Occupy Wall Street - Corporate greed protest on NY's Brooklyn Bridge

Island, the last novel that Aldous Huxley wrote in 1962, is set on Pala, an imaginary island community in the Indian Ocean. The peaceful and truly content inhabitants have developed an idyllic society by committing themselves to personal spiritual growth based broadly on Shivaite Buddhism, along with some Hindu, Tao and Confucius influence. In addition they steer clear of the three pillars of Western prosperity: armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence, the depreciation that is purposefully built into so many of our manufactured goods to encourage continual and wasteful replacement. The Palanese have equality without loss of individual initiative, empathy for all living beings and respect for the environment. And they hold an overriding belief that God is all pervading or immanent, and man is potentially transcendent, constantly seeking to find the Nirvana or Enlightenment of the ancient Eastern wisdoms.
Sadly the earthly paradise of the island is doomed. It is overtaken by the greed and militarism of an adjoining country, triggered when an English sailor shipwrecked on Pala becomes caught up in a world take-over bid for the island’s oil.

Fast forward to the plight we see today - the ever widening gap between the few rich and the very many poor. And much of the reasoning for this is tied up with the many flaws in our global economy, some at corporate level. I know that I am not alone in thinking that the loss of corporate heart and soul is not good for our planet.
As the late Anita Roddick explained, ‘The huge relentless wheel that is global capitalism is driven by faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats and businessmen who seem deaf to the needs of individuals, communities, indeed whole nations. Yet it takes little imagination to see that this situation is unsustainable if we wish to have a planet that is worth living in, and not one where the developed world becomes a fortress to repel the needs of poorer nations’ (or, indeed where, much closer to home, the 1% wealthy are cocooned and oblivious to the needs of the 99% who struggle for a better living). That is what Occupy Wall Street is all about.

Alastair McIntosh observes that a large company is:

"…a mindless monster, unless people all the way through the system devote themselves to making it otherwise. Then, and only then, can it start to become more like a community with values, and maybe even something of a soul…this means …having an ethic that serves profit but transcends mere money making. It is only human goodness that can bring this about and so humanize the otherwise inhumane world created by emergent properties of greed.

The wealthy corporate bosses need to listen to the people. Meanwhile the protest on New York's Brooklyn Bridge continues, and the world is watching.

Anita Roddick, 2001, Take it Personally: How Globalization Effects (sic) You, London: Thornson, 2001, From Introduction, quoted in http://www.pcdf.org/SVN_Living_Economies.htm#N_2_


Alastair McIntosh, Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power, London: Aurum Press, 2004.

How can we heal our flawed economy Part 3

I have written of the many flaws in our current economic system, and looked at the alternative proposals of a Binary economics, (promoted by Rodney Shakespeare et al), a relational economics, from the Jubilee Centre, and now I come to a third way, an "earth based" economy.

This model is based on the natural cycle seen in nature whereby everything is reused or recycled, everything in the cycle has a use or purpose, there is a mutual dependency where nothing is wasted and where there is a balance of cooperation and competition between organisms.

A lovely example of this mutuality is seen with the life cycle of the fig wasp and the fig fruit. Each species of fig tree relies on a particular species of wasp for the pollination of its flowers, within the fruit structure. The larvae of the wasp are then nurtured to maturity within the fig fruit.

This "earth based economy" idea originated within The Social Venture Network (SVN), founded in 1987 by Josh Mailman and Wayne Silby, as a non-profit network committed to inspiring ‘a community of business and social leaders to build a just economy and sustainable planet.’ In 2001 the Network published an important Collaborative Working Document, titled The Path to Living Economies, (now to be found on the Living Economies Forum website, the "online home of David Korten, author, lecturer and "engaged citizen." see below)

Within this document many concepts representing the life’s work of an array of different authors have been brought together into a valuable summary within a framework of the perceived urgent need for a Living Economy: ‘a social and economic system that is sustainable, equitable and cooperative.’ This would incorporate systems based on fair profit as against maximum profit and businesses described as ‘not for profit living enterprises’ that are ‘place-based, human-scale, stakeholder-owned, democratically accountable, and life serving’; that would function as ‘communities of people engaged in the business of creating just, sustainable and fulfilling livelihoods for themselves and their communities.’
The SVN paper makes for fascinating and informative reading. The basic thesis of the paper should sound familiar by now to followers of my blog; that a system geared entirely towards the maximizing of profit for the few at the expense of many is fundamentally flawed.

The SVN Paper argues that to ensure the survival and fulfillment of humans we must foster again that same balance and sustainable cycle, seen in nature, and starting with individuals and communities. Since publication the movement has come a long way, indeed positively flourishes, and there is much much more on David Korten's website, including, and most importantly, a valuable paper on How to Get Involved. I urge my readers to have a look at this excellent resource for making change happen.


David Korten is the author of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
which "offers more in-depth advice on how to mount a grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on locally owned, community oriented “living enterprises” whose success is measured as much by their positive impact on people and the environment as by their positive balance sheet."



 © Eleanor Stoneham 2011