"We have a choice. We can keep complaining about greed, fraud, and cutthroat business practices. We can put up with the daily stress of unsuccessfully juggling jobs and family. We can tell ourselves there's nothing we can do about policies that damage our natural environment, create huge gaps between haves and have-nots, and lead to untold suffering. Or we can join together to help construct a saner, sounder, more caring economics and culture."
Conscious Business Institute, is an international organization that actively supports companies and leaders in successfully embracing conscious business practices. Listen here to
Peter Matthies and Jenny Barlow as they discuss how the “dominator” value system must be recognized and changed as a pathway towards creating more conscious business and authentic lives. (For the entire talk, go to the Conscious Business Institute site)
This interesting presentation parallels much of what Riane Eisler highlights in The Real Wealth of Nations. One particularly interesting part of this talk is Jenny’s comments that when we’re in a “dominator” story, you’re either the Dominator (about 1-2% of the population) or you end up having to be subservient (about 98% of us). The result of this dominator/subservient path is that we all have to sacrifice our authenticity–the who we are–because we’re either busy maintaining our ‘dominator’ position or we’re busy serving the dominator group –with the hope that we either can get into the dominator circle (unlikely) or at least not be left to starve/fail. But we do all this at the expense of our true path. Jenny notes that on a personal level we sacrifice three things under the dominator story:
1. Equal opportunity–it can’t happen in a win-lose dominator story!
2. Freedom of choice (due to our fears of being rejected by the dominator/system–be it our boss, our husbands, our parents etc.)
3. (and I think it is the most important) We sacrifice the knowing of our ‘value of our SELF’ to the community.
Thus, everyone is so caught up in serving this system–that there is no time live authentically. We are all scrambling around like chickens with our heads cut off!
We can change this–and as you listen to this interesting talk, you’ll hear ideas that you can take now to create the economics of change on a personal level. You’ll discover that each of us have the power to walk out of the dominator story at any time–and in doing so, get back an authentic life.
Food shortages, subprime credit crunch, housing foreclosures, rising food prices, climate change, lack of health care, the 48 million uninsured, the crashing stock market, the faltering economy….it is easy to list a myriad of problems facing the world. And each, by itself, has hundreds if not thousands of people working on the crisis and trying to lessen the pain and devastation and if possible, clean up the mess entirely. All of which is very good–and very necessary.
But it will not be enough. Why? Because all of these problems are symptoms, not causes. In order to find the originating ’cause’, you have to go way upstream because all of these problems originate from the same place. And that place is the the value system that overlays every system–family, community, schools, businesses, medical, economic and justice systems. This value system sets the stage for all of these problems to develop–each cascading down on each other until they are now so intertwined that all it appears we have time for is catching the crisis at it tumbles over the falls.
This “value” that pervades everything is the “dominator” value system. It is the basic premise that ‘domination’ is normal–and the only two options available on this planet is to either dominate, or be dominated. From this ‘dominator value system’ springs forth the stream that starts in our families–men over women, adults over children, and this merges into a river that sets up economic systems that enables a few to reign over the many–rich over poor, white over black, first world over third world countries. Because we are all acculturated to this system before we even know what has happened to us, we all “accept” this domination story as inevitable. Then, we start to play the game–either hoping to be in the ‘few that reign over the many’ or if we are in the many–get our position as high up as possible. As a result, everyone accepts that ‘those below’–those without health insurance, those without food, those without financial resources, those without homes, must accept their lot. This is such a subtle and all pervasive story that no one actually recognizes it–its just the way it is.
And then of course, as the crisis’ occur, we rush in to fix it. But unless we change the value system that sets it up in the first place, one solved crisis is at best a temporary fix. Because the value system of domination will continue to be a flowing river of crisis.
Let me give you an example. A friend was sharing about the good efforts a woman from Rwanda was expending to help the 400,000 orphans that are the result of the Tutsi and Hutu civil war (one group’s attempt to dominate another). She’s fundraising for orphanages and of course, this is important. However, one of the biggest blocks for her was the ‘anger’ of the locals to these efforts because it required the Hutus and Tutsis to forgive and work together–and that wasn’t possible because essentially, their value system reflects the dominator story–and each is trying to dominate the other.
