In essence, this is how our money system works.¹The story of the village is inspired by two stories: ‘The Eleventh Round’ from Bernard Lietaer’s book The Future of Money,and the story of the shells from Heidi Leenaarts’ book Onze economie opnieuw uitvinden (‘Reinventing Our Economy’). For the latter book, see UnitedEconomy.nl.

How would the story continue? So far, it resembles a classic fairy tale. ‘Once upon a time, there was a village where everyone was happy, then an evil villain came and messed everything up.’

If I follow this classic line, there will come a point where evil turns out not to be evil but an ordeal. The story’s heroes have to discover this for themselves. As they confront the turmoil outside, they encounter turmoil within. They start to argue, become divided, and instead of working together, turn against each other.

Right when all hope seems lost, the heroes see what they’re doing and realise there’s only one way out—unite. They learn a lesson, transcend an inner blockade and become stronger, wiser and wholer. In some stories, evil doesn’t even need to be cleared away. Many fairy tales end with the dragon becoming a valuable and beloved part of the heroes’ village—time for a big feast.

Let’s lay this storyline next to the so-called real world. Our evil is money. At least, evil is what we make of money when we blame money, banks, bankers and money-bobo’s for everything that’s wrong with the world. After all, ‘they’ are cheating us, ‘they’ are cocking up the world and we’re screwed because of ‘them’.

What if this isn’t true?

What if the man with the shiny shoes is not the real villain in our story? What if money, banks, bankers and people of wealth are not the cause of all evil? What if financial wrongdoing is merely an expression of a deeper, invisible and collective cause?

I could make this a history lesson, tracing the origins of money right back to its first, perhaps loving and just intentions. I could then proceed to ‘explain’ how right became wrong. But I’m not going to do that. For starters, I don’t believe we can ever claim to know how things exactly started out long, long ago, and what precisely happened since then up to recent times. For seconds, I’d rather use our time in class to explore what our relationship with money has become today, and the key money holds—when we’re willing to look at it in all honesty.

So to continue, I’m going to answer the questions about evil and causes step by step, starting with what the village lacks: that eleventh note.

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  The story of the village is inspired by two stories: ‘The Eleventh Round’ from Bernard Lietaer’s book The Future of Money,and the story of the shells from Heidi Leenaarts’ book Onze economie opnieuw uitvinden (‘Reinventing Our Economy’). For the latter book, see UnitedEconomy.nl. ↩︎