One of the most pernicious mechanisms of modern life is the Mortgage. Why? Yes, we already know that a mortgage is debt, and debt is a form of slavery_—_this should not be news to anyone. The Mortgage leverages the human desire for a home, with gainful employment, which is the most precarious form of labour.
In the northern hemisphere, where the landmass is generally colder, people live in their homes. The difference in, say, South America, is that people do not live in their homes_—_they only sleep in their homes. In small communities in Ecuador, the houses are corrugated metal roofs, wooden floors, and bare concrete block walls_—_the minimum for privacy and heat discharge. There are no personalised counter-tops or bespoke fireplaces adorned with useless totems. Instead, the villagers’ self-concept is formed by their role in the community and their relationship to nature. The colder climate in the northern hemisphere, and Western consumerism, has made the house the echo-chamber of peoples’ identities.
The more powerful aspect of a Mortgage is its subtle, psychological influence… It causes you to identify yourself with something that you don’t actually own. The love and care that people spend in finishing and furnishing their home, to make it a personal expression of their self-concept, is overshadowed by the mechanisms of interest rates and government taxation. If someone cannot pay their mortgage, or the government raises property taxes, people don’t just lose their home, they lose their self-concept… they are left asking themselves: what am I now?
As the Roman Empire collapsed, many people abandoned their homes to flee the property taxes. They migrated to the edges of the empire, bringing what they could carry. If money itself was too heavy, it too was abandoned or hidden, in the hope that it could be dug up later. That’s why you see hoards of Roman coins_—_evidence of economic migration. The difference between now and then, is that today people’s relationships with themselves are highly mediated. Instead of forming their worldview from their own experiences, most people have walked through life unconsciously, living out an identity that has been programmed into them.
So when the house_—_the expression of these programmed identities_—_is taken away, we have an opportunity to ask: who am I? What could life be?
Maybe humans are not so unconscious. Maybe we are BECOMING CONSCIOUS. I propose that one of the stages of becoming conscious is to question the human living space_—_the house. Which brings me to the phenomenon we’re seeing today: many people really are questioning the idea of living in a house, with all its conveniences. Some are going without washing. Some are attempting to live without using money. Some are choosing to live in transit vans. Some are going off-grid. Some are escaping to the wilderness. These people are choosing homelessness, in various forms. These forms of homelessness are the natural consequences of following one’s realizations to their final conclusion. If the debt-based money system is usury, then a mortgage perpetuates usury… so what of home-ownership?
On the one hand, Human beings can be very prescient. Just as sharks attack and birds flee before a natural disaster, some element of human consciousness understands that the viability of the stable habitat is under threat, through natural disaster, financial collapse, or governments’ desire for deeper control of human existence. On the one hand, Humans are running from danger.
But on the other, we are being drawn, like a magnet, to a new, unknown place. We are becoming more CONSCIOUS. We are being drawn up and out of culture, to defy culture’s laws. We are coming to the understanding that cultures have programmed and compartmentalised us, alienated us from ourselves and from nature. We experience self-confidence among familiar habitats, but we fall short of self-esteem in all environments. We have homes. But we do not always feel ‘at home’. These inconsistencies leave us unfulfilled. We have been sold empty promises of happiness in structure, order, insurance, gratification_—_in any place other than consciousness.
A more consistent, clean, unwavering, compassionate and sincere life awaits; a life of crystal-clear intent, a world without careless mistakes and feeble words. Imagine being at home in the world: you may not know all places, but you know yourself enough, and that is the only constant required for homeliness. Imagine always moving to where you are best placed, with every seen and unseen event orchestrating your most novel experience…
What could life be?
What is behind the façade of stability?
What care does the Universe have for home insurance?
Who ARE you? …How deep do you go?
Are you CURIOUS?…
The phenomenon of the will to be without a home signifies a drive for something more essential than the life of pre-prepared convenience. It signifies a return to nature, to be within the perpetual wheel-work of Earth; it signifies the desire for more presence, more reality, more intent, as opposed to running on autopilot; it signifies a need tap into an ever-present, eternal higher self, for a consistent experience of life, as opposed to the shifting avatars of social media and societal convention.
And you may ask yourself How do I work this? And you may ask yourself Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful wife! Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down Letting the days go by/water flowing underground Into the blue again/after the money’s gone Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
– Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads