited some of those countries recently. Then I saw some of their living and working conditions. It made me start to think. I also realized that workers in the U.S.A. are exploited too, only on a different level and more subtly. My belief that everyone here had freedom of "choice of work" fell apart. I could see that most of us were doing work that we didn't like. Because we needed the money to pay the rent, food bills, etc., we had to take work at any place that was hiring, whether we liked the job or not. I didn't question whether the manufacturer of what I was buying, was polluting my drinking water supply, my fresh air supply or my food supply. I trusted government to protect those supplies for me. I trusted my city sewer disposal and my city water purification departments. It never once occurred to me that if we didn't pollute our water supply we wouldn't need the purification department. I trusted my city government many years ago when they said that it was hazardous to our health to put human waste on crop lands. I had forgotten the fact that my dad always put our human waste from our out- house, on our crop land. I forgot that I had seen the Japanese farmers doing this 30 years ago. Screwed Up We have been making great technical advancements. We have developed fabulous new techniques, alloys, compounds and methods that give products more strength, durability and all kinds of wonderful new qualities. But they sell us products that are always breaking down, wearing out and polluting more, e.g., cars won't start, they rust out in 3 years and start falling apart before you get them paid for and toys break before you get them home. We have wonderful mass production machines and tremendous crop yield seed varieties and excellent irrigation facilities, yet we are often told that there are shortages just before severe price increases, e.g., meat, sugar, oil and coffee. For some strange reason the prices never came down after the "so called" shortages were over. Prisons don't rehabilitate or cut down crime. They say there are crimes even when there is no victim. Laws are written by the big money people to protect big money. Governments spend money like it was water. Many money-saving devices are kept off the market. Laws are written to keep down the little man. Nightmare My first reaction to my study of the overall picture, was that things are sure screwed, all backwards and muddled up, a regular nightmare. But on closer examination I decided that this is the natural trend that must take place under the present world-wide economic system. (The "Pay System," where people take pay or profit for their work and sell the product.) With this Game there can only be a few big winners and the rest must be big losers. (Survivors, but not winners.) Multinationals I understand that corporate trust agreements have given way to large corporate conglomerates which more easily corner national markets. These conglomerates have or are evolving into multinational conglomerates which are cornering the world markets. If we continue to use the present world-wide economic system, the multinationals will probably be cornering one market after another. Soon there may be no work or product that will not be under the direct or indirect control of the multinationals. This leaves me at their mercy. (Are corporations merciful?) I'll have to pay their prices and take whatever profit or wages they allow. This doesn't give me very good feelings. I Went Along Why did I allow these things to happen? First of all, I wasn't aware of much of the BS that was going on. Second, when I became aware I tried the usual things, e.g., writing to my congress persons, to the President and finally I worked in the Republican Party. (I had been a Democrat all my life.) All to no avail. Third, why didn't I drop out and stop participating in the consuming, polluting, exploiting and depleting of resources? Well, I thought I needed the income to pay for our house, food, clothing, auto payments, business loan payments, taxes, insurance, upkeep, entertainment, medical, vacation, etc. How could I have said, "No." to a boss or to a client and take the risk of losing everything I had? It seemed like I had no viable alternative. Fourth, I mulled over all these thoughts for some time before I decided on a partial way out. (I think this might be the point where many people have nervous breakdowns if they don't see a way out of the mess. Then they go to a shrink who tries to "fix" them, so that they can get back into the old rat race and run again. What a bummer!) Drop-Out After about 20 years of slaving in the race I was starting to get ahead a little. I started to take a little time to think about myself and my needs. I decided to get out of the race and sold everything I had when I was 42. Decided to take off for a few years. Figured I had learned how to make money and could do it again if I ever had to. I have been learning, growing and enjoying so much in the last 8 years that I doubt if I'll ever go back into the rat race. Save Money Since I have stopped taking in the programming I can walk through any of the big stores and never get a desire to buy any of their stuff (crap). What little I need I buy at rummage sales for just a few cents. I have no idea what's in style any more, and care less. Of course I can't buy second hand food but I'm eating more of the basic foods, i.e., the unprocessed foods; they are purer, cheaper and taste better. What more can I ask for? I got rid of my car because it was always eating my money and taking up a lot of my time. I now live close to where I do my thing, so I walk most of the time or bus to farther places. I don't spend much money so my small income (savings, actually) is sufficient for everything that I desire. Free Time and Purpose Not spending much money means not needing to use any time earning money, or using up much of my savings. This gives me more free time to look, listen, smell, feel, taste, think and reason. Sometimes I feel like writing and I do. I don't know if anyone will understand what I'm saying but it feels good to write it anyway. I have created a purpose for my life and it feels right and good for now. Eight years ago when I dropped-out, I asked myself, "What is the highest and best use that I can put to my mind, heart and body? What kind of work needs to be done the most? What can I do that will be for my own best good over the long haul?" My decision was to try to discover or to design a more perfect system of living together on this planet. I derive much happiness from my purpose (my work), and sometimes much agony when I can't seem to reach people. I work for free and I'm my own boss. I can quit anytime, and go back to my work anytime. I do my work as I see fit. I don't give a damn if my newsletter sells, because I give it away. Ha ha. If my ideas for freedom are valid, I expect people may use them. If the seeds that I plant are fertile, I trust that they will grow, and that some aware people will water them and cultivate them. If this happens we will all share in the harvest. Big Money People My guess is that the big money people who order the mind programming in the media, are in a dilemma themselves. They sometimes seem to be in a competitive game with each other. It's like they have ahold of the chain that holds a vicious bulldog (Power) and if they let go, someone else will grab it and go after them with it. So they don't dare let go of their power. The Priceless Economic System will remove all the teeth from this bulldog. Then they can "let go" and relax a little with the rest of us. They seem to be working together some too. Big money is going strong in Agribusiness. They are taking over land like it is going out of style. They already seem to have a corner on the market in meat, sugar, coffee and oil. Whenever a product doubles in price over night, you can be pretty sure that they have cornered that too. It is inevitable that they will continue the game until they can set all prices wherever they wish and the same with wages. What freedom will this leave for me and you? If we wait until then to try to make change it will probably be too late. Most people will by then be so thoroughly programmed (brainflushed) that they will believe with Pollyanna, that, "Everything that happens is for the best." ----------------------------------------------------------- z z z Help Wanted z z z Electronics Inventor Project: Subliminal Sound Detector Build a gadget which will detect and convert to audible sound those hidden subliminal messages which are present on radio, TV, stereo and tapes as reported in the comprehensive book, "Subliminal Seduction" by Wilson Bryan Key, Signet. Key says, on page 163, that subliminals are fairly easy to plant in sound and visual media. He said that it is nearly impossible to consciously locate them. He said that subaudible effects can be planted at low volume intensities, at various speed harmonics and at either high or low frequencies -- all he said, are unheard by conscious perception. Project: Subliminal Light Detector Build a gadget to detect and make visible the low intensity light messages used on movies and TV. (See above book, page 23.) Why ? 1. Open up another Pandora's Box like the Watergate scandal. Reveal how the big corporations are mind conditioning us subliminally. Help people see for themselves what the Pay System is doing to them. Teach people how human robots are being made. It will not only be amusing and revealing but also mind blowing to be able to hear and see some of the subliminals. 2. Or make yourself a bundle of money by selling the gadgets. 3. Or publicize the blueprints (schematics) and let people solder together the detectors by themselves. December 27, 1976 Ernest Mann 1Subliminal Seduction, Wilson Bryan Key 2 WASTE BURNER WASTE A Basic Government Rule: "Don't get rid of the problem -- ADD TO IT!" For example: Build an expensive waste burner plant. Instead of; putting a ban on all disposable containers. (This solution wouldn't cost the taxpayers anything -- so naturally, it won't be considered.) Instead of; creating an economic system that wouldn't require advertising. (Like the Priceless Economic System.) Just think of the percentage of the contents in your garbage can or dumpster that is just advertising. Think how thin the newspapers and magazines would be without advertising. Just look at the Profit the Industrialists will make when they sell the waste burner plant to the government and how much more they will make every year from its maintenance. Profiteers Promote Waste! The Little Free Press newsletter has been pointing out for years, that people are just spinning their wheels trying to stop a bad situation by working against the symptoms of the problem. They will build that burner plant some place, no matter how many people demonstrate against it! So, why not use our time and energy to help set up a system in which no one can Profit from doing bad and wasteful things to our planet and its people? Waste The Hennepin County Government is building a multimillion dollar incinerator in downtown Minneapolis. This huge incinerator is the first of its kind and has never been tested, according to the "Stop the Incinerator Coalition." It is starting to draw many opponents. Most people would rather they pollute the air 50 miles out of town, but not right here where we can see it coming out of the stacks. Do these people think that the air stands still out in the country? Do they not care that it will pollute our food source area? It takes a few years to discover the poisons that eventually find their way into our food. Some of the opponents say we should expand our recycling plants and try to reclaim more of the trash. Of course this is more sensible than the burning, but it's still avoiding the basic cause of the problem, so, instead of stopping the drilling in the bottom of our boat it merely deals with plugging up the holes in a less destructive manner. Why do we always just deal with the immediate problem? When will we "wise up" and build a system which will not include the "basic cause" of our problems? Let's eliminate the reason why we drill holes in the bottom of our boat! Then we won't have to continuously plug them! Straw man? Is this garbage incinerator just another straw man set up to burn the awakening people's energy? When was the last straw man set up for the Minneapolis radicals? Was it the domed stadium near our downtown? Did people burn up lots of energy; thinking, arguing and demonstrating against it? This is surely a "Straw man" set-up. Any city planner could have told them of the impossibility of the loop location from a traffic situation alone. (you know of the traffic jams we already have in the loop) What will it be like with the hundreds of garbage trucks from the city and county converging in the loop all day and night long lining up to unload! This alone makes the loop placement impossible, but it is very impressive, and will anger more people to burn up their energy in tearing down this elaborate straw man. In the end the Elite will probably compromise by building four plants. One on each corner of the county. Would the "Elite" rather see the "thinking" people spend their bio- computer (mind) time fighting another straw man, or have them use that time to discover the fact that they are "wage slaves" and that they don't really have to put up with this shit any more? It seems to me, the radicals are taking the bait; hook, line and sinker. They are throwing up another defensive action to stop the masters from whipping us. (Undoubtedly with the aid of some highly paid government or corporate agent provocateurs.) Seems to me we would get more progress in the direction of our own liberation by taking an offensive action. It is not possible to gain ground by defensive actions. Gaining ground only follows offensive action. Let's begin this action by pointing out the "basic cause" of the pollution. Let's examine the rubbish cans and dumpsters and see what's in them. Besides the disposable containers, you will find products which were made for PROFIT, i.e., not to last. Things which were made with built-in planned deterioration and planned obsolescence. Why were they built that way? To make more PROFIT! If the objects were well designed and constructed many of them would last a 100 years instead of one or ten. We all know this! But we don't do anything about it. We think that this creates more jobs so we are quiet. We don't stop to study the fact that if we were using a People oriented