This woman’s focus is on the crisis/need for orphanages–but that crisis started way upstream in the dominator value system. As important as it is to deal with this crisis, it will be more important to go way upstream and show people how they’ve been taught to be part of the dominator story. Because without getting to the root cause, without making visible the dominator story–no matter how successful she is at providing orphanages for these children, eventually there will be more homeless children, more cultural fights as one group works to dominate the other.
It is time to go all the way upstream. We have to look at the ’story’ we’ve all been taught and recognize that that is all it is–a story. We no longer have to perpetuate it, but we can change the value system from domination to caring. If we corrected the value system–the needs of these children–as well as many of the major crisis’ we’re chasing after year after year would be solved. We have this choice–we can stand at the bottom of the cliff as the roaring crisis river keeps flowing or we can go upstream, change the flow from domination to caring and in doing so, divert the torrential river into manageable streams that stops the crisis altogether.
Food prices are skyrocketing and impacting all of our budgets. The idea of food shortages aren’t just a Third World phenomenon–even in the US, 25% of our children go to bed hungry–and as food prices increase, this will only get worse. How can this be possible in the “richest” country in the world?
Its a factor of our economic system–which accepts that the “market system” is based on supply/demand/profit for those who control resources. Profits for corporations like Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra are exploding and we accept that this is the outcome of our economic system–and that it has to be this way.
But our economic system can change–and it changes when we realize that we’ve inherited a system of values that we CAN question and change. It is not necessary for us to perpetuate this system–and if we truly care for our children we will change it to one that is built on caring for humans and the planet.
One way to do this is to stop acting as if we’re powerless victims and take charge of our own lives and survival. Food–one of the most vital resources on the planet (next to water), can be grown by anyone, any where. Yet, over the last 100 years, we’ve let ourselves become beholden to a few corporate powers to control this resource. Now, with farming highly concentrated into the corporate industrial farming systems and food prices being masterfully manipulated by the stock market to increase prices to the benefit of the few stockholders, we all find ourselves at the mercy of price increases that are leaving more and more people with not enough food.
The solution?
1. Grow your own food. Whether you have a lawn you can rip up or you use self-watering container gardening boxes (the easiest way to grow lots of food!), you can do this.
2. Build a neighborhood of people working together to grow food. Again–rip up your lawns or build a network of self-watering container gardens where you coordinate a group of 3-6 homes and determine who will grow which foods and then share the bounty–in a very short amount of time, you’ll have food.
3. Buy two extra self-watering container gardens, enough soil to fill them and green bean seeds and donate them to a local food bank. Let the Food Bank give them to people who arrive to pick up food and show them how to start growing their own!
4. Send $100 to Mercy Corps which is working in 38 countries around the world to help those who need food. Put a request on these dollars that they are for the purchase of self-watering container garden boxes and soils and seeds. That $100 will purchase 3 boxes/soil/seeds and people in these areas can start growing their own–even if they don’t own land. Within 4 months they’ll be producing food and this will enable them to combat the rising food prices. (Imagine 10,000 garden boxes showing up in Haiti) :)
Want to build a caring economy? Grow your own food–and discover that your survival isn’t dependent on money–but on your self. Remember, give a man a fish…and he eats for a day–teach your SELF to grow your own food–and you eat great food for a lifetime.
PS…the 3 links to container gardens are all different–giving you lots of options as to where you purchase them. And if you’re especially handy–you can even build your own.
I was at a “prevention” meeting the other day–a local gathering of medical services, social services, law enforcement and a host of other small agencies that work together to make a healthy community. In discussion with one of the Registered dietitians/Certified diabetes educators–I mentioned that the United States had just achieved the dubious ranking of #37 in world wide health systems. We shook our heads and I said “For all intents and purposes, our health care system is that of a third world country!”. She responded that this is especially ironic since we spend more on health care than any country in the world.
I made the comment that it was also ironic that we were at a ‘prevention’ meeting since our health care system obviously had little interest in prevention. Over the last 20 years, I had watched every hospital system wipe out their health education departments due to “funding” issues. Health education is the heart of prevention and its nowhere to be found in our health care system.
