Will We Ever Stop Dragging Our Knuckles?

I actually wrote this piece for my personal blog “On the Road to Your Perfect World” a couple weeks ago. But with the meltdown of Charlie Sheen and the never-ending media bombardment, I thought maybe I should post it here. It really doesn’t have much to do with printing...but it has to do with everything else.

A couple weeks ago, I commented on a provocative blog post by my friend Greg Rader, “The Future of Status - Conspicuous Production.” Here is that comment:

Imagine if there was no money and no things to buy. How would you show the world your worth? Or how would you show yourself?

Would your value lie in the number of friends you have—physical or electronic? Would it lie in the quality and depth or your relationships with these friends (kind of three-dimensional assessment)? Maybe it would lie in the number pieces of art you produced, or books and articles you’ve written.

Or better yet...what about the number of karma points you’ve accumulated by doing random acts of good? Haven’t we reached a point on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where we can at least flirt with self actualization?

Over your last couple posts, I think you’ve been leading us to this, Greg. It’s obvious, the standard societal measurement of wealth and worth just isn’t cutting it for you. I join you brother.

Maybe this is the first step—discontent. Only then can we find our own “store of value.” and, from there, truly maximize it’s worth. Maybe this is what I mean when I talk about “On the Road to Your Perfect World.” Thanks for pointing me the way 🙂

I viewed the focus of Greg’s piece as: “Isn’t there a way of presenting our value to the world other than just through the money we make and our consumption habits?” As you can tell from my comment above, it’s a topic that's been on my mind also.