Escaping The Fish Bowl

The book Escaping The Fish Bowl - The Awakening To A Freedom Economy shares the journey of Robin who woke up in 2033 after 17 years in a coma.  The world he has woken into, is, however, quite different from the one he left behind.  You see in this world, the world of the future, money does not exist.

This is the story of his journey to discover life in a whole new society and to understand that what he previously perceived to be freedom was not freedom at all, but a system designed to enslave him and serve only a few. Robin soon realises through the help of his therapist Maddy, and his 14 year old niece Alana, that this new world he has discovered is the way life was always meant to be.

This outline serves as a little tasting plate if you like, for the bigger picture.

We pick up the story after Robin has recently met, for the first time, his niece Alana who has never known life in the money economy.  Alana is very confused about how life used to be prior to the 'revolution' and has decided that her uncle is going to help her understand.  Alana is eager and begins her questioning:

"Ok so firstly why on earth would people feel the need to have ... say ... a great big house particularly if there was only a couple living there, or even worse, if they were single? That doesn't make any sense to me." 

Even before I spoke my first word, I had a powerful feeling that nothing that I was about to say was going to sound convincing. “Well, um ... ok, well back before when money was important, people felt that they had to accumulate things ... you know a big house, a nice car, jewellery, you know, things that demonstrated how wealthy they were, a status symbol.” I looked at Alana and noticed a completely blank look on her face as she clearly had no concept of what I was talking about. “Ok, let’s put it this way; ... it was always expected, by society, that you grow up, get an education, and then you get a good job”. 

"So what is it you mean by a good job?” Alana interrupted, still with that blank look on her face. 

“Umm well one that paid well enough for you to pay your bills, buy a nice house, a nice car, be able to put food on the table, give your kids a good education and hopefully have enough money left over to perhaps have a holiday.” 

“What if you didn’t like your job?” Her expression still had not changed. I was feeling a little lost but tried to keep focused.  “Well, you could look for another job?” 

“Ok, so you could still choose what you wanted to do? Like if you wanted to go to another country, say Africa and help people you could?  Or, if you just wanted to be an artist and make the place look beautiful, you could do that as well?” 

“Umm, well not many people were financially well off enough to go to Africa for any period of time to help people because if you weren’t working you couldn’t pay your rent, or your mortgage, or buy food, so you had to work in a job that paid well.” I was feeling exhausted and concerned about how, as these words left my mouth, they sounded so pathetic and meaningless. 

Alana continued “But, back then, poor people needed help to set up infrastructure and they didn’t have enough food because of their climate or their poor soil or conflict, so why couldn’t you go and help them? … What would happen if you didn’t pay this rent or mortgage?” 

“Well you’d lose your home.” 

"What! So if you went and helped people, or tried to make a positive difference in the world, you'd lose your home!? That’s crazy."

Alana’s eyes were now wide open. I was torn between relief that her expression had finally changed and the fact that it was so blatantly obvious how correct she was and how ridiculous what I’d just explained really was. 

“Yes, I suppose it is”! Was all I could muster. 

“I’ve heard that we’ve always had enough food to feed everyone, although I know technology and the way we produce our food is a lot better now, but if we had enough food then, how come some people starved to death? How could that happen when we had enough food for them, why couldn’t food be brought to them? I mean apparently 

there was an epidemic of obesity and an epidemic of poverty and starvation all at the same time, it doesn't make any sense."

I was searching my mind for a valid explanation. “Ok, well, a lot of the places where people were starving, were in areas where there was a great deal of conflict, there were corrupt Governments that kept money for themselves instead of ensuring that their people could be fed.  It cost money to build infrastructure back then and these corrupt people didn’t want to spend the money to help their people.” I felt more comfortable with this answer because it somehow took the pressure off me personally. 

“Why?” 

She had that blank look on her face again. I was struck by the fact that she really was confused and genuinely upset, she was genuinely asking because she really didn’t understand and she was trusting in me to help her. “Oh dear, … um, well because you couldn’t survive without money to buy things, people got greedy and wanted to keep all the money for themselves.” 

