A nod to my inspiration

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the sources from where I've pulled together much of my thinking from the previous post. First up, for a very interesting view of collective evolution and where we ought to be setting our sights please refer to this Jeremy Rifkin book. However, I sometimes think he overreaches in his conclusions with statements that leave me scratching my head, longing for more specificity of vision. Statements like: The informal economy, which includes household production, barter, and at the extreme end, black market and criminal economic activity, is also likely to diminish as traditional economies transition into high-tech societies.

From an environmentalist and consultant point of view, refer to Paul Gilding's book. I find him to be a great pragmatist and he does not mince words about how much need there is for constraints on human behavior in the realm of capitalism and the difficulty in accomplishing policy change within the current political context.

Biosphere consciousness, social capital, and taming the market tiger

Why do I get out of bed in the morning?—to avoid becoming someone I don’t want to be, someone conscious, but not awake, someone who moves about, but isn’t strong, someone who grows distant from other people, but who wants more than anything to remain vitally engaged. So to increase my awake, strong, vitally engaged self I’m jumping back into the blog glögg and going for a swim. As I had hoped my summer hiatus, which turned into summer, fall, and most of winter, proved to be fruitful thanks to relentless cross-pollination of excellent, non-fiction reading.  I can hardly be an expert on everything that interests me. So I am encouraged when there are so many authors who dare to describe and prescribe conditions for our society’s improvement and healing. What follows is a compilation of the key points from these writers.

How will humans evolve when our choices within a market economy are driven by the very forces that serve to destroy us? While we ride the tide of ever escalating and sophisticated technology, how can we manage social changes brought in its wake?

The answer is essentially a recognition that we can no longer maintain the growth of capital at the expense of social capital. Any enterprise in the 21^st century that wants to capture the social conscience will have to do so while grounded in “biosphere consciousness.” As described by Jeremy Rifkin this organizing principle follows the natural rhythms of life, and the laws of energy. It powers every living thing in existence; photosynthesis, solar power, geo-thermal power, etc. Equally as important is the goal of social capital—empathic engagement with one’s fellow human beings. It represents accumulated trust between people and helps create the narratives that bind us together. Slowly we are learning how to treat each other and share what we have so that our culture reflects who we want to be.

Much of what has spurred the development of these ideas is the massive dysfunction of the organizations and systems in which we currently live.

Anticipated re-orgs:

·         A long string of stalemates has eroded trust in our government. People will withdraw their support or force a reorganization.

·         Intelligent technology will substitute for various forms of human labor in the commercial arena, while social capital in the collaborative community will increase.

·         Education reform: In many ways we are teaching ourselves how to live in what Rifkin calls a distributed, collaborative, open-source economy.

Our culture and its leadership have no choice but to drive the changes we seek. Transformation initiated by government can happen, but only under pressure from its citizens.

                How can the system self-correct unless we intervene?

                There is an undeniable need to impose limits on human behavior. Capitalism as we know it will re-align favorably with environmental conservation initiatives when it is proven that they deliver measurable financial reward. The market and its regulatory context must reward businesses for their performance. Rather than making business the demon, it must be reformed from within so that values of its well-being are not at odds with maintaining the health of our physical world. From decades of having witnessed the carnage of oil spills, we have learned that pleas for intelligent environmental protection have fallen on disbelieving ears, and it is insulting to imagine that the cost of repair can ever equal the loss of our one and only world. As Paul Gilding puts it, we must cage the market tiger.  

Please stay tuned for next week’s installment where we find how personal economy gets involved.

Summer Hiatus

It started out so well, the book reviews, the stories, the tie-ins, and now I am mired in sarcasm again. It is a default mentality I seem to slide into when all my thoughts turn snarky. No matter how well-deserved my observations may be about their subjects, this was not originally the intent of my blog.

Lobbing a snarky attack at some job advertisement is just too easy. I go after the verbal low hanging fruit, and make obvious comments. I really wanted something more. The plastics recycling bit is much closer to what I really want, and those are the thoughts that are really HARD. To talk about problems that don't appear to be in process of solution, that is so much more challenging.

As much as I love to write, I still feel a tug to keep my topics close to a well-defined base. Anyone can be the sneering, finger-pointing critic. The blogosphere doesn't need another one of those. So with that in mind, I'm declaring a summer hiatus.

I've got a lot of work to do to maintain the mental state that doesn't slip back to default mode. That said, I will let Robert Frost end this post for me:

...But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.

You lost me at overachiever

I occasionally get hung up on words. Guess which one it would be in this sentence: "This is a fun, creative work-from-home position with a positive, enthusiastic group of overachievers."

Uh-huh. That's the one, overachievers. So what's my problem?

Fluff and no substance. Attitude and perception without discernment and definition. All the things I hate. Whenever I hear that word my antennae shoot up, my red flags are hoisted, I bare my teeth. Over, under, or normal. Really? Are these the only choices?

There is something so primitive, so lizard brainish about using this word. Verbal darwinism. What will the overachievers be able to take credit for? You could argue that Richard Fuld was an overachiever. He walked Lehman brothers into the largest bankruptcy in history. But hey, he's an overachiever, what do you expect?

