there's been what may be considered a MAJOR BACKLASH to the Free Planet idea from those who I thought were my allies in this quest to rid Planet Earth of Corporate Slavery, Profit and Tyranny. The basic argument is this, "Mike, you gotta give people something to do, you gotta give them structure.
People need money.
People need jobs.
People need arbitrary lawsets to guide their moral fiber.
Free Planet will fail because people will get too bored and/or too lazy and waste their time on the planet if everything is given to them."
To which I say, "I'm not your Mommy. I'm not your Daddy. Do right by Free Planet and Free Planet will do right by you; the responsible adult. Bring something (of yourself, and your experience, your passion, your kinship, your creativity) to the Free Planet party."
Let's examine this motivational carrot a little.
You might be lying naked on a hillside all day, smoking or drinking some hallucinogenic concoction, looking at the clouds stampeding across the sky, watching flocks of screeching swift duck and dive to avoid the anti-grav transport pods of your fellow man, the only hint of their presence the spherical refraction of their force fields, maybe you're having insane psycho-sexual intercourse with any number of fellow skins, maybe you're talking through some great invention or idea with any number of like minds, maybe just taking in the re-wilded view of herds of herbivores below being preyed on by the predators... who cares... slumming around is something every single on of us wants to do, it's something every single one of us has the right to do, after all it's a Free Planet.
But at some point (some more often than others, clearly) you're gonna want to help (and maintain) the planet to be a better place; and you'll probably end up doing it for purely personal, egotistical reasons. And that's alright. You can sleaze around if you want, I would, but you won't last long on Freeloader Planet. The simple facts of hunger and cold and boredom and misery will be unbearable for most of the sheople - yes, the majority of people go along with stuff, there will always be sheople, even on Free Planet.
There have to be sheople, that's the way of mankind, the trundling-along masses. But there are ways to convince these Sheople to pull together in Diversities of communal effort that align with their personal requirements. You can choose whatever party you wanna go to on Free Planet, you just have to BRING SOMETHING TO THE TABLE to enhance the trip.
Most people are SPECTATORS to revolution, cheering on the 10% who really blaze a trail and show how freedom can be achieved. These same Sheople will be the slackers and hangers-on of a Free Planet once it's in place, and that's okay. But it's even more important to encourage these same Sheople to take an active role in their re-beautifying planet; not just a back seat critical role while it's taking place. This way they might realize they really enjoy re-vitalising the planet.
And RECOGNITION FOR EFFORT is paramount - the real motivating factor - a real integration of every person on the planet in the saving of Free Planet for future generations. The proverbial GLOBAL GROUP HUG.
I can also see this impetus naturally selecting moral codes also: those Diversities that don't support active improvement of the Free Planet will naturally die out and the members will move on to more relevant 'parties' to Diversities with more relevance to their personal liking and their concerns for their children's children.
I'm convinced that SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE (current population) want to see REAL, EXPANSIVE BEAUTY return to this ruined corporate husk of a planet, and it's possible to re-invite every living being into the expansive human equation. Screw the law-makers. Screw the slave-drivers. Welcome home humanity. Where have you all been for so many hundreds of years?
Happier, hippier?
