“If you want the truth, ask a child“
French proverb.
It is said this is a French proverb. Surely mankind has many variations on this truth. However, how many cultures around the planet embrace its essential message?
For instance, prior to the English colonization of these islands in the Great South Pacific, Maori adults here in Aotearoa New Zealand traditionally peppered their children with questions and treasured them as important sources of wisdom.
Thus Maori children commonly experienced a devastating culture clash when they first encountered our Crown English education system with its notions that children are mere “empty vessels” and “blank slates”, little more than commodities to be lined up in neat rows, silenced and filled with adult knowledge.
If like me, you have been privileged to share the care of a school compost with children, then you will be well aware our children are profound spiritual beings who enjoy considerable compassion with its qualities of inclusiveness, honesty, and lively inquiry.
You too will have been morally uplifted by their indignation and outrage on seeing the wastage of perfectly good food and witnessing how plastics are resistant to decomposition.
You too will have been humbled, even haunted by their expressions of concern for our fellow creatures and their own future.
You too will have been inspired by their resolve and vigour to reduce such “horrible waste and pollution” in their lives.
Contrast our children’s keen spirit of stewardship with that of many adults, especially our most influential journalists, politicians, lawyers, merchants and professors who see this waste and pollution as a normal byproduct of what they like to call “civilization“. These powerful opinion-leaders endorse and enforce global systems of usury, “copyright” and planned obsolescence in a multitude of contradictory ways”.
For instance:
- they employ global systems of evaluation such as the Gross National Product Index (GNP) that simultaneously proclaim high measures of waste and warfare are signals of a healthy society while attributing zero or negative values to frugal, compassionate actions.
- they speak of “freedom”, “democracy” and “commonwealth” even though, in reality, currency creation is the exclusive domain of psychopathic oligarchies who print and control the flow of all money for their private profit.
- they speak of “free trade” and “competitive markets” even as they use legal copyright as a weapon to ruthlessly suppress innovation and the free flow of sustaining ideas.
The aforementioned erudite, lauded adults stand in awe of this gross system and reverently call it “The Economy”. So what are they really saying?
The Human Condition
It is helpful to prepare ourselves before embarking on any epic journey into the unknown. We may well be challenged and inconvenienced to the core of our being by our discoveries. So a checklist of our capacities and tools is useful.
This preparation can be especially valuable when exploring the deep meaning of our existence. Everyone will have to make their own unique checklist. Previous essays in this series have discussed at some length this psychology~physics. Here is a summary sample of my checklist:
Tick – What is the state of my being i.e. my condition?
Mortal human being existing as a dynamic balance of forces, including the complementary forces of the ego and compassion, attempting to live in harmony with the continuous universal flux. Typically experience a bit of an over-balance of the ego and inability to transcend paradox.
Tick -what tools and guides are essential?
The principles of physics – especially the Conservation of Energy Principle with its reminders of the vast, all-active potential and the continuous universal transformation of all things i.e the impermanent nature of all forms.
Also lots of reminders of the importance of experiencing compassion with its vital qualities of inclusiveness, open inquiry, courage, generosity and honesty.
Tick – What is motivates me to undertake this journey?
Hmmm. Don’t really know. We are all born with a lively spirit of enquiry and give our lives to searching for meaning to some degree.
Perhaps something deep and wise in me informs me that my own survival and even that of mankind could be at stake if we abuse the “economy” symbol too much.
Even those high-fliers who most profit from this system they call “The Economy” sense deep in their guts that it threatens to implode and destroy them.*
*https://onezero.medium.com/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1
FUTURE HUMAN
Survival of the Richest
The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind
(This piece is now the basis of a new book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.) Douglas Rushkoff
Tick – How might my mother-tongue help or hinder my attitudes and communication?
As mentioned, everyone’s pre-journey checklist is unique. My introductory essay “What’s in a Word?” suggests there are multiple universes in a word. We misuse and abuse a word at our peril whereas our careful use of a word may sustain and profit us in unimaginable ways. So it is with the words “economy” and “economic”.
We may well encounter people who live in radically different, lawless universes and get caught up in colliding worlds during our search to make good sense of these words.
Most people can imagine with relative ease the risks of bodily moving across the rugged terrain and turbulent waters of our planet. Most of us have had some experience of being exposed to Earth’s harsher weather conditions. We are relatively mindful of the need to be careful because often even a small mishap can prove fatal.
