One of the central themes of Juggernaut is that of the closed economy, where alternatives have been eliminated and a people are forced to make do with the social constructs they have before them. There might not be a more concise or entertaining illustration of the concept of a closed economy than in the opening to the 1980 Jaime Uys film, The Gods Must Be Crazy. An excerpt of the book explains:

(From the chapter, The Close of the Economic System)

As money grows more essential to a given society, its value grows as well until a point where it becomes the central focus of all economic actions. But this evolution from a simple means of exchange to the actual goal of exchange, as it is in Marx’s Money Nexus, is more than just a shift in the perceived value; as touched on earlier, it is a shift in the notion of value altogether. That is, as money becomes the goal in a given economy, value in that economy changes from something that is subjective and personal to something that is objective and universal.

When this happens, the entire capitalist system is turned on its head. Generally, the upshot is the upheaval of the individualist framework in which all parties can gain from cooperative exchanges. When money is seen as an objectively valuable good, everything is viewed in relation to it and only one party can gain in a given exchange—the party which obtains the greatest amount of the objectively valued good. Anyone else in the exchange necessarily loses out. Ultimately, when value is objective, cooperation is no longer possible because gain for one means loss for all others.

As we will see, the more useful money has become as the means of economic exchange, the more the pursuit of wealth becomes a closed endeavor with a single aim. When everyone is striving for the same thing, the pursuit becomes competitive and one person can only get ahead at the expense of another.

The close of an economic system is illustrated expertly and entertainingly in the 1980 Jamie Uys comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy. The movie opens with a vignette about a tribe of primitive African Bushmen who live harmoniously on the lands of the Kalahari. They reside there happily unaware of the civilized world outside, until everything is turned upside down when an empty Coke bottle magically drops from the sky, as if it were from the gods. They immediately find the gift useful (they can cure snakeskins with it) and fun (one of the elders gets his finger stuck in it). Everyone in the tribe is thankful for the productive tool that the gods have given them, which to the tribe is the most useful and productive thing in the world.

But gradually, ‘the thing’, as the Bushmen call it, gains too high a demand, and fierce competition arises for its use. One of the tribesmen wants it to help with his cookery and another wants it to help with his art; the children all want to play with it. Shortly, the tribesmen discover that there is not enough usage to go around. Selfishness leads to antagonism, which ultimately leads to fighting. The conflict escalates until the Bushman who came upon the bottle is convinced that he must throw it off the end of the earth to return it to the gods.

The astute comedy shows how easily a tribe of gentle people can turn vicious. The only thing that changed in the Bushmen’s situation was the Coke bottle—the sole item that everyone wanted. Prior to the discovery, the tribesmen all had what they needed and cooperated with one another in production and trade. With the addition of the bottle, cooperation became impossible. One person’s use of it meant that everyone else necessarily could not use it. And so the conflict brewed.

Because it serves as a sole item that everyone wants, money works in a similar way. Money provides a single goal that can satisfy everyone’s needs, whether it is curing a snakeskin or vacationing in the Bahamas. Whereas without money, a people can produce and trade harmoniously, just as it was before the African Bushmen found the bottle; a society dependent upon money necessarily begets competition, antagonism, and the occasion for fighting, just as it was after the discovery of the bottle.