We haven’t figured out how to do that yet, (though scientist are working on it) and until then we are plugged in through our technical interfaces like, laptops, iPhones and Palm’s etc…

In fact, we are so plugged in, that our brains are rewiring in very mysterious ways.

I don’t know about you, but I have noticed some unusual patterns in my regular habits that I question:

First, I have a long distance friend who I adore and was very close to at one time, a real friend. Yet, I have trouble visualizing her face, however, I am able to recall her last three Facebook pictures (at least). I do not feel good about this.

Second, after I meet with friends, I absentmindedly forget half of what we talked about because I know that any significant event (and all the insignificant ones too) will be posted on Facebook and/or tweeted, and because I use tweetdeck (among other programs) I won’t miss it in the thunder of status updates.

Third, birthday reminders, I forget those too because they all come through Facebook. I can hardly remember the last time I received a hard copy birthday card from friends my age anyway (except this one friend…hmmm what is up with her?).

Fourth, I don’t know phone numbers because I’ve programmed everyone on speed dial, 1, 2 or 3 and so on, or, I can just type names in.

Fifth, there are lots of words that I will know if they are used in a sentence, but if you ask me directly, what is “dystopia,” I may get confused and not be totally sure. I don’t remember ever feeling that way about words before, it just crept up on me. I’ll see a word and it will fail to totally connect, but I’ll have the presence of mind to type, define:”dystopia” into Google, after which, I’ll feel much better and be much the wiser.

So it seems, Google, social media and hi-tech gadgetry has replaced the need for me to have a memory of any concrete or impressive depth in perhaps too many instances. (Small note: I know what you’re thinking, I am not a genius, but I am not a doofus either, so go easy on the wise cracks!) The point is, being wired constantly allows us, indeed encourages us, to remember how to find information yet not ingest the actual information, less still, analyze the information we have just read or heard. Thank God so many of us are wired everywhere.

Right? Or is this really creepy.

I think it might be creepy.

Now lets examine the question of memory in the digital age on a wider sphere, a macrosphere if you will. Headline news, you may recall, used to be something that happened once a day – in the morning when you read your paper. Then, TV came in and there could be breaking news in the morning, at lunch and while you’re eating dinner and listening to Katie Couric. Now, there’s Twitter!! (Cue drumroll and flashy music please.) Twitter is a great tool in many ways, but it seems reporters are tripping all over themselves to be the first to find a headline, any headline and be the first to tweet it. Important events must happen every hour throughout the day, every single day on Twitter, thus in news outlets. This cycle of never ending drama or false drama, leads consumers into a state of confusion about what is really important and contributes to a sort of national memory failure (NMF). In the past, our national memories failed to recall key events (eg: that we wiped out Native Americans) but the memory span today is MUCH more narrow. We are forgetting sometimes crucial information in record time:

- The banks are doing exactly what they did BEFORE the financial collapse (roughly one year ago). This is clearly some sort of digital amnesia on the part of the banks, AND the people who have their money in these banks otherwise action would be taken. (Right?)
- Workers who have jobs fearfully forget that it’s four hours past the time they should have gone home, or that it’s the weekend or that they are on holiday and respond to urgent emails, letters or notices at all hours.
- With one of the world’s strongest earthquakes hitting Chile, Haiti has been obliterated from our minds.
- In our worry about finance, health and some miscalculation in the science labs we have forgotten there is a global climate change issue or just generally that we might not want to trash the place we live in. (Must be that NMF).
- We were just thinking about Ed McMahon when Jeff Goldblum AND Farah Fawcett died, which we promptly forgot about because Michael Jackson died. Of course it turned out Jeff Goldblum was not really dead, though I’m certain some people still think he is.
- Not that this is any of our business, but it has been reported as news, (shrug) and I challenge anyone to try to remember all of Tiger Woods mistresses (though I doubt he could either).
- Many of us watched Food Inc. decided not to eat meat the next day, then promptly forgot why we decided that in the first place.
- We have collectively forgotten how to grow food in lieu of knowing how to tweet using programs like Bit.ly, Tweetdeck and Twhirl. Most of us have forgotten how to cook, REALLY cook, and make fresh bread, yogurt, pasta, cheese etc… Many of us can barely cook a casserole. We know take out, microwave, or prepackaged in 10 minutes or less with instructions.

In our absence of memory (NMF), we the people not only increasingly rely on gadgets and technology but we also rely on “EXPERTS” to tell us what we would like to do with our life, how best to live it, and what stuff to fill it with. These same experts seem to be doing very well with million dollar bonuses while the we are losing our homes and facing 30% unemployment.

That is a bit creepy eh? I would conjecture that we do indeed have a bug, a sort of memory virus and it’s gaining strength.

It makes me think of the recent power outage at my apartment. The world suddenly felt so quiet. No whine of the computer, no hum of the fridge, soft candlelight glow, no need to check email because I physically couldn’t, (except on my phone but I resisted). And I felt my body instantly relax. The tension I didn’t know I had, unfurled from my forehead. I concentrated on my breath. I felt Fanfrickintastic! Wonderful! Amazing!

