“This is another complicated issue that has been formed in your society today,” Kyran continued.

“When you put a price on people, on objects, on natural resources, or even on the world itself, you turn everything into a mere object to be exchanged for another commodity that you have invented, money. Ultimately, the real value of things is sadly forgotten.”

“Do you know why money was invented?” he turned and asked me.

“Well, I think because people needed a standardised exchange system?” I said, a guess more than an answer.

“That’s only the consequence but the root cause of why this system was established is fear, which is then exploited by the institutions that you call ‘banks’,” Kyran answered.

“So, what does money have to do with fear?” I asked.

“Everything. Money is the primary reason for fear,” he replied dryly.

“In the past, you didn’t have a monetary system. However, you already had a thought model on valuation. At some point, a monetary system evolved in your world, and this changed things dramatically.”

“That point in time was during the gold rush era. Lots of people started to search for gold, and gold mining became a big business. When people carried their gold around, they were afraid of being robbed. This is why gold depositories were set up. It was fear that caused the formation of these organisations. Since then, people deposited their gold there so that they wouldn’t risk losing their property. But what they didn’t know was that they have lost their gold the moment they deposited it, and they would never see it again. What they got was a piece of paper that specified the price of the gold. Later on, that kind of paper evolved into a new valuation system using small pieces of paper which you call ‘banknotes’,” Kyran explained.

“When people had accumulated a certain quantity of gold, they wanted to exchange it for those small pieces of paper. Since then, people around the world regarded these pieces of paper as items with a value. And the institute that operates this monetary system in the present world is a mysterious organisation that controls every government in your world, because every ounce of gold is a guarantee for how many pieces of paper you can own, and no one knows how many of them have been issued up to now.”

“There is a secret that people in your world don’t know. More than 70 percent of all the gold that has been extracted has already left your world. We won’t talk about where it is now; let’s focus on the origin of the concept of value and fear, and that should be enough for now.”

“The fear that you humans have didn’t end here. When they received those small pieces of paper, or banknotes, as you call them, they began to experience fear again. But now it was the fear that those papers would be stolen. Therefore, they took the banknotes to the bank and deposited them there. In the end, they only possessed a book that showed them how much the value of their banknotes was.”

“Now, let me ask: do you think the numbers written in the book actually provide you with the value that you expect?” he raised this query but before I could give him an answer, he went on. “Actually, the value of those numbers never existed. They would only have a value if you use them in exchange for something valuable that serves a need. For example, you would exchange them for a pair of sandals when you need them for walking on this long journey because the sandals, in this case, provide a value for you.”

“Also, there is no standard value for anything. Let’s suppose you have one million baht and you are walking across a barren desert. Halfway across it, your shoes are torn and you can no longer wear them. Now you have to walk barefoot on the extremely hot sand. What if someone appears with a pair of shoes and offers them to you for one million baht. Would you buy them?” I knew this was a rhetorical question, so I didn’t reply, and Kyran went on.

“If you don’t buy them, you may not be able to cross the desert and you may die. So, the value of things isn’t standardised, don’t you agree? It depends on how much you need that object, the situation that you are in, and the real benefit that you can obtain from it.”