If Money didn't exist, dreams would come true

Some think the world would be a better place, but would it really be?

If money didn't exist I probably would wake up in the morning with the sun rise, when the first roaster cries, for the first time, not three times, I ain't no Jesus, I’d probably be the one to tell it to shut the f*ck up. I would wake up, eat and hit the fields. I would be going to look after livestock, sheep, goat, cow, hyenas, and lions, if you can name it, I would have been looking after it. Or maybe to work the fields, plough, remove the weeds and harvest the ripe produce. Kill a few snakes now and then and sleep with sun set.

Now I wake up before the sun, I even set an alarm to wake me up to show how un-natural what am doing is. I wake up at this time NOT because I want to, because apparently I have to. Yes, no one wants to wake up before the sun, that’s why in the first 3 seconds when you wake up you go “F*ck, its morning already”. And the saddest part is that I didn't choose this life, I might have worked for it, but I didn't choose it.

When I was young, I was made to believe that when I grow “I can be anything I wanted to be”. I wanted to be a traffic officer, there was something about those hand signals that just connected with my soul. Age 13, I got fat, so I sat in front of the TV a lot, so mid-way into my teenage years I wanted to be a Scientist, influenced by television of coz. That was cool, I still had the “you can be anything you want” concept in my heard, and so I was still happy.

That’s when high school happened, I call it the mill, where dreams are crushed to what they must be. All of a sudden I had to choose between commercial and science related subjects, the choice wasn't that hard because I still wanted to be a scientist. I studied my science even though I was curious what was happening in the other classes.

Then it was time for matric, the second last stage of the mill. Here dreams are crushed to your IQ [intelligence quotient], that is how clever are you. And what can you do with that level of your IQ. Apparently my dad had Einstein’s IQ and I look like him, so with that advantage, I still qualified to pick and pursue a career in the science related fields.

So I entered the final stage of the ‘dream milling processes’ when I passed my matric. I passed with colours, yes, just colours, they were not flying. They were just standing there looking at me, lazy bastards. I tried to ‘white fang’ them, “colours, go, go colours, go fly” but no luck. So after matric this is how the mill works on you, now its whether you can afford “whatever you want to be” or not. I was one of the million South African matric students who could not afford what we wanted to be.

That’s when the hustle begins, now, you can’t be anything you want to be, no no no, you have to be something you can be. Now you do what works, whether it’s your dream or not. Sometimes what pushes us is the pressure of knowing that our friends are going to varsity and we do not want to miss out on that experience, sometimes you know your family needs you to be something so you can rescue them from poverty. Whatever the reason, now, you can’t be “whatever you want to be”.

So I thought to myself: “This is all happens in the name of money…”

That thought provoked a question in my head, is money the root of evil and our suffering or is the lack of money the root of evil and our suffering??? Well which ever it is, the common denominator is, yes, “money”. So there must be something about this money, is it heaven sent?? Or while God was busy creating the world in seven days, the devil quickly sneaked in “let there be money” on the eighth day after God went to rest.

What is this money where did it came from?? When I was in primary school, they told me it all started with bartering, remember bartering??? I give you a chicken you give me a fat cow. That’s where it all started and now we have the Foreign Exchange, which trades over 1.5 Trillion Dollars ($) per DAY. Where the f*ck is all this money stored?? I have to steal it and solve all my problems, yep, ocean’s 15 baby. Well, apparently money doesn't exist.

Yes, money doesn't exist, it is a very complex concept I can’t quite wrap my head around myself, but that’s a story for another day.

Everyone wants a happy life, and a somehow a happy life is linked to money. My point is, if money didn't exist, I’d be happily walking the fields of Africa digging roots, picking fruits, hunting, being bitten by snakes, running away lions. Damn what a happy life it would have been, I think that was our Garden of Eden and if you solve for X, you’ll know the serpent.

So, YES, I think the world would be a better place without money, but In the meantime, the rat-race is on and waiting for you, go get the cheese…

- M Hlazo