system instead of the Profit oriented system we would strive to eliminate work by building only beautiful long lasting things which were easy to repair with universal parts. People who enjoy tinkering with these things would be happy to do the repairing. In a sane system we would not use these "things" as status symbols. We would not think it necessary to throw away our old and replace it with whatever is now in style. In a priceless system, I think, we would try to create shorter working shifts for the essential jobs, then more people would get a chance at playing with the wonderful fun machines that we invent for production, but no one would have to work very long hours. In our present Profit motivated system we can't have much fun running these machines when some slave driver boss is constantly causing stress as he/she attempts to make more Profit. Before this Incinerator Straw man is disposed of in one way or the other, it is my guess that many thousands of good intelligent people will add their energy (and money) to this drama, on one side or the other. It is also my guess that if just 10% of these thinking people would put their creative energies behind an offensive action directed at creating a Profitless Society, they would succeed. Once we are operating a priceless economy there would no longer be a "reason" to do destructive things like; polluting, waring, starving or stealing. We will eliminate most of the world's present major problems with a priceless economic system. So why not put some energy behind creating one? Computer Teach an old dog new tricks? You can! I just taught this 61 year old dog to run a computer. I had forgotten how much fun it is to learn something new. (I have had many great highs in teaching myself to run this IBM clone that I have.) They say the Macintosh is easier to learn on, but it costs about twice as much. My clone has a 640K RAM and a 30 meg. HD and a 5 1/4" floppy drive. The Epson LQ850 24 pin printer is fun too. I started with the Ability software program but that just wouldn't do what I needed so I got the Microsoft Word, Windows and Aldus Pagemaker. I don't know which was greater, the joy or the agony in learning these programs. If I hadn't thought I had a great use for the computer I might have chucked it all. As it was, the computer outfit cost about the same as the typesetting would have for my book. And now I'll have the computer to use for the word processing of my future writing and my newsletter. It also feels like I am joining the great leap forward in progress that the world is now taking. I can understand and use some of its new technology. Wow! The jump forward is far greater than the leap from the quill to the typewriter, but I'm still glad I learned to type back in '43. I think we will never get senile in our old age if we keep adding interesting new input into our minds. March 20, 1988 Ernest Mann ----------------------------------------------------------- [For people interested in doing their own book - - I did the typesetting on this book with my IBM XT clone computer with the "Microsoft Word" word processing program and my Epson LQ850 24 pin dot matrix printer. I used a Sans Serif proportional spacing 12 point font (which actually measured only 10 pt.) (sans serif fonts stay clear even after several generations of copying). Finally, the printing company reduced it to 78%, which makes it 8 pt.] "An ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure." 3 JAILED When a government has its police put "good" people (I happen to know that I'm a good person) in jail, it may be time for me to reassess its value. I can think of nothing that government does for its citizens (who make less than $50,000 per year, i.e., 98.6% of us in the U.S.A.) that we couldn't do cheaper, better and more efficiently with private enterprise. This includes the police force. At least we could fire them, if they turned on us with harassment. They wouldn't dare harass us if they feared being fired. After being locked up, from about 4:30 to 11:30 pm, on March 21, 1988, in the Hennepin County jail in Minneapolis, I again realize a little bit of how degraded the police can make a human feel. Just to be confined and not allowed to come and go as one wishes, to be treated with a total lack of respect. To be presumed guilty and a dangerous criminal. To be finger printed (get this -- 4 complete sets of fingerprints) is not a good feeling, and to be threatened with violence by the very attitude of the policemen (policewomen too) is not exactly a good feeling. I tended to lose respect for most of those individuals (?) in uniform. However, I must try to understand the fact that these employees are "acting" under the direction of their superior officers who take orders from their Chief, who takes orders from the Mayor, who takes orders, not from the voters or the Aldermen, but from the big money people. I must not fall in the trap of using these police personnel as the scapegoats for my anger. I must put the blame where it honestly belongs -- on my own shoulders. As long as I'm ignorant (or lazy) enough to continue to play their Pay System Game with them, I must expect events like this to continue and worsen. This is just the way it is and always has been. This is the way the "Money Game" is played. So if I don't like this Game of "them with the most money" ruling, I'll need to start a new Game for myself! If I hire a person to do a job for me and they turn on me, I feel I have a right to protest to that person or persons in some effective way. Writing to your congressmen/women is not an effective way. Try it, if you don't believe me. However if you slip a million dollar campaign check in with your complaint, I suspect they might at least think about what you have to say. I believe I have a right to fire them and hire someone else to rule me or do the job myself. I have found that I can do the job myself. We have been hiring politicians for 200 years or more to protect us from each other. Now that I have taken some time to travel this country and several foreign ones I have come to the conclusion that most of those other people are really good people and that I don't need any protection from them. What I need now, is protection from my own politicians and the police persons and the armies they have hired. If you give someone a little Power over you -- watch out! Power corrupts! They keep adding more power to that. Soon you have an invisible dictatorship. That is what we have today in the U.S.A. and in many other countries. Some countries have very visible dictatorships. Democracy is supposed to be GOVERNMENT by the majority! Ha! It is actually dictatorship, by those with the most money. Money is a tool used to dictate Power. Government is Dictatorship by those who control the money. Knowledge can liberate us from dictatorships! Knowledge of a way to live, produce and distribute goods and services without using MONEY, barter or work credits. Living with less money helps to liberate me from this dictatorship. Superstition is also a tool used to dictate Power. Knowledge of the untruths inherent in superstition has liberated me from this dictatorship. Jail Learn'en What did I learn from this demonstration and jailing? First of all I haven't been in either one for many years. I thought I had learned from the Vietnam War era that they are a waste of my energy and that there are more beneficial ways to spend my time and creativity to help make change than participating in demonstrations or be jailed. Is demonstrating something we do when we first get angry with government? I went to this one only to pass out some of my anti-waste burner literature. I was doing this and happened to be near what turned out to be a front line. The cops appeared and with their long police clubs started poking young people who were sitting peacefully. Anger took over my feelings and I stepped up to the line and told the policemen to stop doing that. Two of them were gentlemen and stopped. Then a tough looking tall cop instantly appeared from behind their line and told me to get off the street. I told him "NO! This is my street and I have a right to be here!" Well, he grabbed me by the shoulder and said to come with him or he would knock me down. (I was unable to see a badge number or name tag on his uniform, so I asked him his name and he said it was Sergeant Wonderful. Can you believe this?) He was big enough to do it, so I went along and was stuffed into a small van which was soon filled with young people and one older man like myself. At least two had been tear gassed. One in his mouth and eyes and was suffering. We were kept in the van for a long time and I was worried that we might use up all our oxygen as the van seemed to be air tight. Later I asked the drivers and they did open a window for us. This all happened only minutes after our march reached the Minneapolis Federal Building. I had not heard any glass break. One of my friends was not far behind and he didn't hear any glass break either. So the police must have jumped the gun and started this violence before the agent provocateur had a chance to break the glass door with the bowling ball. Maybe he was a lousy bowler. Meanwhile, I and 45 others got arrested for disorderly conduct! If it is disorderly conduct to protest the actions of my employees (the policemen and the President) then it is high time we change the GAME we are all playing -- to a game where we won't need police persons and Presidents. Who needs all this harassment? I sure don't! If I have to drop whatever I'm doing and go out into the streets and demonstrate every time government does something WRONG, I'll be spending all my time (life) in the streets. Everything that government does is wrong! What a waste. A trillion dollars a year waste and rising! I think demonstrations do little or no good anyway. Except maybe to awaken more people to the fact that we people have some rights too. The Elite have always allowed their slaves to scream and complain when they whipped them. So what's new? Is that freedom -- to be allowed to scream while being whipped? Life is not all; OBEY, OBEY, OBEY! We have rights too! But we will have to TAKE them! No one is going to give them to us. Individual freedom is something that each individual must take for him/herself -- or they won't ever get it. However, if they prefer to be slaves, they have a right to be! Wake Up! Wake Up! We don't have to put up with this shit any more!!! If we wake up and start doing our own thinking we will soon see that in the present world-wide PAY SYSTEM we are nothing better than slaves. At work we must do as we are told, i.e., OBEY! Or we get fired, quickly! Isn't that what slavery is all about? Today, you obey, or get whipped with the dollar bill! You know this -- "When you take pay, you must obey!" So first, if you can admit you are a slave when you take pay, then you are ready to look for a way to produce and distribute the world's goods and services. Let's look for a way where it won't Pay or Profit anyone to do bad things to us or our old spaceship, Earth. Motivate 'em? Would the following rewards motivate us to work if we didn't get pay or profit? 1. What will happen to wars when no one can make a profit from starting one any more? 2. What will happen to pollution when there is no longer more profit in polluting than in reclaiming and recycling all waste? 3. What will happen to starvation when there is no longer a profit in using much of our best land for non-food cash crops and for not growing anything to collect government soil-bank cash subsidies? 4. What will happen to theft when everything is free? (94% of the people in prisons and jails are in for stealing.) 5. What will happen to taxes and government when we discover the fact that we will have no need for them? 6. What will happen to money, barter and work credits when everything is free? 7. What will happen to people's health when there is no more stress from job and money worries? 8. What will happen to family life when there is no more stress from job and money worries? 9. What will happen to products when designers cooperate to create only the very best, instead of compete to produce the most planned obsolescence and planned deterioration? In a Nutshell Let's get down to the nitty gritty of the whole plan. 1. Would you, as an individual, like life better if you could have any products or services you wanted and as much as you wanted, free of charge? 2. Would you like it better if you could work at any job you wanted, with free on-the-job training, with a bunch of happy contented people? 3. Would you like it better if all schooling was voluntary and free and you could learn as much or as little about anything you chose, free of charge from volunteer teachers who loved their jobs and students? 4. Would you like to work at a job where the "boss" and other employees treated you really well because the more help they had, the shorter shifts they could create for everyone? 5. Would you feel more FREE if you could quit your job at any time and still get everything you wanted, free of charge? 