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Shedding Light - Ep 2: The Art of Desire Guest on 3rd September 2022 07:43:35 PM

The video opens on Frank Wolfe sitting on a lounge chair by a pool. In his suit. A glass of something amber colored with ice cubes. The breeze is trying to blow his hair a little, and the California sky is in the background. Big and blue. Wolfe smiles easily at the camera, takes a sip of his drink, and starts talking.
"If you're watching this show, there's a reasonably good chance that you're an American, or at the very least you live in a nation that has a partially market based economic system. You understand things like supply and demand, savings interest, and the concept of debt. You may not understand where money comes from, what it was supposed to be versus what it is, where the bank gets that interest it pays you for putting your money into their "vault", or what economics is all about. Which is important, because most people have it completely wrong. And what relevant life lesson have our Jedi Masters taught us? Oh, yes. The first step in avoiding a trap is in knowing there's a trap in the first place. Tonight, we will discuss economics. What it is. What is does. How it can be used to get what you want and need, and how it is a trap for so many, many people. I'm Dr. Frank Wolfe, and this is Shedding Light."
The Logo for Shedding Light come up, the words crystalizing out of a blue sky with fluffy clouds. The scene shifts, and suddenly Wolfe is standing in that Victorian library setting once more. He smiles, his mannerism confident and sure. He knows what he's talking, and he's comfortable doing it. When he speaks, his voice is that kind that has its own gravity. Pulling people in. Inviting them to listen.
"Economics is not the study of money. No, no, no. It is the study of people. It is the study of desire. What people want, what people need, and to what lengths they are willing to go to get it. Money is not about lining your pockets with shiny rocks, precious metals, or even paper printed with pictures of old dead white guys. Money is an agreed upon medium of exchange for value. Even if the wood warps, or the milk curdles, or the bacon goes bad...after I've sold it, I have these things that represent the value of the goods I sold that I can use to buy other things. It's the bridge that got us out of the barter system, but what makes it all work is faith, or to use a less politically charged term...consensus."
With definitions posted up on the screen and animated diagrams to show how concepts flow one into another, Wolfe discusses basic definitions an economics in general before moving on. The view changes again, and Wolfe is walking down a commercial street in LA, passing shops and people as he talks.
"When the founding fathers of the United States were figuring how to make their fledgling nation work, one of the items on the table was their economic system. While many people were involved, the two competing factions were represented by two people. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson and Hamilton did not get along, not remotely. Hamilton was an orphan who'd pulled himself up by his bootstraps and believed in innovating established systems. Jefferson was an aristocrat landowner who'd fallen in love with the idea of revolution and scrapping old systems, particularly when it came to the distribution of wealth. One of them was struggling with their inability to get inside the systems of power, and one of them was struggling with his inability to let go of it."
"Now, obviously, I'm making a rather simple statement about complex dynamics, but for today here is the bottom line. The European system of economics in the time of empire had built itself up on a system of debt and ownership. Even today, when someone is explaining the difference between buying stocks or bonds, they ask "Do you want to own or loan?". That founding economic system was well established by the time a fledgling nation in North America was getting started, and Hamilton argued that if they didn't play the game, this great experiment they were embarking upon would end up only a dead dream in less than ten years. Jefferson, without concrete counter argument, lost the war on that. And so today people make money on debt, on the contracted labor, sweat, income, and potential wealth of others. It is a system that takes rather than a system that shares. In fact, in the United States, the only way to actually grow wealth is through debt. Lending is the only system that legitimately "births value" in the USA. Sure, they can print paper all day long, but that paper is diluting the supply of wealth. Like pouring water into the whiskey. Is it any wonder that slavery and inequality is so easily found in our land when it has such an environment in which to fester and grow? The soil of greed and desperation?"
Wolfe isn't smiling as he's talking by this point. He pauses, looking into the camera, unsmiling. His expression says it all. This shit is real, and this is unacceptable. He looks around on the street at all the people. All different kinds of people, people who are just trying to get through the day. Most of them that are living from paycheck to paycheck. He walks around a corner to an alley, and in the alley are people who are clearly homeless. The camera cuts, and next we see Wolfe in a park with some of those people. His mic is off, but another mic is partially picking him up as he's talking to some of those people about basic wound care, asking people their names, how he can help them, if they want help. His suit jacket is gone. His tie has been turned into a clean bandage on one person. When he speaks next, it is in voice over the Wolfe on the screen spends time with people.
