PHOTOS/SARAH JANE RHEE
Editor’s note: This article is excerpts from the book, “The Future is Up To Us,” by Nelson Peery
We’re talking about a world where the robots are cranking twenty-four hours a day. We’re talking about a world where everybody becomes involved in the development of society, its spiritual development. We’re talking about a world of happy people. We’re talking about entering a stage of development that’s no longer controlled by scarcity. We can talk in terms of abundance today as that abundance is here. All you have to do is look in the big box stores. There is plenty of plenty. The problem is distribution. If the producing class does not own its production there will be shortages in the midst of plenty.
This is the basis of social strife. When we do away with that, we can begin to build the positive thing, happiness. Happiness is an emotion that arises with contribution. This contribution can be in the form of raising a child, of painting a picture, of building an organization or a neighborhood. Happiness is a social thing. The idea is to have as full a life as humanly possible. This demands, first, that we struggle to create the conditions for a full life while we are here.
Up to this point all we’ve really been is animals. Reacting to scarcity, struggling to get food, struggling to get a house, struggling to get an education, struggling for all these things. If these necessaries are in abundance then we can turn to the real matters of life, the intellectual, cultural and interactive wellbeing. So for the first time we will truly create our own history.
We create our history now, but under defined circumstances that limit our choices. We’re talking today about an end to the struggle over allocation of scarcity. We’re talking about no longer having to struggle about getting a house. They will be stamped out by a robot at a factory. We will no longer worry about getting food, no longer worry about getting an education. Then, we can go ahead and create.
Some people say this heaven sounds a little dull. But if things were dull in heaven, so many people wouldn’t spend so much time trying to get there. We are still going to be boogying and falling in love and raising our babies. We are going to do all the things that make us happy. The only dull thing that we’ll get rid of is groping along for a living. Piling those bricks two on one, one on two. That’s the dull part of my life. Dancing and reading books has never been dull to me.
What we are talking about is the ability of human beings to grab hold of themselves and their destiny and create a history of accomplishments. Accomplishments will be things that we choose to do, not that which we have to do. When we set about reconstructing the earth, for example, becoming part of the earth, again, I think that will be a real accomplishment. Happiness will arise in that process. What would you do with yourself if you no longer had to worry about your food, shelter, and healthcare? I know what I’d do.