“That’s what I don’t understand. How can anyone watch any other person suffer while they have all the things that they need, plus so much more?” 

The conversation continued for a while but unfortunately Robin was really struggling as none of his answers seem at all logical, even to him.  Alana was unrelenting.

“So it sounds like this money was a real problem; You had to work for it and not do all the things that you wanted to do in your life, you had to have it to eat, you had to have it to have a house and those with lots of this money, they wanted to show off that they had all this money so they lived in a really big house even if they didn’t need it. People who didn’t have money, would sometimes hurt people to take their money, and lots of people were miserable.  Also, I know that there were some people who had so much of this money that they were the ones that people used to work for so that they could make lots more money, and sometimes they would use the people who were poor to make even more money because they didn’t pay these poor people much money so that they had to keep working for them.  None of this makes any sense to me ... why didn’t everyone get rid of all of this money sooner?” Alana looked so confused and upset.

Alana continued "You know, back before the revolution, I've seen videos of it, there used to be places where people could go and see animals, zoos and in things called theme parks with performing seals, dolphins, and others?" 

I nodded “Yeah?” I wondered where on earth this was going. 

“Well the dolphins were held in small tanks and they were kept there just to perform for paying customers. They would do stupid tricks and if they did a good job, they would get paid with fish. They were basically slaves and kept confined and in servitude to man, their only purpose was to provide entertainment and they did that for their food because they couldn’t go and get their own food, they had to rely on man to eat. Each day was the same as the one before. When they were too old to perform, they would be put into another tank and pretty much forgotten until they died. But what they were meant to be doing was swimming with their family in a huge expansive ocean, swimming and playing for kilometres, catching their own food, interacting with each other and truly living a wonderful life.” 

“Yes?” I said, confused.

"Uncle Robin can't you see, you were the dolphin ... you were forced to perform tricks, or work, to be thrown fish that you relied on to survive; that fish was money, you were captive in the tank which was your life, your job, and each day was a carbon copy of the one before it, until you would have been too old to work anymore and then you would be put somewhere, forgotten and you would have died having never done the wonderful things that you imagined you would do in your life, all the things that you were meant to do. 

But what makes that even worse is that you would have encouraged your own children to take your place in the little dolphin tank and perform for fish as well. 

But you, all of us, we were meant for more than that. We were meant to be free to explore, to travel and see the wonders of the world, to create and invent, to contribute, to be healthy, and to make a positive difference in the world through our impact on it ... we were not meant to be trapped our whole life in a small tank called a job!"

There was silence. I could feel a hot feeling engulfing my body, I felt a little giddy. What Alana had said was more truth about my life than I’d ever heard before, and it was coming from a 14 year old child.

After further conversation, Robin becomes relieved as the conversation turns to school and what Alana enjoys.  Robin was feeling safe, but unfortunately he questions Alana for referring to her teachers by their first name.

"So you call your teachers by their first names then?" 

“Yes of course, why wouldn't I?” 

“Well in my day, it was thought that it was disrespectful to call someone in authority by their first name.” Again, as the words left my mouth I was already regretting them. 

Alana laughed “Why not, that’s silly!” 

I stupidly continued. “Well it showed respect for someone who was your superior if you called them by their surname ... like I’d be Mr Richards.” 

Alana laughed again “That’s so silly, why are they superior?  They are doing what they love doing and students choose who they want to learn with ... what makes them superior?  So if I respect my teacher then I should call them Mr or Mrs something?  But does that mean they don’t respect me if they don’t call me Miss Jones?  Does that mean that teachers should be respected more than children? That sounds like a dangerous presumption as that would indicate that adults don't need to respect children, which for me, would send a dangerous message. Perhaps that makes some sense about why previously some children were abused by some people, if society was already setting the scene for children not being as respected as adults."

