As Rick entered the large central room, he noticed that the small chairs had been placed over the doors and on the front of the lectern like before. The ten large paintings of religious leaders again served as a backdrop. At the designated time, Archbishop Witch Doctor Richards entered and took his position at the lectern, raising his arms from his sides.
“Let us rise and recite our creed.”
We are the Church of World Religion.
We glean truth from all religions.
No religion, including our own, is completely true.
All religious leaders are witch doctors,
Every last one of them.
Religious beliefs are made up,
So make them up to benefit society.
“Thank you. Please be seated.”
He paused.
“Today we’re going to talk about material possessions,” he began, “or, as we commonly call them, ‘stuff’. Since our denomination is committed to comparative learning, we will look first at what other religions have to say about stuff. I have chosen to draw from the ascetic strain of religion, particularly on the distinction that asceticism makes between needs and wants. Needs are those things that satisfy basic requirements, for example, the survival requirements of food, shelter, and clothing, as well as things that let us live with a basic level of health and comfort, for example, beds, chairs, and knives. Wants, on the other hand, are things we desire but don’t meet basic needs. The list of things that qualify as wants is extensive indeed, and much too large to specify here.”
“Generally, ascetics have no problem with acquiring stuff to meet needs. It’s the wants that are a problem. Why is that? People who are consumed with wanting more and more stuff beyond their needs live shallow lives and miss out on the deep rewards stemming from spiritual and philosophical contentment. In effect, they miss out on the deepest levels of human understanding and happiness. To avoid this pitfall, according to the ascetics, one should purge oneself of stuff that is merely wanted, leaving only that which is truly needed. Give up things. That’s the lesson. An offshoot of Hinduism, the Digambara Jains, advocate abandoning all material possessions.”
He paused for effect.
“They even give up their clothes. Luckily, they reside in the warm plains of India that allows them to do this. This extreme form of asceticism will not, you may be sure, make inroads among the Eskimo.”
The congregation chuckled.
“Doubtless, some of you are thinking that our neighbors in the rain forest live nearly nude, and a few—notably, the Hedomamo—live completely nude. However, most of them do it more to escape the heat than for philosophical reasons like the Jains. It’s the Jains’ reasons that interest me so let us turn our attention to that.
“You may remember that, about five years ago, a musical on Jainism was presented in the entertainment center called ‘Purge Your Stuff’. Some of you may remember a song from it entitled ‘But Not My Skivvies.’ The actor who sang it portrayed a young Jain who was deciding how much of his material possessions he should purge. The song had a catchy tune and enjoyed some popularity among us. I have asked our choir to sing it for us today. The lyrics will serve as the text for today’s sermon.”
He motioned to his left whereupon the first three rows stood and turned to face the congregation. The choir director stood in the aisle, raised his hands, and motioned for them to begin:
I am a budding young Jain,
Moving toward my teachers’ aims.
‘First, sort your stuff,’ they said.
‘Find things to throw away
Or you’ll be burdened every day.’
‘Only a tiny amount you need to live.
A few paltry items, a pot, and a shive
Can carry you through life
Unburdened and free enough,
Yea, free from your stuff.
‘The stuff you need is not much.
It’s want-stuff that occupies your hutch,
And the hutch you don’t need either.
It’s just polished wood to show your stuff.
Be done with it. You must be tough.
‘Stuff to meet your wants fills the stores.
They take your money, and still you want more
For your wants are unlimited,
And will never be sated
If you insist that your stuff be better rated.
‘You work hard to earn your pay
And what do you do each wage day?
It’s out to the stores with cash in hand,
Returning with stuff filling your arms
Never realizing how your life is harmed.
‘You work to satisfy your wants,
But your desire for more still haunts
Your thoughts and efforts
Even though you have satisfied your needs,
And have enough to do required deeds.
‘So throw away your want-stuff
And keep only your need-stuff
Behind your home’s door.
Buy want-stuff no more
Forego it down to your core.’
This was drastic teaching indeed.
Discard it? I nearly peed.
My pile of want-stuff was so large
And my pile of need-stuff so small
Throwing the wants seemed like throwing it all.
But my Teachers responded:
‘Having want-stuff has been your error.
Look at yourself in our mirror.
Desires larger than income.
Thus, you shall always be wanting.
Divest, though it seems daunting.’
With great energy and distress
I packed some want-stuff without rest
Then took it straight to the needy
Who gathered around with eager faces
Not darkened by my burden, not even traces.
Following my teachers’ examples in living,
I kept right on giving and giving
‘Till I had almost nothing left.
And now I stand here free,
Much as nature made me.
Well, I’m almost free of materiel.
For me, unencumbered without parallel.
I made only one exception to giving it all up.
