5 Comments Delusions Of Reality And Money

Article written by the brilliant Chazz Michael Michaels on the 11 Oct 2009

I was chatting to a buddy the other day about ‘blogging’ and how the blog community is pretty close in South Africa, but sometimes a little too close especially when it comes to criticism. No one really challenges anything someone else says. Some blogs have average posts, and regular readers continue to leave pat on the back type comments, even though the post was so below average that I was prying my eyes out reading the post and the pathetic comments (Naturally with a link back to their own blogs)

Anyway that’s sort of maybe off the topic, but this Cape Town guy Adin Van Ryneveld, with all due respect, must be mad. I really don’t want to come across as the person who shatters dreams, but something about what he’s doing is delusional. While I applaud him, because what he is doing is quite something, there are flaws. He is trying to live without money for 5 years, giving all the money he earns away to others. I am sure he will succeed as he seems to have an iron will and is actually surviving without money. I have no doubt that he will make a success of living without money for 5 years, and in 5 years time he will in all likeliness be a familiar name, with probably TV time, a book deal and much more.

But he says he wants to give away five hundred and fifty five million, five hundred and fifty five thousand, five hundred and fifty five rand and 55 cents by the 5th of May 2014.

That is a bus load of cash! And while I’m all for reaching for the stars and dreaming huge, this is just ridiculous! Has no one else thought “Well that’s just being mental”?

Has no one else read this and gone “Well maybe we should say something?” I’m just saying…

Everyone is applauding him for what he is doing, and that is great, but five hundred and fifty five million is pushing it a bit I’d say.

Adin was featured in The Weekend Argus (October 10, 2009) and said:

Adin Van Ryneveld Weekend Argus

“I’d like to get the message across that you don’t need money to live your dream and create awesome stuff in this world. You don’t have to say ‘I would do that if only I had the money”

It’s great in theory, but in the real world everything does revolve around money. While Adin is living in the real world, he is living in a removed reality in my belief. He is relying on people to help him out, people who are offering him things that their money has bought. For shelter, he offers his services as a house sitter, while for food he says people are pretty keen to feed him or invite him to dinner.

In reality, if he says we can live like this, then we’d all be house sitting each others houses and all being fed by each other. Great, so who is paying the rent and buying the food if no one has money?

Don’t get me wrong, I do see some sort of a point in what he is doing, but it is a bit delusional to think that you can live like this and that removing money from your life is a way to be free. Adin is creating a lifestyle that will be sustainable for 5 years, but only due to publicity. In the modern world, it is not sustainable to live without money, because we don’t exactly grow our own food these days, do we? In any other instance, he’d basically be a beggar…but as his popularity grows and people come to hear of his story, big brands will want to help him out and donate things to him in exchange for him mentioning their names.

So he will be back to the real world, where major brands will cash in on his reputation to boost their coverage. He will essentially, in the end, be a slave to advertising. Yes, he is going to donate money to charities, but the fact is he will receiving money from advertising. And as we know, advertising is what makes the world go round. It makes us want stuff we don’t need.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need” — Tyler Durden — Fight Club

Some will say advertising creates a world of greed and power imbalances. But advertising is a major part of modern society and it’s never going to go away, and we do need it.

So Adin’s plan of living without money, will still be about money to a lot of people in the end.

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5 Comments

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Adin van Ryneveld @AdinvanRyneveld Website Reply

Hey Sean,

Howzit?

Firstly, thanks for writing about this story. Even if your article is a little on the critical side, I am still stoked that someone is paying attention…and maybe it is true that there’s no such thing as ‘bad publicity’. Thanks to Bianca Coleman for the article in the Argus by the way!

So, how am I going to respond to your article?

Well, you are right about many things, mostly that I am mad…or at least a little. Don’t feel bad for thinking it or even writing it, you are not the first and certainly won’t be the last to have that opinion. However, if you choose to write about me again, I prefer the term crazy, it has a cooler ring to it don’t you think:-) Also, no need to worry about shattering my dream…it will take more than one critical blog post to stop me!

The next thing that you are right about is that I will most likely “be a familiar name, with probably TV time, a book deal and much more.” In fact, I am counting on it. It is the only way I am going to come close to giving away the ridiculous sum of R555 555 555.55 (which is another thing you are right about, it is a shit load of money).

You see, if I was just trying to live without money, I wouldn’t necessarily need to trade on exposure and publicity. But with a goal of giving away that much money, I am going to use every bit of leverage I can get my hands on.

