Fear of Survival

We discuss fear hear - an emotion evoked frequently by open source collaboration.

Context: we live in a world that is fundamentally self-centered, dog-eats-dog - as evidenced by corporate rules of procedure, legal forms, and other institutions. The vast majority of the economic system is predicated on creating artificial scarcity, where no real scarcity exists. Fear of surviving - making ends meet - is quite real for most people, including those who hoard wealth. Those who are most well-off fear losing their weath, I hear.

In doing open source work, one has to face and solve this fear directly. The essential question one must gain clarity on is the relative importance of transforming the world, vs participating in the economy of scarcity. The more one can expand their horizon and time scale, be willing to learn - the more one can transcent scarcity thinking.

Specifically - in asking whether you will open source your product - the question you are asking is: how important is it for me to transform the world by being fundamentally enlightened and ethical, vs gain financially in the short term? This is because current financial practices are continuing to erode society and nature - as global collapse of empire is imminent. Ie - we are killing ourselves and the planet - most of us know it.

Or maybe - how much do you see yourself as being part of the whole - and therefore benefitting the whole - vs being separate and benefiting yourself only?

So the question of going open source is essentially: are you going to be ethical in terms of addressing, personally, the structural evils of the current world - or will you not participate in these evils?

Ability to go open source requires a high level of personal maturation - of transcending one's ego to a recognition of being part of a larger whole. This is described as psychological integration - or becoming whole. Such integration is a prerequisite of going open source.

As a personal note, I must say that I've seen many hippy types, who are lovey dovey in their psychological outlook, and appear to be open to Sharing, but assholes on the inside like Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs started by contemplating his navel, but ended up as one of the most wealth-concentrating individuals.