I’m not totally free because I stopped.
There was one thing I did not lop.
I kept my skivvies as you can see,
A simple white pair concealing the nether of me
And keeping those parts private all day.
Jainism, I tell you, goes too far.
They give up skivvies after they give up cars.
Jains go around naked, happy in the sun
But I’ll go around skivvied, tanned in sections.
Not browned all over like them, with all hanging out.
I’ll keep mine on me, not givin’ ‘em up.
I’ve given up almost everything, I’ve given enough.
Then, quietly, they recited the last verse.
I’ve got a secret that I can tell you now:
I kept three pairs of skivvies.
Don’t bother about how.
I’ve only those three pairs.
They’re all that my conscience would allow.
Now I’ll remain happy all my life long,
And only look when a fourth pair comes along.
“Thank you, choir, for that beautiful rendition,” said Archbishop Richards. “The character was willing to give up a lot of his material possessions but not his skivvies. What’s the significance of his choice? What can we learn from it? At the outset, I’ll tell you that I’m not concerned about whether people go around naked. On the basis of our experience with neighboring groups, we know that morality bears no relationship to nudity.”
“Let me suggest the following as a lesson to be gleaned from this song: The singer drew a line separating his needs from his wants. He drew that line at three pairs of skivvies. I am not concerned about where he drew the line, that is, he could
have drawn it at one pair or at five pairs or even at ten pairs plus a pair of blue jeans. None of these choices present much of a problem in my view. In controlling your material desires, you do not have to give up everything, that is, give up all your skivvies. The important point is that the young Jain drew a line somewhere, and because of that line, he did not let his wants run unrestrained. You have learned in your geography and other classes about how people in outside societies labor long hours to buy more things. It’s a treadmill of ‘I want, I want. I want so much that I will get up early in the morning and work late into the evening to have more want-stuff. I will buy it even if I have no place to put it, even in my hutch,’ to use the furniture from the song.”
The congregation chuckled at the mocking tone of his delivery.
“However, the story changes when wants are controlled. During the late nineteenth century, there was a railroad workman in the United States who had a reputation for always being happy and content. When he was asked about his sunny demeanor, he responded, ‘I have more money than the guy who owns the railroad.’ On its face, this was a preposterous comment because the owner was one of the wealthiest men in the country, but the workman continued, ‘You see, I have all the money I want and he doesn’t.’
“Therein lies the key, my friends. If your wants remain within your means, you’re wealthy. If your wants exceed your means, you’re poor. If this sounds too simple, consider the following: Some very wealthy people in outside society are unhappy because they have only three sets of expensive china rather than four, or because they had to give up one of their three eating club memberships, or because they have only four luxury cars rather than five. Obviously, there’s no reason, on a material basis, why they should be unhappy except that their wants exceed their means. It can happen at any economic level but is most instructive when observed among the wealthy.
“Let us now rise for our parting comment to the Easter Bunny, on the chance that he or she is out there somewhere.”
The congregation rose as Archbishop Witch Doctor Richards raised his hands toward the roof.
“Easter Bunny, we don’t know if you are there or what form you may have so first we ask you for more information about yourself. Until then, we stand here in the dark, not even knowing if we’re looking in the right direction when we ask this. Indeed, given that this building is on the surface of a spinning ball in space from which we raise our voices upward to you at different hours of the day and on different days of the year, it’s almost certain that most of the time that we look up toward you, we’re looking in the wrong direction. Although we remain woefully in the dark, we continue to try to behave morally toward our fellow Euromamo and our neighbors. Amen and awomen.”
“Amen and awomen to you,” responded the congregation.
The congregation then began to file out of the entertainment center and into the sunlight. Rick was brimming with curiosity.
“A most unusual service,” he began.
“I expected it might seem strange to you,” responded John. “What struck you particularly?”
“There was no offering plate. How was the service financed?”
“I’m impressed that you noticed that. The denominations have access to the entertainment center at no charge because it’s a part of our social wealth. In doing so, they’re on the same footing as other organizations in our society. They get no special consideration or breaks. All organizations must draw a certain number of attendees to meet in the main room. If their followers diminish, they can meet in one of the smaller rooms in the entertainment center, similar to the room in which you are staying. It’s usufruct.”
“Usufruct? Oh, that means they have a right to the room as long as they use it,” said Rick, recalling the word from anthropology.
“Exactly.”
“In the past, have denominations faded away?”
“Yes, about fifty years ago, a group splintered off the Church of Science that called itself the Church of Belief in No God. As its name suggests, it was atheistic.”
“How did it lose adherents?”
“The Church of Science kept pointing out to the ‘No God-ers’ that they couldn’t prove that god didn’t exist. Therefore, the fundamental premise of the Church of Belief in No God was merely a belief with no empirical basis.”