6. Do you think that you would do your share of work to make such a free system possible? Do you think most of your friends would? We have been programmed to believe that no one else would do their share, so most people think that this priceless system would not work. But do a little thinking and research on your own. Start asking people if they could envision a job that they might actually enjoy doing, if they had free choice and free training available and freedom at work to make their job into an even more enjoyable way to spend part of their life. The dull and dangerous jobs we can easily relegate to automation and robots. If there are some people who will not work, we will still be better off in the Priceless System because it will not cost us anything to give out welfare. Those people can just pick up what they want like the rest of us do, only they will not get in on any of the fun and creativity and good feelings we get from our work. They may not want to miss playing with some of the fun machines that we will work with. (I'm finding the computer to be a fun machine. I'm told, some people get paid to run 'em.) How to: How do we get from here to there? If you want to know the truth about it -- I don't know! All I can do is guess and try. I can tell you what has been working in my own life and what I think I must do in the future. I retired from the rat race 19 years ago in 1969. I sold and/or gave away all my things, except for what I could carry away in a backpack. I sold all my real estate for less than $100 down payments to make them sell quick and with real easy monthly payments so the buyers couldn't afford to let the property go back to me. (However, some did give them back, but I resold them right away.) I created for myself and my ex-wife 20 year retirement fixed incomes. This has given me the free time to look at the whole picture from a very different perspective. I began then to see our slavery and what was causing it. My leisure time was the key here, I think. In order to make the small income I had created stretch enough to cover my basic needs and allow me to travel quite a bit both in this country and abroad I had to really pinch my pennies. I always looked for ways to save money. I lived in an unfinished basement for a few years in a slum area near downtown for free. Later I had to pay $50 per month to a new landlord for it. In the winter time the temperature stayed around 55o. I took my baths in one section of a concrete laundry tub. I shit on a newspaper and buried it in the back yard to fertilize the big elm trees. They prospered. I wasn't flushing it into the Mississippi River (my drinking water supply) like everyone else did. I found that the fewer "things" I owned, the fewer expenses I had to maintain and house them. I eventually discovered my own cooking to be far far cheaper than restaurants. (And much tastier and more fun.) So now I am nearly at the end of my 20 year personal pension, but then I will be eligible for my Social Security pension, which won't be much but it will help. I will need to reassess my position and decide if I'll go back into the rat race again for a while or head for the woods, a boat life or maybe walk around the world. Or perhaps a few of us will get it together enough to live somewhere and share our skills and learn cooperation and see how we like that. Thousands are already doing this in little communities. Perhaps this is how we will turn this dirty old sock inside out and build us a better world. Perhaps by turning all our excess energy into building community rather than tearing it down, we will gain more and gain it faster? We may even be able to build self sufficient communities. The Indians did it right here with very simple tools. The earth is very generous if we work with her. On April 1st I plan (Sometimes I change my plans) to give my landlord 30 days notice that I'll be moving. I plan to move out into the country where I can recycle my own waste and have less or no rent to pay. I'm tired of paying sales taxes and hidden taxes to this city for them to waste. How else can I create my better world? Maybe this is where the Revolution really is! Making oneself aware, happy and free! I know that I am not the first one to say this, but it is finally sinking into this old nut of mine. If I am too stupid to make myself happy, I may as well rejoin the slaves in the rat race. If enough of us stop giving government our thought time, anger and energy and learn to make ourselves happy, we might just create a happy world as a by-product. March 24, 1988 Ernest Mann "The only thing necessary, for the triumph of evil -- is for good people, to do nothing."--Edmund Burke 4 MISSING PIECES I got myself angry yesterday at court, waiting from 9:00 am (my appointment time) to about 1:00 pm to say, "NOT Guilty!" and get a date to come back in two months to say it again. How long would a private business last if it was always 4 hours late with its appointments and 2 months behind its schedule? (Doctors being an exception.) Somehow it doesn't seem right that I should have to hire someone (a lawyer) to protect me from these people (politicians, judges and their hired police people) that I already had hired to protect me. It just doesn't quite track. I didn't notice the anger then, only the disgust I had for government and its wasting of people's time and money. In the Government Center, I could see this waste all-round me. It reminded me of all the taxes we have to pay. It reminded me of all the relatives the politicians have had to import from all over the country and hire to fill it. It reminded me of the 23 year old expensive addition and the sturdy old civic auditorium they are tearing down in Minneapolis, to make room to build a much more expensive one. I wonder whose pockets will get well lined with this boondoggle? Whose is getting lined with the downtown waste burner boondoggle? Boondoggle is a very old word. It indicates that politicians have been boondoggling for a long long time and we have been letting them get away with it for a long long time. And we have been paying the taxes to support boondogglers for a long long time. What does this all mean? Does it mean they have kept us too busy and too angry to create a NEW GAME, where boondoggles wouldn't be profitable? Actually the benefits to the politicians from the boondoggles are only a drop in the bucket, compared to the outrageous profits that the land speculators, contractors and suppliers will reap from the taxpayers. I wonder if boondoggle can be equated with swindle? Later in the afternoon, I had a run-in with a (city paid) bus driver and there it was, all over again. The same kind of thinking and browbeating. I got kicked off the bus for not paying an extra 15 cents. My watch said it was 6:30 (the time the fair drops to 60 cents) and the driver's watch said 6:28. We hassled and he threatened to call the police, so I got off and lost the 60 cents I had put in the box. And this is supposed to be a People's owned bus company? Bah, and humbug! It's more of a boondoggle than a service to the people! (However, most of the drivers are really friendly and courteous.) Then I became aware of my anger. My poor stomach was all knotted up and not digesting the pea soup and chocolate brownie. I tried to relax it, during the walk home, but couldn't. After laying on my stomach on my bed for a half hour it settled down and was OK. The new postal increase in rates and decrease in service (how long could you stay in business if you operated like that?) infuriates me further with government inefficiency and waste. Probably all cities and county seats have boondoggles. I don't wish to pay for them. Living in a city, even renters pay for the boondoggles. If I live modestly in the country, at least I won't pay for much of them. Decent World I saw a tiny child on her tipsy toes in a cafeteria trying to see what was available and my heart went out to the dear little person. What kind of world are we leaving for her? What will she have to suffer yet? I decided to continue my crusade from my space in the woods. We have no right to work, play and otherwise escape our responsibility to leave a decent world for her to grow up in. A Missing Piece I must try to see the above actions as merely a part of the "blockade of scapegoats" that are set up by the Elite for them to hide behind, to burn up our energy, to dissipate our anger and of course, to occupy our thoughts and creativity with revenge and other diversions. This blockade of scapegoats concept, is a new incite for me. It's like finding another missing part to a jigsaw puzzle. These scapegoats conceal the truth, so that we won`t see, who or what the source of our trouble really is. If we properly identify the "prime cause," we see that the Elite who control money and thus control government and industry are NOT the source of our trouble! The problem lies in the Game we agree to play! "The take pay for your work and pay for the product," Game. This Game requires a government to protect the Winners from the Losers, i.e., to enable it to continue. In this Game we automatically become slaves. "When you take pay, you must obey!" This obedience, i.e., slavery, allows the Game to continue and causes us to do these bad things to ourselves and our Spaceship Earth. We, working people, are the ones who take the jobs as police persons and the other scapegoat jobs. These people only follow orders and get all the blame. I should feel sorry for them instead of angry. When I confront these various scapegoat barriers I keep myself too occupied, angry, sick and depressed to be able to think clearly and see that it is all just a Game and that I am one of the 5 billion losers. Confronting these scapegoat barriers, I just wear myself out and am too tired to figure out a better Game to play. This run-in with the law has been a diversion and I have allowed it to keep me in a very negative and angry space. It has kept me too occupied to be inventive and creative in trying to further the peace and happiness my vision tells me the Priceless Economic System (PES) would provide. Buckminister Fuller said we should play a game where everyone is a winner! That is the kind of game to invent or discover! That is the kind of Game I think I present in the PES Game. If you can reason your way back to the "prime cause" of war, pollution, starvation and stealing you may even come up with a better Game than the PES. But remember this, it is unlikely we will ever find the solution to any problem unless we first discover the very "basic" cause of it. Now, don't give me that often stated cliche', "People are by nature selfish and greedy." Don't buy that. Scarcity causes greed and selfishness. Who bothers to be selfish and greedy when there is abundance, e.g., who hoards sugar when there is a plentiful supply in the stores? Business As Usual How do we awaken the people who are busily engrossed in their work trying to survive and advance? They appear to be totally oblivious to the boat they are riding in and to the fact that they are drilling holes in its bottom. Every time they buy or sell something, industry produces a replacement and pollutes our environment more with each sale. They are probably unaware of any alternatives except welfare or starvation, so they continue on down their well greased slides. Yard Birds Walk or drive through a "so called" middle or upper class residential section of Minneapolis (and probably other cities as well) and see the same old game going on, same as 40 years ago. See the yard birds and house painters busily trapped in their slavery (jail?) to their house and lawn. (And mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities and upkeep payments.) These yard birds are too busy to see that they are also drilling holes in the bottom of their boat and that they have a choice. Every time they "buy" something, industry pollutes their environment a little bit more to reproduce that item. Joggers Did you ever sit and watch joggers go by? They seem to be in such a hurry. Such a waste of so much energy. Probably a relief valve to get rid of anger and frustration. None of them look happy or like they are enjoying it. Well, whatever works! Witness Someone who had seen me "people watching," called me a Witness. As I think about it, that does describe me. I have observed many things in the 19 years of free time I have created for myself -- things I was unable to see when I was busy in the Rat Race. I have reported (I suppose I'm a Reporter, too) what I have seen (or thought I saw) in the many issues of the Little Free Press newsletter. For some readers these reports may help to confirm their own observations -- for others, these observations may present some additional avenues for consideration. What to do? How can I become more free of the need for money? a. Live without needing to pay rent by building a small inexpensive structure (from lumber I found in Minneapolis dumpsters) in a woods I own near Cushing, MN, or on a friend's land somewhere. b. Stop publishing the LFP? c. ? How can I be happier? a. Stop confronting the System's Scapegoat Brigades. They attempt to suck us into hassles (with the aid of their agent provocateurs and war scare headlines) which make us angry, fearful, defeated and depressed, i.e., subservient. You've heard of blood suckers -- these are Energy Suckers. When we fight with them, we give them energy, i.e., they hire more people and multiply their harassing and raise our taxes. This increases the emotional drain on our happiness. Energy Suckers are professionals. They have been trained for thousands of years to effectively humiliate and break people's spirits (not unlike horse trainers) and to make people angry. When I'm angry, I lose some control and I don't see, do and say what is most logical. When I allow them to get me angry, I give them some of my Power. If I can avoid confronting them, they will not need to hire more help and then they will have more free time to spend in cafes and girl watching. We will both be better off. b. Travel more and observe. c. Find myself an old lady and go sailing. d. Write. e. Remember not to ever think about hassles when I'm eating. Think only about the food! Enjoy every bite! f. ? Presidential Election I can still remember going house to house distributing literature and asking for donations for candidates. How ignorant I was. I was trying to get other people to be as foolish as I was. (Maybe I still am?) I was trying to get people to go to the polls and signify their agreements to have someone RULE them. I think I had some vague thought that laws were made to protect me and control the other people. We were and are giving these politicians carte blanche power to make laws to restrict, dominate and totally enslave us (and raise their own salaries whenever they wish). Which they did, and are still doing! If we were playing a Sane Game, we could easily produce abundance for all, as Bucky Fuller pointed out in his World Game, years ago; then we would have no need for government, laws and taxes. What a savings that would make -- over a trillion dollars a year! This savings alone would amount to about $5,000 per year for each man, woman and child in the U.S. Each one could buy a lot more food than they could possibly eat in a year and have money left over. Cottage Industry Do you remember what Cottage Industry was? It was manufacturing done at home, like a mini-factory with the worker paying all the overhead. The father forced his wife, kids (I was one of those kids on a farm. Small farms are a remnant of cottage industry.) and sometimes the grandparents to work long hours, seven days a week for just board and room. And that was about all the father got after paying his taxes or rent. The customers bought from the cottages which sold their products the cheapest. Are the big shots trying to make this happen again? Are they already farming out much of their work to small firms, i.e., the lowest bidders? Are