The Money Fix
Money, money, money. You know how to spend it. Maybe you know how to save or invest it. But do you know where money comes from and who controls it?
The Money Fix, a mind-blowing feature-length documentary answers these questions and more through its exploration of our society’s relationship with the green stuff. Written and produced by Alan Rosenblith, this groundbreaking film’s cast includes activist Noam Chomsky, Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money, and Bernard Lietaer, the co-architect of the euro, to name a few.
So where does money come from? Most people, if they consider it at all, think that the government creates it. The Money Fix demystifies the murky world of finance and economics, revealing that money is created by the banking system and it enters the economy as bank debt. This means that if you go into a bank to ask for a loan, every dollar you receive is someone else’s debt. In effect, money is actually created out of thin air.
What’s the big deal? Experts in The Money Fix explain that more money is owed to the bank than exists in circulation. This is arguably at the root of the pervasive sense of scarcity in our collective consciousness. The feeling of “not enough” goes beyond the material, seeping into the emotional and the spiritual, provoking us to accumulate more, more, more in a fear-driven cycle that seems to have no beginning and no end.
Until now. The Money Fix outlines solutions grounded in the strength of local communities, from local currency and community cooperatives known as mutual credit systems, to the commercial barter business, which totals $30 billion per year in trade which is not bad for a bottom line.
One of the best aspects of The Money Fix is the refreshing connection it makes between the economy and our ecosystem. Following the example set by nature, the film provides a path for the world of finance to enter which is the compassionate realm of cooperation rather than competition.
The solutions are available now and The Money Fix delivers them through compelling narrative and well-researched historical accounts. This film shows how we can effectively place value back into human life and nature, replacing the old paradigm of profit above all else. It’s a return to the grassroots elements of exchanging goods and services so that we can realize our interconnectedness and the abundance we can create together.
For more information, visit themoneyfix.org. The Money Fix will be one of the films showing at The Green Lifestyle Film Festival March 19-21 at the James Bridges Theatre at the University of California, Los Angeles. Learn more about this international non-profit event featuring films, live music, entertainment, dancing, live food demos, and prizes at greenlifestylefilmfestival.com. – EP
Guardians of Being
The quirky, poetic, and playful images of MUTTS comic strip creator Patrick McDonnell lend themselves perfectly to the stillness and presence of spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle’s words in Guardians of Being. The openness of space in this unique collection with its simple yet profound illustrations encourage readers to take in each page and just be. This book offers an opportunity for reflection in the present moment that is central to Tolle’s teachings in The Power of Now and A New Earth.
Guardians of Being concentrates on the lessons that nature, and in particular, animals can teach us, if we would only stop and listen. For example, a quiet image of a dog gazing up at a night sky is accompanied by these words: “Give yourself completely to the act of listening. Beyond the sounds there is something greater: a sacredness that cannot be understood through thought.”
Our animal friends and companions can teach us a thing or two. Not only do they help us see our interconnectedness with this beautiful planet, but they reflect the stillness and presence that we often lose when we identify solely with the chatter in our minds. Perpetually living in the past or worrying about the future denies us of the now, which is all that we ever have. Although this is a simple message, it is a profound one that permeates every page of Guardians of Being, inspiring us to remember that “nature can show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our own minds.”
Guardians of Being, words by Eckhart Tolle, art by Patrick McDonnell, $18, is available through NewWorldLibrary.com. For more information on the author and illustrator, please visit EckhartTolle.com and MuttsComics.com. – CC