Page 67 - Psychoceramics and the Test of Fire
P. 67

Homeostatopia

        obligatory  as  well  as  clearly  beneficial,  then  his  plan  would  neither
        mutate away from its original template nor encounter resistance.
          But  viral  marketing  resembles  too  closely  another  method  of
        exchange,  one  more  obviously  doomed  to  failure:  the  pyramid  or
        bubble. Here the product is spread more slowly through time, each
        successive transaction resulting in an unwitting decrease in value for
        the purchaser and a deliberate concentration of value for the seller.
        Within  weeks  of  Homeostatopia’s  launch  and  the  initial  euphoria
        induced  by  publicity,  Gridley  broke  away  from  Peña  and  started
        selling  franchises  to  distributors.  The  latter,  using  cheap  foreign
        labor, flooded the market with solar units at a lower price than Peña’s
        and  without  the  requirement  to  pay  for  it  by  organizing  into
        communities  and  manufacturing  more.  Loans  were  made,  smart
        operators  cornered  the  market,  and  people  were  encouraged  to
        become energy barons. Each time the units were turned around for a
        profit  the  financing  became  more  tenuous,  following  the  time-
        honored  pattern  of  etherealized  value  and  paper  wealth.
        Unsustainable for more than a few months, the market collapsed and
        took  down  Peña’s  plan with  it.  Nobody  really  wanted  to  work  for
        what they could get through easy credit, and if the commodity thus
        obtained could not be sold at a profit, then they didn’t want it. The
        contradictions  of  capitalism  torpedoed  Homeostatopia,  aided  and
        abetted by the behavior of a population too conditioned to economic
        models the plan was designed to circumvent.
          I knew it was a sad day when America missed its chance to make a
        fresh start, and would have felt some pride in being part of it, but I
        could  not  believe  in  Santa  Claus,  no  matter  how  plainly  garbed.
        Utopians searched for the keys to overcoming human nature on the
        grounds  that  it  is  not  natural  at  all,  and  will  give  way  to  better
        behavior when we are placed in a foolproof means of living. But the
        fools  are  too  numerous  to  sway,  even  through  a  virus  that  should
        have been irresistible. If I were one of these nutcases, it wouldn’t be
        this type: abstract schemes and real populations never seemed to me
        a good fit. In the end Peña was left with his dreams out in Nodal
        Village  number  one,  a  greatly  diminished  prophet  reduced  to
        peddling self-published books and videos online describing his grand
        scheme to the morbidly curious and the next generation of naïfs.
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