the Day Labor (Slave Market) jobs on the same order? Big lay- offs have made people so desperate that employers can now buy part time workers for very low wages, with no benefits and no union. To be more honest, instead of saying "Where do you work?" We should say, "Who owns you?" Are individuals starting to work from home with their computers and doing work cheaper than the businesses can do it with their own help? On the surface, this looks really good to the small business person. To be able to have their own business right at home with little overhead! But look at it from the standpoint of no more benefits, like; hospital insurance, pension plan, paid vacation, unemployment checks, sick leave, a steady pay check, etc. All this; one can live with, including the longer hours, to be ones own boss. I did. What will it be like when there is an over supply of cottage workers competing for the same jobs? Will they be wise enough to hang together in Guilds and hold up their prices? Or will they be hung separately as the small farmers were and are? Will new cottagers or desperate ones cut prices to get in on a little of the business? Will we have to go through a similar cycle to what the old cottage industries went through? What was it? Will wages go down so low that big industries will hire people back again for almost nothing to do the same work? If we continue with the present world wide Pay System, we may have to go through this cycle again. Look at the remnant of small farmers -- thousands going broke every year. What would happen? If people who were financially able would take a sabbatical leave from their jobs (and those who couldn't get a sabbatical, would just quit) and focus a greater amount of their thinking, studying, observing and creating on helping to develop a peaceful and happy way for people to live together on this planet, BEFORE we destroy it and ourselves? IF we destroy our environment with pollution or war, what good would come from the additional money they would have accumulated in the Rat Race? Free Sharing Club Would anyone be interested in forming a free skills sharing club? It might be patterned somewhat after the "Free Skills Pool" of Monterey, CA. Members would list the skills they would be willing to share with anyone within our club, free of charge. And on the other hand receive other member's skills free of charge. This may be a way that we could make our lives a little better and a little less dependent on MONEY! We might just turn this dirty old sock inside-out and let our grass roots recycle the dirt as they were meant to. Wouldn't it be nice to just call someone from the club to fix your car for free (except for the parts)? Or take music lessons from a club member. Have a member come over and clean house? Get advice on your computer program? Legal advice? A tooth filled? Electric toaster fixed? A broken arm set? An ad written? A letter typed? A poster typeset? A room painted? A toilet repaired? Garden advice or help? Etc. And on the other hand wouldn't it be fun to do one of your skills for someone in the club, free of charge, once in a while to help them out and save them a little money? Also knowing in the back of your mind that this free sharing just might be the lead-in that will end the Pay & Profit System. And besides that, know that when you need something the club offers, you can get that for free too. The more we use the club and the more people and wider range of skills we bring into it -- the less need we'll have for a job, in the pay system. Anyone care to make comments and suggestions? Would this be your cup of tea? Would you like to coordinate it or one in your area? Let's kick this idea around and see if it will fly. Friendship Club? This Free Sharing Club might also be a dating club. Like everyone listed in the club directory would also list whether or not they are open to dating and if so could list what they desire in a date partner and list things about themselves and their interests. April 8, 1988 Ernest Mann POLITICS ARE CAESAR'S CIRCUS 5 TRUTH "The truth will set you free." I have looked for truth to discover what really starts wars. I think I have found it. I have looked for truth to find a better motiva tion for the production and distribution of the world's goods. I think I have found it. The Priceless Economic System seems like the simplest and most practical way for "all" the world's people to live with abundance (like millionaires, but without exploiting anyone and without wars.) To know the truth about the world's supply of resources -- that there is really an abundance (as Buckminister Fuller pointed out in his "World Game") -- is to set us free of our mind conditioning that tells us that things are scarce, therefore prices must be high. To know the truth about almost all the mass media -- that it is controlled by the Elite few -- is to set oneself free of their con tinuous mind conditioning, i.e., all the lies they have taught us to believe as truths. If we stop watching, reading and listening to it we'll have a better chance to find the truth about any matter. I have found in my 22 years in sales and 19 years as a world trav eler and people watcher, that most people are really good people who do more than their share if given half a chance. But we are lead to believe by the mass media that, (because we read almost daily of ONE murder, atrocity or wrong doing among million's of people) we should be fearful of all people and dependent on government and its police, army and courts for protection. They seldom report the millions of good deeds people are doing daily. If the truth about these proportions were publicized we would not be as distrustful and fearful of one another. We might even be able to work together and build a free society. I would not put it past the Elite to even have their henchmen fake some of the killings and atrocities that are reported in the mass me dia. To just have the "victim" drop out of sight after the staged funeral or maybe have plastic surgery or just change to a different rubber stage mask for the next staged event and a name change and/or move to a different area and be "killed" again. Perhaps there is a secret profession of "hired victims?" I am not the first one to have arrived at this conclusion. Hollywood has had much practice in faking deaths and atrocities. We even have a President and other politicians who came directly from Hollywood. Would staged assassinations and staged attempts make people afraid to be leaders, especially radical ones? If people are kept fearful of each other and dependent on the police, army and courts, are they easier to control? How ? How do we find "truth" so that we can be set free? That is one Hell-of-a question! I guess we just start questioning our beliefs, traditional ways, customs, laws, the one and only way (always be skeptical of this one, remember, "There is more than one way to skin a cat.") and question authority. Perhaps questioning to learn why, and thinking, to discover better ways, may be two of the keys in finding truth. Crocodile Dundee ll I went to see this movie. I enjoyed it. I like adventure movies with plenty of action. I always thought I overrode the killings because I was aware of Hollywood's stunts. I don't dare own a TV. I'd be watching the damn thing all the time and wouldn't accomplish anything. BUT, on the way to my van in the movie parking lot that evening, I became paranoid not only of the few people in the lot but of my work. I became scared to continue confronting the "system" with my Little Free Press newsletter. This fear for my personal safety has struck me before, when leaving movie theaters. This night just confirmed my pre vious observations of one of the purposes of violence in movies. I believe it's there to instill fear, so that the wage slaves will be afraid to rebel against authority! I'm over my fear now, but if I took a dose of TV or movies every day, I'm sure I'd soon be too scared to continue my efforts to make radical change. I wonder if other people ever feel afraid to help make radical change? I suppose if one saw real violence on the streets every day, it would be natural and healthy to be wary and fearful of people and the streets. Everything seems so powerfully real and immanent on the screen or TV that our subconscious may over-ride our knowledge of the unreality and accept the violence as reality and automatically generate fear and wariness in us. Just Think If we ever realize; a. that, we can do things better, cheaper and more efficiently than government does them, b. that, all people the world over would be happier with the Priceless Economic System than the present Profit/wage System, c. that, all people would prefer to change-over to the PES immediately, d. that, we can each help to spread these ideas out to more people, then, we may soon be ready to agree on a date to all stop accepting pay or profit for our work and begin to give all products and services away free of charge. That would end wars, polluting, starvation, stealing, a need for any government and taxes. The truth can set us free! When you take pay, you must obey! A world of volunteers could be a world of FREE BEINGS! Dropped Charges The Minneapolis government dropped their charges against me. I should have expected this, instead of fretting (off and on) about it while waiting the two months for my court trial concerning my arrest that I spoke about in the last two chapters. They reverted to their regular handling of me -- they ignored me! They act as if I'm not here at all and that I have nothing to say. They rarely give my ideas publicity, not even adverse publicity. In order to survive, the Pay/profit System must withhold publicity for the true and simple alternative to itself. It can give all other opponents plenty of press coverage because they would all continue the Pay/profit System if they won their revo lutions, i.e., super-rich people would rule only under a different name. Moved Again On May 2nd I gave up my apartment and moved back to the woods where I had no rent to pay. I figured I would build a little house from the lumber I had scavenged last year. I decided last year to experiment with starting from scratch and not live in the log cabin, but to build something myself to see how I liked that. I spent about $20 on nails and $19 on cement and $5 on sand. I figured on buying some siding boards and rolled roofing at a farm auction sale, saw mill or discount store for under $300. I figured on using saw dust from a saw mill for insulation which may be free or nearly so. I got a wood heating stove from a friend for free. I figured I can always add on to my little efficiency home if I ever get an old lady to share life. Free rent is a mighty BIG DEAL for one who lives well on very little money. I will not have a 30 year mortgage or a perpetual rent payment to enslave me to someone elses wheel. I can build what little furniture I will NEED. I do not feel a need to conform, be better than the Joneses or to show anyone how successful or important I am. I already KNOW that I am the most important person in the world -- to me. If it wasn't for me, I wouldn't be here. The same is true for everyone else, if they only dared to think it. In fact, we are each superior to most others in one way or another, even as we are inferior to most others in one way or another. So why should we waste time worrying about it. Let's get on with life and focus on using our best talents to get the most out of this present moment. Let's also take a long range view and see that we do not destroy ourselves and our environment, so that we'll have a chance to use and enjoy the future moments that are marching rapidly toward us. When I moved out of my apartment I dumped a lot of my stuff in the garbage. I had found much of it in dumpsters and bought some at very cheap rummage sales, how else could I have lived for the past 19 1/2 years on my $50,000 investment at 8% interest. I have traveled the U.S.A. and the world widely. I've had lots of fun. I have observed much. I have attempted to share in this book what I think I've seen and experienced. I'll soon be broke, but I will have had about a 20 year vacation while I'm still young enough to enjoy one. I told myself in 1969, when I was 42, that I'd be damned if I would give the best years of my life as a slave to the dollar! But back to the here and now. I did another sorting of my possessions up in the woods. I got rid of it by giving it to my neighbor. Easy come, easy go. It was good useful stuff, but I didn't really need it. It was in my way. The first three weeks out there, the weather was beautiful and warm (not hot) and I enjoyed just sitting around in the sun and using the outdoor kitchen I had made last year. I watched the birds, saw a deer, wild geese, ducks and did a little thinking, picked Morel mushrooms and wild greens. I went for walks, answered mail, visited some neighbors, went swimming, wrote in my journal, made a trip to Minneapolis to visit a granddaughter who came to town for a visit, made trips to the local towns for groceries, drank some beer, made a couple of new friends and drove around the county looking for a store front to rent. When I finally had enough of this and of just sitting around, I decided to start my building. I took an inventory of the 2 x 4's and discovered I had enough to frame-in a 12' x 12' house. So, I laid it out with string and dug a shallow ditch for a foundation. One of my friendly neighbors came over with his tractor and trailer and we hauled three loads of stones from nearby stone piles. He and his wife helped me get started laying the field stone foundation. I had never done it, but thought it would be as easy as playing with children's blocks. Well it wasn't. It was very frustrating trying to figure out which stone would be the best to lay on top of the last one. My neighbor laid the foundation for about a yard and then I took over. By the time I finally got to the end of the first 12 foot long wall, I was starting to get the hang of it a little and it wasn't quite as frustrating. The weather was starting to get real HOT and I was working up on a little hill with no shade and just couldn't get myself to do any more. I sat around in the shade for a few days and finally figured I would rather "pay rent" to enjoy a bathtub, and have electricity for a refrigerator, a fan and be able to run my computer right now, so that I could get on with publishing this book. I had planned to buy a wind or a gas powered generator to run my computer. Maybe