Our attitude to exploring and using a word is quite a different matter.
Tick – What tricks and self-deceits might the ego in me perpetrate so as to stymie and subvert my explorations?
The ego always arises in us in any moment of self-awareness, ever alert to and in denial of the principles of physics with all their reminders of our fallibility and mortality.
The ego’s pivotal role in our psyche at the intersect of our trace self-awareness and vast subliminal consciousness means it has an incredible capacity to divert us from reality using all manner of ingenious self-deceits.
For instance, the ego can easily make us our own worst enemy and have us say one thing, do another and remain oblivious to the resulting dissonance.
Similarly the ego can contrive with ingenious skill to have us completely change the meaning we give to a word and yet remain unaware its meaning has inverted. If anyone challenges this changed use, the ego can have us reply, “No, it has always has the meaning forever that I give it.” or “Oh don’t be so pedantic. Anyway language is always changing and this meaning suits me just fine”.
Tick – What wisdom does the voice of compassion (the complement of the ego) advise me at this time?
Compassion reminds me energy is the universal potential, all of which is active. This includes all our thoughts and every word we use. Modern scanning technology and our new found powers of digital communications confirms the wisdom of the great sages who have advised us for millennia, which is that words are physical, as is all else. These prophets have advised us to use words with the same care we place the keystone in a gothic arch of a cathedral or the support arch of a bridge. So it is with the word “economy”.
Compassion also reminds me existence is paradoxical and we all live the paradox of information, including the paradox that any form informs all even as it is informed by all. This means we are our language and so any significant change in the meaning we accord a word or phrase reflects major changes in our own behaviour and that of our society. It also means we can transcend the delusions of the ego and enjoy true hope by using our language with care.
Our children are born with a wonderful capacity for compassion and aptitude to speak any language. They enjoy an inborn propensity for truth-seeking and good meaning. We adults tend to be more ego-driven and inculcate our children in the meanings we give to words so they too speak our dialect.
So just what are we saying and doing when the exclusive, acquisitive ego has us speak of “The Economy”?
What are we saying and doing when we glibly define “Economics” as the study of the $price-drivers of human behaviour?
Compassion reminds me that a common, vital word like “economy” can sustain them or destroy our children. It all depends on how in accord our use of it is with the ways of the universe i.e. the principles of energy. So let us proceed on this journey exploring the meaning of “economy” with a sense of awesome responsibility because the very existence of our future generations of children is at stake.
5000 year Journey in a Glimpse
Final Reflections, Commiserations, Consolations, Comforts and Laughs.
The cartoon story of “economy” and related words such as “economics” and “economical” will not shock the more frugal, compassionate reader. It may even elicit a few chuckles at the absurdity of the human condition and the ingenious self-deceits and trickery of the ego. For instance, observe the hilarious phenomenon whereby “Economists” and “The Market experts” define “The Economy” as an independent force of nature while ascribing it all manner of human sentiment and feelings e.g. “The Market doesn’t like uncertainty and The Economy is depressed…
Then think of all the hubris and conceit of those who call themselves “Energy Experts” and make a profession of lecturing to people how to “conserve energy” and practice “”energy efficiency”. They believe they reign supreme above the principles of physics and equate “energy efficiency” with “economy” in absurd ways.
The phrase “Energy efficiency” requires an essay of its own even though in a sane world it could be likened to “economy”. However such unqualified associations make for hilarious nonsense in our Anglosphere society.
It has taken me a long time to see the funny side of such behaviour. Initially the information and insights of the cartoon evoked considerable shock, fear, dismay and disbelief in me. It could well be that an inner voice in you is also protesting, “How can this be? How can the meaning of “economy” have been so thoroughly inverted this past century and I have never noticed it? I don’t believe our esteemed professors, journalists, business people and other economy experts can be so stupid as to confuse an “economy” with a vast “dis-economy”, a gigantic, global system of planned obsolescence and waste… and worse, much worse, they call this insane system “The Economy”… surely this is unbelievable and it tips our whole Anglosphere society upside down?…”
Yes, perhaps you too feel fearful, as I did, and quake at the thought of challenging the omnipotent “Economists” in all their revered forms in all our media? After all, they control the ways, mores, algorithms and currencies of our society i.e. what they call “The Economy”.
