Please feel free to distribute this Avatar-Freelender leaflet on behalf of all freelenders

•  Here's a link to the pdf file we produced of the leaflet text below
  
• Here's the Freelender Community Page, which also includes the link to the leaflet; feel free to distribute on behalf of all freelenders; either outside cinemas showing Avatar, or just through neighbours doors.
  

What difference does the James Cameron film Avatar encourage you to make to your life?

Who is the character in the picture: Neytiri or.........................................?

(other interpretations welcome on the shared Facebook discussion started by Paul Crosland on 12/1/10)

"The Na'vi have a closeness and community that we, in our solitary, high-tech squalor, have lost on earth.

If we learn nothing else, we must learn again to trust when everything in our diminished lives says we can't."

  "Avatar - An Activist Survival Guide" - request your free copy at freelender.org

Also available - 'The Age of Stupid' DVD.

Now that governments lacked courage in Copenhagen, the UK release of the 'Age of Stupid' is a call to reduce consumption. Reduced consumption can increase the quality of life if we become more consciously inter-dependent in our world (and less dependent on the well-being of an unsustainable economic system).

The 'Age of Stupid' (staring Pete Postlethwaite) film is about the world in 2055; though the exact date of that level of environmental and cultural destruction is of course dependent on what you do with this leaflet.

Who is the character in the picture: Neytiri or..........?(other interpretations welcome on the Facebook discussion started publically by Paul Crosland on 12th January 2010)

"I see you, I depend on you and I'm looking for something bigger than a 'win-win' outcome.

Let's work together for systemic win i.e. No losers." 

(Paul Crosland,co-director of Freelending Community Interest Company)

Whatever you want, ask to borrow it.

Whatever you have to share, offer it.

Gain friends and build trust locally.

freelender.org

-and also try these other UK wide (or wider) websites, all of which are being invited to join a consortium of community organisations with a mission of caring for how household resources are used:

• Freecycle UK - uk.freecycle.org
  
• Freegle UK - ilovefreegle.org
  
• Freeconomy - justfortheloveofit.org
  
• LetsAllShare - letsallshare.com
  

The relationships between trust, money and connectivity

The key part of the issue of 'trust and happiness' referred to below that I'm interested in are the relationships between:

• trust
• money 
• connectivity

eg some people's connections are such that they have lived for 1-13 years without money (eg Mark Boyle & Heidemarie Schwermer respectively).
Those of us who use money are often shielded by the indirectness of the exchange (middle-men/middle-women) from any 'inhumane' consequences of our purchasing decisions.
Is this distancing, enabled by money, the root of unhappiness?
Money enables us to privatise our lives and whilst private transport/ entertainment / washing etc has its benefits, the loss of connectivity, sense of safety with others and trust, is surely a matter warranting review individually and collectively?
Are we served best by money? What does the hybrid look like?
-It would involve monetary exchange and sharing of goods and servicesin a way that built trust, humane treatement of all and respected both people's wishes for autonomy and community, which are present (in my humble opinion) in us all.
For me, I will trade some of the autonomy of money for the collectivity of Giving/Taking, Lending/Borrowing, Renting/Hiring, Selling/Buying Collectively. In this way my limited money will go further and the benefits of community will come more to the fore in my life.
Is this more idealistic and/or pragmatic in your opinion?