And then the power came back on. To my dismay.

In that story lies what I think is the cure for our bug – good old fashioned discipline! We have the ability to unplug, so that we remember at least a few of the most essential things. (Yes, it might be nice to put the Blackberry down while talking with your child.) We have the power! Lets do it! We can do it! We can restore our memory and take steps to shape a better world.

But, let me just send this one more tweet before I do that….

Check out these other posts by Marlo McKenzie:

I Want Money Part II: Local Currencies

I Want More Money: Seeking the Holy Grail

Avatar Champions Native American Spirit

Local currencies with high velocity rates of exchange are active around the world but most documented in the Chiemgauer district of Bavaria, Germany and the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, USA. As Judith D. Schwartz reported in Yes, Magazine the local currency models keep spending local and bring communities together. For instance the Chiemgauer is issued in exchange for Euros, 1 Chiemgauer is 1 Euro. The Chiemgauer runs by a different set of rules, however, which are decided by the community. It depreciates overtime to encourage spending, retailers who accept Chiemgauer for marketing purposes and to encourage business, redeem them for 95% of their value, with 2% going to students for administration of the currency and the remaining  3% going to charities. Since there is incentive to use the money rather than store it, local businesses are stimulated, non-profit and charity work increases and jobs stay in town. About a dozen local communities or more in the US employ alternative currencies, check out this CNN video.

Another example is “Life Dollars,” which are employed at Fourth Corner exchange based in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Life Dollars are an electronic currency, and at their heart, is that there “are always as many Time Dollars as members need to complete the trades they require.” Members can access a database that lists out needs and offers, through that members can exchange good and services. Founder Francis Ayley bought his car and pays his rent in Life Dollars!

Time based currency is the easiest concept to get; created by Edgar Cahn, to receive time based dollars you may join a time bank where members give something of value, such as help with cleaning out a member’s garage or yard and receives time dollars in return, which s/he may then exchange for help with creating a website or editing a story and so on. This gives value to skills that may not be marketable and also connects communities in a circle of giving. A list of time banks can be found here.

Ven is the currency traded by members of Hub Culture for goods, services, collaborations and knowledge. It springs out of social media models of engagement and in Andy Jordan’s video for the Wall Street Journal, members report gaining Ven by offering good advice or connecting two parties together.

I’ve just mentioned a few alternative models here and some of the most successful. I feel like these really need much more attention than they have received and that this is the key to reshaping the unequal system of economics we run today. I encourage you to share your comments and knowledge about this here, the time for taking the leap is now. I plan to join the Fourth Corner Exchange, I’ll report back on how that goes!

Related Posts

I Want More Money: Seeking the Holy Grail

Social Networking Sites’ Popularity Poses Problems for Users

Whispers

Manipulating Information on the Web: A Good Form of Activism?

No One Wins in the E-Book Spat

If you scan the hive mind, blogs, twitter, facebook et al. there’s a deep sense of the public being wronged – whatever side you vote for, and what it boils down to is money.

The Supreme Court just sanctioned restrictions on corporate spending on federal campaigns, the very rich are getting even richer and throwing in a million dollar bonus on top, bailout money is disappearing through the cracks as we the people lose our homes, our jobs, our identity, as we are laid off, filing for bankruptcy, unable to afford health care or medical bills and it all comes down to money.

So I asked myself why this green papery thing is the centerpiece of our modern lives? What is it’s mystery quality that entrances us? Why is money our holy grail – the thing all of us wish to have, and push ourselves onwards in the hopes that one day we too may be just like the people who have it. Why?

I am the first to admit that I play the lotto and envision the house on the beach from which I would sip hot cocoa and use my piles of green to cast good deeds about the world. This sentiment is so striking because no doubt it (I want more money)  is a thought that the vast majority of us share.

We ALL want more money. Some want to be mega rich, others want to be comfortable, others have more defined goals — to buy a house or to put your child through college, but we all want it and we think if we work MORE, work HARDER, we will be WORTHY of this SACRED object. If we do find ourselves in the position of inheriting or winning  or earning more money, we still find it’s not enough.

In 2010 we stand at a rather good vantage point for assessing what this collective thought (I want more money) has created – extreme poverty next to lavish wealth, degradation of the land in favor of corporate interest, anointing those who have more of this green papery stuff with special place in our society, a place that allows them freedom to trample and destroy as they see fit.

So I wondered what would happen if we abandoned the delusions the rich rely on us to have? Now THAT is a heavy thought.

What if we changed our thoughts? What if we chose a new collective holy grail? What if we just decided one day, that our goal in life – which our entire existence would center around would be to nurture as many friendships as we could, to care for the earth and to cause joy for each person we meet?

What if?