These self-styled “economists” and their acolytes believe a divine entity they call “The Market” determines our lives; private corporations have the rights of citizens without the responsibilities;and human beings have responsibilities of citizens without the rights.
They speak of mixed economies, circular economies, market economies, global economies, gig economies, command economies, Free-Market economies, circular economies (a true economy is inherently circular) and in general conflate an economy with a dis-economy.
They lecture us about Economic Science, Political Economy, Economic Sociology, Macro-economy, Micro-economy and yet embrace lifestyles of gross waste, planned obsolescence and warfare.
They use measure their lives in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP), which places zero value on health-giving air, water and soils.
At best they live to quarterly profit results, at worst to massive nano-second market trades.
They believe all humans are primarily driven by the forces of the ego, being creatures of acquisitiveness and avarice.
They enforce this dystopian world view and delusional regime with an industrial-military-media complex of unprecedented scale and psychopathy…
So, yes, it is right and natural that we might shiver and quake at the enormity of this manifestation of the ego gone berserk. However, recall we all also enjoy a great capacity for compassion – the potent, inclusive, healing complementary force of the ego. Compassion humbles and reminds us in awe of the vast universal potential. So let us avail ourselves of the qualities of compassion by revisiting the great wisdom of the sages who have sustained true civilizations for millennia.
For instance
New Living Translation (one of many English Christian bibles, one of many translations of the words of Jesus via his disciple, Mark)
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
The Buddha Dhammapada – the Buddha believe all human suffering is caused by acts of greed, ignorance and hatred.
“If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.”
For instance
Confucius – (552-479 BCE) The Analects
“ If Your Plan Is for 1 Year, Plant Rice. If Your Plan Is for 10 Years, Plant Trees. If Your Plan Is for 100 Years, Educate Children”
Each time my eyes lift to the wall above this computer screen a small piece of paper comes into view. Four Maori words are written on it: “Ka mua, ka muri”, This Maori proverb speaks of importance of walking backwards into the future so time folds on itself and our future is informed by the wisdom of our ancestors.
Invariably my eyes then drift out the window to the ocean, to the clouds, to the greater universe and my being is reminded in greater compassion, in timelessness of amazing potential.
This Maori vision of existence has a parallel in the legends of the Haudenosaunee peoples. These too advise us to draw on the insights of our ancestors and ensure every decision we make conserves the welfare of our children for generations to come.
Perhaps you feel a shift occurring in you with this brief contemplation of compassion? Perhaps the fears, self-doubts and deceits of the ego evaporate in you too in compassion and you feel strong in the truth of our ancestors who spoke of “economy” as an act of careful stewardship, of sane frugality, of skillful husbandry, of “kaitiakitanga”, as Maori say.
Perhaps you too will join the company of the myriad, compassionate people who already care to speak the truth of our vast wasteful, polluting systems and call it what is really is: dis-economy. Perhaps you too will stand tall and call the architects and perpetrators of this dystopia for what they are: dis-economists.
Sure you may experience ruction and ruckus for speaking such truths. Remain mindful that most peoples on the planet do not live and talk the insane Crown dialect of English of our professors, journalists, politicians and merchant bankers. This group of people form a small minority of mankind.
Also it is helpful to remain mindful that their radical dialect of the English language and extremely unsustainable behaviour evolved in just the past two or three centuries. This is a momentary blip in the big scheme of things, a mere handful of generations.
The Conservation of Energy Principle advises us that this demented dialect could well be silenced and have vanished within another generation.
The question arises: will the Crown dialect of English vanish because the ways of universe destroy its speakers or will it vanish because we heed the sustaining words of our ancestors and re-embrace uses of the English language that are more in accord with the ways of the universe?
The future resides on the tips of our tongues. With compassion, we people of the Anglosphere can rejoice in frugality, stewardship and enjoy greater harmony with the universal flux again. We can cease being such a dire curse on our children.
Essays in this series:
Medium part 1 Tongue-tied by the English Language
(On untying the bonds of the mother tongue)
Medium part 2 What’s in a Word?
Medium part 3 What is Energy?
Medium part 4 What is Power?
Medium part 5 What is Economy?
Medium part 6 What is Warming- Up?
Medium part 7 What is a Fossil Fuel?
Medium part 8 What is a Resource?
Medium part 9 What’s with The Ego~Compassion
This series of essays is also posted on Medium.com under my name Dave McArthur