The Free World Charter, a website launched by Irish musician and activist Colin Turner in 2011, is aiming for a moneyless world by 2040 after launching a clock (http://f-day.org/) that counts down towards a resource-based economy.
Colin explained: ‘The F-Day target date has been set to 2040, 25 years hence, and will be changed periodically to reflect world events. Currently our belief is that while much change is required, the rapid rise of online alternative movements is such that some significant awakening moment is on the way, as people become aware of the true powerlessness of governments, and the perpetual injustice of the market system.’
‘There’s absolutely no doubt that we need to see fundamental changes to how we view the global economy and the ecology of the planet if we are to survive as a species.
‘We see little in the way of vision or wisdom from leaders across the world and this countdown clock is a novel way of focusing minds on the big issues at hand.
‘People might not see it as serious but after consulting with some of the (almost) 50,000 people who have signed the Free World Charter we’re suggesting that a radical change in our thinking could occur within a generation; a shift that would recognise the existence of a monetary system as one of the single biggest barriers to human progress and propel us towards a much better future for every single human being.
‘The existing capitalist system has delivered many benefits and significant technological progress but ever-growing and accelerating inequality, environmental degradation and exploitation and a myriad of social issues reveals its deep flaws. It’s clearly not a system that can deliver anything anywhere near a fair future for all or indeed a mindset that is capable of reversing ecological destruction.
‘We often come across the arguments that it would never work, it’s hopelessly idealistic and that human nature just isn’t like that. They are all arguments that can be easily countered but the bottom line is we need to be thinking carefully about what kind of world we pass on to future generations. Maintaining the status quo is not an option in the long term.
‘The Free World Charter and many similar movements and organisations such as The Zeitgeist Movement, Venus Project etc., have attracted the interest and support of millions of people around the world who recognise that a 2008 crash, if it happened again, could spell the end of a monetary system.
‘We were hours if not minutes away from a global banking collapse that could have rendered savings obsolete yet that is an unpalatable truth that we have collectively refused to face and there has been little if any debate in the mainstream media on the very real alternatives to the existing system.
‘The internet has played host to much of this discussion and the Free World Charter is one example of many progressive solutions that are attracting the interest and input of people from virtually every nation on the planet’, added Colin who recently established a Facebook page dedicated to considering Iceland as a perfect starting point for a resource-based economy.
By Rob Wilkinson
Sources:
For more details visit http://f-day.org/ and www.freeworldcharter.org
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
