Silver Linings

Forward-looking thinkers who are — for now — on the ‘prophetic’ fringe of mainstream economics have been saying for some time that the shocking fragility of our fiscal system, and our economy generally, is an ‘opportunity’ as well as a ‘crisis.’ In the words of David Korten of the Positive Futures Network, what we should be doing is “not fixing the system, but replacing it.” While they are not against short-term measures or protecting the vulnerable, they are urging us not to go back to sleep after we’ve done that, but to realize that the present system is inherently fragile, unfair, and in the end an obstacle to real human progress. What we need instead is an economy that is locally based, simple, and closer to real human needs; and such a system could be built up from the innumerable experiments in barter, local currencies, and other imaginative ‘innovations’ that are already happening (for the most part, they’re actually based on systems of yesteryear that worked fine until the craze for wealth, driven by the materialistic worldview and materialistic values of the modern age, sent them the way of the electric car).

I have a strange comment to make about this wildly ambitious scheme: it’s not enough.

Our economic system is part of a whole culture. Even if we were to widen our mental horizon to embrace the Gross National Happiness that the kingdom of Bhutan goes by instead of the standard GNP criterion of economic success, we would find that other elements of the standard model, or “story” that we live by these days won’t match the new economy and even though it would be more stable, more realistic, it would not survive unless we can stop not only overconsuming but:

• relying on overwhelming military force in situations that can only be resolved by human understanding — the very thing military force sweeps under the rug.
• incarcerating millions in a failed system of ‘justice’.
• allowing our schools and colleges to lose their compass — and their funding, thus feeding more young people who could otherwise be leading meaningful lives into that criminal justice system.
• letting health care get into the hands of profit-makers (while an unhealthy life styles turn more and more of us into patients) and
• turning up the violence throughout society by powerful (and again, profit-driven) mass media.

All of these unwanted features hang together in an unspoken philosophical framework that runs something like this: we human beings are separate from each other and our environment, which is mainly a collection of ‘resources’ we might as well exploit for our own benefit, and even — why not? — enter into fierce competition with one another, group against group, nation against nation, to do so. Happiness is scarce and if I’m going to get my share, I just might have to take away yours.

We could be doing three things to fix the economy and the rest of the picture: (1) be really clear about the prevailing story that’s gotten us into this mess; (2) articulate the new story, which is no fairy tale but based on more and more scientific evidence, not to mention our own experience in life: we are all deeply interconnected: Our happiness does not come from consumption and never did once we took care of the basics. Our happiness comes from having a purpose in life, and that purpose nearly every time has something to do with being of service to one another. Which is why Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented civilization to a person-oriented civilization.” And (3) systematically redraft the institutions of healthcare, defense, security (and others I may be forgetting) along the lines of this new story.

This may sound like a daunting challenge, but the fact is, every one of these areas has seen inspiring experiments akin to those we’ve been seeing in economics: Nonviolent Peaceforce is putting trained volunteers into conflict zones around the world, often stopping violence where military force would not be workable (or would make things worse); Restorative Justice experiments go forward in prisons and out, by non-governmental groups like the Quaker-based Alternatives to Violence Project and, slowly but surely, government agencies as well, all with great success; experimental schools and free clinics sometimes work much better than the mainstream versions — many of the millions of non-profit, or rather ‘social profit’ organizations listed off by Paul Hawken in his book Blessed Unrest are quietly building the more stable institutions that the new story needs.

There are times when it’s easier in the long run to be more ambitious than less, and this is one of them.