Here's another example of how people are entirely confused about what is free and what is not, and why our trade-free approach makes so much sense.

We have added this peer to peer file sharing app to TROMjaro's Library: SoulSeek. This app is great. It allows you to connect with others directly, and share files with them. No server involved. We wanted to share our VideoNeat library on the network. However if you look closely they limit your experience. And if you donate currency to them you get this:

So, it is free, but you have to pay to unlock certain features....makes so much sense indeed!

Actually they call those trades, donations. And the word and concept of "donation" got ruined alongside that of "free". Donations should be voluntary and not used for the purpose of trade. If you "donate" currency to me in return for some features, then that is a trade. You are buying from me. As simple as that.

Therefore our concept of trade free is so simple and destroys all of these nonsensicalities: What Am I Trading? Ask that. And if you do, then you realize that you need to trade currency for Soulseek to give you more features. Therefore this app is not trade-free.

The reason it was added to our TROMjaro library is that either we could not detect this trade since they are charlatan enough to hide them well, or it was not present when the app was added. Needless to say it was immediately removed.

We need more than ever this "trade as the original of most problems" approach and the "trade-free" antidote. Without them we are going into a deep and ugly confusion. A black hole of that! #tromlive

Here's a post Kostas, an old friend of TROM, sent to us for reshare:

What if we treated everyone like they were babies?

When someone suggests that the goal of our society should be to offer everything to everyone for free, no matter if they work or if they offer something to society, no matter if they are "good" persons or not, usually the reaction by other people is strongly against this opinion and that's probably "normal".

Because, you see, in our lives we are used to something a bit different: a few things are earned without effort. So, it's probably "normal" to view such ideas at first as "extreme" and reject them as something "utopian", "unachievable" or "very distant from our times".

Nevertheless, how many of you have thought about the following?

There's truly a certain period in the lives of all of us (at least in what we call the "Western world"), which is very similar to such an "utopia".

When we are fetuses in the womb of our mother, we get our food literally without doing anything. Just because we exist. Noone has anything to expect from us and we have no responsibilities whatsoever. And when we are born, all people around us care for us, so that we live as comfortably as possible.

Usually, the first years of our lives are the best, happiest and the most carefree. We haven't been, yet, inside the awful trade game, so everyone is trying to make our lives as pleasant as possible, without the need to offer something in order to earn this privilege. Food, clothing, education, entertainment are all offered abundantly by our caregivers.

I already hear some voices complaining: "Yes, but babies and children are unable to offer anything, that's why we offer them all they need! They can't go to work!"

Yes, that's correct! If babies could work we would send them to make some profits for the privileged, super-rich people... And maybe they could keep something for themselves: A small glass of milk per day perhaps?? :)

The truth is that we care for them because, indeed, they can't help themselves yet. And of course, it's the right thing to do.

In contrast, of course, to what happens later in our lives, where, even to be able to eat, we are forced to work, or have income from somewhere. With adulthood, we suddenly lose the privilege of being cared for and we need to "earn our living", so that we fulfill our assigned role as a well-tuned cog in the trade system.

But why would it be "bad"? What would we have to lose if we continued to care for all the people of the Earth, of all ages, as if they were incapable of providing something in return? Like they were babies for all their lives?

Honestly, I cannot think of a convincing answer. Every argument against it, sounds in my ears like the old, outdated opinion some "kid-experts" expressed in the past: "Don't give too many hugs to the child because you will spoil it!"

A real civilized society should generously offer everything to all its people, without asking for anything in return. With our material needs covered, we would contribute to society out of selfless love for our fellow man and out of optimism for the evolution of our species, but also of ourselves.

We know that it can happen if we really want to make it true. Humankind is capable of miracles if we work all together and we've proven that in the past.

Civilization Type One

Original article, in Greek, here.

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You know, there are others who fight the same fight, that you may not have heard of. And that's encouraging! #tromlive

This is the first image released by the James Webb Telescope:

Imagine how small we are, yet how big our eyes have become. Imagine how further we can see from one dim pebble. All of those ellipses of light and little dots, are galaxies. Billions of stars each, trillions of planets. Not enough grains of sand on Earth to match the number of planets in our Universe.

Such revelations should shake our species; our values should be reevaluated. Our priorities re-organized.

And yet, such astonishing truths, are a mere excitement for a select few; such images will become one of the trillions of images in the digital universe. On par with any other. Our society will fail to be moved in any direction; our values seem set in stone; our priorities will follow the same mindless and insignificant profits.

We have created a society of idiots. But we should know the cause by now. It is because humans ended up with a society that is based on trade. Trade this, trade that. You cannot survive if you cannot trade. And so, all of the humans are trapped in a nightmare. We can only wake them up, if we take care of them. Feed them, treat them, give them a shelter, a life. Only then we can hope to see them being curious about themselves and the world they live in. To focus on significant endeavors; to discover the universe, to understand their connection with nature, to protect what needs to be protected, to explore what is unexplored. To become a human species that has grandiose goals, and saner wants.

This is the only path forward. We have to march on the streets, we have to scream online, to provide humans with access to their needs, as trade-free. To decouple them from this hamster wheel, this nightmare. To give them back their brains. No change in politics or policies will do anything if all humans are consumed on a daily basis, for mindless trades.

Provide humans with their needs, as trade-free. Do it!

TROM is marching for this for at least a decade now. What are you doing? Where are you? We need you! #tromlive