If I am being truly honest, there is a gimmick aspect to living without money. I needed something to get attention and to attract (and reward) the people I will need to support me. To think I could do this on my own would really be mad. I have a lot of awesome friends, who are riddled with talents and skills that I don’t have and are blessed with resources, networks and experience that I could only dream of. I am convinced that everything that might be required to make R555 555 555.55 by the 5th of May 2014 exists in the friends I already have and the friends I am yet to make. I just need to find a way to make them want to be a part of this adventure. If that is exposure or publicity, so be it.

I am actually glad you are challenging me on this now. Most of my energy so far has been focussed on survival, and rightly so…I need to be around for all 5 years to get maximum value from the experiment. I haven’t spoken much about how I am going to make the money to give away.

Although I am sure this is going to evolve a lot as time goes by, this is the first part of my plan in a nutshell:

If my friends have their own businesses, they are invited to sponsor me their product or service. I then become an affiliate, and use my popularity to promote them, in exchange for a commission. (very typical referral marketing stuff, nothing unique about that) I have a lot of friends and could realistically set up affiliate relationships with a lot of people in the next 5 years. All I need to do then is to convince the public who might be following this story to buy from them…knowing that if they do they will be helping me reach my crazy goal and make a massive difference in South Africa.

Instead of building my popularity to get stuff from big brands like you say, I would rather be an advert for my friends. So you are right, my “plan of living without money, will still be about money to a lot of people in the end” but those people will be my friends. Having said that, if Vodacom wants to release me from my cell phone contract in exchange for some exposure, I am not going to say no!

Another thing you are right about is that I will be living on things that other people have bought with their money. I think I should make something clear – I am NOT anti-money. If I were, I would probably go live in the Knysna forest somewhere and live off the land. Nothing wrong with that, loads of people have done it, it just doesn’t turn me on. I like living in the city, having a computer and talking on the phone. I am not quite ready to give that up! The other problem with ‘checking out’ and doing an “Into the Wild” is that I wouldn’t be able to make the impact that I want to make and I definitely wouldn’t be able to make lank cash to give away.

Now, I need to correct you on something. I never said we can or should all live like this. Maybe sometime in the near future but we are not there yet. Check out these ideas to see some alternatives to the real world we currently live in
The Community Exchange System
http://www.ces.org.za,
and the Resourced Based Economy proposed by the Venus Project
http://thevenusproject.com/a-new-social-design/resource-based-economy,

Another thing I would like to share with you and your readers is that I haven’t got this all figured out yet. All I know is that I was compelled to do this, and I since I have been trusting my intuition stuff has been working out pretty well for me.

So, I will leave you with a proposition…why don’t you interview me sometime? You can ask me all the tough questions you like. I think it will actually be great for me in the sense that I might become aware of some of the flaws I haven’t accounted for yet.

What you say?

Sean Lloyd @Twitter ID Website Reply

Howzit Aidan, all good this side

Thanks for your in depth reply.

Yeah look, as it stands, it’s just an opinion of mine I was keen to throw out there, actually also inspired by a winner of Survivor or something who traveled around the world for free (Which clearly isn’t possible in normal circumstances)

Points noted on some of my assumptions ( “I never said we can or should all live like this”), I think the whole thing about your story is very intriguing, and as you say you haven’t got it all figured out yet.

I’m going to drop you an e-mail in the week about the interview, let’s make it happen It’s quite late now, so I won’t attempt an e-mail at this time (2:30am — weird that I’m still up)

Thanks for the reply again, chat in the week.

Sean

craig @Twitter ID Website Reply

Looks interesting… Would love to see this happen, when does he plan to start doing this? I think you should keep us updated here Sean… Very brave of Adin to do this, cant say i’d have the balls…

Oh and respect to him for donating that money to help build the future of South Africa!

October 12 2009 13:42 pm Sean Lloyd Website

He's already started, mental times! I do get the point (Finally) of him using his position to donate money to good causes...before I just saw it as someone just wanting to prove that you don't need money to survive, but that's not the point he is going for. So it does make sense. I'm not sold on the R555 million though, but it's a great idea.

So it's all making sense! I'd give a link to his site but it says something about web forgery, something wrong there I'm sure Adin's getting it fixed.

And I'll keep everyone updated, going to meet with Adin for a chat soon, it's such an interesting story.

Marc @Twitter ID Website Reply

Yes Adin has a noble idea, but I freaking love money. I don’t see the economic system changing any time soon. Money allows me do to so much more. Boozing, Summer Tours…I’m not going to name the rest. For one – it creates independance! which I don’t think Adin will achieve by having to rely on others to assist him in his plan. Someone still has to make the money to pay the bills, so that Adin can pass it on to others.