August 2nd, 2008
An Economy for Giving Everything Away
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I stumbled upon this trippy treatise by Lithuanian thinker Andrius Kulikauskas — An Economy for Giving Everything Away — via Chris Messina’s blog.
The first part of Kulikauskas’s treatise — before he starts talking about open-source software — is truly mind-bending, especially in context of my own experience of giving (almost) everything away.
I accept the idea that I should give everything away. The challenge is to put this into practice. This is a design problem for personal life and social economy.
Accepting that I should give everything away, I realize that it’s not clear what this exactly means. What is mine to give away? At any moment, I have some cash on my person and in my accounts. I may own a car, laptop computer, desktop computer, software, bicycle, books, hiking equipment, chairs, clothes and shoes, eyeglasses, phone cards, kitchen utensils, paper and pen, toothbrush. I have a credit line that I can draw against at a particular rate of interest. I have family, friends, and even strangers on whom I can call for help. I am employable by virtue of my connections, work experience, education, enthusiasm and helpfulness. I have citizenship and civil rights. I have my time, my health, my organs, and my life expectancy. Moreover, I have gifts of creativity, invention, thoughtfulness, playfulness, friendship, concern, love. I have a mind for cultivating and applying these gifts. I have truths of life, and a moral sense. Finally, I have a capacity for good will, a free will by which I may defer to others.
I can start simply by giving away what I have extra, clothes I no longer wear, books I will not read, equipment I don’t make use of. Even these modest steps force me to consider: What am I using, and what will I use? I find out that I can’t give anything away unless I risk the regret of doing so. In order to give things away, I need to accept greater insecurity.
If I accept insecurity, then there isn’t much reason to save any extra money I may have. If the money has no designated purpose, then there is nothing to keep me from giving it away. I may practice doing so, and make gifts to charitable organizations, and also to people I know, until my surplus has dwindled. Then I edge closer to vulnerability. I will be touched by waves of mistakes and misfortunes. Chances are good that I will find myself in debt.
I will learn that I must call on others and accept their help. I become sensitive to the extent that I may impose on them. Asking for help may strengthen our friendship, but asking for too much may end it. And how may I reciprocate? I find that I must give up the ideal of an independent life. I depend on others for help. I start to notice the many ways in which each of us depends on others. I make available my resources to others, including my line of credit. This intertwines our lives, forces me to grow closer to others, exercise my judgment and examine our values. I also find it easy to accept what I am offered, the used clothes, books, equipment. As I give freely, so I take freely. This may work greatly in my favor. I find myself able to take large gifts, or accept business opportunities, that might have threatened my financial independence, when I felt I had that.
I still have many things to give away: the last of my shoes, my eyeglasses, my toothbrush. I may continue, but I realize that I am already depending on others, and this can only make life harder for them. I find my obligation to care for myself, just as for others. Frankly, who needs my eyeglasses or my toothbrush? Who would put them to better use? I find myself at a dead end, unsure how to give more away. Therefore I take to heart a general principle, that I myself have nothing, it is all available to those who make best use of it. I may not say of anything: this is mine, to do what I please with. Rather, I must ever be mindful of when I’m not making best use of something.
All of the meanwhile, I have also thought about the most important things I have. I have my life, and what shall I do with it? My gifts, my talents, my loving parents, my secure upbringing - all of this was given to me, I did not create this. All that I have must serve all, not myself.
Who is to decide what to do with me? Certainly, my parents have their effect, as do others. But only I can apply my own free will. Therefore I do everything I can that I may be worthy to decide what to do with myself, how to apply myself. I discipline myself, educate myself, direct myself. I develop my dreams that focus my efforts.
I work to devote all of myself to the most important parts of life. At any moment, I must play out the sweet kindnesses and small challenges by which we engage each other and this life we live. In the big picture, I must flesh out the largest visions that might inspire me to apply all of myself with that much more vigor. Certainly, this is a wonderful life to live.
The more I give away, the more I understand how much work this is! I now think of wealth as a large burden of responsibility. What is the best use for it? I appreciate that some people are much better than others at making good use of wealth. They should certainly govern more, with the understanding that they have no right to do as they please, but must always use it as best for all.
I also learn the anxiety of poverty, the energy I must spend to weight what I might ask of each friend, and calculate how I might salvage my situation. This does not help me apply myself, nor does it help others. How may I apply myself, as much possible, to what is important in life? I should reduce, as much as I can, the responsibility of irrelevant wealth, and also the anxiety of irrelevant poverty. As I find this middle way, I grow more sensitive in poverty, and more able in wealth.
