I’m amazed at how much people are willing to do when something lights their fires. Every day I’m more convinced that people have naturally giving hearts, that they will do great work if they’re passionate, engaged, and inspired by their work.
The people working with me are not being paid. I’m not either, of course. We just see something in what we’re doing. I can’t speak for what they see, but what I know for sure is something about what we’re building inspires me to contribute time and energy, creativity and knowledge.
When I observe the work my colleagues are doing—and believe me, they are contributing a lot of work—I wonder why some people think money is the sole motivator keeping people working. “People won’t work unless you pay them,” they say. Strange, because there is ample evidence (actual research, not conjecture or anecdotes) showing people want to contribute, will gladly do so, and find their own intrinsic motivations for doing so, when they’re contributing to something worthwhile.
Perhaps “People won’t work unless you pay them” comes from living in the existing debt-based economic system. Perhaps you have been conditioned to believe this axiom because most everyone you observe works in this way. But millions of work-hours are invested in pursuits every day that generate no income whatsoever for millions and millions of people in your nation. Why does all that work go wholly unobserved, ignored, unacknowledged when it can be rewarded?
A person supporting Copiosis expressed this so well:
Unfortunately, like countless others without other options, I have consented to exist and subsist, and even to try to take my best chances in the current system, lacking viable alternatives. That is the sad victory of the mainstream: to compel people to consent, however begrudgingly, to throw their lots in with the rest, because of a lack of viable alternatives. [I hope that] you can change that, meaningfully, sustainably, with justice and proven results with Copiosis.
I don’t consent to “fighting”, “resisting” or being “against” the mainstream. Pushing against it only adds to its already formidable momentum. Instead the wonderful people working with me are designing an alternative to the mainstream. I believe the wonderful people working with me on this—Joe, Simone, KJ, Chris, Gheric, Justin, TC, Shannon and so many others, can see the potential. That’s why they volunteer. At least that’s what I think. Whatever their reasons, I’m glad they are here. And I miss those who can’t be.
