But first, we take you to the Esalen Institute, where a non-professional recorder was there and recorded Alan Watts.
Not well, but good enough for the night people.
USA 2000, abstraction or reality from 1968.
And it puts a microphone in their face.
There are so many friends from so many different portals.
When you consider just adding up nuclear warfare, biological warfare, overpopulation, bad conservation, racial strife, civil war.
Take your choice.
Either one or any mixture of them.
And we shan't be here.
That is to say, we shan't be here in the sense of a terror, a biological world.
It exists in some abstract sense.
Like, see, I was right after all.
Better dead than red.
Now, here exactly lies the problem of the future.
When I make prophecies from a purely realistic and hard-boiled point of view,
I tend towards the extremely gloomy side of things.
I have never yet voted in an election where the candidate of my choice won the election.
I tend to feel that practical politics is a matter of assessing.
That human beings are so stupid that they will always do what they can do.
What can be done, must be done.
And that we will go, like the galleries, wind down the hill.
And if I were betting on it, and I had somewhere to place my bet, I went that way.
But I don't have any point of view where I'm not just an objective bystander looking at this situation
as something which I'm just going to predict about.
I'm involved in it.
And as I'm involved in it, I'm damned if I'm going to let it happen that way.
There is then the other alternative.
That if the United States of America ceases to exist in our minds and in our hearts
as an abstract political nation and we focus our attention instead upon the physical people
and upon the physical environment and the love of them,
then we have some chance of creating by the year 2000 a most extraordinary state of affairs.
But it is based upon the realization of that distinction
between the territory, the people, and all the biological life that goes with that situation.
On the one hand, and on the other, the United States as a nation with pride and honor.
You know, quite recently the Congress passed an act against burning the flag.
All sorts of patriotic speeches.
And those state congressmen are responsible directly for burning that for which the flag stands.
The confusion of civilization.
And if we don't find some way of overcoming it,
I'm afraid 2000 AD will see us as non-geographical.
The point then is that civilized man has developed the incredible technique of symbolization.
Of words, which represent things of events.
Of numbers, which represent patterns and arrangements of physical nature.
Of social institutions, laws, states, and so on.
And in these terms he represents the physical world
in the same way that the menu represents the dinner.
He has been so fascinated by the power of this symbolic way of looking at things
that he very easily confuses it with what it represents
and so has a tendency to eat the menu instead of the dinner.
And this is precisely the disease from which those congressmen
who are raking about burning the flag are suffering from.
Now this disease assumes much more serious forms.
Our first as the major obstacle to the survival of the territory United States
in the year 2000
may be symbolized by the confusion of money with wealth.
You remember, don't you, the Great Depression
when suddenly the whole country is in a state of poverty
for the reason that there was what they call a financial collapse.
There was no diminution of our natural resources
there was no diminution of our physical strength
of our intelligence
but suddenly almost overnight
we had an economic depression
incredible poverty and suffering
because of a financial slumber.
As if you came to work one day
and they said to you
you were going to build a house
and they said, sorry baby
but can't build a house today
we haven't got any inches
we haven't got any inches of lumber
we've got tape measures
ah, tape measures, just inches
there's just no more inches to go around
that's exactly what happened
based on the fallacy
that money is wealth
it is in a sense a reality
but a reality of exactly the same order
inches
or lines of longitude
it is a measurement of wealth
but it is confused with wealth
and this is the main thing
which has blocked
the proper expansion
of our technological genius
at this time
there is no question
that within a relatively short time
we have the technical capacity
to wipe poverty off the face of the earth
it isn't a question
of the old socialist programs
of robbing the rich paid for
it is entirely obsolete
it is a question of realizing
that we are now in 1968
long, long beyond the age of scarcity
in which we cannot provide
necessities and luxuries
for every human being on this planet
it is technically possible
the amount we have spent
upon warfare
collectively
since 1914
could have given
every human being on earth
and the amount we are spending
today
on the war in Diego
could abolish
the problems
of almost all
underdeveloped nations
in the world
the confusion is
this suggests the very idea
people feel deeply insecure
and if we should go further than that
and suggest
such outrageous ideas
as that
in the year 2000 AD
there will no longer be taxation