this fall when it cools off, I'll continue the project. I should add that I was constantly picking wood ticks off my entire body and the mosquitoes were out after dark. I slept in my van and had to use a mosquito netting to be able to sleep. Everything I owned (including all the LFP newsletter files, computer, software and other office equipment and supplies) was in that van, so I didn't re ally have all that much space unless I stepped outside (where I spent most of my time). I moved back to Minneapolis and lived in my '79 Dodge van in a friend's parking lot for a few days while I looked for a store front in Minneapolis to rent and live in. I couldn't find one that they would allow me to live in. I ended up rerenting the apartment where I had spent the winter. Lucky for me it hadn't been rented. The phone company even gave me my old phone number. But gee, it feels good to be back in this apartment. I guess my five weeks in the woods were my vacation. I feel a new commitment to my work. I'm getting myself into full swing now to get this book published. Mysterious ? In the last few years I have experienced something that I cannot explain conclusively to myself. It seems that sometimes when I am trying to do something or make some changes in my life, I run into obstacles which prevent me from going any farther with the plan I'm trying. Then I must go back and try one of my other plans or think up a new one. It seems that when I finally find a plan that works, it is always (always? I think so) for my best interest. Some people may call this Fatalism. Some may call it God. Some may call it the hand of outer space beings controlling their creation. But, I prefer to think that it is merely my subconscious mind using some kind of telepathy or maybe just jumping to logical probabilities and reaching out to discover the best route for me to take. And/or it searches through my memory bank and picks up factors I am consciously unable to remember and then it communicates with other people's subconscious minds and together these higher levels of our minds formulate a plan or meeting that would be advantageous to both of us. We get a hunch to do or go to a certain place and we do it. We meet (our conscious minds thinking it merely a "chance" meeting) and things turn out much better than what we could have expected from our original plans. My explanation probably doesn't have any scientific backing and probably no great following, but it is sufficient to satisfy me at this point in time. (I wonder if negatively oriented people always manage to have bad things happen to them when they follow their hunches?) "Sale" = Happiness ? I can now see how we have been, and are being conditioned to "enjoy" BUYING. They have "Sales" which make us even happier because we subconsciously think we are "beating the game." We feel like winners! So we buy, buy, buy -- to try to get those good deals, i.e., good feelings. If we would really face the facts, we would detest and fear buying, because it uses up our money (our leisure time) so that we must work more and save less. About 90% have to work at jobs they Hate! I am learning to entertain myself and am learning to create good feelings in myself without buying much of anything. Why Continue? Some people may wonder why I persist with my efforts to promote the PES. I'll tell you. When I retired in 1969, I could have retired to some South Pacific or Caribbean island and spent the rest of my days laying on the beach, looking at nearly naked beautiful women and sipped on "Coco Locos" and drank and fucked myself to death. But I soon observed what the Game was all about. In my eyes it looked like, "Make all the Profit (or wages) you can, and to Hell with people and the environment!" I realized the environment was my "boat" and the Profit/wage Game was motivating people to sink MY boat. Well, I still have a strong survival instinct and I desire to live! So that is why I've spent most of my time and money attempting to save OUR boat. We May Be Wrong! Regardless of how much we hope, believe or assume that things will work out and that the environment will heal itself -- we may be wrong. Prestigious scientists tell us once again in the "Star Tribune" of Minneapolis on 6/24/88, that our continued polluting of the environment is causing the "greenhouse effect" and is putting us dangerously close to the end of our rope, i.e., to "the point of no return," where the earth will not be able to heal itself and sustain our species, if we wait too long to stop polluting. Politicians TALK a lot now (to get votes) about how government should help out the farmers and about passing more laws against factory pollution. They do not point out the "basic reason" of why industry and farmers pollute. No one suggests changing the cause of most of our troubles. No, it is much more profitable to continue adding to the problem. We are each responsible for this. Every time we buy something, industry (or farmers) reproduce it and do their Profit oriented pol luting. In our present system almost all production pollutes in one way or another. In our present Profit/wage motivated system -- every time a person buys something, it is like we hire someone to drill another hole in the bottom of our boat. More people had better wake up and focus more of their attention, time and energy on this problem -- or we will ALL go down with our boat! If we each buy less, it may give us some additional time to begin a Game where we can all be winners (including our environment). I hope we will think up a way to publicize, "How the Profit/Wage Game is causing the fall of the Homo sapiens.", that the business and industrial executives can relate to. We need their help desperately to expedite a better Game. We must help them understand the fact that they and their families will sink with the rest of us, if we don't change the game. Advantages of the Priceless Economic System 1. Industry will have happy healthy employees who willingly take responsibility for their work and enjoy doing it and therefore are better workers. 2. They will have no payrolls to meet. 3. Employees will have no money worries and will not feel exploited. 4. Employees will look for ways to make a better product or service because they are proud of it. 5. Employees will not sluff-off every time management's back is turned. 6. Places of employment may become communities where the workers enjoy each other and their work and may even live there or nearby. 7. We may discover cooperation to be more efficient than competition. 8. There would be no more labor or wage disputes. 9. No more government interference. 10. No more need to make a PROFIT! 11. No more need to build weapons to kill people and destroy property. 12. No more TAXES! 13. No more stockholder interference. 14. No rent or mortgage payments. 15. No more need for burdensome and wasteful advertising and sales forces. 16. Bookkeeping and accounting would be substantially reduced or eliminated. 17. Production would be geared to fill the demand, rather than to create the demand. 18. Products would be created to have long trouble free lives, instead of being designed with planned obsolescence and planned deterioration factors. 19. Producing more with less. 20. Saving our earth's resources, instead of squandering them to make some stockholders richer. 21. Reducing the amount of human labor needed for production, instead of creating "make work" jobs. 22. Employees will then have no reason to sabotage automation and robots. 23. More shifts could then be created to cut down the working hours for each individual and allow more people to get in on job satisfaction. Once we get some of the movers, shakers and doers working on this project, I'll bet they (with their expertise and use of the mass media) will change the entire world over to the Priceless Economic System in less than a year. How are we going to get the first of these big "wheelers and dealers" to break-away and give evolution a good hard kick in the right direction? I wonder if this is where we should focus our thinking and action right now? June 24, 1988 Ernest Mann VOLUNTEERS ARE FREE, SLAVES MUST OBEY WHEN YOU TAKE PAY,YOU MUST OBEY 6 MEANING OF FREEDOM Freedom starts in my mind. If I believe I can't fight city hall, I don't. If I believe the world is flat I don't venture out very far. If I believe there is a bo geyman in the basement, I am fearful of going down there. If I believe a bicycle can't fly, I don't try to make it fly. What I believe to be true (whether it is or not), more or less Rules my life. If I deny I am a slave to those who control money, I will not seek freedom from them. No one "gave" freedom to me. If they had tried I probably would have found someone else to tell me what to do. Freedom started in my own mind. When I discovered the fact that I was an individual and that I could be in control of myself if I chose to be, I found ways to reject the control that society had conditioned into me. I started making my own decisions based on what is best for the individual. I now attempt to make my own individual self happy. With a world of happy individuals, we would have a happy society. So, what is best for the individual is best for society. It is not the other way around, as I was taught. I was taught to obey the rules that somebody set up for society. And I was told I would then be happy. (Or at least, when I got to Heaven, I would have happiness.) I was taught to take care of others. Serve others. I was not to worry about myself. This was a very proper training for a servant or a serf. Society do-gooders cannot force me to conform to their concepts and expect anything but a slave. What is best for me, individually, must be considered over the "long term." It ties in with the tendency to "get even." If I take ad vantage of another person, I must expect that person or their friends to do the same or worse to me somewhere down the road. So the short term advantage is not worth the long term worry and trouble that may lie ahead. If I try to make my own life better, with a view of the long term effects, I will be doing things which will affect others in a positive way, so I will be planting seeds of happiness for my own future as well. This may help to make a happier and more peaceful world. An example of the "short term" view of individual happiness is the Profit and Pay System that is used worldwide today. I cannot make "even exchanges" in this system. I must always strive to get the "best" of each deal, i.e., I must make a Profit or I won't be able to pay my rent and stay in business (when I was in business). I didn't look down the road and see that everyone else was doing the same to me every time I bought something. The Pay System is one constant struggle to make more money than one spends. Only a very few win at this Game. I won! Not really very much in money though. But what little I did win, I used to buy 20 years of freedom for myself! When I took pay -- I had to obey! I was conditioned by TV, radio, movies, books, magazines and newspapers to desire and buy things. Pay ing for these things and taking care of them, kept me too busy to have time to think and discover my slavery or to find a way out, i.e., to find Freedom. Not only was I enslaved to the "things" I owned but to my pets and vices. I allowed them to keep me too busy to have time to wonder at: na ture, dreams, day dreaming, the thinking process and at learning how to direct it for my own personal happiness. Music They achieved effective mind conditioning with the music they sold and gave me. Music is a mood setter. I scanned my radio and seemed to hear a similarity in almost all the music and especially in the song lyrics. In the singers' voices, I think I hear a loneliness, a whining, a moaning, a sorrowing, a desperation, a sadness, a lamenting, a melan choly -- sometimes almost like they are getting ready to cry. I hear something like that in the music too. Can you hear it? If this observa tion is correct, why are they overloading the air waves and tapes with this type of mood set? Why are nearly all the songs about love? And usually a loss of love. Not happy songs. Not marching songs (yet). Not about the thou sands of good things in life that they could sing about. Is there some reason the behavioral modification people want me to focus my thoughts on love and sex? Are they trying to get me to make more babies? Use more rubbers? Are they trying to make me believe I am deprived and should focus my thoughts on finding more sex? They previously stole many hours per day of thought-time from me with this subject and the moods it induced. Why? Golden Rule [Do to others as you would have them do to you.] Taking freedom, I think, is for me to give myself the right to do, think or say anything I please. Herein lies instant learning, i.e., the Golden Rule. I soon learn what gives me good reactions from others and what gives me unpleasant reactions. In a sane society it is not difficult to predict which reactions other people and I would prefer. Presently however, we live in an insane society because we play the Money Game which makes most people losers, sick and sometimes mean. In the Priceless Economic System we will have no reason to exploit, cheat, nor steal. It will therefore be much easier to be a sane and happy individual. Speaking of us all, it would then be said we were a happy society, a happy world. Only I can decide what is best for me. If I go through life merely doing what I am told to do, I will not experience Freedom. Taking freedom, is also admitting how suggestible I am and then avoiding the media which implant the subtle suggestions which have moti vated my actions and formed my basic belief systems. Then I begin to reevaluate my beliefs and see if they hold up on their own. When I stopped accepting things "on faith alone" from my parents, teachers, preachers, government and the news media; I could use my own reasoning, experimenting and experiencing to check the validity of my old beliefs. I developed some new belief systems which give me more freedom and happiness. I do not have to let others rule me. I can find ways to avoid many rules. Rules and laws only work if people agree to obey them, as I did. Freedom and happiness can be very tricky. One can be in prison and make ones self feel free and happy. That is insane, but it helps pris oners survive their term. I told myself and others that I liked my work for 22 years. I really thought I liked it. But now as I look back on it, I can see how miserable I was much of the time. I remained in my slavery because I did not take the time to think my way out of it. It is sooooooo much easier to tune-in to a thought- leader like radio, music, TV, movies, books, magazines and the newspa pers. Or to get stoned or drunk. Or to just talk trivia with someone. I know! I've done it! I still do sometimes. Group Action Freedom is not a group action. It is not a demonstration or a march directed by someone with a bull horn telling me what to shout. This merely burned up my anger energy in a way which did little to scare the Masters. In fact they encourage it and even hire agent provo cateurs and give it media coverage. Groups do not promote Freedom for me. Their leaders usually expect conformity to their rules, i.e., slavery again. Individuals do every thing. Even in a group, it is the individuals, who do all the work. It is when I make my own decisions, that Freedom can exist. Could this happen in groups? We are all individuals. Yet, we all are almost alike, inside and out. We all have almost the same basic needs and desires. We all need food, water and shelter. We all desire love, friends and happiness. Yes, we have a few minor differences like size, color and preferences. The manipulators instigate race and religious prejudices to keep us from uniting. When we realize the fact that we will all be better off in the long run, by cooperating instead of competing, we can begin to appreci ate differences and accept each others help. Perhaps then love will flow more naturally. Down through the ages and even today the Elite use the old "Divide and Rule" concept with their relentless encouragement of competition, to keep us fighting one another instead of cooperating to get ourselves out of our bondage. We could do it easily, with both our hands tied be hind our backs, if we cooperated because there are over 98.6% of us. In 1980 98.6% of the U.S. population made an adjusted gross income of less than $50,000. 