Reality is a matter of belief. Sure there is more to it than just what You believe, for we are all in this together. We all hold this world and it's institutions, it's games and it's laws together with our agreements, our acceptance and assessments of what is believed to be true or possible. Even though this pressure of society may seem like a burden to the power of the individual, the context it provides offers a challenge to the human being willing and determined to live his own truth.

This context is not something to be taken lightly nor gravely. Our community, our fellows are here to test us and help us. The human will has always been at pains to rise from the sea of conditioned existence, and live a life from within; based on the law of one's own character. Yet character is a way of relating with the world at large, and so the question ceases to be one of just how I be true to my Self, but how do I relate to the Other?; an obvious observation perhaps, but it is a question pondered with many different answers throughout the ages- answers that have a most interesting consequence in the field where we earn our living- with that most fascinating symbol of our belief- money.

Philosophers have praised man's ability to rise above his animal heritage and frame his competition for resources within social ideals, in games that allow a richer diversity as civilization becomes more specialized and complex. Other thinkers have scorned the destruction of the individual in the growing leviathan of society, or have found society just another opportunity for inequality and the repression of certain groups over others, or of nature by our rampant opulence. The truth is far more complex and getting more so everyday. Whether one is a fan of civilization or sees it as a mistake is besides the point at this time. Might we have created a more just society? One cannot say; although it seems that whether one sees freedom or equality as the highest ideal, the two tend to be in opposition as long as we do not work together, with that third great ideal of the Revolution: solidarity. At this important juncture in history, we cannot dream of what might have been. We have no choice but to work together, to find ways to work with capital, to free ourselves from the dialectic of history, and create a sustainable future.

The future of our world may very well hinge on us finding ways that we all can grow and be free without the exploitation of each other and our environment. We cannot go back to a time when our behavior had less impact and so seemed more natural. Nature is forcing us to find another way. While some people try and live out a better example in localized situations, the brutal facts that the rest of the world suffers remain unchanged.

Too often when faced with the realities of inequality, poverty, and material malaise we look for a source to blaim. Whether it be the people on top who shouldn't be so greedy, the people on the bottom who shouldn't be so lazy, or the people in the middle who shouldn't be so stupid, we like to think our problems have a single source that if removed or changed would bring us closer to utopia. Yet the irreducible complexity of our world economy and the consciousness that underlies it, demands we find a place for all people and their various motivations.

In the past, wealth and opportunity was still grounded in physical commoditites, and power a byproduct of control over limited resources. With the advent of the information age, the greater value of knowledge over things is reflected in our increasing reliance on the flow of information to guide the distribution of power and resources. While this may seem like shaky ground, it is the ground that no doubt holds the seeds to a new field of opportunity for the expansion of our race. If science and technology can hopefully secure better ways of securing food and fuel, raise the standard of living in the poorer countries, and secure any other basic needs in affordable ways for our world's less fortunate people, perhaps the future of power will be in the hands of all who dare to dream, dare to think differently, dare to be creative, dare to share information.

I like to think we are seeing signs of this new world order in the wonderful freedom and power of the internet. People from all over, and almost all walks of life are taking part in creating a new global culture, freed from the chains of the old power structure. People are becoming very successful as well by doing what they love and sharing what they know, and even if their niche is small, the whole world is opening for business. Some people see this development as an unstable market, and by playing on people's fear of change, they keep people close to the shore of the old system. Granted that fear is an older more solid belief that can be relied upon for creating a stable but shifting concentration on physical commodities. If that is the game people want to play, then perhaps that is okay. I prefer to think that the internet is closer to the truth that underlies all systems of value and exchange, the truth that always hinges on belief and the power of persuasion to create the truth.

The old market has been limited by its nature of dependence on limited resources. We all have played into it for centuries because there was no other options, and not many tried to create them. Too much improvisation put our very survival into question. Or so we believed. Capital became concentrated with the few, and it was in their hands to maintain stability, to protect us from panic in a system that could not handle too much change. In the emerging systems of an ever more diversified market, based more and more on the shifting landscape of knowledge, power becomes less about who has the capital, the resources, etc., and more about how one handles change, deals with flux, and most powerfully, creates value. Marx always knew that the workers had the power since they controlled the means of production. He knew that the power cannot be concentrated forever. But his vision for revolution could never predict the wonders of evolution. Life thrives on competition driving diversity in ways he could not understand.

In a system where competition is along narrow lines, information is valuable where it allows one to become better at the tasks already created and deemed valuable by the system itself and the needs that it produces. There may always be a need for trained workers and laborers, altough technology might increasingly render them obsolete. My hope is that more and more people will be freed from the bonds of a narrow education, and the value of creative and inspiring knowledge becomes an even hotter commodity. I am happy to be working with a system and community that offers a wide range of knowledge and a powerful opportunity to become apart of this evolution. People are generally skeptical about anything resembling MLMs or pyramid schemes, and for good reason. They often have been exploitive, or have little base in any tangible goods or services. But more often people are scared that other people will be scared to, that the value they see will not be seen by others. At MaterializingWealth.com, we are looking to be an example of the power in educating people to take control of themselves in ways that inspire others to do the same. We offer an opportunity to help people turn knowledge into power. We feel it is time to take the reigns from the old masters who horded capital and power in their fixed hierarchies of fear and material drudgery. Hierarchy is inevitable, but the future is in its freedom to fluxuate with the best ideas, the most inspiring communities, with the brightest of our leaders and thinkers. It is in that free play of difference that new markets and niches are created, and the levels of power are too diversified to measure, since everyone may start by following someone else's system, they may be inspired by the past, but they have the power to create their own market, they....You are the Future. Check us out at MaterializingWealth.com, and lets work together to make a New World!