Radical Faeries and Money by Hammer
(First presented at the Faeposium in honor of John Burnside in San Francisco on November 8, 2008.) [At the author's request, we are publishing this article unedited.]
I have been simultaneously living in two worlds; the world of my Radical Faerie community, and the world of work, business, and finances. This is probably true for many Faeries. Yet recently I have come to realize the disempowerment this split causes me. On the one hand I love the Faeries for the creative and alternative community we create, on the other I am fascinated by the nature of money and the creation of financial wealth, as well as the social justice of how goods and services are distributed. Before the presentation of this paper, I had not found an authentic voice to discuss the intersection of these two spheres.
My goal is to articulate three specific points. What is the current Radical Faerie viewpoint regarding money? What direction would advance the Radical Faeries perspective about money? Finally, a simple proposal, some Faeries may find radical.
I know the topic of money is so loaded few of us read or think about it in a neutral way. Most of us have deeply preconceived ideas and powerful beliefs about money and these preconceptions can act as filters in regard to anything related to money. Many of us, (perhaps rightly so), start out skeptical or cynical when the idea of money is introduced. I invite you to hold onto your skepticisms and also note any other emotions the article may evoke.
I write this article to the readers of RFD as a fellow Radical Faerie. I have been a devoted Radical Faerie activist and participant for 28 years, having attended my first gathering in 1980 in California. At my first gathering I met Harry and John, then Sister Mish-(now Sister Soami), Crit Goin, Alan Lamb, and three dozen other wild boys and men that have since come in and out of my life. I was 24 and this was before the AIDS epidemic. I was interested in getting laid, chasing dick, and falling in love with several men at the same time. I was NOT interested in taking an elder or leadership role in the Tribe. I was interested in sucking up the beauty and excitement of it all; the discussions of feminism, the considerations of our role as sacred beings in the culture-as opposed to sinners, the artistic and social creation of gender bending drag, group sex, open relationships, subject-subject consciousness, confronting ageism, racism, and classism, art and fun, and in general- all things anti-assimilationist.
However I also remained interested in money. I was always a responsible and devoted worker and fascinated with what it would take to become financially empowered, or rich, or to be able to do whatever I wanted. I wanted to escape being a wage slave. I was also interested in social justice. I saw a lot of social justice issues get defined by where money is spent. I was curious about the Faeries attitudes about money and curious as to the kinds of sanctuaries, libraries, universities and wild alternative places we might create.
When the AIDS epidemic fell on us it disrupted and diverted most of the momentum of Faerie consciousness development which has so enthralled me. The idea of creating more developed sanctuaries, buying more land, building more Faerie places of study, Faerie cottage industries, communes, sustainable agricultural and art coops became mostly secondary or tertiary to the immediate demands of the epidemic. The majority of our focus was staying alive through education and behavior modification. And also caring for our dyeing friends and lovers, surviving ourselves, making spiritual meaning out of this catastrophe, managing our grief and depression, relearning our sexuality, struggling politically with the greater system for more medical and behavioral resources. Faeries lost a great number of talented alternative thinkers and actors to AIDS. The epidemic stopped much of our philosophical and material community development, albeit offering profound emotional and spiritual growth.
I spent my focus during the early part of the epidemic as a social worker for 15 years developing and maintaining community responses to AIDS. But I also spent time buying property, living below my means, and investing carefully. I grew up in a working class family in Detroit. We had no more or less money than everyone in the neighborhood. But from an early age I understood money was important in life. So on one hand I had the Faeries supporting my emotional work in HIV social work, and on the other I quietly invested money. For decades I never found a comfortable way to bring these two areas together. Yet something was not connected inside me because of this. I felt in part inauthentic and not whole. One of my important gifts seemed an inappropriate discussion at Faerie Gatherings.