"But before we go down that rabbit hole, and I start inviting all of you to join Fight Club and Operation Mayhem, let's go back to that other word I'd mentioned. Consensus. What is that?"
"Think of it as agreed upon expectations of how the world works. How do we agree on most things in life? By conversation? By vote? By being told a thing? By observing a thing and accepting it as real? We can dig deep into quantum theory, Newtonian physics, and Quantum Loop Gravity Theory, and we will...but we'll do that on our other channel, The Limitless. For now, allow me to make a suggestion."
" As a species, we agree on most things through the process of silence and compliance. We look at the world, assume it is as it will ever be no matter how skewed or unfair it might be. We say nothing, and we comply with what is placed before us. Consensus. Through the act of not acting, or going along. Is that the Hamilton strategy? Playing the game? Mmmmmmmaybe not. Let's look again...."
When the scene changes, Wolfe is back in that Victorian Library. His jacket and tie are still gone. One gets the idea that they will stay gone. There is a picture of Alexander Hamilton behind Wolfe as well as a world wrapped, or drowning, in money.
"Remember what I said economics really is? The study of what people want and need. It's the art of desire, in other words, and it is a powerful tool in your toolbox, kids. It can be used to power an economic engine designed around debt and the binding of others through contract and obligation, or it can be used in a different way. But it's all a matter of changing our perspective, or putting our faith into something else, or changing our consensus. What we agree on in the matter of what is and what should be."
"What if we had an economic system that was designed around the idea of the improvement of people rather than the ability to accumulate things? Because what do people want? Their lives to be better. The lives of their loved ones to be better. To feel safe that no one will take away those factors that make life better."
"A bar of gold doesn't give you that. Hell, a bar of chocolate doesn't give you that. Or a bigger house. Or a new car. Is it nice? Sure. Can it be more comfortable? Sure. But what do we think of when we think of buying a car? What kind of financing can I get? What kind of debt can I put myself into and make myself beholden to yet another nameless and faceless corporation? Same thing with buying a house, and getting yourself a mortgage. Thirty year mortgages are a thing. Putting yourself under someone's thumb for the next thirty years for a two car garage in a better manicured neighborhood. Does that sound sane when you say it out loud like that? Am I making it too simple, or just simple enough to shed light on the truth? Are there other economic models that we could use? Possibly, but the truth is that Alexander Hamilton was right to a point. It never would've worked without playing the game, and now we're so deep into it, it will take a lot of effort and innovation to work our way out without hurting a whole lot of people."
In the next camera shot, Wolfe is back on the lounge chair. He's sitting up, a mai tai in his hands, but he's not drinking it.
"Economics is the study of what people want and need. It's like Tom Ellis on the show, Lucifer. What do you desire? And then finding a way of getting it done to either some people's benefit, or everyone's? Am I saying what Hamilton did is wrong? No. He was probably correct in that if we didn't play the game, at least at that time, the USA would have been a failed experiment, but that was then. This is now, and while it may not be pretty, the world has come far enough along that it can transform itself. It should transform itself. That's how life works, isn't? Stop growing, start dying?"
"So, let's recap once more. Economics is the art of desire. Consensus, is how we agree upon what should be, what is, and what will be. Most consensus happens in a passive manner, through silence and compliance. But what if we're not? What if we decide to not be silent anymore? What if we choose...to choose? What if we all stood up, and we all said that we all deserve better? Not this group or that group, or this gender or that gender or this nation or that nation? What if we said that all people everywhere deserve better, deserve at the very least, a choice? What if we choose an economic system where we find the things that our neighbors most want and need, and we give it to them? And we don't worry about ourselves because we know that they are looking to give me what I want and need as well? What if we all fed each other instead of ourselves?"
"A little earlier in the show I mentioned basic investing, but what if this is what basic investing should really be? What if this is the only true investment? The investment in people. In each other. Are you curious to see what that might look like? Are you ready to make a choice? Are your eyes opening? Are you awake? That's our show for tonight. I'm Dr. Frank Wolfe, and you've been watching another episode of Shedding Light."

Raw Paste

The video opens on Frank Wolfe sitting on a lounge chair by a pool. In his suit. A glass of something amber colored with ice cubes. The breeze is trying to blow his hair a little, and the California sky is in the background. Big and blue. Wolfe smiles easily at the camera, takes a sip of his drink, and starts talking.

"If you're watching this show, there's a reasonably good chance that you're an American, or at the very least you live in a nation that has a partially market based economic system. You understand things like supply and demand, savings interest, and the concept of debt. You may not understand where money comes from, what it was supposed to be versus what it is, where the bank gets that interest it pays you for putting your money into their "vault", or what economics is all about. Which is important, because most people have it completely wrong. And what relevant life lesson have our Jedi Masters taught us? Oh, yes. The first step in avoiding a trap is in knowing there's a trap in the first place. Tonight, we will discuss economics. What it is. What is does. How it can be used to get what you want and need, and how it is a trap for so many, many people. I'm Dr. Frank Wolfe, and this is Shedding Light."

The Logo for Shedding Light come up, the words crystalizing out of a blue sky with fluffy clouds. The scene shifts, and suddenly Wolfe is standing in that Victorian library setting once more. He smiles, his mannerism confident and sure. He knows what he's talking, and he's comfortable doing it. When he speaks, his voice is that kind that has its own gravity. Pulling people in. Inviting them to listen.

"Economics is not the study of money. No, no, no. It is the study of people. It is the study of desire. What people want, what people need, and to what lengths they are willing to go to get it. Money is not about lining your pockets with shiny rocks, precious metals, or even paper printed with pictures of old dead white guys. Money is an agreed upon medium of exchange for value. Even if the wood warps, or the milk curdles, or the bacon goes bad...after I've sold it, I have these things that represent the value of the goods I sold that I can use to buy other things. It's the bridge that got us out of the barter system, but what makes it all work is faith, or to use a less politically charged term...consensus."

With definitions posted up on the screen and animated diagrams to show how concepts flow one into another, Wolfe discusses basic definitions an economics in general before moving on. The view changes again, and Wolfe is walking down a commercial street in LA, passing shops and people as he talks.

"When the founding fathers of the United States were figuring how to make their fledgling nation work, one of the items on the table was their economic system. While many people were involved, the two competing factions were represented by two people. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson and Hamilton did not get along, not remotely. Hamilton was an orphan who'd pulled himself up by his bootstraps and believed in innovating established systems. Jefferson was an aristocrat landowner who'd fallen in love with the idea of revolution and scrapping old systems, particularly when it came to the distribution of wealth. One of them was struggling with their inability to get inside the systems of power, and one of them was struggling with his inability to let go of it."

"Now, obviously, I'm making a rather simple statement about complex dynamics, but for today here is the bottom line. The European system of economics in the time of empire had built itself up on a system of debt and ownership. Even today, when someone is explaining the difference between buying stocks or bonds, they ask "Do you want to own or loan?". That founding economic system was well established by the time a fledgling nation in North America was getting started, and Hamilton argued that if they didn't play the game, this great experiment they were embarking upon would end up only a dead dream in less than ten years. Jefferson, without concrete counter argument, lost the war on that. And so today people make money on debt, on the contracted labor, sweat, income, and potential wealth of others. It is a system that takes rather than a system that shares. In fact, in the United States, the only way to actually grow wealth is through debt. Lending is the only system that legitimately "births value" in the USA. Sure, they can print paper all day long, but that paper is diluting the supply of wealth. Like pouring water into the whiskey. Is it any wonder that slavery and inequality is so easily found in our land when it has such an environment in which to fester and grow? The soil of greed and desperation?"

Wolfe isn't smiling as he's talking by this point. He pauses, looking into the camera, unsmiling. His expression says it all. This shit is real, and this is unacceptable. He looks around on the street at all the people. All different kinds of people, people who are just trying to get through the day. Most of them that are living from paycheck to paycheck. He walks around a corner to an alley, and in the alley are people who are clearly homeless. The camera cuts, and next we see Wolfe in a park with some of those people. His mic is off, but another mic is partially picking him up as he's talking to some of those people about basic wound care, asking people their names, how he can help them, if they want help. His suit jacket is gone. His tie has been turned into a clean bandage on one person. When he speaks next, it is in voice over the Wolfe on the screen spends time with people.

"But before we go down that rabbit hole, and I start inviting all of you to join Fight Club and Operation Mayhem, let's go back to that other word I'd mentioned. Consensus. What is that?" 
        "Think of it as agreed upon expectations of how the world works. How do we agree on most things in life? By conversation? By vote? By being told a thing? By observing a thing and accepting it as real? We can dig deep into quantum theory, Newtonian physics, and Quantum Loop Gravity Theory, and we will...but we'll do that on our other channel, The Limitless. For now, allow me to make a suggestion."
        " As a species, we agree on most things through the process of silence and compliance. We look at the world, assume it is as it will ever be no matter how skewed or unfair it might be. We say nothing, and we comply with what is placed before us. Consensus. Through the act of not acting, or going along. Is that the Hamilton strategy? Playing the game? Mmmmmmmaybe not. Let's look again...."

When the scene changes, Wolfe is back in that Victorian Library. His jacket and tie are still gone. One gets the idea that they will stay gone. There is a picture of Alexander Hamilton behind Wolfe as well as a world wrapped, or drowning, in money.

"Remember what I said economics really is? The study of what people want and need. It's the art of desire, in other words, and it is a powerful tool in your toolbox, kids. It can be used to power an economic engine designed around debt and the binding of others through contract and obligation, or it can be used in a different way. But it's all a matter of changing our perspective, or putting our faith into something else, or changing our consensus. What we agree on in the matter of what is and what should be."
        "What if we had an economic system that was designed around the idea of the improvement of people rather than the ability to accumulate things? Because what do people want? Their lives to be better. The lives of their loved ones to be better. To feel safe that no one will take away those factors that make life better."
        "A bar of gold doesn't give you that. Hell, a bar of chocolate doesn't give you that. Or a bigger house. Or a new car. Is it nice? Sure. Can it be more comfortable? Sure. But what do we think of when we think of buying a car? What kind of financing can I get? What kind of debt can I put myself into and make myself beholden to yet another nameless and faceless corporation? Same thing with buying a house, and getting yourself a mortgage. Thirty year mortgages are a thing. Putting yourself under someone's thumb for the next thirty years for a two car garage in a better manicured neighborhood. Does that sound sane when you say it out loud like that? Am I making it too simple, or just simple enough to shed light on the truth? Are there other economic models that we could use? Possibly, but the truth is that Alexander Hamilton was right to a point. It never would've worked without playing the game, and now we're so deep into it, it will take a lot of effort and innovation to work our way out without hurting a whole lot of people."

In the next camera shot, Wolfe is back on the lounge chair. He's sitting up, a mai tai in his hands, but he's not drinking it.

"Economics is the study of what people want and need. It's like Tom Ellis on the show, Lucifer. What do you desire? And then finding a way of getting it done to either some people's benefit, or everyone's? Am I saying what Hamilton did is wrong? No. He was probably correct in that if we didn't play the game, at least at that time, the USA would have been a failed experiment, but that was then. This is now, and while it may not be pretty, the world has come far enough along that it can transform itself. It should transform itself. That's how life works, isn't? Stop growing, start dying?"
        "So, let's recap once more. Economics is the art of desire. Consensus, is how we agree upon what should be, what is, and what will be. Most consensus happens in a passive manner, through silence and compliance. But what if we're not? What if we decide to not be silent anymore? What if we choose...to choose? What if we all stood up, and we all said that we all deserve better? Not this group or that group, or this gender or that gender or this nation or that nation? What if we said that all people everywhere deserve better, deserve at the very least, a choice? What if we choose an economic system where we find the things that our neighbors most want and need, and we give it to them? And we don't worry about ourselves because we know that they are looking to give me what I want and need as well? What if we all fed each other instead of ourselves?"
        "A little earlier in the show I mentioned basic investing, but what if this is what basic investing should really be? What if this is the only true investment? The investment in people. In each other. Are you curious to see what that might look like? Are you ready to make a choice? Are your eyes opening? Are you awake? That's our show for tonight. I'm Dr. Frank Wolfe, and you've been watching another episode of Shedding Light."