Ok, I admit, that’s not going to happen. So what are some other options, some other ideas to mitigate the destructiveness of our money worship. THAT I will explore in my next blog. I am eager to hear your thoughts.

Related Posts

I Want Money Part II: Local Currencies

Social Networking Sites’ Popularity Poses Problems for Users

Whispers

Manipulating Information on the Web: A Good Form of Activism?

No One Wins in the E-Book Spat

CNN’s Tom Charity dubbed it “dances with wolves in outer space” as a marine becomes Na’vi, but I think he missed the point. Avatar is about us finding our way home, to our true selves. This is about human beings on earth coming back to our connection. What makes us feel alive? Do you feel alive? Are you happy with the way the world unfolds around you? Maybe it’s time to wake up. Are we awake? Can we wake up? What do things look like if we wake up? Does the most coveted thing still look like money? Do we still worship it as our motivating God or does that change?

Mr. Cameron spins dreams like a master weaver. I could see you and me reflected in this film and I could dream a new story for our future, one where our collective human culture reconnects to reverence for the land, and respect for the reason we can sustain life at all, our earth. I could dream that we would discover the fundamental beauty in the world around us and our power to shape it with the choices of the everyday. Pandora and the culture of the Na’vi calls to me, not because of its fantasy, its outerspace otherness, but because it is our own story waiting to be told.

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If You Like James Cameron’s “Avatar”, You Might Enjoy…

As Christmas rolls around the corner, the season of gift giving is upon us. Some savvy shoppers, observant friends, and those with the go-getter spirit unafraid of wielding long traffic hours and elbows in store fronts will find Christmas a zestful challenge.

Others will find it a claustrophobia of deja vu, a performance part that repeats yearly and still others will find the experience a happy medium.

Unlike previous years I find myself much more attracted to virtual gifts. My philosophy is that if I must send or receive a gift, it might as well be a gift that won’t cozy up to a landfill in the future. Also, stupid gifts (which I can unintentionally give in my last minute panic) in virtual worlds hold a certain pizazz they lack in the real world. For example, a “tripped out escalator” from Detroit is actually rather cool in VR, though the hard copy (glass snow-globe) will not likely capture the joy you were hoping for in person.

After a bit of searching I found a wealth of gift options that are virtual, always playful and sometimes meaningful.

Ning launched its virtual gifts this year, you can give to your friends on twitter with twesents and twitgiftly. Gifts in 3D targeted for iPhone users are now available, as are the old staples of virtual cards and flowers. My favorite gifts are on Facebook. Yes, you can launch a rash of gift giving to your Farmville neighbors and give disney gifts or plant gifts to your 400 friends until your credit runs out, but for those really really special friends I’m into Facebook’s (newly expanded) gift area where you can give music, or charity gifts. Hit your causes app, go to gifts and you’ll fnd things like a Kiva piggy bank, or a WWF Panda or a cute puppy where the money goes to the Humane Society.

In a culture weighted down with stuff, in some cases virtual exchange makes sense and if you choose charity giving, it can meaningfully contribute to those truly in need.

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A Car Free Life

How to Go Green at Work

People’s World Conference on Climate Change

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes, perhaps one of the most significant acts of activism conducted by Native Americans to date. Led by Mohawk activist Richard Oakes,  Indians from diverse tribes across the country occupied Alcatraz for 19 months from Nov. 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971.

“We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth,” reads the Alcatraz proclamation “a precedent set by the white man’s purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago.  We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was sold…”

The proclamation used humor to make earnest demands aimed at improved rights for Native Americans while pointing out glaring truths in our history, that are often swept under the rug.

Their bold action was the  the first indication that Native American culture could rise again. “Alcatraz was a big enough symbol that for the first time this century Indians were taken seriously,” Lakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr. said.

The occupation led to real changes such as the creation of Indian-studies programs, tribal museums and increases in funding for college students. It inspired the Longest Walk, a march to Washington to protect Indian rights which successfully contributed to the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.  The occupation is also attributed to the removal of federal Indian termination policy, which was replaced with legislation that supported self-determination.

In 2009, Alcatraz should still call to us as we stand at a pivotal moment in history where we decide what relationship we would like to have with our earth. America’s first people hold values that can guide us toward a balanced connection with the land, one founded on respect rather than conquest. They bring song and dance and remind us of the oldest and deepest sense of ourselves.

In order to understand who we are, we must officially recognize our past. A few steps practically knocking at our door would go a long way to do so. First, the US should sign the  United Nations Declaration on the Rights of  Indigenous Peoples which declares indigenous rights to their lands and cultures. The non-binding General Assembly vote was 143 in favor four against and 11 abstentions.  The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand voted against with Australia changing its vote this April.

As we all know an apology goes a long way, let us follow the lead of Australia and Canada by offering a formal apology this Thanksgiving to the Native Americans and agree to go forward with a new reconciliation.

Reviving Native American culture is to remember our own spirit, and to heal the wounds of our collective past so that we can move forward.