But then she shared with me that even in her field–diabetes care–things are going from bad to awful. Because of insurance reimbursement, fewer and fewer people are able to access care and receive the kind of education/awareness they need in order to stay healthy. Successful diabetes management requires understanding and awareness and yet, as she was sharing, many hospitals were reducing staff and Certified Diabetes instructors were having difficulties maintaining their jobs!
I told her I was in shock and just couldn’t believe what I was hearing! In fact, I have several friends in this field–and the one comment they had always made was that, with the rise of diabetes in this country–and the need for qualified Certified Diabetes educators–they would never be out of a job. Now I was hearing the exact opposite!
At that moment, I knew our health care had become a system with no caring at all. It is simply a dominator/money driven system and the only “value” left in the system is profit. Even in this field–we have allowed the drive for money and power to destroy the authenticity of the health care professions.
This will continue of course until we wake up and choose to recognize the dominator economic system that has taught us to believe that our quality of life is dependent on the quantity of money we have. As long as this belief is held, we’ll accept a health care system that makes money for investors while refusing to serve the needs of the community. The time for this change is rapidly coming–but how many diabetes patients will have to go without care, how many children will go without food, how many will suffer while a few prosper? Knowing that we’ve reached a point where even highly qualified, committed health professionals are watching their careers decimated due to these old dominator beliefs–we may be just about to reach the tipping point. A health care system without caring–time to make a change!
Michael H. Shuman’s book, The Small-Mart Revolution: how local businesses are beating the global competition is an excellent and inspirational book that busts many of the myths that we’ve all been taught to believe about the competitive marketplace. The “bigger is better” which has led our cities and towns to seek huge corporations as a way to boost their economy turns out to be quite false. In town after town, after all sorts of tax relief and other subsidies provided as incentives to draw large corporations turn out to cost the town more than it gains. And in case after case, the corporation often packs up and goes oversees, leaving the town that gave them all the extra benefits stuck holding the bag!
Small does workand Shuman’s book shows the steps a city or town can take to encourage and build a local business economy which over time will prove to be not only economically viable–but results in building a community that provides its citizens with the life and lifestyle that they want. And isn’t that what an economy is really for–enabling a community to function effectively–where children and adults thrive?
As great as this book is however in helping us think outside the box–it is still grounded in the traditional economic/work model–the consumer economy. It misses paying for the economic activities that fall into the “caring economy”. As I read the book, I kept looking for this shift. Because we won’t really have a “revolution” until we begin to count in our economy these “caring activities”. Studies show that 70% of the work that is done each day–falls in the caring range of activities! Whether its raising children, making breakfast, doing the laundry, volunteering at your child’s school, working with a non-profit agency to help teenagers or caring for your garden, cleaning up the neighborhood, etc. the bulk of what we need and want to do each day to make our lives work–are caring activities and yet few if any of them are “monetized”.
If we really want to create vibrant, healthy, local economies–let’s “pay” for what counts–caring. Then we can reduce the focus on “consumption” as the primary economic driver and transition to a caring economy that is all about doing the most important work of all–caring for humans and the planet.
Listen to NPR’s Fresh Air, Terry Gross interview Law professor Michael Greenberger. This information enables you to understand the sub-prime mortgage crisis, credit defaults, the shaky future of other types of loans and what we can expect from the U.S. financial markets.
Greenberger is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and the director of the University’s Center for Health and Homeland Security.
What he’s showing you is how the financial system is set up to protect the few at the top but not those at the bottom–a reflection of the dominator economic system that is spinning out of control!
Time for a change–yet there are many who, so stuck in in the dominator cultural story, can’t imagine any other way of living on the planet.
The “dominator” story —- the belief that the only option is to dominate or be dominated pervades everyone of our systems–family, church, politics, economics, business etc. It is so pervasive that no one even questions it–and it enables the insanity of the housing foreclosure mess, stock market mania, massive world wide poverty, starvation, etc. All of these are part of the dominator story and thus, the starving masses are a natural result of this dominator story.