As Radical Faeries we have a collective uneven
development in our relationship to money
When I found the Radical Faeries 28 years ago one of the stories I was told about the second gathering in Colorado, was this. Some Faeries came and did not have the money suggested for the per person fee costs of the gathering. Other Faeries suggested they could have a “scholarship” or do a “work exchange” for their part of the required costs. The work might include washing dishes and serving others. In a short time this was called out for what it was- a financial class-based system, where various parties’ contributions were valued differently based on the amount of money they brought to the table. Apparently conversations or heart circles followed and somewhere along the way, the “ No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds” policy was institutionalized. As far as I know this core Faerie ethos is still very much in use all around the country in Faerie places and in Faerie ways.
NOTAFLOF is an example of a Radical Faerie non-assimilationist position regarding money that sets Faeries aside from mainstream US culture and creates a distinction in regards to how we see money, wealth, and class issues. It is a great ethos to always uphold. Even in liberal Santa Cruz, California this idea of NOTALF still has the power to raise eyebrows and consciousness in regards to various non-Radical Faerie community events. When SC Radical Faeries are involved in community events it becomes a consciousness raising process we sometimes have to go through to get other community leaders to buy into the idea that some folks have limited funds and should not be excluded based on a set price of admission. This often brings the discussion of class, wealth and inclusion-exclusion, value and worth, exploitation, etc to the table.
Some other successes in the areas of collective land ownership and stewardship, in the form of Radical Faerie Sanctuaries can also be noted. Examples are Short Mountain, Wolf Creek, Zuni Mt., and Destiny in Vermont. I have not lived in these in communities, but assume as an outside observer some shared financial and other wealth resources, (labor, autos, homes,) exist in these social and material constructs. These are important arenas where real wealth and community is being explored. But they impact relatively few Faeries. They also do not impact the Faerie body consciousness in any systematic or transformative ways. Note how after thirty years of Faerie existence- how few, (if any) collectively-owned urban faerie coops exist. Also note how there is no general formula, fund, or think tank for generating on the concrete level additional sanctuaries. They pop up here and there, but it seems more out of chance or the beneficence of a major donor, than planning or intentional community effort. Also note how many of these communities survive on the financial margin- and not necessarily because of choice. NOTALF and some collective land stewardship and community living are the enlightened more developed side of Faeries and money.
But in regards to the understanding of money, finances, and Capitalism- these distinctions are the only real distinctions Faeries as a collective have created. The rest of the dialogue about money and wealth among Faeries is incomplete and unfinished. The topic is usually passively discouraged and avoided. The idea of hanging with Faeries and talking about wealth generation is not thinkable. Bringing up money in a Faerie setting is a turd in the punch bowl- a party killer. An exception is socially whining about being broke- the “alternatively acceptable” relationship to money. A few other exceptions are the discussions regarding the collection of gathering fees and the occasional solicitation of donations for some of the above-mentioned sanctuaries. {Ever been to a gathering where once the nasty business of collecting the registration fees is done- the registration queens sigh a huge relief, and the whole gathering relaxes now that the horrible embarrassment of asking for money is complete. It is like someone farted and we all had to deal with it, but then the air finally cleared and we could get on with our gathering.}
I suggest noting the tone and change in the room when money comes up in Faerie space. In my experience Faeries can talk for months or years about drag, weeks on end about sex, for several days about politics, art, drugs, and for a few hours about race or theoretical issues of class and ageism. But we generally do not engage in frank and direct, authentic conversations about our incomes, our wealth, our money, our income strategies, our financial plans, our retirement plans, or our feelings about having wealth, or lack of wealth. We do little or no true financial community building.
I suspect the feelings we have about wealth and financial resources are deeply shaped by our upbringing in an uber-capitalist society that is conflicted and rather insane, (and I mean insane- literally), in regards to this issue. In general we don’t talk about money at Faerie gatherings because of the embarrassment or shame most of us feel about our positions regarding money. And because of the myths we have absorbed that money is dirty, tainted, materialistic, and really only related to an assimilationist way of being in the world. Money is mundane and essentially almost by definition NOT FAERIE. Money is “other.” Money is anti-faerie. Money is what keeps us all from living in total Faerie bliss on the land with art, harmony, and in a sexual-revolutionary, ecologically sustainable spiritual brotherhood of brilliant alternative culture. Money is not revolutionary, not progressive, artistic, not spiritual, and not cool. The idea of a faerie stockbroker, Realtor, financial planner, or faerie banker seems absurd and laughable.
