Day 152: Linux proves Profit Motive does not Provide the Best Result

One of the main arguments that has been put forward in terms of why we have to hold on to a profit-based economic system, is that - apparently - people are not motivated to perform to the best of their ability if there is no form of monetary reward attached to it.

If that were the case, then who can explain the Linux phenomenon?

The Linux operating system and software are assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. It means that everyone who is capable and interested can be a part of designing the products and it can be freely used, modified and re-distributed by anyone.

It's done by volunteers for the betterment of everyone. So - then the question: does it produce good results? Well -the following should answer that question:

"The Linux kernel was originally developed as free kernel for Intel x86-based personal computers. It has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other kernel. Linux based operating systems are the leading operating system type on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers and supercomputers: more than 90% of today's 500 fastest supercomputers run some variant of Linux, including the 10 fastest. Linux also runs on embedded systems (devices where the operating system is typically built into the firmware and highly tailored to the system) such as mobile phones, tablet computers, network routers, televisions and video game consoles; the Android system in wide use on mobile devices is built on the Linux kernel."

The best computers on Earth run on some variant of Linux - that says something, right? I mean - computer technology is one of the main points we see as important in terms of 'advancements' in technology and most of these advancements are made by volunteers. That completely debunks the idea that you need to pay people and need an environment of competition for people to be creative and driven to achieve excellence.

Within the current system we've simply been brainwashed into believing that we shouldn't do anything unless we can get some type of monetary or material reward out of it. And you can prove to yourself that this is in fact brainwashing by looking back at your childhood - where you looked at what you wanted to be in the world - whether it was a farmer, a hair dresser, a doctor or a librarian - where you didn't factor in the point of money and wealth - because that didn't form part of your motivation. You simply looked at what you would enjoy doing and where you'd like to contribute and what you'd like to participate in. It's only when you got older that you started becoming lazy, because your passions were no longer considered and you were just expected to fall in line and 'get with the program'. In such a context, laziness is a form of giving up on yourself - because you see that the system does not really care about you and you see no way of changing that point - therefore, you become lethargic and decide to 'rebel' in a way - through only doing the bare minimum. And to get people to do the bare minimum - they bribe you with money - making it so that: if you don't do the bare minimum, you simply don't get money and you simply can't survive.

So - in changing the system from a worker-manufacturing system to a life-support system - these problems will mostly become irrelevant. For more perspective on this point, I suggest reading the Labour section on the Equal Money Wiki.

Related articles

• Day 220: The Greatest Cult in History
• Day 116: Is Brainwashing Possible?
• Day 141: Even the Rain: Water Politics - Catastroika
• Day 233: Speak System, Speak!!! - ADC - Part 80
• Day 131: The Justice System - also a Scam?

Day 2: From ENCAGEment to ENGAGEment - The Origin of Laziness

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to submit to the idea that people will only be willing to work if they are rewarded for it.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to subject myself to a limited view of the human being, where a human being can only be motivated by motives of personal gratification.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that laziness and aversion to work are an inherent trait of humankind.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to see and realise that as a child, I was keen to learn new things and about new things and I didn’t need anyone to tell me that I would be rewarded for it.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that we have created the human condition of laziness and aversion to work through our educational system where a distinctive line has been drawn between funtime and worktime.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that by creating school to be an environment of boredom and compulsion, we limit the natural inquisitive nature of children as human beings to explore, engage and try out different things.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that by making children be quiet and sit still while having to listen and essentially take orders, we are programming children to limit themselves to only that: a passive robot who eventually doesn’t want to do anything but sit on his ass and have other people tell him what to do and how to do it as long as the right incentives are provided.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that schools are a production house for rotten children and rotten humans who have forgotten what it means to be a child, what it means to be a human and have completely subjected and limited themselves to external incentives to move their ass.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if we change our schooling and education system, where we allow children to learn through engaging with and exploring the world in a relevant and practical way, we will create human beings who are self-motivated and passionate about life.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to assume to know the true nature of human beings without considering that this nature was not inherently there at birth, but created throughout a child’s formative years by his/her environment.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to claim that the free market system that works with personal incentives and personal gratification is the only one that can ever get human beings to engage themselves to do the tasks that need to be done to sustain humanity and the environment we share – because it is based on the apparent ‘true nature’ of the human being, without realising that what/who human beings are now is not necessarily who they have to be and all they can be.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that in claiming that the free market system is the best economic system imaginable based on the argument that it provides the correct incentives for human beings on an individual level to produce needed goods and services for society at large – is merely begging the question, since it is this very system, through the educational system, that created human beings to be these rotten creatures in the first place.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to give up any sense of self-respect within and through the very acceptance of the belief that all I am and all I ever can be is a creature that needs to continuously poked with external incentives and motivations to do something, to be something, to make something out of myself and my world.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that the reason why children are ‘cherished’ in the eyes of adults is because the children show them who they were, who they could have still been, if only they hadn’t given up on themselves.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that what’s done is done and that it is too late now to try to re-educate ourselves and re-discover ourselves.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to content myself with simply rotting away in something I call ‘my life’ – occupying myself with that which gives me the fastest and highest level of personal gratification – while completely detaching myself from the actual, real, physical reality, missing my life as I encage myself in a bubble of my mind.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to trade engagement with enCAGEment and actually believe that this was a good deal.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to forget what it means to give and only look at what I can receive.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that an outflow of our current economic system is that, because everyone is so busy focusing on what they can ‘get’ – there are billions who don’t get anything, because no-one remembers to give what was received in return.

I commit myself to re-designing the educational system in the world so as to create effective human beings who understand and embrace the act of giving and receiving – through providing an environment where children are able to flourish and develop and express their unconditionality.

I commit myself to exposing that suppressing a child’s natural expression is a crime to life.

I commit myself to break through the limitations we as humans have subjected ourselves to, through walking back in time to correct our mistakes and find ourselves again.

I commit myself to the redefinition of what it means to be a human being in such a way that to be a human being as the living word is something to be proud of.

I commit myself to expose incoherent, fallacious and disgraceful justifications free marketers use to defend a system of abuse and horror.

I commit myself to become a human being who motivates and moves self with great ease within the understanding of how I can fulfill myself in participation with what is here and what is here to be done.

I commit myself to redefine the word ‘work’ in a way that it includes rather than excludes fun, where work flows as who we are, here, in every moment.