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The Problem with Charity

The problem with charity is it shouldn’t exist. It shouldn’t even be a thing. The fact that we have increasing needs for charities, non-profits and non-governmental organizations is proof that our old systems are defunct, destructive and incapable of providing our cultures and societies with their basic needs. They serve the few, and the special interests. But they don’t entirely serve humanity, nor the planet.

There’s a level of desperation that exists behind all of these organizations, and it’s based entirely in scarcity and lack. While multinational companies and governments collude to move countless trillions of dollars around in their vast puerile game of cat and mouse, a significant portion of the human species is sick, starving, fighting, struggling, suffering, disillusioned, angry and afraid. The truly delusional still adhere to outmoded ideas of nation states, borders, politics, profit and unchecked planetary resource waste. Within these structures, of course, one can naturally be led to believe that “carbon tax” is a useful thing — though it appears to be nothing more than an elaborate inside joke, designed to placate the concerned populace.

The truth is that there is no actual lack nor scarcity, only the stories we persist in telling and retelling about them. This universe is vast and endlessly resourceful, but to many, that simple fact doesn’t seem to resonate. We go on and on about worthiness, deserving, entitlement, earning and rewards — as if life is merely a game of discerning a way out of perpetual imbalance and iniquity. We keep carrying forward the notions of jobs, careers and vocations, as if these severely limited definitions of purpose are essential to our existence. It’s not very creative.

We can observe in our world today that things are shifting, and that the foundations of our long-standing paradigms and ideologies are cracking. We don’t exactly know what to do about it, but we do know that we have to change; to grow, to rewrite the code, and to evolve the narratives. This is a messy prospect as it shakes the ground that virtually everyone is standing on. It challenges our notions of identity and society and culture. It challenges the ways in which we make sense of the world.

It challenges us to look much more critically at the talking heads and the sheer ineptitude of the loudest voices. There’s a spiritual undertow that’s moving us into a higher ethereal frequency, and it’s demanding of us a maturity that currently exists only in small pockets of the civilization. We already have all the solutions. We have the consciousness that’s capable of implementing them. We have access to the countenance that will invite the greater conversation that goes beyond the segmented, divisive, polarizing practices of generations gone by. Our biology is ready for an elevated psychology, and an integrative philosophy.

Rethink giving. While in the short-term we can rely on donations or grants or subsidies, and we can trust that the majority of such funded entities and organizations effect primarily symptomatic solutions, we have to address the underlying problems and systemic conditions that we will inevitably be doomed to repeat. There is a causal factor — likely there are many, and they’re rarely as simple as we may think they are — but today we have intelligent and willing, collaborative hearts and minds, and technological resources, that can synthesize and derive the steps forward that can benefit the all.

We’re ready for the new story.

Solvitur ambulando