1.3% made between $50,000 and a million and only .0018% (4,112 people) made over a million dollars1. The few make the rules and we do the work and pay the bills. The world is populated by people who were once Free individuals. But the minute they submitted to, or elected a leader they became slaves. I see nothing wrong with asking advice from someone I believe knows more about a particular subject than I do. I will take that advice and use it, if it sounds good to me. And I'm willing to give advice if asked. But I do not wish to be forced to take advice, no matter how good it is. In a mob or group, leaders are able to create a "mob hysteria" in which people do insane things that they wouldn't do if they weren't in the group, e.g., lynchings, wars and religious atrocities. Freedom began in my mind. As I discovered and began replacing the negative and limiting programming in my bio-computer (mind) with positive programs which helped me discover my biocomputer's limitless potential, I began to experience my Power and the real meaning of FREE DOM. Freedom is not a battery or a brassiere. Freedom is the Natural Way of Life which our ancestors lost, long long long ago, through their ignorance about superstitions, magic, wage slavery, politicians and gov ernment. When I began to believe that I would be better off with the Price less Economic System, I began to promote that new system with all my en ergy. I may as well have the BEST that I can help to create. I have asked myself and my friends these questions: 1. Would the individual be better off if everything were free and everyone worked without pay or Profit? 2. Is it more fun to give or to sell? 3. Is it more fun to do some work for someone for free or to work for pay? 4. Would this be true for mostly everyone? 5. Then wouldn't everything be free for everyone, if everyone enjoyed giving more than selling? 6. Wouldn't everyone be happier then? August 4, 1986 One-Way Ticket We each have a one-way ticket through life. If we don't enjoy each minute of the journey, it's our own damn fault. We had better start doing what makes our heart sing, RIGHT NOW! Why not? We will never get another chance to use "this moment." We cannot own it -- but we can use it. We can use it to our detriment, we can just let it drift by or we can use it wisely. We actually have a choice at this very moment! June 24, 1988 Ernest Mann 1World Almanac, 1983. 7 BECOMING MORE FREE 1. Getting More Free Time: A. I am wasting less of my time (LIFE) with THOUGHT LEADER media. They are like spectator sports. They cause me to live life vicariously, i.e., second-hand, not real, only in fantasy. These mind conditioners are subtly designed to create not only fear and anger emotions but also create feelings of guilt and inadequacy. How many times have you heard your fellow Americans intimate that we are the "cause" of the world's problems? That our corporations are doing these bad things to the environment and to people? Did you ever stop to realize the fact that these Giant Multinational Conglomerates are "controlled" by a few International Elite people. Not Americans! But they have laid that GUILT trip on the Americans. If we carry guilt, are we easier to manipulate? These feelings stifle growth and keep one securely in ones rut. And of course the more visible purpose of the media is to create a deep hunger to acquire (BUY! BUY! BUY!) and keep up with the Joneses. "Buying" uses up my savings. I spent 22 years of my TIME (life) working as a Wage Slave. I helped perpetuate the status quo, i.e., a country of 98.6% Slaves and less than 1% Elite (49 Billionaires). I don't wish to do that any more. Almost every time I buy something, I am in fact, hiring the industrialist to hire one of us for wages, to drill another hole in the bottom of our boat, i.e., to destroy our environment a little bit more. If I continue buying products from them, I help sink the boat in which we all ride. As I stop buying their junk, I use that time and money to help build an economic system in which it won't Profit anyone to drill holes in our boat. B. I am talking less "trivia." I try to take responsibility and lead conversations into areas that are meaningful and interesting to me or I find someone else to talk with. This gives me more meaningful input and more free time; to think about what I really like to do with my life (with this moment), to experiment with different ideas and to continue to experience the ones I like best. I wish to discover what it is like to be a "Natural" human being, (instead of a "Normal" one, who conforms and obeys) to see if I like that better. I spend more of my time trying to discover what makes ME happy. 2. Got rid of all my debts and credit cards. 3. Getting rid of my surplus possessions. 4. Getting my rent down as low as I can. 5. Stopping my destruction of my body. 6. Teaching myself how to choose my thoughts, so that I can choose not to linger on self-destructive thoughts and am learning to focus on thinking about creating more freedom and happiness for myself. 7. Learning ways to live happily on very little money, i.e., becoming more independent. (People with lots of money don't need to do this. In the present system -- MONEY is IN- DEPENDENCE.) 8. Experimenting with food. I'm discovering which foods and how much my body prefers. It tells me when I pay attention. 9. Get rid of my vehicle as soon as it feels like a burden. 10. Won't attempt to gain Power over anyone. A slave's chain has two ends. 11. Striving to be free and happy. I share my methods of happiness with others if they are interested. 12. Overcoming the fear of being alone. I realize that loneliness is only a thought and I am gaining control of my thoughts. 13. Worrying less about what people (including mother) think about me. 14. Starting to try some new things, friends, places, skills, routes, foods, ideas, etc. 15. When I dropped out in 1969, I stopped observing all holidays, including birthdays and Xmas. I don't give cards or gifts on holidays. However if I feel moved to give a gift or send one of my own self designed cards, I will do so, but not on a government designated holiday. I think I'm almost over that too now. I get enough gift giving satisfaction from "giving" my free newsletter (my work). The holidays card and gift exchanging was a terrible waste. I received things I didn't want and couldn't get rid of without hurting someones feelings and the gifts I bought were probably just as detested. Only the stores gained from all that old nonsense. I am enjoying my complete ignorance of holidays. On those days I do just as I do on any other day, except they are a nuisance sometimes when I attempt to bank or post office. 16. Absorbing new and useful input into my biocomputer and avoiding much trivia, helps me surpass my old programing of "garbage in -- garbage out," i.e., my old way of life. Each person has the potential to become a genius in some area. But most are too busy with trivial diversions. "Plow your furrows deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and keep." Benjamin Franklin Trivial Diversions How much is too much? What portion of my conversation is trivia? How can I expect to accomplish anything but TRIVIA if I allow that to be my major focus? (However, at this point in time, I seem to need some trivia. My ability to focus on the important is still quite limited.) Democracy Is Not Freedom (Except for the Elite) I was programmed to feel reverent whenever I heard, saw or thought the word -- "Democracy." Tears would almost form in my eyes. I assumed that Democracy was a wonderful thing to have. I never looked it up in the dictionary. I never thought of it as "Government and Bureaucrats." I thought of it as an entity; being there to protect, care for me and give FREEDOM! What an ignoramus I was. I had no notion that there was any "alternative" except some worse kind of government. I took it all for granted. I assumed I (we) controlled it because I (we) voted. It was a DEMOCRACY! How naive I was. Just another one of the "suckers" Barnum said is born every minute. Webster's New World Dictionary: Democracy: Government by the people, directly or through representatives. Government: The exercise of authority over a state (people), organization, etc.; control; rule. To rule someone -- wasn't that what slave masters did? Is government just the "front men" of the slave owners? Well, I refuse to play that game anymore. I will not be owned! The "Rule of the Majority" is a farce! In practice it has always been, "The Rule of the Minority," i.e., the manipulators, i.e., the Elite. No thank you! You can have them both. I don't have a need or a desire to be ruled by either or anyone! DEMOCRACIES and other governments have kept people in Wage Slavery for the past 5,000 years or more. ALL GOVERNMENTS are basically the same -- they RULE! Rules create conformity. Rules perpetuate the status quo. Rules produce slavery. Rules stifle creativity. Rules prevent INDIVIDUAL freedom! I do not desire to have people rule me directly or through representatives. I am not a cow or a sheep. I refuse to remain domesti cated. I am fully capable of Ruling myself! I do not desire to rule anyone. I just want to be FREE! And I am getting more free because I'm not playing their games much anymore. I no longer GIVE my consent to be ruled. I don't vote for a Ruler or for Laws any more! My chosen work right now is writing and publishing. I give my work for free in my Little Free Press newsletter. My past 18 years of payless working have been far more fun and satisfying than my previous 22 years of paid working. Volunteers have more freedom than paid workers. When everyone is a volunteer -- everything will be FREE for me, and for everyone else as well! February 12, 1987 Ernest Mann Slave Attitude To protest -- is to admit subservience. A slave begs or makes weak demands to his/her Master for changes. To build and create -- is to be in charge. A Freeperson (a God) makes change. We are either Slaves or Gods. If we acknowledge someone else as God or Boss, that makes us something less. We just gave away our freedom, our Godhead. We gave away (or sold) the control of our life. We have a right to do this. We have as much right to give away our power, as a leader has to accept it. It is our choice once we become aware of it. Since I discovered myself to be a lion, I quit acting like a sheep. 8 WORLD WAR III? Will it soon seem logical to those who control the World-wide Pay System Game to cause a severe depression as they did in the 30's? Is this how the Game must go -- to terminate the continuous years of inflation since 1930? And then, must the Pay System Game have another World War to pull us out of this depression? Is this the way the Pay/Profit System Game must be played to make it work? If so, maybe we should quit playing this dumb game and start a smart game where we don't need to beat ourselves to death. How many more farms and homes will they foreclose on? How many more business people will be driven bankrupt? When will they collapse the stock market? How many more banks will they close? How many more city gang wars will they instigate? How much more violence in the streets will they stage with agent provocateurs? When will they have one of their puppets start World War III, by launching the first missile attacks on our cities? (Nuclear or blockbusters -- you get just as dead.) When? When the leaders decide we are meek, scared and broke enough! WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO DRAFT YOU OR YOUR SWEETHEART, YOUR SON OR YOUR FRIEND FOR THEIR NEXT WAR -- WHAT WILL YOU SAY? Why? Corporations make gigantic profits when they supply governments with OIL for "defense." Can you imagine the Profits they make when they sell army bases, naval bases and missile bases for "Defense?" Think how much money they collect annually from government on just the upkeep and maintenance of these bases. Not to mention tires, typewriters, com puters, uniforms, housing, drugs and even contraceptives for Defense. Think how corporate Profits will soar, when governments are "at war" using up and destroying these products and bases! SHALL WE CONTINUE SLAVING AWAY FOR THE BIG CORPORATIONS SO THAT THEY CAN CONTINUE TO REAP PROFITS FROM DEFENSE CONTRACTS? 98.6% of the U.S. population earned less than $50,000 adjusted gross income in 1980. 