Sometime in the past week or so, I had a conversation with a friend which began as a joke about how people are controlled by money. The conversation became more serious when we talked about how there were people out in the world who were dying and starving due to them not being able to buy food or pay for housing. We talked about how sad it was to know that people were living miserably because society had decided that a green cotton paper had more value than a human’s life. He then proposed that we go back to trading with food, especially for the cases when people are facing hyperinflation, and live simpler lives.

     We started to wonder how effective food currency would be and for what scenario. We decided that, since food eventually expires, this food currency would be a payment over time. For example, if someone were to buy a car, they would pay by giving the seller food for a certain period of time. We also decided that if something were to work like this, everyone would have to own a small garden to grow enough food to sustain themselves. My friend added that, in order for this to work, these people would need to be in a small community where everyone would be able to share food or barter it. These communities would grow all types of food so that everything the town needed would be grown there. My friend also mentioned that if this form of society existed, there may be a decrease in technology or communication with other towns thus, leading to isolation to an extent.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

   Thinking back to this conversation, I now noticed how relevant Jean-Jacques Rousseau is to society. As I read The Basic Political Writings by Rousseau, I noticed the similarities between what Rousseau believes and what my friend and I spoke about. The essential idea that Rousseau discusses is that the arts and sciences lead to the corruption of virtue. In addition, in order to live a virtuous life, mankind must live a more natural life, one free from the arts and sciences as well as the idea of property and inequality (Rousseau). This idea is what my friend proposed in his thoughts on bartering with food.

     I realized that the idea of having a small community where everybody shares and barters using food seems to be closer aligned to Rousseau’s beliefs in terms of economics. According to Rousseau, the idea of property has lead to the start of civilization as well as the end of virtue or the spread of corruption. If everyone shared land and did not declare items as their property, virtue and peace would preserve for a longer period of time. Knowing about Rousseau’s philosophy now helps me further understand some aspects of society. Additionally, applying Rousseau to society further reinforces my understanding of his beliefs. How would Rousseau’s ideal society look like, I wondered. Although, at the moment, it is very difficult to describe, I imagine it would look extremely different to modern day society. I believe that there would not be a lot of technology such as mobile phones or cars. His society would look a lot like Sparta’s; it would be a society focused on the things that are important for survival such as hunting and farming. The people in his society would definitely not be reliant on money, greed would not play a role in this society at all. These people would live only with things necessary for survival so, I do not believe that they would be buying or selling anything.

     From the conversation and knowing about Rousseau’s philosophy, I am sure that this information may become useful in the future. Although Rousseau is not one hundred percent correct, there is some truth to his thoughts. Therefore, in the future, there may come a time where his ideas may be applied to the real world, or maybe just in an essay.

Photo by kailash kumar on Pexels.com

works cited:

Chavez, Jonathan. Conversation. 2018.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Basic Political Writings: Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, Discourse on the Origin of             Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, On the Social Contract, The State of War. Translated by Donald A. Cress,               second ed., Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2012.