Obligation and individualism

I feel bad, and beginning to write this prompted me to try to assuage my guilt a little. I was asked to do something musical, and I couldn’t, but offered to try to find people who could. I haven’t been able to nail people down, and it’s drifted, leaving the client in limbo. Although the deadline is still a couple of months away, and I could blame others, I feel responsible. I feel a sense of obligation to do my best to provide an alternative, and I feel I haven’t done my best, yet. So, I’m trying to remedy this situation.

While writing this, the client thanked me for staying in touch, and said she’d found an alternative, but offered me some other work. I’m working on getting some musicians involved. Speaking of music, I was shafted by two bands last week. In both cases two-faced duplicitous self-interest, one I’d been playing with and promoting for a year. I’m almost over this, mainly because it’s ‘expected’ these days, because it’s just business eh. Which leads me to…

Recently, we were delighted to find a young builder who was just starting out on his own after leaving a management job in that industry. We were pleased to help him with work on a trust basis, and in fairness, eventually, he did a good job on the first project. He charged a lot, which we didn’t mind because finding a trustworthy builder out in the country is not easy. Also, ‘helping out a young fella starting out, it’s a good thing to do. We agreed that he would come back to do the next few projects when the weather improved.

Last week he sent us a WhatsApp message saying he was taking over work from another builder, closer to him (he’s not that far from us), and this suited his business planning better, so it was better for him and he thought we’d understand that. He said he might get back to us in the middle of next year. We asked if he could be honest and say whether he was ever coming back, given that we’d helped him out by being flexible, accommodating, and paying his invoices in a couple of days so he never went short… Silence… tumbleweed…

Before there was bartering

People often believe that before money, was bartering. This is true, but the bartering system was still an exchange of value. The value was based on the need for each person involved, rather than standardised into money. However, 10 Bushels of wheat for a pig, that sort of thing.

Before bartering was a system of mutual sharing of effort and resources. It was needed because each community was interdependent. Tax was paid rather like protection money, and that racket also often came with the obligation to bear arms. It was all based on obligation. If a favour was done, one was obliged to reciprocate, and whole societies relied on this. Not meeting one’s obligations could lead to being quite cold and hungry. It was feudal, so there was also a hierarchy, and this often got way out of balance, and even abused of course. However, at the level of a situation of a community of people, trying to survive or even prosper, this only happened if there was mutual trust, honour, and obligation.

Communities of neighbours sharing work tasks which required more than individuals or families could manage meant that obligations not met caused the system to break. All or most of the activities and expertise of each person were needed. Labour was shared around to ensure the whole thing was maintained. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and it often went wrong, but from here we get our ideas of trust, obligation, honour, and interdependence. A good reputation was gained and maintained, by upholding all of these.

Individualism and consumerist capitalism

The turbochargers and after-burners were ignited with neo-liberalism, the free-floating of currencies, and the now inter-generationally conditioned acceptance of a lifetime in debt. It is not enough to propel one’s own hamster wheel. Our hamster wheels are now already turning when we get into them, and the pace gets quicker all the time.

It is fair to say that the promise that all hard-working work-units (people), could get rich, has made some people extremely rich. A few people obscenely rich. This has always been the case however so long as there has been an economic hold over people regarded as of lower status. So, what we see now is once again, feudalism – the exploitation of the masses by a few rich families – but without all the things which held communities together. Individualism has seen the demise of mutual interdependence because all you have to do is gather and hoard enough monetary wealth so you don’t need anyone else’s goodwill – you can just buy everything, and everyone.

Some will say that paying for everything is far more dependable than goodwill, honour, truth, obligation etc. However, we are biologically and psychologically identical to the hundreds of generations of people who developed this way of being. We really are social animals. We require contact, community, and connection. This cannot be purchased.

For all you rich folks who think your private army is going behave when you lot come barreling down to your bolt-holes in NZ… They won’t be too bothered about their contractual obligations I suspect, having been conditioned to believe we’re all independent individuals. Mercenaries were always the one ‘class’ of people whose loyalty could be bought. It belonged to the highest bidder.

Individualism and consumerist capitalism have made mercenaries of most of us.