Making sense of money: Part 3

In our first two workshops on the theme of money we explored it as a concept and idea and then as a force that comes alive through our thoughts and behaviours. In this third workshop we shifted our attention off what money is and does and imagined a world beyond it - where social organising is free from the constraints it imposes.

Energy

Through our earlier sessions, participants reached a consensus that society is shaped by the ways and places we allocate our energy, and money routinely redirects that energy without our conscious awareness. Drawing on this insight, our groups reflected that we don’t necessarily need to create a new form of currency - rather, we need to experiment with sending our energy in new directions and, through this, alighting on what it is we need (in terms of processes, resources, skills) to facilitate what it is we seek to accomplish. 

It was recognised that this choice is not always going to be easily accessible - at least not day-to-day. Some of the constraints money imposes are real. What we are inviting in is both the practice of challenging barriers that we perceive as being real but are not (more on this below) and creating space in our lives for behaviours and thoughts that are not acted out through the prism of money. Indeed, one participant shared that the way we choose to send our energy in each moment can ripple out through society in ways we can neither envisage nor fully appreciate. Imagine expanding the number of moments in each day which are more consciously chosen, not scripted. Another offered that as well as choosing how to direct our energy, we have a choice over how not to use it. We can withdraw energy and this, too, can undermine social practices that we see as causing harm.

Vision

It was suggested that for society to redirect resources at scale we might need some form of collective realignment over goals and vision. This was felt to be challenging not only logistically but because, as our previous conversations had revealed, each individual can hold very different values and money’s tendency to flatten or obscure certain values was something we wanted to escape. 

There are a few ways we might be able to navigate this challenge. 

The first is to note that organising at scale is not a neutral or inevitable idea. It assumes features of the way resources are shared - through hierarchies in a closed system - that we may wish to challenge. 

Secondly, we might like to consider what it is that we want to achieve “at scale”. In a previous discussion on the meaning of society, we reflected that it may be helpful to imagine the society-wide parts of any system as tools and processes for facilitating what people wish to do together in communities. Arguably, what we have today is the domination and definition of our local and immediate lives by the distinct and unrelated aims of the system. 

Indeed, it was noted in a previous discussion on money that organising at scale often means we lose more than we gain. Operating at scale creates a distance between us and other people, services, things, and products. Proximity helps us reveal - and create, through relationships (see below) - value. Coordinating resources at a community level (by geography or interest or some other category) can, therefore, yield more thoughtful solutions that accommodate varied perspectives on value. 

Relationships

In sharing their visions for society, numerous participants highlighted "human connection" as an essential experience. Although it carries no financial cost, this connection often feels out of reach due to societal structures and cultural habits shaped by a system focused on financial transactions. Money influences not only how we connect and why - in short, individual units of activity with minimal or no ongoing connection - but the “who” that is connecting. We become, and view others as, economic agents, not people.

Carving out space to foster and deepen our connections with others thus serves as a radical instrument of transformation. It redirects vital energy away from society's conventional framework, which compels us to channel our time, selves, and resources strictly into output and productivity. In doing so, it empowers us to construct an alternative reality outside of the institutional control that dictates our relational time and limits what we can discover together. And, of course, relationships reveal and bring to us new resources, insights, knowledge, and the care we need to be able to practice and facilitate change. 

Resources

Following this, we explored how envisioning a world beyond money - or one in which money functions differently - could uncover new forms of resources and alter our perspective on those already visible. Realigning our values, even slightly, shifts resource prioritisation over to those required to support and grow those values in the world. Likewise, genuinely committing to a world free of hunger and homelessness fundamentally reshapes how we evaluate and deploy resources like land, food, and water. This helps us to remember that the conscious belief that hunger is a bad thing and the prioritisation of systems to end it, are not the same thing. 

Moving into a world where money no longer acts as the gateway to resources could also help us to generate entirely new forms of resources. Being in supportive, collaborative, and caring relationships with others creates the conditions for us to practice new ways of being and moving that could help us uncover new possibilities for ourselves. With the close attention we get from those who are genuinely concerned with our inner world, we can also learn more about who we are and what we are capable of. This is something like the process of “actualising” that the psychologist Carl Rogers argued was possible through deep relationships. This means we can find new ways to achieve shared goals that don’t rely on pre-determined assumptions. For instance, one participant suggested re-imagining a "school" not as a physical institution serving as a gatekeeper to knowledge, but as a shared concept that every member of a community can both contribute to and experience.

Questioning

One recommended method for dismantling the power that money holds over us is to routinely adopt the practice of asking why - both of ourselves and others. Children excel at this naturally, as they have not yet inculcated the automatic scripts adults rely on to bypass challenging choices - such as "that's impossible," "we don't do things that way," or "what will others think?" Cultivating this habit serves several critical functions:

Uncovering underlying logic: It helps expose the rationale behind our choices, bringing unexamined or unverified assumptions to light. We can also listen in to the voice making definitive statements about reality. Do we hear our own authentic voice or someone else's that we are merely repeating?

Revealing values: This simultaneously helps us to appreciate what we do value. Creating a separation from the voice and the thought that says “it has to be this way” allows us the space we need to examine what we want and need. 

Slowing down perception: Inquiring "why" - and taking the space to listen for a response - effectively slows down time. Because time is experienced relative to our pace of living, intentionally slowing our actions and design processes expands our temporal space. This practice directly challenges the myth that economic life must operate at a relentless, breakneck pace.

However, it is worth noting that this practice can induce discomfort. Many of us have experienced the unease of having our choices questioned - or the sudden erosion of certainty when a child asks "why?" This reaction is completely natural. Because our brains function as processing engines that rely on shortcuts and heuristics to conserve energy. Dismantling these mental scripts demands energy and opens an unsettling, uncharted territory. Navigating this shift requires developing fresh practices and vocabularies to help individuals adapt to profound inquiry. Over time, as pausing and questioning become second nature, what once felt destabilising will itself grow familiar and welcome.