Currency Matters
Sex is the currency of love. Money is the currency of the love of earth.
A native Indian (Indian Indian), from the last remaining forests of central India, ventured into a city for the first time.
- “How do you live here? Where has your forest vanished?” he asks someone, in bewilderment, in innocence.
- “We have cleared it, and kept it safe in a bank.”
- “What is a bank?”
- “It’s a place to keep our future safe for us.”
- “What does that even mean?”
- “Just like marriage is a place to keep our love safe, bank is a place to keep our future safe.”
- “I don’t quite understand it. But anyway, how can a whole forest be kept in a bank?”
- “Just like all the love can be kept in a marriage, all the forest can be kept in a bank.”
- “I still don’t understand it.”
- “We convert the forest into pieces of paper.”
- “And love?”
- “Into pieces of sex.”
- “What do you mean? All the love? Love for the soil, for magnificent trees; for the birds that fly with our spirits, and animals that bond us with the ground; for the rocks that glow in the sky, and the sun that flows in our veins; for the heart of the ocean, and the soul of the earth…”
- “Yes, yes, all of that. And we don’t need any of these things anymore.”
- “So no relationship with these things at all?”
- “Nope, none at all. We don’t pay them any attention anymore. Our lifelong attention goes into the currency.”
- “I am really not getting anything.”
- “Sex is the currency of love. Money is the currency of the love of earth.”
- “… !!!”
- “And both of these give us equal kicks, sex and money.”
- “Love of earth?”
- “Yes, everything earth makes available here out of her love for all her creatures, we convert it into currency for us.”
- “I still don’t understand, why on earth would you do that?”
- “We are efficient people. Currency makes things efficient for us. And efficiency at currency makes things even more efficient. We have experts for that, for every kind of currency.”
- “Forget all that, just tell me what do you people do with those pieces of paper in a bank?”
- “We use them to exchange for our food, among other things.”
- “You don’t get your food from the forest???”
- “No, we don’t sit around all day. We work, and then get pieces of paper from the bank.”
- “Wait, wait… let me get it straight. You exchange the forest for pieces of paper in a bank; work, and then get those pieces of paper to exchange them for your food.”
- “Yes, you got it right.”
- “This must be a better form of food, then?”
- “I don’t know about that. But we add poison to it before eating, that’s what I know.”
- “Ohh… okay. And why are all these people made to sit in boxes, and where are all these boxes rushing to?”
- “These are called cars. We spend half of our lives inside them. We use these to go to work. I told you, we don’t sit around all day.
And mind you, we are very proud of these. We spend all our lives working to spend half of our lives inside them.”
- “And what work do you people do?”
- “How many times do you want me to repeat? I just told you, we clear the forests, convert the air, water, all the animals, birds… everything you see on earth into pieces of paper.”
- “And why are there so many people queued up in unending lines?”
- “The banks don’t seem to have those papers anymore.”
- “But some day, you will get these papers back in banks, right?
(Just like some day, you will get love back in your marriages, right?)”
- “Yes, but we’ll need more forests, air, water; and animals and birds; and more and more, and more of earth to do that.
- “But suppose you do get all that one day, and the banks do get those papers you like so much, you will be able to convert them back into forests and air and water and animals and birds…, right?
You will be able to get your earth back, right?”
At this point, lights are dimmed on the stage. There is a long pause. When everything is illuminated again, the second character — the civilized, the one who appeared on the stage after the native one, responds.
- “We have learnt our lessons, and now we are not going to repeat our mistakes.
We are going cashless now.
Plastic is more durable than earth.
Data is more durable than plastic.
We have decided to keep our future safe in digital currencies.
And yes, we are right.”
