Everything ever created by humans has been created twice; it is first formed in imagination, and only then birthed into physical form. In fact, in my main faith path, Unity, imagination is held as one of twelve foundational spiritual powers.
It is all too clear that many of our old, familiar systems and ways of organizing ourselves aren’t working so well and are creating increasing conflict, wealth and opportunity inequality, and devastation of the natural world. This is an economic system for a dying world, and it must be replaced.
The problem is that it’s always easier to identify what’s broken than to construct the repair. This is why I feel it’s an act of discipline and activism to make the effort to imagine a new and better way of doing human existence, to create a vision of the necessary new systems.
Here are some elements of my vision for an economy for a thriving world. First of all, the economy of the future is neither Capitalist nor Socialist as we currently think of those constructs; instead, it is an entirely new construct, a new structure evolved to suit our current conditions.
An economy for a thriving world puts the “eco” back in economy. Both ecology and economy begin with eco, the root of which means home. The current paradigm holds that the economy is the overarching reality and priority and environmental concerns are just a small subset within the global economy. That is, of course, ass backwards. The new system will be based on the truth that our planetary life support systems are the top priority and the human-made economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Earth. An economy for a thriving world recognizes that all of life on Earth is interdependent, connected. The Rights-of-Nature movement that is currently gaining steam will be a standard part of the new economic operating system.
The new system will emphasize meaningful lives over accumulation of stuff. Resources will be distributed to meet need rather than greed. New jobs, businesses and workforce training programs will be focused on solving the challenges of humanity and revitalizing the health of the natural world. At the personal, local and global scale, people will have opportunities to work and live with dignity and meaning and in so doing become a restorative force on this planet.
The thriving world economy recognizes that limitless growth in consumption on a planet of finite resources is insane, and asks the all-important question of, growth of what, and for what? It will make the hard, necessary, decisions to de-grow damaging legacy industries like fossil fuel extraction and industrial meat production and support the transition of those employees and communities into industries that suit current needs and conditions.
An economy for a thriving world will be circular, meaning that “waste” will be fully recycled and recirculated into new products. The major thrust of mining will be old landfills.
A thriving world economy will be more localized, with more goods created and purchased in our communities. The fiasco of massive cargo ships filled with stuff jammed into canals and ports will wane. Our impact on the environment will lessen while our sense of community connection grows.
If this all sounds wildly utopian it might be useful to note that every aspect of this vision description is already underway somewhere. Worker-owned cooperative businesses are thriving. People in some of the poorest regions of the world are making a living collecting and recycling plastics and businesses are using ocean-collected plastic to make products. Communities across the U.S. are forming Solidarity Economy initiatives supporting both social justice and environmental restoration.
Recently, my think tank organization, The ReThink, joined the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a network of thousands of organizations and individuals committed to transitioning to an economic system that delivers social justice on a healthy planet.
Last week I was delivering a Sacred Eco-Nomics workshop at the Unity Worldwide Peoples Convention and one of the participants said, “I love what you are laying out but it seems like the old system is still here and really big.” Of course he’s right, and we are in the challenging time of existing in-between both systems. Many, many years ago I learned about the Sigmoid curve which is often used to show how a business must adjust to changing conditions or risk losing positive momentum. See the image below.
The red line shows the original business model or product line. It is growing and gaining sales but as it is doing so conditions in the world, what other companies are providing, and what customers are wanting, are changing. Point A in the line is the point at which it is clear that the business must innovate to succeed. A successful firm will then begin investing in a new product line or business model, which is represented in this image by the green line. For a time, both the old model and the new model must co-exist until the new model gains enough strength to fully replace the old. This is exactly where we are when it comes to our energy systems, our economic systems, and our societal structures.
We are existing in between the old and the new, and that area, marked orange in the image, is called the Area of Paradox and is known to be a time of change, uncertainty and often angst. Things feel out of whack and those of us who long for a different way may feel misfit or maladjusted to the world we are living in. But consider the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “There are certain things in our nation and in the world (about) which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be maladjusted until the good societies realize.”
The new, well-adjusted, way of being is already in existence. The more of us that lend our energy, our thinking, and our imaginations to it, the faster it will gain momentum. Can you picture it? Can you feel it?
In honor and gratitude for these extraordinary times.
Cylvia
Thanks for your timely and insightful comments Cylvia. Two resources you might find helpful in you journey to the future. The first are the insights by Esther Hicks of "Law of Attraction." and the other is a little book by Ruth Miller, Ph. D "Home" which was published about 4 yrs ago. Both approach your passion from slightly different routes with grace and beauty! Happy Days Ahead!
That’s a good rundown of the way it could be and I’d even say the way it is designed by the universe to be, and that we are still evolving to get there. I’d add to what you wrote the idea that these changes aren’t going to come from being legislated but will be a function of caring about each other as much as we care about ourselves. To get to a utopian state look to how we can shift our mindset so we are a people who would create that wonderful future. How to do that? My vote is some sort of UBI for everyone in the civilized world — food, shelter, education, and health care. Now, survival consumes so much of the world that we can’t get to a level enough playing field so we can deal with higher order aspects.