Man it's bullshit that things need to make money. I'm online looking for info about passions and hobbies and love and all everyone talks about is how to monetize your life, fuck off. Like, why do people need money. I'm so tired of monetization as a concept, fuck you.
Monetization is bullshit. I know, a very bold statement, but when you look around and really think about it for a bit, it should make you angry. Even though I just told you how to feel about something, I don't like doing that, which puts into perspective how important rejecting I think monetization is. It's important for you, for me, for your kids, and probably for the entire world.
Monetization has creeped into every aspect of our lives. Every single place on the internet, within your workplace, within government, in healthcare, childcare, public property, and private property, have all been infected by monetization. It's so bad that people develop ad blockers, have to jailbreak their phones, and move away from modern social media just to have some breathing room, away from monetization.
I originally wanted to write this article because I saw a documentary several days ago that I was very excited for. It's called Maker and it was directed by Mu-Ming Tsai. It's a documentary on the maker movement and maker culture within the US, and was released in 2014. The documentary itself was interesting; it revealed where the roots of contemporary maker culture came from. A lot of the projects and people showcased in the documentary, were awesome! That's not my issue with it. No, my issue was with the emphasis on businesses and monetization of your passions.
None of the people in the documentary seemed to be of bad faith, or bad hearts, this is not an indictment of them. A lot of the businesses did awesome stuff too, so that's not really my issue either. My issue is that in discussions of passion and making the world a better place, the world is run by money, so it's bound to come up. It feels inescapable. Money infects every single thing that it touches with the desire for more money.
I'm just trying to do silly research and make cool things for people both on the internet and off. Why does money have to be a part of the discussion? When I talk about what I want to do with my life, everybody always asks about work or a job. Why? People act as if working for some company, or living for the purpose of making money is a good thing.
I understand that dreams alone don't pay bills, but come the fuck on. I'm talking to people about what I enjoy doing, and the topic always goes to something about a job or money. Can we not live on passion alone?
I understand that my position may be seen as unreasonable, but like power over others, money corrupts absolutely. It turns passions into revenue streams. It turns projects into products to be bought and sold. It turns people into brands, to attract consumers. A field of flowers becomes a sea of sirens, all calling sailors to crash upon their shores.
Monetization is parasitic in nature, consuming, consuming, and consuming; until there is nothing left. It is a black hole of infinite greed, taking the place of density in the economic cosmos. The soul of the planet turns dark, sucking all light and resources unto itself, in order to generate profit. Profit more and profit high; stacking up into the sky. Selling the sky as boards for ads. I can't finish off this rhyme so I'll let him down, and let em' die.
Anyways, getting off of that poetic tangent, I can't justify monetization. It is incongruent with the way I want to live my life. Making money is necessary to live in modern society, but ideally I'd never charge a dime for anything I do. I wouldn't do everything for anyone at any time, I have my boundaries; But I would never charge a dime if I could.
This prompts a question. What are the alternatives? What are we supposed to do except charge a price? How do we live without money?
We create. We live outside of the boundaries and limitations of money and monetization. People make money in order to live, so we fulfill those needs on our own, outside of the economy, and outside of the standard of monetization. We don't put ads on our websites, we put our friends. We don't sell the veggies from our garden, we use them in a community feast. We don't sell our products of engineering, we make them open source for all to use.
If we, as a community, took the collective and individual responsibility to unchain ourselves from the shackles of monetization, we could take those means of production and of life and operate them as we do now. The only core difference, is that the products of our labour would be ours to enjoy! The daemon of monetization, beheaded, would no longer be there to force a need to consume in order to survive. There would only lie the need to create, together, in order to live.
TL;DR
Monetization sucks. Make shit free. Try to get away from it as best you can.
Help your neighbor and help yourself by getting away from the economy.
Take your fate into your own hands.