that all utilities
will be free
and that every citizen
instead of having to pay
his taxes
will receive
from the government
a guaranteed basic income
people say
where's the money
going to come from
as if money
was something that came
from somewhere
in the same way as
iron
or hydroelectric power
or lumber
or just plain energy
money doesn't come
from anywhere
and never do
money is an invention
in the same way
that inches
and hours
and trots
and rulers
are inventions
that is
money is a measure
of wealth
now if we define wealth
as consisting of
a sum of three things
wealth
is firstly energy
secondly
technical intelligence
and thirdly
raw materials
those three things
when for example
people think that gold
is wealth
and use gold
for money
gold being used
for money
becomes immediately
useless for anything else
it is locked up
in just plain ingots
doing nothing
in banks
and fortresses
and is of no
material value
whatsoever
but the trouble is
that we who pride ourselves
on being
immaterialistically
minded people
and are sometimes
even ashamed of ourselves
for being that
are not materialistic
in any sense
whatsoever
we are high
abstractionists
are concerned
with money
with status
with
what we are called
what people say
about us
with this whole
mess of verbiage
and are very badly
related indeed
to any kind
of physical
natural reality
therefore
we have simply
to get over
you see
I am a philosopher
I am not a
very highly
informed
fact man
about matters
economic and political
but I go down
to basic principles
therefore
come with a certain
naivete
and innocence
like the child
who knows
in Hans Anderson's
tale
of the emperor's
new clothes
that the emperor
was naked
and I see
astonishment
in this kind
of childish way
that people
really think
that money
is necessary
that they don't
understand
the following
simple principles
if you create
a technology
the purpose
of that technology
is to
increase our
supply
of goods
and services
and to make
it unnecessary
for anybody
to perform
gradually
then of course
you are getting
rid of work
so we have
the amazing
idiocy
to penalize
getting rid
of work
as something
called
unemployment
to be on
the lower
social stages
in which you
crawl into a
labor office
and regretfully
receive a dollar
because you see
if money
was a convenience
to get rid
of butter
so that you
wouldn't have
to go down
to the market
with a basket
of eggs
in order to
exchange it
for vegetables
and leave
but if you
have nothing
to barter with
because the
machines are
doing it
instead of
then the
people obviously
have to
credit themselves
for the work
done on their
behalf
by the
machines
if they
do not
do so
the manufacturer
will not
be able
to sell
his product
then what
must he
do
he invents
instead
wars
and all sorts
of disturbances
so that
the people
will be
persuaded
and the
government
will be
dissuaded
to overextend
the national
debt
which is
merely a
method
of issuing
credit
in order
that the
thing
may go on
it is not
necessary
to invent
wars
it is only
necessary
to invent
money
but the
difficulty
is
with our
present
psychology
of money
is that
the moment
there would
be a
guaranteed
national
income
and everybody
would be
given
ten thousand
dollars a year
as a mere
stock
whatever else
they might
want to
acquire
by various
enterprises
prices
would go
sky high
the so-called
catch the
new money
in circulation
and the
result of
that would
be
that you
would be a
pauper on
ten thousand
a year
because people
do not
realize that
when you
put up
prices in
order to
catch an
extra flow
of money
that the
money you
are getting
by this
method
is increasingly
less valuable
and therefore
you are doing
nothing at all
you are simply
going round
in a vicious
circle
so we have
the situation
that when
profits go up
the unions
say more
wages
please
ok more
wages
then what
happens
the prices
go up
and then
the manufacturer
thinks he's
gaining something
he isn't
gaining anything
at all
because it
costs him
more for
everything
he has
so you
see the
obsession
of making
money
is the
thing from
which we
will
if we are
going to
survive
at all
is the
thing from
which we
must be
delivered
if you
substitute
for the
idea of
money
the
sensuous
experience
of real
material
wealth
you will
very quickly
realize
that you
cannot
drive
three cars
at once
nor live
in six
houses
at once
nor eat
five
breakfasts
simultaneously
that there
is simply
a physical
limit
to your
consumption
of the
most
luxurious
wealth
imaginable
but the
point is
that everybody
is going
to have
this
without
limit
because it
that it
has become
an entire
reversal
of the
protestant
ethic
which was
of course
that
human
energies
cannot be
trusted
unless most
of them
are absorbed
in
hard work
bringing out
products
if
we are
dead tired
when we
get home
from doing
that
then the
devil
finds
work
for
idle
and
there
will
be
pleasure
seeking
all the
perversialists
that
flow
there
from
until
finally
we
become
weak
sickling
afraid
to
our
enemies
and
fall
apart
there is a
certain truth
in that
we are going
to find
that
in this year
it is not
very far
off
our sacred
and solid
duty
to learn
how to
enjoy
total
luxury
very serious
because
as I pointed
out right
at the
beginning
talking about
utopia
today
is no longer
a sort of
wishful fantasy
it's a grim
