Radical Trust
A quick shout out to Scott, without whom this conversation would never have begun, and never would have blossomed.
This article is intended
for people who are already familiar with the datti project. The
following articles offer a good background for those who wish to know
more: http://www.realitysandwich.com/gift_currency http://midlifexpress.com/datti-money-reverse/ Since I originally wrote about radical trust 5 months ago, enough has changed to warrant a rewrite of
the introduction. If you have become a keeper of a datti coin, then
you may have begun to recognize in yourself a personal and interpersonal transformation that marks the transition from a trade-based economy to a gift-based economy.
It is a drastic paradigm shift-- far more drastic than the mass
cultural adoption of a scientific viewpoint that has taken place over
the last 300 years. If you are one of the people lucky enough to be
struck by this incredible possibility of a gift economy, as I am,
then you are now standing on the threshold of a transformation that
must begin with a period of silent reflection, and will, at some
point, require you to actively engage-- giving and receiving gifts
freely, and with an open heart. A change in direction:
The transformation seems to begin with a
cognitive dissonance that comes from first trying to grasp the
concept of the datti. It is a form of money that flows in the reverse
direction from all other money that has ever existed. Aside from
introducing a beautiful new paradigm, it also puts into stark
contrast the paradigm of trade-based currency, which has been so
all-pervasive that it has remained invisible for the duration of
civilization. Trade-based currency, because it is a tool of exchange,
flows in the opposite direction of everything else in the world. In
other words, everything that can be monetized flows in one direction,
while money, which is being exchanged for these goods and services,
flows in the other.
When someone is introduced
to the concept of a gift-based currency, she is often confused. It
usually takes several attempts to successfully describe the datti to
her. Gift money flows with
everything else in the world.
Even people who have given
many dattis with gifts, and have integrated the idea into their
perception often slip up. About a month ago, I was telling my friend
Lisa that another friend Leslie owed me a datti, because she had
helped me set up a Facebook fan page for the project. Lisa looked at
me with a blank stare for several seconds. She did something for
you! Why would she owe you a datti?! Then
she started to laugh when she realized her own confusion. We are
deeply conditioned to perceive ideal relationships as being those in
which fair trade is achieved. It's nothing personal,
it's just business: The second
stage of the transformation logically follows from the first. People
begin to realize just how deeply the existing trade paradigm is
affecting their lives. They begin to realize that trade-based
relationships, due to their basic structure often cause people to try
to get as much as they can from those people with whom they are
trading. If I am buying a car from you, I might well try to get the
car for as little money as I can, while you may try to get as much
money from me as you can. This isn't a moral judgment, it's just a
measurable trend, based on a structural reality. Another way of
saying it, more in context with the first stage of the
transformation, is that trade-based currencies cause people's
intentions to de-align. People in trade-based relationships generally
end up with conflicting intentions. They are at cross purposes-- two
arrows moving in opposite directions. The work of the trade is to
come to a compromise that both people can live with, even though
neither person gets what they want. Inversely, the structure of a
gift-based relationship causes people's intentions to align-- I want
to give you what you want to receive. Our intentions become
synchronized. The upshot of this is that trade structures become
impersonal, while gift structures become personal. People begin to
experience the depth of their own isolation when they are presented
with the possibility of a gift economy. Where the transaction
originates: In simplest terms,
the third stage of this transformation comes with the contrast
between a trade-based transaction and a gift-based transaction. At
this point, the transformation moves from the head to the heart.
People begin to realize, usually not on a conscious level, that
trade-based interactions are always initiated by the buyer, while
gift-based interactions are always initiated by the gifter. In
today's economy, if I am hungry, then I buy a sandwich, if I am cold
I buy a jacket, If I am bored I buy a movie ticket. I, as the buyer,
initiate every economic transaction, with my attention on what I want
and need. I am trained by my economy to do so, especially when I
consider that, if I don't, someone is likely to take advantage of me.
I need to focus on my own needs in order to ensure that the the
transaction is fair, or, if I wish, to try to make it unfair to my
advantage. Again, this isn't a moral judgment, it's just a reflection
on the basic structure of trade economics. Inversely, in a gift
economy, because each economic transaction is initiated by the
gifter, each person's attention shifts from self to other. You are
hungry, so I give you a sandwich. You are cold, so I give you a
jacket. You are bored so I tell you a story. The reversal of the
money's direction causes a dramatic shift in a person's attention
from self to other. This shift initiates the final stage of the
transformation. Radical Trust:
So, to recap, a person receives a datti-- he is, at first confused,
and then begins to integrate the implications of a form of money that
flows in the the opposite direction of all other money. He starts to
realize that money that flows against goods and services trains him
to focus on his own wants and needs, and causes his own intentions to
move out of alignment with those of the people with whom he engages
in economic relationships. He then begins to realize that, in order
to reverse the direction of money from trading to giving, he will
need to shift his attention from his own wants and needs to those of
other people. In some cases, he will need to adopt the intentions of
the very same people that he has come inherently to distrust. The
shift that is demanded of a person moving into a gift consciousness
is one of complete radical trust. I trust that you will take care of
my needs, as I begin, in essence, to ignore them. You, in turn, trust
that I will take care of your needs as you shift your attention to my
own. Being
somewhat in the middle of this transformation myself, I lack some
clarity here. But I can say two things: First,
it is a move into pure love. Second,
as a function of love, it is a shift from the perception of
self-as-separate, to a perception of self as a larger whole-- as that
which flows between 'us'. In other words, we stop being members of a
community, and we become the community itself. Our sense of self
expands. It's where such expressions as 'my heart goes out to her'
and 'try spending a day in her shoes' comes from. A friend of mine
named Anna, who is an acupuncturist, recently described the datti as
being like a needle that opens the flow of human energy. We have
become largely blocked in our ability to experience our own
interpersonal nature because we have largely blocked the
interpersonal flow. We have functioned within an economic structure
that reaches, at best, for an ideal of 'fair trade'. In such a world,
there is so little room for a gift. If the trade is unfair, then we
can take, or we can be taken from. But we can't give. If the trade is
fair, then the energy level between people remains static. That is
the very definition of the term 'fair trade'. Nobody walks away with
more, nobody walks away with less. A shift to gifting with radical
trust unblocks the flow, and, as a result, we start to move with that
flow-- we start to move into it. We start to become it. As we give
ourselves to each other, we start to become each other. Our
gift is love. We are love. We are the gift. My
friend John has said this about radical trust:
“Living
into radical trust unlocks the massive creative potential inherent in
serving something greater than the ego. I submit that striving to
understand and meet the needs of other persons is a higher pursuit
than the mundane quest to understand and fulfill one’s own needs.
If we are all focused on our own needs, we are all limited by our
narrow views on what is possible for ourselves or our happiness,
trapped as we are within our own limiting beliefs and attitudes. We
are all unwilling or unable to take a risk, to make a playful stab at
how we might better be served in this life, worried that we may be
wrong about our needs and thereby not meet them. But other people are
not so limited. We may easily see what another person not only wants,
but what they NEED, when they can’t see it themselves, or are too
afraid to even seek it. I’d wager that the best gifts you have ever
received are not the ones you knew were coming, or the ones that
represented things you already knew you needed. I suspect the best
gifts you ever received were things you didn’t even know you
needed, the ones that filled a new need or a hidden need. Therein may
lay the key to spiritual and cultural evolution: seeking to find and
fulfill the needs of others sets the stage for a world of beauty that
none of us could possibly manifest while focused on ourselves.”
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