Oh my God, I was horrified by what Alana was saying, I wanted to somehow justify what I meant, to explain, but I had nothing. What she was saying was completely logical and like a slap in the face, I understood that she was right. She just continued without missing a beat, it was like watching a relentless train pass by at a railway crossing; carriage after carriage, she just continued. She was talking about my life, about society, in a way that was completely foreign to me, in a manner that I had never considered but which made absolute perfect sense. 

You don't think for a moment do you, that it was more to do with training children from a very young age to be obedient and follow instructions, to be trained to be good employees?

To be trained to start at a set time every day, take their breaks at a certain time, and finish their day at a certain time every day?  Preparing them for when they were old enough for that 'good job' you referred to earlier, so that they were already prepared and trained to follow authority without question?" 

Shit, of course that’s what it was, oh my God!   

“The education back then, as I understand it, was simply telling students a one sided account of how things were and are, and then students would be measured on how well they could regurgitate what they’d been told. I know that much of the history that was taught to students was in fact not accurate or much of the important stuff, particularly negative political policies and their implications, were completely left out of the curriculum to appease the ruling class. 

I respect my teachers immensely and I love spending time with them and learning things from them.  Especially Sue who teaches us to question, she says, so that we never go back to the dark days before the revolution. I completely believe that she also respects all of us that come and learn from her as well. I can’t imagine it being any other way.” 

Robin survives a continued lengthy conversation with Alana and once back in his room, begins to digest everything that she'd said.  He begins questioning many of the things in his past that he'd never ever questioned before;

Thoughts about the past were appearing in my mind; whenever I had turned on the television I was forced to focus on all the differences in our cultures, our different beliefs, in the colour of our skin, the texture of our hair, the borders that define where we were born, and of course how much money we have or don't have. The fact of the matter is that we’re all human beings and are really exactly the same. A wave of emotion come over me when I considered how similar we all are and that the most virtuous, wonderful thing that connects us all is actually our sameness, our humanity, and well, love.

Robin's thoughts get interrupted by Maddy entering his room.  Maddy is his therapist and has already explained how this revolution occurred and how this new Freedom Economy works now.  Maddy and Robin have had many question and answer sessions already and today's topic of conversation is Leadership.  We pick up Maddy responding to Robin's question about corruption.

"So to answer your question about whether leadership could become corrupt, well no, because we really don't have anything to bribe or manipulate people with. If leaders are not saying the stuff that makes sense to the people they are leading, the people will look to a new leader, and only industries that actually serve people exist at all because the reason they exist needs to be strong enough for people to volunteer to be a part of it.

Previously most people were working for organisations because of their pay packet, they needed a job where they could get paid. The fear of losing their job would mean that they would do what they were paid to do, it didn’t matter if the job was for a company that made cigarettes, produced toxic chemicals, produced food that was more chemical than natural, or even if it in some way abused people, animals, or the environment, it just didn’t matter. People would put up with being treated disrespectfully, unfairly, or rudely because of that same fear of losing their job, their very livelihood. These days people will only volunteer for reasons that actually serve humanity in some way.

Basically Robin, we don’t need anyone to lead us, we’re quite capable of leading ourselves."  ...

... Maddy continued "Back before the revolution many decisions were made for all the wrong reasons. They were based on whether or not something was going to be commercially viable, or value for money, or not going to cost too much.  Now decisions are made based on what decision is the right decision for the right reasons, and the reason why you're doing something becomes incredibly important.  It’s the why you’re doing something that keeps people contributing because it has a positive impact and therefore makes you feel really good to contribute.  Just like me and the others working here at the hospital.  Now if something needs to be done we never have to ask can we afford to do it, do we have a budget for it, if people believe there is a strong enough reason or need, I can guarantee, it will happen".

Throughout my book many other topics are discussed during conversations between Robin, Maddy, and Alana; topics like laws, environment, medicine, poverty, government, and politics ... I hope you have enjoyed this little taster and that you are curious enough to see the bigger picture.

If you've enjoyed this, please look at reading Escaping The Fish Bowl - The Awakening To A Freedom Economy. 

And let's make it happen