necessity
there is no
alternative
except
utopia
to the direction
which we are
present
taking
the direction
of destruction
we've got to
have the nerve
to stand up
and say
yes
we are going
to enjoy
ourselves
as much
as possible
now
let me point
out
that that
is a
high
if any of you
want to
feel
a little
get
masochistic
many people
do
because
they don't
feel
that they
have contributed
to society
unless they
have suffered
during the
day
and I want
to propose
an entirely
new and
adventurous
form of
suffering
which is
the art
of enjoying
yourself
as much
as possible
and accepting
full heartedly
the real
physical
possibility
of immense
prosperity
now that
the problem
of this
is
what we
call
fatigue
in
study
of
medicine
that
consciousness
is a peculiar
neurological
phenomenon
which gets
bored
rather easily
so that
when a certain
stimulus
is given
to consciousness
for a period
of time
it ceases
to notice it
and then
for lack
of anything
to do
it ceases
out another
one
and therefore
for people
who are
permanently
comfortable
they cease
to notice
that they're
comfortable
very well
when you
were worried
financially
and
were constantly
preoccupied
that you
didn't have
enough
money
and then
suddenly
you've
got
enough
money
and you
were very
happy
for a few
days
and you
started
worrying
about
yourself
now nature
and the
force
of action
so therefore
my pleasure
must go
hand in hand
with a certain
degree of
sense
so very
skillful
cooks
from gourmands
the french
distinction
between gourmet
and gourmand
is extremely
important
a gourmand
is a person
who just
shoves it
down
a trencher
a gourmet
takes it
subtle
he doesn't
ever
over drink
he doesn't
ever
overeat
he's
fussy
particularly
and
disciplined
because he
attends to the
art of cooking
as a very
rare business
so that he
mustn't ever
fatigue himself
with it
and that's
one of the
major tasks
in front of
this
and that goes
hand in hand
with the other
thing that
must occur
as a way of
as a form
of change
of spirit
in technology
if we
are to
bring about
this kind
of prosperity
hitherto
the spirit
motivating
technology
has been
unfriendly
to the
physical
environment
we
have spoken
of the
technological
enterprise
as man's
conquest of
nature
as if man
were an
alien to
the universe
was something
that came
into this
world
from outside
that is to
say from
the abstract
world
and landed
in the concrete
world
incarnate
in a human
body
and therefore
as an abstract
spirit
at odds
with this
physical prison
it was his
duty on this
earth
to
order by
violence
his physical
prison
and make it
submit to
his will
and as a
result of
that
we have
a type
of technology
which
with few
exceptions
is purely
exploitable
and destructive
it's symbol
to chiefly
being the
bulldozer
that
great
metal
bar
which will
shut down
mountains
in a ghastly
fulfillment
of the
prophecy
in the bible
that every
valley
should be
exalted
and mountains
stay low
across
places
made flames
the
progressive
los angelization
of the world
is going
ahead
if it is
going to happen
at all
and could
indeed
happen
is a change
in
the individual
human beings
consciousness
of his own
existence
vis-à-vis
face to face
with nature
we have
been brought
up
to
experience
ourselves
as separate
souls
or egos
confronted
with the
world
of nature
that since
the
disappearance
of god
at the end
of the
19th century
is a profoundly
stupid
environment
consisting of
animals who
are not very
brighter
rocks that
are quite
clearly stupid
and other
electronic forces
which have
only rationality
in so far as
our physicists
can impose it
upon them
and therefore
we feel
quite alienated
from the
outside world
and we feel
that we are
mere occurrences
we arrive
in this world
for a short
time and then
disappear forever
so make the
best of it
while you can
we have
absolutely
no idea
experiencing
our relationship
to the physical
universe
as both
ecologists
and physicists
know it
to be
the ecologist
knows
that a human
being or any
other organism
is not something
that comes into
this world
from somewhere
else
but is an
expression of it
grows out of
that fruit
from the trees
and it's
absolutely
imperative
that we
realize this
because only
on the basis
of that new
kind of
conception of
the human
being
or feeling
of human
existence
can we
have the
motivation
for developing
a technology
which will
cooperate with
the environment
instead of
merely
destroying it
if you are
a great
wine river
and you
love to
drink
you must
realize that
with that
goes love
of grapes
you can't
just tear
grapes off
the hill
and mulch
them into
wine
you've got
to love
them in
such a way
that those
grapes will
be happy
to return
to your
hills
year after
year
that's
real
technology
no matter
what
instruments
no matter
what
chemicals
you use
you must
love the
grapes
brute
fruit
facts
and
hard
realities
instead
of
abstractions
but if
we don't
nuclear
energy
in the
enemy
turns this
planet
into a
star
that may
be the
way
all
other
stuff
the
important
thing
to realize
you see
if this
goes on
and on
and that's
the process
insects
mammals
fish
people
wherever
they come
to be
each
one
of them
is
I
feels
it's
I
just
as you
do now
you don't
remember
having
existed
before
neither
will
you
then
but it
will
always
be
I
always
going
on
so
sure
I
will
then
you
will
be
less
likely
you