Over on Reality Sandwich, Charles Eisentein has an essay called Money and the Turning of the Age. Its premise is that money is based on a consensus story and only has value so long as the people believe the story. The story of money, he argues, is based on:
— infinite expansion of stuff produced;
— theft and monetization of cultural wealth, and
— arbitrary and ever-growing differences in power between the haves and have-nots.
“Money is merely a social agreement,” Eisentein says. “A story that assigns meaning and roles.”
But what happens when people stop believing the story? What happens when they refuse to play their assigned roles?