The time is ripe for a return to the sanity of a slower, steady-state economy that celebrates ‘human beings’ rather than ‘human doings’, says Satish Kumar, editor of UK-based Resurgence Magazine and founder of Schumaker College.
On a recent visit to Australia, he noted a change in awareness from his visit a decade ago. Rather than a total fixation on short-term economic growth, he was heartened to find that people are more cognizant of the urgency of climate change and of the failure of the West’s social, political and economic systems to deal with conflict, poverty and resource depletion.
”People are ready for some more deep and profound transformation. This is a very encouraging and hopeful sign. Some pessimists say we are at the point of no return, but I say it’s a return to a more sustainable, more joyful, a more elegantly simple lifestyle.”
So long as we avoid disempowering attitudes of doom and gloom, this awakening could lead to a new world order that makes the economy subservient to ecology, and no longer the other way around. How we are to realize this, he suggests, is by creating a culture of non-violence toward the earth and toward one’s fellow citizens, starting with oneself. Using the Sanskrit terms yagnya, tapas and dana, which he loosely translates as soil, soul and society, Kumar describes his unifying trinity for the ‘Age of Ecology’ as an ethical template that we can apply to every aspect of our life, society and culture.
”Our prime responsibility is to love and replenish the earth, and to recognize our dependency on the earth. Wasting earth and the earth’s resources are a sin against nature.
We not only need not to dominate nature, we need to relate to nature, and we need to replenish nature.”
The Market Won’t Fix the Earth
Environmentalism driven by fear – of the potential ravages of global warming or the end of affluence when oil runs out – will fall short because it still treats the earth as a commodity to serve humanity and to be conserved only for that purpose. Likewise, environmentalism that is solely market-driven is also contrived. We should be wary, Kumar warns, of being ‘green-washed’ into believing that technological fixes alone can save the planet. Referring to the nascent carbon economy, he says there is a risk that business and political leaders are seeing climate change as an opportunity to profit from ‘scarcity.’
But the crisis is more than an economic or environmental challenge: it is a moral and spiritual imperative – we should not just want to save the earth but to serve the earth. As in any healthy relationship, love has to be the driver. This observation takes Kumar to the second aspect of his trinity, Soul. “The moment you feel love, you nourish the soul. Would should cultivate soul as we do the soil.”
Dedicate more time to spiritual and creative pursuits, he says, and to convivial social times in local communities. For after giving back to the earth and to oneself, comes giving back to society.
“We need to take care of each other. Our society is not in good health.” On the one hand, half the planet is malnourished, while wealthy nations are sick from ‘economic obesity.’
The antidote is to reduce our living standards as measured by the narrow yardstick of economic prosperity and move toward the Gross National Happiness model pioneered by the Himalayan state of Bhutan. In the business sphere, this equates to the concept of the ‘quadruple bottom line’ that accounts for the financial, environmental, social and spiritual outcomes a company delivers – to all its stakeholders, not just shareholders.
Now Let’s Get Real
“The challenge for the environmental and social investment movements is to work with the world as it is. We are not living in a utopia – we can’t say we want a beautiful and perfect world today – that’s not going to happen.
Rather than adopting cynical attitudes, Kumar prefers to give corporations the benefit of the doubt for progress made, while holding them accountable for their claims and promises. That said, he decries the increasing domination of resources and cultures by a few global conglomerates. True security and fulfillment will only come for the vast majority of people once the dynamism of their local communities is restored.
This can’t happen, he says, while so much power remains vested in trans-national firms and multilateral agencies such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. No matter how much you try to reform these institutions, it will not save the day because globalization to the degree that it has reached is simply unsustainable.
’Free trade is a free raid’ on the poor and on the planet.” The best way to resist globalization’s excesses is by strengthening local economies and hence, communities. Of foremost importance is investment in local agriculture and food distribution systems, then in infrastructure that supports small-scale renewable energy schemes.
Also vital to long term transformation will be investment in education systems that teach young people practical skills as well as academic knowledge, and the cultivation of the arts as a spiritual activity and an expression of cultural identity.
”When we come to the end of our consumerist culture, society will take refuge in the arts and crafts,” At the moment, these are starved of investment, Kumar says, because our priorities are warped. “People are no longer makers, they are consumers.” Transformation can come in many ways and at many different levels. “Start from where you are,” he advises. Do your best. Have faith. Momentum will gather pace – the convergence of environmental, social justice and spiritual movements is occurring already.
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Learn more about Satish Kumar.
FROM Ethical Investor, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.
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