The fallacy however is that the dominator story is NOT the only option and in fact, as Riane shows in her book…we are hard-wired to care–it is in fact what has enabled humans to survive for over 30,000 years–only the last 5000 has the dominator story taken precedence.
We can change the story–but first the ‘dominator story’ has to be exposed and for all of us to see what a failure this story is. Oh, yes, it appears to be a ’success’ for those at the top–but look at the ‘winners’ right now–Bernanke, Greenspan, Rumsfeld, Rice, Bushs’,etc.,–these are the loneliest people on the planet–Getting to the top might be exciting–but when you get there you realize you are all alone–and everyone is waiting to knock you off (even inside your own group!).
It is time for change–and millions of people are working to bring forth a new story–CARING and Partnership. What story do you want to live in?
The following information comes from Hybrid Cars Newsletter: Issue No. 0036 ~~~
Moderator: http://www.hybridcars.com
“In late February, the price for a barrel of the oil surged past the $100 mark, settled for a few days, and then rose to record highs day after day until it reached nearly $112 per barrel—only to drop down again below $100 one week later.
A gallon of regular averaged $2.96 on Feb. 11. By March 17, the price was $3.28 on average around the country—with parts of California breaking past $4 per gallon. And it’s only March. The early record does not bode well for motor travel during the peak summer driving season.
How are these fluctuations affecting consumer behavior? Not all that much, according to some analysts. Bob Schnorbus, chief economist at J. D. Power & Associates, suggested that consumers have not yet fled larger vehicles. He told U.S. News and World Report, “If $4 gas is only short term, people will do what they’ve been doing the last five years: complain but keep on buying.”
But it might be a completely different story if prices at the pump reflected the real cost of a gallon of gasoline—which is more than $11.35 per gallon, according to Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.
In Dr. Luft’s recent opinion piece in the Miami Herald, he estimates that the United States is sending $460 billion per year overseas to finance the daily buying of 12 million barrels of imported oil. Luft cites calculations from the late Milton Copulos, an energy economist, who sets the grand total from the cost of oil-related defense expenditures, amortized cost of supply disruptions, and lost economic activity and tax revenues, at $825 billion per year.
“To put the figure in perspective, this is equivalent to adding $8.35 to the price of a gallon of gasoline refined from Persian Gulf oil, making the cost of filling the gasoline tank of a sedan $214, and of an SUV $321.”
Amazing..isn’t it? While many of us believe we have “cheap gas”, the real cost is more like $11.35 per gallon. But as Eisler points out in Real Wealth of Nations, the current economic system is propped up to make it look good. Thus, our cheap gas gives us the delusion that all’s well–but in truth we are spending billions on war and life destruction in order to pretend that the dominator economic system is working. It isn’t working–but it is invisible to most people who, while standing at the gas pump, get to believe that all is well.
Isn’t it time we stopped deluding ourselves? Isn’t it time for a new economics–a caring economics instead of the delusional dominator economic system? We say yes and we know that the information in “Real Wealth of Nations” would enable us to break the delusion and create something much better!
Bleak–that’s a word we’re hearing a lot right now. The stock market is crashing, global warming is heating up, and oil is running out. Let’s face it, life as we know it about to change–and for most people, this looks–well, bleak.
Don’t buy it! The solutions are right in front of us and the changes we’ll need to enact to deal with our consumer economy (it can’t last), global warming and the end of the oil (which of course, fuels the consumer economy and global warming) will result in a world that is better–and more caring–for us all.
Rinaldo Brutoco, President of the World Business Academy, in his new book, FREEDOM FROM MID EAST OIL, outlines a plan for a bi-partisan goal of energy independence by 2015. What’s exciting is that we have all the technology available today to do this–and the result is a much healthier, thriving economy that enables us to live higher quality of life. Yes, the transition will take some getting used to–but what we have now is going to need to change dramatically–we have the choice to do it from the proactive stance outlined in this book–or wait until there’s no other choice and do it under extreme pressures that will be ever more uncomfortable.
What do we need now? Leadership that approaches the challenges of oil depletion, global warming, economic recession with a vison of caring that honors humans and the planet. Its time to create a caring economy.