Most of us are unfortunate victims of insane attitudes and upbringing about money. I think some of the powerful emotional states that control us when the issue of money is present include:
a. Anxiety and Fear- afraid of running out of money- spending it foolishly, being taken advantage of, wasting it, and somehow looking bad.
b. Greed: wanting more than our share- or wanting an easy life, wanting the freedom from work, want; or wanting luxuries- to which others or we may or may not think we are entitled.
c. Shame and Guilt- related to how we get or don’t get our money, or what we do or do not contribute to society.
d. Embarrassment at having or not having enough money.
e. Anger and frustration about what is not fair regarding the distribution of wealth money, and privilege.
f. Confusion, obfuscation, and general dumbness about money- related to intentional unwillingness to take financial responsibility for ourselves, because we just don’t take responsibility for ourselves in general, or because money is so “male”, “that’s a male thing,” or perhaps money is a straight-assimilationist thing- again- why focus on that- it isn’t cool, hip, or alternative, artistic, spiritual or sexy.
I have been thinking about money for 30 or 40 years and have only for the first time been willing to bring it to heart circle or into “Faerie Space” because of my fear of looking un-cool or un-faerie. I’ve been embarrassed about being good with money. And also feeling at times some shame about my success as well.
Collective Capital and Collective Response
To Radical Faerie Financial Concerns
The collective use of money and financial resources is a far more radical, alternative, and non-assimilationist stand than what most of us Faeries are currently doing around our ethos of money. Most of us continue to get by and struggle in a dog eat dog capitalist world, with occasional life-raft households, and happen-chance oasis’s of cooperation.
If we Radical Faeries want to maintain our identity as a group moving into the future it is essential we expand and grow our power, effectiveness, and influence in the world. Otherwise Radical Faeries may fade away. We live in a Capitalist based economic system. It is called “Capitalism.” This essentially means those with capital, or large amounts of money control what happens, how the world works, feels, and looks. To be more specific whomever controls capital dictates who gets health care, whom gets social security benefits, whether the environment is protected, if the food is safe, who gets to dedicate their life to art, etc. These larger issues and concerns regarding fairness and social justice, access to medical care, and the run away power of corporations, remain unaddressed by Faeries when we maintain a poverty consciousness. Harry Hay was involved with communism because he was concerned about fundamental financial inequality in society and that was an attempt to address those issues at that time. In our time we need to find some new way.
Faeries gaining a more mature and developed relationship to money will deepen our stand in the world, as non-assimilationist, as community organizers, as activists, as a counter voice to what, as well as who oppresses us, as well as what we choose to create. Everyone reading this article has money and uses money to fuel their life. The amount of money we have and the skill in which we utilize that money decides how we live, how much education we get, how much travel, how much art we can create, how powerful our political stance is, if we can eat organic food, if we get adequate, (perhaps life saving) medical care, if our children and families are safe and cared for, the quality of our housing, if we are able to retire when we are old, if when we retire we live dependent on others who may or may not have any commitment to us, if in our old age vulnerability we live with dignity or impoverished despair. Money makes huge differences in our qualities of life.
Faeries, like others in society have a huge uneven access to money and resources, and we never talk about this. We are a community that accepts massive disenfranchisement. We are a community, but we are more of a social community than an interdependent living community. Of course there are some exceptions to this in certain places where Faeries do band together for survival and better qualities of life, but this is a small percentage of what the Faeries are about. I assert that we could be a stronger bonded community, more deeply engaged and powerful community, both internally among each other, and externally as a voice to the outside world, if we had more consciousness raising discussions about money, shared more of our wealth and resources with each other, and plotted ways to create a stronger Faerie Commonwealth as a stronger sanctuary from the outside world. This is not a new concept. Immigrants to the US have been doing this for generations, and other spiritual groups have been doing this for centuries. Radical Faeries rarely take on this discussion.