1.3% earned between $50,000 and $1,000,000. .0018% (4,112 individuals) made more than a million dollars. Do you think any of the 98.6% have the time, money, expertise or the desire to start World War III? Which group does the shit work and foots the bill? Which group manages the corporations? Which group are the people in, who make the decisions to start war? Is the War-profit potential great enough to tempt the World Elite to enact another "surprise" attack, like they did on Pearl Harbor? How much easier for them now with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. We have always had wars and always will have wars -- UNTIL we take the Profit out of war! Time for Prevention? There is still time to prevent World War III -- right up to the last minute before the Elite decide to have the buttons pushed to launch the first 1,000 missiles on our cities and the "enemy's" cities. No matter how good we are told our missile defenses are (you know how inefficient government is) -- some missiles are bound to hit our cities. Then Americans will see and feel what WAR does to homes, friends, lovers and children. It won't be like World War II -- with Americans enjoying safe easy "Defense" jobs with lots of overtime, big wages and plenty of money to spend. Instead, it will be worse than Lon don's "Buzz Bombs," destroying a few apartment buildings and killing a few people each time one drops unexpectedly out of the sky. No! The Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles carry much more devastating war heads and better target finding technology. "WORLD WAR III, MAY NOT BE HEALTHY FOR LITTLE CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS." Who Is Trying? Do you know of anyone who recognizes the basic cause of War and is actively trying to eliminate it? I have read or heard of no one in the regular news nor in the Underground news (except the Little Free Press newsletter) who is promoting a Profitless economic system. The Communist, Socialist, Anarchist, Capitalist, Libertarian and religious systems all use money. So, where there is money or barter, there is a way for the Elite to get their hands on the lion's share of it, and even more so, when at War. Therefore if almost "no one" is promoting the workable solution -- isn't it logical to assume that the Profiteers will prevail and start WW III, whenever they please, with no effective opposition? Just like leading their lambs to slaughter! Many good people have become alert to the fact that the "system" is doing bad things to our people, planet and other living things. They have discovered the symptoms of destruction growing in our "life-sup port" system. They have warned us that human extinction will happen soon if we don't take action to halt this destruction. This is an extremely vital work these people are doing -- shaking- up people who are "working, consuming and doing the TV Trance Dance." People need to become aware of the fact that something is wrong before they can relate to "help make change." People may need to become angry before they can leave their secure routines (ruts) and take action. Many good people are already working with Nuclear Freeze, Central American and other revolutions, Third World exploitation, world hunger, pollution, alternative energy, animal cruelty and helping people in world catastrophes. Nuclear arms and all Defense is Profitable. After a Revolution, people end up with the same or a new group or Party of profiteers exploiting them. Cash crops produce Profit and Hunger. Industrialists make more Profit by polluting than by reclaiming and recycling their wastes. Farmers make more Profit by polluting than by farming organically. Oil cartels Profit by ignoring and subduing alternative energy. Drug companies Profit from animal cruelty. When activists begin to see that the same basic motive is behind most all the world's problems, they will see their "common interest." They will see that by cooperating with the other organizations they can become more effective. Instead of burning up our energy fighting the system, we will use that same energy to cooperate and build a NEW system which will not include the "prime cause" of problems that we share in common today. That "prime cause," of course, is Profit. More Profit can be made by doing these destructive things to life than by doing otherwise. It is that simple. The problem is not political, but economic. So how do we set up an economic (production and distribution of goods) system which will operate without the Profit motive? That is also simple, after some thought. Today in every country of the world, people take "pay" (or Profit) for their work and must "pay" for products and services. Pay (or Profit) is the present world-wide motive for working. So we merely need to change the work motive. We merely need to show people that if they would work as volunteers and make their work into pleasurable experiences and use automation and robots for the dull and dangerous work, they could then distribute their products and services free of charge. Then they would have no need for money (pay). They would thus relieve themselves of the drudgery of being "forced" to work and they would rid themselves of the burdens of taxes, government, war, pollution, hunger, stealing and money worries. These rewards should be sufficient to motivate volun teers to work. There are already 84 million Volunteers in the U.S.A. Why do they work? In a priceless economy, people would choose the job they liked and receive FREE on-the-job training. They would be doing a work they liked and know that their work contribution allowed the priceless system to function. Work would then become like a hobby. People could become artists at their work. Some jobs allow one to work with very expensive equipment which one cannot afford to buy for ones home. When one doesn't "have to" do something it can be more fun to do. Most people tell me that no one would work if they didn't get paid. But how do you account for the 84 million Americans who worked as volunteers (as reported in the Christian Science Monitor of March 30, 1982)? Here is a partial list of those volunteers: Current Volunteer Strength of 20 National Agencies1 Number of Organizations Volunteers U.S. Committee for UNICEF 3,000,000 American Heart Association 2,727,000 American Cancer Society 2,300,000 United Cerebral Palsy 2,000,000 Muscular Dystrophy 1,880,000 American National Red Cross 1,357,290 National Boy Scouts of America 1,105,245 American Lung Association 1,000,000 National Assoc. Retarded Citizens 1,000,000 National Easter Seal Society 1,000,000 National Multiple Sclerosis Soc. 950,000 National Council of YMCA 757,727 Girl Scouts/U.S.A. 572,362 The Arthritis Foundation 351,000 The National Foundation 250,000 The Salvation Army 230,000 National YWCA of U.S.A. 145,000 Camp Fire Girls, Inc. 135,000 Boys' Club of America 50,000 U.S.O. 40,000 __________ Total 20,850,624 There were already nearly enough people willing to work without pay to handle the 104 million jobs that there were in the U.S.A. in 1980. Think of how many many more people will be eager to volunteer when they realize their efforts will rid the world of the: SEVEN GREATEST EVILS WAR STARVATION POLLUTION STEALING TAXATION MONEY WORRIES GOVERNMENT "Is an ounce of prevention, still worth a pound of cure?" What Can One Person Do? It has done no good in the past to ask governments to disarm. This only deals with the symptom of the disease. To cure the ill -- the CAUSE must be eliminated. I had to face the fact that PROFIT is the cause of WAR! After I realized this I was ready to help create an economic system in which there is no Profit. I help change the above "no one" is helping to "everyone" by spreading the word on what and whom CAUSES War. I try to tell people how we can set up an economic system which will be almost like Paradise for everyone, with no reason to start Wars. I try to use that Utopian System in a small way in my own life. I make my life a little richer and better today. This will make my tomor rows better, with something to look forward to. "Hope" is what it is called. Happiness and satisfaction began some years ago for me when I decided that I work on the world's most important and urgent task -- helping to free us all, of the burdens and misery of WAR! This near Utopian or Paradise system could be called the Priceless Economic System. It would create true Freedom for the Individual! "Power to the People." is meaningless. Priceless Economics returns "Power" over one's own life, to the individual. This is what FREEDOM is really all about! Individuals would then have Power over what products or services they would take and how much they would take. Products and services would then have no resale value and they could not be status symbols because they would be free for everyone. It would only be a burden to take more than one needed. There would no longer be a Profit in creating scarcities but much advantage in creating abundance. With abundance, selfishness and greed become obsolete. "In a desert, no one steals sand from their neighbor." With Priceless Economics, each individual would control the when, where, why and who they accepted products and services from or worked for. Thus, Volunteers would be treated decently or they could quit anytime and would still get everything they wanted free of charge. The more Volunteers a place of work had, the fewer hours each worker would need to contribute to produce abundance, so it would be to everyone's advantage to encourage and nurture newcomers and give them free on-the-job training. We don't need to convince the whole 4 1/2 billion world population. The little kids pretty much do what their parents do. Most of the very old are no help or hindrance. Most of them are just trying to hold it together. The silent majority mostly just conforms to what ever the media tell them is "Public Opinion," i.e., they do what they are told. So really, we have only a few "thinkers, shakers and movers" to reach with these logical advanced ideas, then the youth, aged and silent majority will jump on the band wagon so fast, it'll make your head swim. Then they will say, "I was for it all along. I just didn't think anyone else was." (Almost everyone tells me that, now!) If you can relate to these ideas, you can decide for yourself what you will do to help promote them. 10/24/85 Ernest Mann THE PAY SYSTEM The Pay System is a system in which people work for profit or pay. This makes products and services cost money. WORK: People own industry, property and natural resources if they make a profit. The rest of us work for them. We work wherever and whenever they want us. We're afraid that other workers may take our jobs. Junk production, paper shuffling and other useless jobs flourish if someone profits. Useless products and planned obsolescence create millions of jobs and require tons of natural resources and energy. Work is boring, unhealthy and unfulfilling. NEEDS: Everything that we want costs money so there is reason to steal and starve. RELATIONSHIPS: We get bad feelings from our work and bad feelings from not getting all the things we need. We're unhappy. Being dependent on someone for our needs, we often form our relationships unwisely. CONTROL: There is profit in stealing, wars and pollution; so we have a need for police, soldiers, government and taxes. Most people are unhappy with the Pay System. SWITCH-OVER: We can preserve this great world-wide Pay System and prevent any switch-over if we all continue to work for pay and be insatiable consumers. THE PRICELESS ECONOMIC SYSTEM The PES is a system in which all people work for free. This makes all products and services free. WORK: No one will care to own industry, property or natural resources when they can't make a profit from them, so we will each be our own boss. We will work wherever we choose. Other workers will welcome us and teach us because the more help they have, the fewer hours they will each need to work. We will then stop doing junk production, paper shuffling and all other useless jobs. This will free millions of workers and resources for essential production. We'll make our work enjoyable, healthful and fulfilling. NEEDS: Everything that we want will be free so there will be no need to steal or starve. RELATIONSHIPS: We will get good feelings from our work and good feelings from getting all the things we need. We'll be happier. Not being dependent on anyone for our necessities we will form our relation ships more wisely. CONTROL: There will be no profit in stealing, crookedness, wars or dishonesty so we'll have no need for government, taxes or boundar ies. All people will be happier with PES. SWITCH-OVER: As soon as everyone understands and wants the Priceless Economic System we'll all switch over together. 1American Association of Fund Raising Council, 1980; Editorial Re search Reports Dec. 12,1980. 9 UTOPIA NOW POSSIBLE A revolutionary breakthrough in employee motivation may be forthcoming which will make jobs so attractive, interesting and enjoyable that employees will work without pay. These volunteers will be attracted by good working conditions, the latest in fine tools, machines and technology, such as; robots, computers, satellite communication systems, etc. Volunteerism would eliminate the "monetary cost" of production which in turn would permit all products and ser vices to be distributed free of charge, thus allowing people to work without pay and enabling industry to provide the marvelous technologies and tools. Work would then become a privilege instead of a duty. This Priceless Economic System would cause the following departments to become unnecessary: 1. Payroll 6. Insurance 2. Sales 7. Legal & Tax 3. Advertising 8. Much Accounting 4. Credit 9. Much Administra. 5. Banking 10. Security This would make tremendous savings in resources and energy and free more than 16 million people for useful work. People leaving these unnecessary jobs could volunteer for any jobs they liked and receive free on-the-job training and begin to learn and produce immediately. Volunteers take more responsibility to do better work and create better working environments for themselves. Instead of working because one "had to" and hating it, people would work because they desired to. Then employees would take more interest and think of ways to make improvements, thereby getting satisfaction from their work in creative ways without pressure to make profits. The people who now claim they own the raw materials would then have no need for money because everything would be free for everyone. Regardless of their claimed "ownership," their employees would be distributing the raw materials free of charge as would all employees in all industry and on farms. Stockholders would have no need for money nor any reason for worries about inflation, depression or stock market ulcers. They could use their certificates for wallpaper. Because everything would be free there would be no reason to steal. 