[OSList] sacred economics 101 and the future

Sat Apr 20 16:19:44 PDT 2013

So important these questions and these topics. The kinds of crises that are
precipitated and arise from these kinds of economic times merit the
attention now of anyone who wants to positively contribute to change.

Michael Rowbotham's book "Grip of Death" does an interesting job of showing
how insecurity is manufactured by the kind of money system we have had for
now a few hundred years. That would be a debt based money system at its
essence.  It is most useful to establish a baseline. His understanding of
how the money system itself works today is stronger than Eisenstein's. He
establishes how the money system itself works to create the kinds of the
social conditions that Dickens documented so long ago and that persist
today throughout the global economy under this kind of global money system.
He also shows how debt grows and grows as it must along with the money
supply in modern economies that require money for most human relationships.

Douglas Rushkoff's book "Life, Inc." also provides an interesting
introduction into the mechanisms of money that establish a condition of
constant lack (of money but not anything else) and that drive forward what
we have come to name capitalism and all its outcomes such as broken
relationships, deracination, and the identity deficits that feed
consumerism. He does a great job of relating the influences on not only
consumerism but the pathologies arisen in our enterprises and
organizations. He also introduces alternatives to the current system in
history (they do exist) and in contemporary times in places like Japan
where the money supply seriously contracted after the 1980s debt bubble.

David Graeber's book "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" presents a story of what
happens to human relationships once money is interjected into them as a
medium of exchange instead of relationship. This book was a great
inspiration to OWS and is now in paperback. It establishes how caste
systems themselves arise from debt economies and many other things we take
for granted as normal or somehow natural and preordained.

There is also a great body of literature about the psychologies that arise
from these kinds of conditions of forced scarcity on human beings.

The challenge is to get the bankers into the room for openspace, when
anyway the system itself is larger than they are as individuals, and it is
itself programmed to drive toward certain ends regardless of the choices or
behaviors of individuals working in it. The banks are also really owned and
their boards controlled by people who seek anonymity and would be hard
pressed to show up at an Openspace.

Of course, funders of politicians and political conflicts in our countries,
and especially funding arms or whatever drives conflicts in natural
resource rich or strategically placed countries also don't show up at
Openspace.

Fortunately, this generation of scholars, mostly anthropologists, have new
insights that we can employ to answer many of our old questions. There is
more insight coming out in this generation to help us frame new kinds of
new solutions. As a young person who was involved in OWS expressed, "we
need new theories."

So important this discussion now. Can't wait to see what the Openspace
community can come up with once engaged in it. The timing is crucial since
we know what these kinds of conditions can lead to.

On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 7:47 AM, facilit8 - Amanda Bucklow <
amanda at facilit8.com> wrote:

> Kerry
>
> speaking as someone who frequently feels a sense of 'pushing water up a
> mountain with a fork', one answer to your passionately posed question is
> actually full of irony...
>
> ... for thousands of years, humanity has been self-organising into tribes
> in search of protection from the uncertainty of life, power and influence
> and indeed their very survival. Those tribes are today labelled bankers,
> lawyers, politicians, experts.
>
> Despite all the distain for consumerism and the disgust at endless bad
> behaviour of some in those tribes, the numbers of young people who see
> being a banker, lawyer or any other influential expert, as a career path
> continues unabated. Why? Of course I don't know exactly why, but I have a
> sense that, many more feel that security for self is a priority over better
> quality for all and they may even feel bad about that, they may spend a
> good proportion of their lives doing something they hate deep down, but
> they go that way anyway and may even stay there for a long time.
>
> Open Space is a wonderful way of inviting those in who are ready to change
> in their own time wherever they are in their life. And we all add to the
> momentum which will help the wake-up call to go 'viral'.
>
> warmest good wishes
> Amanda
>
>
>
> Commercial Mediator
> www.AmandaBucklow.co.uk
> www.blog.AmandaBucklow.co.uk
>
> +44 207 121 8772
>
> P Save a tree ... please do not print this e-mail* *unless you really
> need to
>
>
>
>
>
> On 20 Apr 2013, at 10:51, Kerry Napuk wrote:
>
> Dear Listers
>
> Thanks Raffi for introducing SACRED ECONOMICS.
>
> If we can find a way to get rid of money by reinventing the way we exist,
> the banksters will disappear along with all the greedy and selfish people
> who have accumulated the world's riches on the backs of others through the
> shibboleth of globalisation.  There is something disastrously wrong when
> the three richest people have more wealth than the poorest 48 countries in
> the world.  How did 0.5% of the population amass 38% of the world's wealth
> when 68% of the population have only 4.2%?
>
> How can capitalism, which depends on consumption economics to create more
> and more growth, continue when the earth's resources are finite and the
> environment is ravaged to produce yet more wealth for the few.  In our
> hearts we know the old system is bankrupt and corrupt, so something must
> change.  Eisenstein's book is one attempt to look at what the transition
> might involve.
>
> For some years I have believed there is another way we can move away from
> production and consumption of quantity by focusing on quality, making and
> doing things that last and allow people to feel good without using more and
> more precious resources.
>
> Do you have any thoughts?
>
> More specifically, does Open Space have a role to play here?  How do we
> get from Bruce opening space from his park bench in deep winter to
> transforming the world?
>
> Peace
>
> Kerry
> Edinburgh
>
> PS For more conversation with Charles Eisenstein, ust click on the 12
> minute film which will take you to YOU TUBE.  The other two films are
> further conversations with Eisenstein.
> Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZkQv25uEs&playnext=1&list=PL5D65912B81EB9D7B&feature=results_main>
>
> by 777Bluewhale <http://www.youtube.com/user/777Bluewhale>
>
>    - •Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein - A Short Film<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZkQv25uEs&playnext=1&list=PL5D65912B81EB9D7B>
>    (12:09)
>    - •Sacred Economics - Charles Eisenstein Part 2<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMKLXx6ZCcw&playnext=1&list=PL5D65912B81EB9D7B>
>    (9:22)
>    - •Sacred Economics - Charles Eisenstein Part 1<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4LsktuiaOU&playnext=1&list=PL5D65912B81EB9D7B>
>    (10:35)
>
> view full playlist (3 videos)<http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5D65912B81EB9D7B>
>
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