GottaLightMyFire

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Freedom At A Price.

Is it possible to ever truly escape commerce?

Business, the bane of all contemporary new age revolutionaries, is perhaps the most misunderstood vehicle of operation for how a society (any collective group of similar individuals under one reign) functions.

So, what exactly is commerce? 

Commerce (or business) is any interaction between two (or more) individual, in which goods or services are exchanged for other likewise goods or services. The idea that "business is evil" is a fallacy looking more at the vehicle and not at its operator. If you witnessed a car accident between a drunk driver and an unsuspecting pedestrian, would you blame the car or the person behind the wheel? The same goes for business. Business is a method of transformation, not an independently conscious entity (even if you are a corporation). 

How about money?

Money, when looked at historically, was invented to make any exchange between individuals or groups easier. What’s more difficult when travelling long distances: herding a series of cows from Britain to Spain, or merely bringing a satchel of gold to represent the value of said cows? Logically, the gold makes more sense. So, what's the difference between the cows and the gold? Your perspective of the cows and the gold.

Swap out both cows and gold for pebbles, and would you now argue that the pebbles hold the “root of all evil”? Erroneously, you just might...

“But if we only reverted back to the barter system, then the world would be a better place. We could share crops and live in a commune with everyone working together as one!”—

They already have a name for that, it’s called communism. The reign of one ruler (or "commune leader") to dictate workloads and issue out payments.

“Then we could do away with the leader altogether and just share all of our crops!”—

Sharing, when observed objectively, still involves some exchange. And what is any exchange at its core? Commerce. Even when sharing, we look for an equal trade between two variables; whether it be time allotted for a lesson on how to farm, music for attendance at a party, or even a bottle of wine for a smile. You’re still giving up one thing for another.

So, what's the real problem here?

Human nature.

The minute one seeks to gain a higher advantage over another, there will always be a dispute. Your see, it’s not about sharing, doing away with, or mitigating anything, it’s about managing one’s own intention and watching the meaning behind why we do things in the first place. It’s about self-awareness.

After all, the vehicle wasn’t at fault, the drunk driver was. However, we can all be like drunk drivers in our own lives; drunk with the dissolution of our own importance.

"But aren’t we all important?"—

We are. So, stop drinking your own Kool-Aid and thinking that you are so important that what you think "absolutely matters".

—because that’s exactly what got us here in the fist place.