94% of the people in prison and jails1 are there for stealing. Priceless economics would end 94% of the need for: 1. 4,052 jails and prisons 2. 630,000 lawyers and judges 3. 1,267,000 guards and police 4. 412,000 prisoners Thus giving us 2,170,460 more people to help with the essential work. There would no longer be a reason to starve or revolt when everything is free. Malnutrition would become a thing of the past when land is used to feed people instead of for "cash crops," soil bank in come and speculation. Because there would no longer be a "profit" in starting wars, there wouldn't be a need for defense or military, thus releasing: 1. 223.3 billion dollars worth of resources each year. 2. 4.1 million active military personnel, direct-hire civilians and defense related workers. When the unnecessary departments are discontinued we could stop producing the supplies these departments had been consuming, i.e., this would lower the demand for: 1. office buildings 5. fixtures 2. office machines 6. electricity 3. supplies 7. factories 4. furniture 8. fuel, etc. This would save millions of human work-hours and billions of tons of raw materials. Savings in check-out clerks, cashiers and cash registers alone would be fantastic. With no monetary cost for labor, materials, rent, energy and machines, it would become feasible to reclaim and process all factory waste materials and use it to restock supplies for other production -- instead of polluting the environment. With free labor, the farmers would all be able to practice organic farming methods and produce more nutritious food and halt their pollution. There would be no inducement to rush new products into the market. They could be thoroughly tested to get all the bugs out and be sure they were safe and that their wastes could be reclaimed. With priceless economics there wouldn't be a reason for special interest groups to suppress cheaper energy sources, more efficient production and distribution methods and machines which used less or cheaper fuels. With priceless economics there wouldn't be a profit in designing planned obsolescence and planned deterioration into products. Instead products would be designed for utility, long life, efficiency, beauty, safety and be trouble-free and easy to repair with universal parts. Work would take on a new meaning. It would become an art and employees would all become artists doing creative things to make their products or services better and the process more enjoyable. People would no longer resist automation and robots because these machines would be employed to do the dangerous and boring work. This would further reduce human working hours. We may discover the fact that we have very little or no need for government, thereby saving most of the nearly trillion dollar budget and freeing 15.8 million more people for essential work. The few useful services which government now performs are: 1. postal service 5. forestry 2. fire departments 6. parks 3. sewer and water 7. and others 4. highways These departments could function more efficiently without bureaucratic and political interference and without budget limitations. People would no longer have: 1. money worries 5. taxes 2. credit problems 6. recessions 3. rent/mtg. pymts. 7. inflation 4. unemployment There would be no need for TV commercials and war fear mongering. This will reduce stress and restore hope and confidence. There would be an abundance of good food2 for everyone and much more free time to enjoy ones family and friends. Happy people get along better. People could then cooperate instead of compete and create a synergy which would yield more health, creativity, efficiency and happiness. There would no longer be a reason to create make-work projects. There is plenty of important work which needs to be done. Without the stresses of the Profit System, people could enjoy working with the neat fantastic tools, machines and computers which industry provides. Work would then become a place that people could go to enjoy themselves, to gain satisfaction in creating beautiful prod ucts or services and enjoy the camaraderie that would be shared. Work could become our most treasured recreation. We have what it takes to produce abundance: 1. resources 4. machines 2. labor 5. factories 3. skills 6. land With an abundance of top quality products which were free, there would be no reason to take too much. Too much, is a burden and free things are not status symbols. Competing companies could then cooperate to produce the best products they could mutually design -- cooperation being more efficient than competition. The "Law of Supply and Demand" would function more efficiently when we work to fill the demand, rather than attempt to create the demand. This Motivation Revolution would work best on a worldwide scale because ALL the world's people would be far better off with this new system. Underdeveloped nations could then develop as quickly as they desired, with free guidance from advanced nations if they wished it. If we are able to increase the life of durable goods (cars for example) to twice their present useful life, that alone would reduce the consumption of resources for durable goods by 50% and reduce work ing hours for their production by half. When the 38 million people now engaged in the above mentioned non- essential jobs; enter essential employment, they will greatly reduce the working hours for everyone -- or, they will greatly expand certain fields, such as; research and development, reclamation of factory waste products, cleaning up the environment, working on organic farms, the space program and/or -- they may prefer to slow down the pace of all work to have more time to enjoy the journey through life. Priceless economics would create an almost Utopian atmosphere by eliminating the seven greatest problems of the world. "Giving" produces better feelings than "selling." Getting something for "free" produces better feelings than parting with money. (Who can resist a Giver?) Being part of the work force which creates this near Utopia would be an Honor. Thus, we would pass something on to our children and grandchildren that future generations would be grateful for and remem ber us by, instead of the wars, pollution and starvation that our parents and grandparents left for us. Some say that people don't deserve Utopia, but if people create it -- they will deserve it! End Wars, Pollution and Begin Utopia First: MY job which I have chosen for right now, is to get the word out and get people talking and arguing about the Priceless Eco nomic System. Second: After everyone understands Priceless Economics they can set a date to all stop taking pay and begin giving all products and services free of charge. July 20, 1985 Ernest Mann "While we still breathe -- there is hope." Tarzan 1Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1985; American Prisons & Jails, 1980, Vol. 3. 2There are 7.28 acres of food-growable land per person in the world. FAO Production Yearbook, 1981, Vol. 35, By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 3Buckminister Fuller's "World Game" findings. Other statistics from: Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1983, Dept. of Labor. 10 MAKING CHANGES We could be on the verge of a stupendous leap forward into the Space-age. One which would make the last 50 years look like a snail's pace. A break-through which would produce energy sources and their utilization to send people to other galaxies and colonize unpeopled planets. A real jump into the Science Fiction World! There are at least seven reasons why we are yet unable to make this leap: First: We don't have the money. Second: Patents and big money enable oil interests to keep certain energy sources under wraps and off the market. Patents also keep inventors from the synergy they could develop, with each other, if they shared their ideas instead of concealed them. Inventors would not need patents if everything they wanted was free. Third: People don't do their best when they are doing work they hate and know they are being exploited. Fourth: The wonderful billion dollar Bio-computer we each carries around under our hat is not being nurtured and developed to its full capacity. In fact, they are being diverted, channeled, restricted and damaged. Fifth: We are being bled-dry by the taxes, low wages, rising prices, interest and by Profiteers wasting our natural resources and our labor. Sixth: People are more creative and efficient when they are not being scared and angered, as they are now, by the endless fear and anger arousing of the mass media. Seventh: Some inventors may be wise enough not to release their inventions to the world, until its people have grown smart enough to use them sanely. They may have noticed that Competition has driven people to rape and destroy environments, kill off entire populations of natives and steal their land and resources. Any intelligent person would surmise that Competition would also drive space explorers to these same practices on other planets. These seven reasons block our progress into interstellar travel and exploration. If you examine them closely, you'll discover Profit is at the root of each one. This makes the solution simple. Produce and distribute the world's goods without making a Profit. Then we'll all profit in the long run. Buckminister Fuller, with his "World Game," years ago listed in his computer all the world's natural and recyclable resources. He pinpointed where they were and how much was available. He found that there was an abundance of resources for the entire world's population. He discovered the problem. The resources were mostly owned or controlled by the Elite few who held and manipulated them for maximum Profit, instead of for maximum benefit for people. Banana Peeling It may have been necessary for the human race to go through thousands of years of competition for the earth's resources, to solidly learn that competition is the wrong route to take, as we can almost see the brink of our self annihilation. We may discover the fact that Cooperation is much more pleasing and more efficient than Competition. Think of the resources, lives and time we will no longer waste on Wars, preparation for Wars, and the Rebuilding after each War! We are standing at the doorway of Cooperation. The door is open. All we each need to do is walk through it. There is no guard at the door to stop us, except our old idea that Competition is the best. We don't have to wait for the rest. We can each step through that doorway by our self or with a friend, today. The rest will follow when they see the fun we are having. Some people still need someone to lead the way. Some of us already have one foot through the doorway and the other on a banana peeling. We are giving some of our surplus things and labor free of charge or obligation. Fight Them? Are we being encouraged by the big corporations to fight them? Does this give them free publicity by getting their names on front pages and on TV? (Hollywood proved long ago that even bad publicity was good for profits) Does their stock go up every time their name appears in the media? Take Honeywell, for instance -- we have been fighting them for at least 15 years, attempting to stop them from producing weapons. Why? They are still producing weapons. Does it drain us of our energy and spare time so that we don't look for the primary cause of why corporations make war materials and why they pollute our environment? Have we been spinning our wheels against the symptoms of our problems and getting nowhere fast? Is it costing us time (life) and money too? If an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure, let's quit wasting our time (lives) fighting the symptoms of a bad economic system and start creating a better one. There are millions of good sincere people struggling, resisting and fighting the symptoms. They are telling the Government to stop Wars. They are telling Government to stop Pollution. It does little good. We don't control Government. We have allowed it to control us. Are we being used as "dupes" by the big corporations to clean up corporate messes? After corporations have polluted land or a river or stripped a forest, or have gone broke, the government (I mean the taxpayers) often pays for the clean-up. It is a good deal like trying to keep a bathtub from overflowing by putting up side-boards and by bailing with buckets and mopping up what constantly overflows. Don't you see that the obvious solution is to get at the primary cause of the trouble and work on that, i.e., turn off the faucet? We will never be able to clean up the environment or plant trees, etc. as fast as they are destroying them. And why should we? What would happen if these millions of good sincere people withdrew their energy from struggling and fighting and led the way, by building an economic system (the production and distribution of goods) in which there would be no reason (Profit) to do these bad things to our environment and to people? What would happen? This would shut off the faucet! Then we could soon find our proper place and balance in Nature. We could build a world-wide economic system that would be for people instead of for Profit. Now, with all our new communication equipment and home computers we could change the world-wide system in one year! All the world's people are in the same bad fix and most of them are in much worse shape and would all welcome such a change. All they lack is the knowledge that such a system is available and they lack the knowledge that all other people would be as anxious to have it as they. FIRST of all, you must ask yourself, "Would I be better off -- if everything I wanted were free and I had no more money or credit worries and I could work at any kind of job I wanted and get free on-the-job training; and there would be no more reason (Profit) to start wars and destroy our environment and people?" How could anyone answer anything but, "Yes!"? Wouldn't this be true for everyone else too? I have asked thousands of people and over 99% have said "Yes!" That ought to be a strong enough majority to make it work and be easy to implement. Actu ally if the 4,112 people in the U.S.A. who made over a million dollars in 1980 really understood the Priceless Economics, they would surely want it too. They would get everything for free, just like ever