The Gifting Society

Ever since I can remember I have had the belief that everyone should get what they need.  Full stop.  I don’t believe in our financially structured world, or bartering.  Even with bartering there is too much ego involved.  I don’t know where I got the idea that if you have a need it should be looked after.  Some would disagree strongly that this would result in total collapse of every system in society.  That could be possible, for a while anyway. 

The existing system of working your buns off to achieve a little headway in life is driving people to ever more depression and anxiety.  Corporations have had a habit of demanding more and more of employees, keeping payroll extremely tight.  There doesn’t seem to be any escape from being relentlessly overworked.  No matter where you look, every type of work has adopted the same toolbox.  So workers are increasingly massively overworked.  Shortcuts are increasingly taken.  Tempers increasingly flair.  Leading to zero work life balance.  Work takes it all.  We go home at the end of the day with nothing left to give.  Nothing left for ourselves, our families, our friends, hobbies, and community.  Maybe it’s all by designed to keep us too busy and distracted so we don’t notice just how squeezed we have become.  And then the governments take more and more in taxes.  So we work harder for less.  Sounds like a wonderful life.  Not.  Get me off this ride, it’s making me sick.

Some think I’m a bit Pollyanna in my thinking.  How would this idea even be feasible?  At first, because we have been so abused in our work life for so long, many of us would need a year to sleep.  Eventually though, most of us would begin to feel better and want to contribute.  Slowly people will find what makes them light up and want to get out of bed in the morning.  People will begin contributing from their natural talents and gifts instead of what brings in the best possible income. 

Recently I read the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  In it she explains her ancestors had a strong system of a Gifting Society and a Responsibility to Mother Earth.  Everyone received what they needed.  Everyone contributed to society in their own unique way.  Some were master basket weavers, others were hunters, while others became experts in herbal medicines.  Everyone was taught from a young age a love and responsibility to Mother Earth.  Never to over harvest or over hunt and fish.  To choose medicinal plants based on how plentiful the plant was at the time.  If it wasn’t plentiful, they looked elsewhere to harvest.  And they were taught from a young age to be grateful for everything.  As the hunter called in the deer for example, yes they mentally or telepathically called in the deer, moose or other game.  Asking the animal for permission to give up its life in order to sustain their peoples.  Eventually an animal presented itself for a good clean kill.  The hunter then said a prayer in gratitude for the animal and to Creator.  Honoring.  Gratitude.  Respect.

Within a Gifting Society, the idea is the one that gives the most is the wealthiest.  As one gives away, gifts eventually make their way back to the giver.  In this way everyone is looked after.  The author explained there was no poverty or unemployment.  Everyone had a purpose.  Everyone belonged.  Everyone gets what they need.  The Earth and all her inhabitants are honored.  That’s the world I want to live in.