The Sunday Thing

The love of money is the root of all evil

This week, Michael Gungor asked us to discuss money in our breakout groups.

Money is power

We outsource our power and authority to those who claim to have greater access to capital, because we underestimate and undervalue our own social influence, economic capacity, and political agency. The entreprecariat is designed for learned helplessness (social: individualism), trained incapacities (economic: specialization), and bureaucratic intransigence (political: authoritarianism). https://hypothes.is/a/667dOC0bEeyV6Itx3ySxmw

Indigenous cultures in Canada were disempowered by outlawing the cultural practice of generosity (potlatch) and replacing the practice with centralized power over the medium of exchange: money. Money is a mechanism of disempowerment.

Money is a shared story we tell ourselves about what has value. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/795246685

We translated “ekklesia” as church. It is the deliberative body of the experiment in democracy in Athens, Greece. The people who are figuring out how to live together in the commons. The work of the people. The Liturgists.

The Story of Money

In this hour, On the Media looks at the story of money, from its uncertain origins to its digital reinvention in the form of cryptocurrency.

On the Media: Full Faith & Credit

Squid Game

People were also discussing Squid Game.

Squid Game was on my mind today before the call. “The reality of the history of Canada’s mining industry makes #SquidGame look like child’s play.” https://twitter.com/bauhouse/status/1449726452098682881?s=20

The truth is that all of the gold that was mined out of the Klondike was under Indigenous land. There was no treaty with any of Indigenous peoples in the Yukon.

Commons: Mining

“Students are graduating into a brutal job market.”

The entreprecariat is designed for learned helplessness (social: individualism), trained incapacities (economic: specialization), and bureaucratic intransigence (political: authoritarianism).

The Design Problem

Three diagrams will explain the lack of social engagement in design. If (in Figure 1) we equate the triangle with a design problem, we readily see that industry and its designers are concerned only with the tiny top portion, without addressing themselves to real needs.

(Design for the Real World, 2019. Page 57.)

The other two figures merely change the caption for the figure.

• Figure 1: The Design Problem
• Figure 2: A Country
• Figure 3: The World

The Design Problem

Three diagrams will explain the lack of social engagement in design. If (in Figure 1) we equate the triangle with a design problem, we readily see that industry and its designers are concerned only with the tiny top portion, without addressing themselves to real needs.

(Design for the Real World, 2019. Page 57.)

The other two figures merely change the caption for the figure.

• Figure 1: The Design Problem
• Figure 2: A Country
• Figure 3: The World