Doug,

The tools become gods.

Another useful dichotomy is nodes and networks. The cow is a node in the network of the ecosystem, that is the pasture.

Our thought process is inherently reductionistic, signal from the noise, because we would be overwhelmed by information otherwise. So a possible direction to take education would be to emphasize the dualities of life. Given the social and political polarization, this will eventually become necessary, for humanity to really progress beyond our current existential crises. Many of which have been brought on by too much focus on the objects of our desires, than the contexts which create and give them legitimacy. Raw sugar.

For one thing, as what amounts to a community voucher system, money is inherently a debt, a promise by the community, to the holder of the asset. The problem is that we do then treat it as a store, rather than a medium. Consequently as ever more is pulled from circulation, to presumably store, more has to be added and since storing it no longer means burying coins, the financial sector has created an enormous bubble of notational value, that has become the tail wagging the dog. The tool that has become the god.

For one thing, we shouldn’t confuse a medium with a store. Blood is a medium, while fat is a store. Roads are a medium, while parking lots are a store. The hallway is a medium, while the hall closet is a store.

We are goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, reciprocal reality. We see it as the signal to extract from the noise of the economy and society, but this economic ecosystem needs it to circulate.

As a medium, the functionality of money is in its fungibility. We own it like we own the section of road we are using, or the air and water passing though our bodies. It is a public utility and should be treated as such. The Federal Reserve is supposed to pull the punch bowl away, when the party gets going. Not just pour more vodka in, when it runs low.

The fact is that we can’t simply store it and there isn’t sufficient investment opportunities for everyone to save for their future, by pouring it into the banking system.

We all save for many of the same reasons, from housing and raising children, to healthcare and retirement, that if these could be invested in directly, as community assets, rather than everyone trying to save for them individually, with their bank account as their personal economic umbilical cord, we would have stronger communities and healthier environments, as stores of value and not just resources to be mined.

The networks matter as much as the nodes.