Putting a Limit on Madness

Often, when one contemplates about the notion of having limits, one is confronted with a certain sense of discomfort. With a deep desire for freedom, the notion of having limits for the human being, is often accompanied by the notion of being tied down and bound. The impulse then, is often to break through and extend ourselves beyond our limits, and with that reclaim our freedom in the face of the false boundaries, previously perceived.

Paradoxically though, if one looks at the way nature is organized, one finds that nature is full of
limitations, and that it is these limitations that allow the richness of life that we find on this planet of ours. Furthermore, it becomes evident that without these limitations, without having this planetary, bound cocoon, life as we know it would not exist. So while life with all its richness exists here in this limited space, out there, in limitless space, we find nothing but an exuberant amount of lifeless abundance.Philosophically, what this means to me is that abundance seems to have some dependency on having limits, and that beyond a certain threshold, lack of limits does not allow for this abundance and for life to persist.

In a practical sense, what evoked in me this whole line of thinking was actually a movie I saw yesterday about our economy, and in it, there was mention of how financial inequality has risen dramatically ever since the US unhinged itself from the gold standard in 1971. In a sense, I thought, this provides one of the most vivid examples of how lifting one limitation cascades into a reality that when it comes to financial inequality we are now finding ourselves in a very socially limiting environment, where the ultra rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.

Before 1971 then, you can think of our economy as being grounded here on earth. And while it was limited it provided a lot of room to prosper. After 1971, and once this limitation was lifted, we found ourselves in an accelerated thrust into the outer space of possibilities, welcoming the feeling freedom and accomplishment, only to realize now, decades later, that for the most part life has actually been accelerating its own demise.

Recognizing our limitations and living and flourishing within our limitations, is one of society's greatest challenges. Because of this, throughout the ages we have made many attempts to declare limitations and have attempted to abide by them. Our history of course shows us that finding the balance in which our set limitations allow for more life to happen, is difficult. Financially, it seems we have tried two extremes. One in which we put too much limitation, and the other in which we put too few. An example of too much limitation, is communism, and an example of too little limitations is the current financial system led by wall street madness.

So while communism seems to be overbearing with restrictions, wall street madness seems to

encourage limitless greed. So much in fact, that it has now backfired in a sense that this greed has now become the spear head of human motivation, thus becoming the new god, and one that everyone seems to wants to follow. The thing is that this god (this god of greed) growing powerful, has now become the ultimate proponent of breaking away from all life supporting limitations, and is now the main force in which all things good are being destroyed.

You see, in our day and age, satisfaction has become rare, and dissatisfaction has become the common currency. The reason for this is because we have lifted limitation that were there to support us and protect us from our own madness. Admittedly, it is not an easy thing to create limits that will allow us to live in harmony with each other. If it was easy we would have done it by now. Still, what should be considered at this point, is that while having a strict limit on a person's wealth is unwise, having no limitation on a person's wealth, that is unwise too.

In our greed driven world, it is very clear, that we have no limits on how wealthy a man can be, nor do

we have any limit on how poor. In response we have become a fractured society, and while the powers at be, are busy with statistical evaluation of the situation at large, what is clear to me, is that whether the numbers improve or not, the level of pain on the street, is rising, and will continue to rise significantly in the years to come.

If you were to ask me whether I was a socialist, a capitalist, a democrat or a republican, I would answer that I am none of these. What I am is a philosopher, and one who likes to observe, and what I have observed is that lifting all limitation on how much one man can hoard and accumulate is a very bad thing, and is leading and will continue leading to the destruction of the world as we know it. Wealth needs to be limited because if wealth is not limited then neither is greed, and since greed and dissatisfaction come hand in hand, then ridiculously wealthy people also have an extreme level of dissatisfaction, and this in a sense is what propels them to destroy.

Whether something like the gold standard should be put back in place is something that I think is worthwhile to consider. However, even so, without putting a cap on the amount of wealth one can acquire, the same destruction we are currently seeing will continue to occur. If it was up to me, I would take some ridiculous figure, one that can suffice any human being for 10 life times, and I would declare that figure as a limit, where everything that goes over that, goes back to the social pile.This way while a man finds himself crossing the limitations of his own madness, his madness is also integrated back to society for the benefit of all. In this way even the most insane greed, is eventually brought back home, and is harnessed in order to support life and the whole.

What I fear is that by not doing so, what we are doing is promoting dissatisfaction. With it we allow a vicious game where a few are sacrificing the lives of many, for acquisitions that amount to nothing but a game of financial monopoly which they have grown accustomed to playing with each other. Since there are no limits then the only way the game stops in when something breaks or something dies. You see, man always attempts to break ground. Because this is the case, having no upper limits means that the only way we come to a stop, is by crashing down. What this all reminds me of is the greek mythological story of Icarus which is a symbolic representation of what happens when one does not recognize limitation, and by doing so feels that he has none. The conclusion of the story of course is that when the limitation is reached things of course come crashing down. A story worth revisiting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus)