The Ale House.

Open Mic night at The Ale House was a cornucopia. It was quite a test of my belief that ‘everything will be alright’, but it was. Two hours to fill with so many unknowns; who will turn up, who will play, who will leave and who will enjoy, all the time leaving everyone short of my attention yet absorbed in the myriad of life stories brought and somehow juggling with their energies, and by taking on the focal role being allowed to swim in it all. I’m struck by the importance of the role yet my desire to be unimportant as a sort of invisible conjurer. That’s not modesty; it’s just allowing the garden to grow unfettered, each flower in its own way. This is the payment plus a few free beers. And today a 90 minute film on money, both frightening and liberating in this same way. Money as we know it is in decay. Money as a ‘promissory note’ is an IOU and leads back to a debt somewhere along the line. When a government prints money it is creating debt, £1 for £1 of debt, and the interest on our accumulating debt requires GDP growth to cover it. Over the years more money has been created until today the world is ~$70 trillion in debt, but to who? Nobody, it’s just that that’s the amount of promissory notes that have been issued. Looked at this way money seems like a giant ponszi scheme, a ponzi scheme that the financial markets have learnt to rig so they hold all the promissory notes leaving the rest of us with the debt. And over those years money has become our fundamental form of valuing things. That’s where The Ale House comes in. There was no payment just an exchange of energy, of gifts and talents. This is the frightening and liberating prospect, how to turn this corner in human valuation with the minimum of hardship. That aside we had a good night and felt well rewarded for it.