Aim high, take big risks, you're the man...blah, blah, blah. Is it any wonder a person with my sensitivities ends up as corporate detritus, doesn't quite engage properly, wonders what all the fuss is about? I'm a den mother without a passel of willing collaborators. I'm a nomad estranged from my tribe. I'm told, look from within to find the answers. They may be there, but then I must turn myself to the world as it is, and what do I see?

A call for greatness that has no precedence. It's never been seen before. We're looking for someone to save us, and we'll know it when we see it. Just convince us you're the one.

And so my journey continues. I learn great things about myself and very sad things about the world in which I live. I see holes that need to be filled where no openings exist. My greatest service will probably be performed in a very different field, if entry is ever made.

Will I be achieved, enough? Convincing, enough? I'm not holding my breath.

And for the privilege of being this firm's overachiever you'll be offered $500/wk on a 1099 basis.

Oh, joy. Onward trusty steed......

Another word on courage

Dear readers,

The last three months have left you with an unpardonable absence of input. I plan to make up for it. And now: Back to making recommendations. I'm barely half way through this book, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to expose it back into cyberspace for all to read. I usually hate books about business, but a welcome exception is Dave Pollard's Finding the sweet spot: The natural entrepreneur's guide to responsible, sustainable, joyful work.

You know that mental zing you get when you read something that really resonates with your current thinking, your current worldview? Well, I've been getting plenty of zings not only from his book but many of his blog posts. For example, pg 57:

"If courage is merely not having any alternative but to do something remarkable, what can you do to make trying to become expert at something you think you'd really love so compelling, you have no alternative but to go for it?"

If you read my previous post, does that theme sound familiar? It is a question at the core of anyone's quest for work that they really want to do, efforts they want to be a part of, and potentially kindred spirits they want to meet if only they knew where to find them.

I'm still looking for ways to bring 21st century thinking into the material world and make a livelihood from it. One area I keep coming back to again and again is how to solve problems in recycling plastics and other common products. I'm not a scientist and I don't have a background in logistics, but I'd like to confront this challenge. If I'm confronted with a situation I want to deal with responsibly, I assume there are potentially millions just like me facing the same thing. Case in point: Take my lowly cuisinart beaters.

No, really, take them, please. They're broken. The gears grind horribly, and fail to spin the beaters. I'd love to be a proud DIYer, but I can't even discover how I would open up this gadget to look at the innards, let alone fix it. So how do I dispose of this item responsibly??

Initially, I thought about boxing it up and sending it back to the address listed on the product information brochure. After all, shouldn't the original manufacturer take responsibility for their products throughout the entire lifecycle? I'm stymied.

This conundrum is a perfect example of a so-called problem, that should never be one in the first place. That's compelling. That's relevant. That is worth becoming an expert. And on what part of it would I be an expert? Just think of how many kindred spirits I would have to meet in order to solve this, and similar problems for everyone across this lovely continent? Wouldn't that keep me busy for the rest of my life?    Stay tuned.....

A simple anecdote

What is a human life for?

It is for no other human to judge, not quality, nor quantity, nor any measure between, can justify the sieve of human consciousness through which a life must pass.
We are here simply because a force with no known controls directed the creation of our corporeal presence – and from the beginning we have no choice but to attempt an understanding of where our separation begins and ends. Identity to self as self or identity to the world as one of many, a sea of selves – all clamoring for specification that retains connection in some endless continuation of knowledge, of love, of desire for life, regardless of how the distinction is made – self or other self, or all that are, have been, and ever will be – where no separation can ever be made.

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I come by my curmudgeonliness honestly, and sometimes I fear genetically, too.  It simply can’t be helped. Perhaps George Bernard Shaw was really my father. That would suit me. I simply want to live life in full light, with no necessity for denial, no needful diminishment of horror any more than expression of joy, where all is equal, where all is integral, where nothing is feared, where nothing is fearful.

*****************************************************************************

What incubates, stays warm,
grows, remains silent.
We forget our awareness waxes and wanes like the moon.
We attend, something nags us, pulls at the edges.
Oh, how I would love to live in the numbness of prescribed routine.
Could I forget that it also has driven me to madness?
Is the constant vitality of pain a more potent force? Both are equal.
So the itch gets scratched and a new life bursts forth just as incomprehensible as the last.
Just as exhausting.
But where is there choice in that?
Choice is an illusion.
Eleanor Roosevelt was admirably aspirational – but ultimately, she got it all wrong.
Aspiration is not a substitute for courage.
Anyone can aspire not to allow one’s feelings to be lead astray by another.
Courage cannot be contained by conscious effort.
If it lives inside, it is only for others to see.
When noticed, we say:
“But I was just doing what I had to do.”
And so, of course, you were. That is why you can’t call necessity – courage.
For then you would have to call every day of your life—courage.

A wealth of inspiration

In keeping with the mission of this blog, I'd like to include a link to a very useful list of people to keep on your internal radar. It is called the Enrich list, 100 people of influence from across the centuries all working toward the promotion of sane, steady-state living. You'll notice quite a few have appeared on this blog in reference to books they've written, etc. Enjoy, distribute, read.