“What did the Church of Belief in No God say in response?”
“There wasn’t much they could say. They argued, rather lamely, that if their theology was a mere belief, it was no different from other religions around the world and was entitled to the same status. However, the contrast with the Euromamo denominations remained sharp. Before the Church of World Religion adopted their doctrines, they researched other religions to get a comparative perspective, and they checked how the doctrines worked in fact. The Church of Science tried very hard to cull out every tenet that lacked an empirical basis. Viewed against these groups, the No God-ers lacked diligence.”
When they returned to Rick’s room, John said he had to attend to some other matters and could not chat further, leaving Rick to mull over the sermon on skivvies.
Your house is just a place for your stuff.
If you didn’t have so much fucking stuff,
You wouldn’t need a house.
You could just walk around all the time.
That’s all a house is, it’s a pile of stuff with a cover on it.
…
Did you ever notice that when you go to someone else’s house
You never feel quite 100 percent at home?
You know why? No room for your stuff.
Somebody else’s stuff is all over the place,
And what awful stuff it is.
Where did they get this stuff?
…
Have you noticed that their stuff is shit?
And your shit is stuff?
George Carlin
CHAPTER 15
Individual Wealth
Rick sat in his underwear as he completed his notes from the service on skivvies. It was great to work in privacy after hanging his disc on the door frame. That simple device gave him peace to work.
After completing the notes, his thoughts returned to economics. As John had explained, the Euromamo system of compensation was fundamentally different from the US system, as it emphasized status over individual wealth. He had a clear understanding of that, but he needed to research Euromamo attitudes toward inheritance, and that called for another discussion with John. He waited until mid-morning before walking the short distance to John’s shelter, where no blue privacy disc was displayed. After knocking and genial greetings, John invited him to sit. As John had done at the meeting with Rick several days earlier, he served tea, this time with what John called digestive biscuits.
“What’s on your mind, Rick?”
“You said there’s not much difference in wealth among the Euromamo, and that the economic disparity between the lowest salaried maker and the highest salaried thought-worker isn’t very great.”
“That’s right. Makers and thought-workers are paid similarly.”
“That means that the stuff that’s owned by the lower salaried and the higher salaried is similar?”
“Yes, and that’s especially true about the stuff that individuals can make directly from the rain forest.”
“But some of the items are better crafted than others, aren’t they?”
“You’re right. There have always been differences in craftsmanship,” acknowledged John.
“And the finer items are prized more, aren’t they? And acquired by those with more scato?”
“Somewhat, but almost everyone has enough scato to buy some finer things if they want.”
“So the Euromamo want to acquire finer things? That’s a want, not a need.”
“I see you listened attentively to the sermon on skivvies,” said John, smiling kindly. “We’re not full blown Jains, although we think their basic insight has merit. To respond to your comment: yes, finely crafted items
are a type of want. However, the trick is to avoid getting too caught up in stuff, whether finely crafted or crudely crafted. We try to limit our attachment to stuff so it doesn’t become the central purpose of our lives.” John paused before continuing, “May I ask you a personal question?”
“I suppose,” answered Rick.
“Do you have a lot of stuff?”
“I don’t have much, like most graduate students.”
“When you return to outside society and get settled in a job, do you plan to add more to your pile of stuff?”
“I think I will. It’s one of the reasons I want a good job.”
“That’s how a lot of people in outside society think,” observed John. “What types of things do you want to accumulate?”
“A good car. Furniture. Some nice clothes,” added Rick. “Oh, and a good stereo.”
“Are you unhappy that you can’t buy those things now?” asked John.
“Yes, I suppose.”
“Advertisers tell you that if you don’t buy their products, you’ll be unhappy...”
“Yes,” admitted Rick.
“...and an unsuccessful loser,” said John.
Rick nodded sheepishly.
“Ask yourself this: How did Americans live fifty years ago? There were no televisions, touch-tone telephones, or tape-cassette players. So even if your present level of stuff is modest, you can see that it is substantial riches when compared to how people lived in your society only a half century ago.”
“I would’ve been very rich and content, I guess, if I’d owned the stuff I do today, just fifty years ago,” mused Rick.
“Content?” asked John, “or would you have wanted more stuff? Do you have a stopping point in your desire to acquire, no matter how rich you become? Was Rockefeller content or did he want more, an eighteen-hole golf course in his yard at Kykuit rather than a mere nine hole course? A golf course in the yard of each of his homes?”
“You’re saying there’s no stopping point?”
“For most people, no. The Rockefeller trusts have preserved their family fortune but other wealthy families have gone through theirs. To avoid going through your wealth, you have to stop somewhere.”
The Blue Disc Page 17
