There are two ways of looking at the world. One view is where everything is scarce. The other, where there is enough for everyone.
In the scarce view, all resources have to be fought for, and fighting for these resources becomes the main focal point of a person having this view. He will go on accumulating even when he has enough, because he’s never sure when the supply is going to run out. Security is the main issue for him. He wants life to be secure, and spends all his energy trying to make it so. As a result, he is in a constant state of anxiousness (How can he not be so?) regarding himself.
The truth is however, in no period of history, has mankind ever been able to produce so much, in such a short time, as our factories and fields are doing. In principle at least, the problem of production of necessities should have been solved by now. It would seem that all that is required, is a social and economic system to ensure distribution.
In developed countries, unemployed people are given the dole. Even those who do no work, are fed and clothed. This concept finds expression in the New testament. “Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
The truth is, to get just the basic and bare necessities is not difficult. For a person with even a modicum of education, the problem is even easier. It’s a different issue that a person’s wants are unlimited.
But for the person with a scarcity mentality, this is not the issue. For them, everything is scarce. The idea of replenishment of living energy is an alien concept. The idea of creation from nothing is something that cannot be fathomed. For them, everything runs on the conservation of energy principle. To put something here, you must take away from there. These people will feel scarce abut any resource. They will not want to ‘waste’ time. They will carefully count the balance of favours, as if they are to be accumulated. They don’t mind doing a favour, but will show great reluctance in receiving one. As if doing favours accumulates the credit in a Bank against that person’s name, and receiving a favour is like decreasing it. Such people have an ‘Account’ for each fellow. They will make statement’s like ‘Your early years are not be wasted. You must do something.’ As if youth is another commodity.
For such people. What they have is more important than who they are. Their identity depends on what they have. And since their self is insecure, their wants will be unlimited. For some people, this is money. For others, they will try and “have” love. They will try and possess. They will try and “hold” onto grudges.
In the act of creation, they will try and hold back, “Conserving” their energy. They feel that they have a fixed amount of energy, not realising, that energies of creation, are self renewing. Like Sherlock Holmes, they will say that there is a fixed amount of memory in the brain. So I will be carful what I put inside it, not realizing, that while the memory may be fixed, it is so prodigious that we don’t really know the limits. Also, they are unable to understand, that energy, while in the process of being conserved, withers away. The less such energy is used, the more sterile and powerless it becomes. Regarding memory, if you don’t use it, it becomes weaker and weaker. So the ‘space’ saved by not putting anything into it, actually becomes unfillable and useless. Any writer will tell you, that once he is “on a roll”, the ideas come flooding out without end. Writer’s block can best be cured by starting to write. Anything. As the power is used, it will become stronger and stronger.
Since for people who have the scarcity mentality, security is paramout, such people will shy away compulsively from any risk taking venture. Not only in money. They will shy away from emotional commitements, afraid of the “drain”. A secure life is their ideal. Their expansiveness is blocked. Life can never be enjoyed without risk. A person may feel pleasure, but joy comes from creation. And creation is always risky. You never know how a painting will turn out. You never know the effect a poem may have. We don’t know how a child will turn out. But we must have faith. One need not be religious to have faith. Even for those who are not religious, faith is essential if we are not to become like neurotics who seek refuge from compulsive doubt in useless acts like counting windows, and keeping themselves obsessively clean.
Useful Energy in nature may be limited, but as Feynman said, that doesn’t stop nature from spending lavishly. The sun gives it’s energy freely, even though it will exhaust itself. For all our practical purposes energy is unlimited. Life is all around us. Animals have excess energy which they release in play. No animal spends all it’s effort like we do trying to be secure. Have we not risen above the animals? Man does not live on bread alone. And there’s plenty of bread.