Many Faeries would find it shocking, but it is not unusual for me to be at a Faerie event and look around the gathering and know that within the group of people in the room, the net worth of collective individuals here may be worth somewhere around ten to thirty million dollars or more. Some faeries that live on the margin may find this inconceivable or exaggerated, but I know this is true. I know enough Faeries and have enough understanding of modern wealth to make this estimation. But of course this is never a topic of conversation. Faeries as a culture chafe at the idea of dealing with money in direct and concrete ways.
A Faerie workshop at a gathering called “managing our wealth” would be edgy, suspect, and controversial. It would also be very powerful.
If we love each other, and we love what the Faeries stand for in the world, why not take it to a more concrete level? The magic and power that we bring in terms of art, gender-bending, rules pushing, anarchy supporting, non-assimilationist voice, radical activism, fellowship of queers, anti-patriarchal, pro-feminist, and pro-visibility issues, could be taken to whole new level.
What if the faeries generated workshops to empower other faeries to be financially skillful and capable? What if a Faerie collective could gather capital and provide it to those seeking land for Faerie Sanctuaries, or low cost, easily accessible loans for the development of Faerie land projects, such as solar power systems, clean water systems, sustainable land and agricultural practices? What about affordable collective housing for old Radical Faeries who are truly fragile and in need of respite in their final years? What if there were some businesses that were right livelihood businesses Faeries could operate and run if they had the mini-loans needed to get started? This list of “what ifs” is endless. It starts with an idea, progresses to a sustained conversation and in this culture it is fueled with money. The lack of collective funds in the Faeries’ hands is profoundly disempowering to us as a community. But the lack of community funds is a result of our own collective limits of consciousness and wisdom.
The Radical Faerie Commonwealth Union
I propose we create the Radical Faerie Commonwealth fund. This is a simple idea. It would take some energy to get started and some energy to maintain it, but the benefits might be endless. This is how it would work. A small core of 8 to 12 financially savvy Faeries would become the core team of volunteers to set it up. Here are the steps in the plan.
1. We recruit(Gather) 100 faeries to contribute $15.00 per month to a collective fund. This Commonwealth fund would be saved and grow to a mass of capital that could then be lent back to various Faerie collectives and enterprises as the fund grows.
2. The funds donated would be owned by the contributors and held in their own accounts, (unless they choose to donate them to the collective.) So funds donated to Faeries with modest incomes could remain a part of their own long-term savings and funds donated by more wealthy faeries might strengthen the funds’ grant making capacities.
3. 9 trustees would supervise the funds. Three of these trustees would be voted in every year, and no one would could sit on the board longer than 4 terms without getting termed out a minimum of one year. Trustees would need to come from active participants in the fund. They would meet quarterly.
4. The management and record keeping would be by volunteers of the fund, but an accountant would provide a financial statement each quarter. Earnings, dividends, losses, would be booked quarterly.
5. At a cash flow stream of $1,500.00 per month, the fund could begin providing loans of up to $50,000 in as soon short a time as thirty-six months. By 6 years we could provide $100,000 in community funds, and by 10 years of active growth we might be able to be providing close to a half million dollars of affordable low-cost funds to places like Short Mountain, Zuni Mountain, Destiny, or other Faerie initiatives.
While this might seem difficult or challenging for the Faeries who have historically not done well with collective financial efforts, I believe this is very attainable with the right leadership and community commitment. Faeries are naturally generous and trusting. Faeries are naturally community oriented. But Faeries have not been collectively interested in building wealth together. As we grow older and mature individually and collectively I assert it is time for us to grow wiser and mature financially.
It was a great thing that a circle of 10 care-giving faeries cared for John Burnside and Harry Hay as they aged into frailty and disability. And this model also required money. Any model that involves Faeries long-term wellness will also require money, and we can build more money for all of our long-term wellness if we band together. The forces of Capitalism that would seek to enslave us want nothing more than for each of us to be on our own as little consumers-vulnerable, independent, and non-unionized. As a Faerie Tribe banded together we could create a permanent union for financial mutual aid and interdependent wealth and well being. We could also extend the best of Faerie culture even further into the mainstream.
Hammer is a Realtor, social worker, financial freedom trainer and advocate. He lives in Santa Cruz, and has been a Radical Faerie for 26 years. He can be contacted at Terry@pacificsunproperties.com.
