The New Economics: The Virtues of the Old Economy
by David McCarthy
 |
| My Grandfather Nelson Ross with his four kids. Mom is at rt. |
This might be a bit of a surprising topic, especially if you
read last month’s column in which I talked about the “old economics, in which
money is king, competition can be brutal, human values are ignored, and the
environment is not even on the radar.” Clearly I was pointing out the evils of
the old economy by way of contrasting them with the more positive goals of the
New Economics. But I think we need
to take a pause and think about traditional economic virtues. We are not going
to build a new economy without them, no matter how good our ideas may be.
Here I’m mainly talking about economics in practice, as
opposed to theory. Of course, there is a great deal to be learned from the
masters of the past such as Adam Smith and J.M Keynes, as well as icons of the
New Economics like Henderson, Daly, and Schumacher. But how do we actually
behave, both individually and collectively? How do we influence our personal
circumstances, and with that, the course of history?
If you think about traditional economic virtues, you’ll
probably come up with qualities like hard work, common sense, honesty, and
responsibility. Every one of these is rich starting point for contemplation. I
was born in 1954, which puts me—to my surprise—in some sort of older generation
at this point. Even my generation, the “baby boomers,” had it pretty easy in
terms of how hard we had to work, compared to our parents and the generations
before them. We had the luxury of education and a sense of sufficiency, but
that may have led to a lot of laziness and misdirection. At the same time, my
generation grappled with the deeper issues of creativity, philosophy, and
spirituality. We became “cultural creatives.” For us, hard work has always
carried a lot of ironies. Hard work for what? To make a lot of money? To be
respected in the community? To be famous? For those of us who didn’t
necessarily go for all that, and who chose the path of creativity or activism,
hard work can sometimes feel like a thankless struggle against the entrenched
conventionality of society. But speaking as someone who has, as the saying
goes, “been there” with all this, I still have to say there is no substitute
for hard work. That quote, “Never give up,” by the Dalai Lama, is making more
and more sense these days.
Common sense is another interesting one. I spent summers on
my Grandparents’ farm when I was a kid, and common sense was a notion that was
in the air. It wasn’t discussed all that much, but it was taught by example. If
you’ve been around farmers, you know what I’m talking about. The understanding
I came away with was that common sense meant you paid attention to what you
were doing and used your intelligence on the spot. There were a lot of ways to
have fun on the farm, but also a lot of ways to mess up or get hurt. It was
expected of us that we would handle ourselves carefully, and do a job safely
and correctly. What’s interesting about all this is that what I learned about
common sense closely parallels a teaching about prajna by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a famous Tibetan Buddhist
teacher. Prajna is a profound Sanskrit term that can be translated as wisdom or
discernment. It is a basic quality of our minds that, if nurtured, can blossom
into the transcendent wisdom of enlightenment. Rinpoche said that prajna is
about bringing together intelligence and presence. When you are really there with your intelligence, that is
prajna. And that’s pretty damn much what Grandpa meant by common sense.
As for honesty and responsibility, they seem to part and
parcel of the bigger notion of integrity. A key part of this is making
commitments and keeping them. I don’t pretend to speak authoritatively on all
this, since in the past I’ve tended to make promises I could not keep. I guess
admitting that is one step toward honesty. What I’m finding now is that I have
to focus in on a very detailed level of commitments, such as
what I do about stuff I write down in a meeting as an action step. This level
of attention adds up and gradually affects outcomes and progress. I’m a work in
progress in this area, but I hope that I’m at least getting better at it, not
worse!
Well, most of this has been about personal qualities—what we
individually bring to the table. It’s true that the macroscopic forces at play
in the economy would seem to be beyond the power of any of us personally. If we
are to make an impact, it’s largely going to be about how we work together for
change. It’s also true that the basic, timeless virtues of economic behavior
have had different expressions in different eras of history. Still, if we don’t
learn how to update, as it were, and embody those timeless virtues in the
present, then all our attempts to work together and to work for society—our
activism, our aspirations, and our plans—will be just so much talk. That’s why
taking inspiration from the virtues of the old economy is so important.
neweconomics@countrywisdomnews.com
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 5:09 PM.
Filed under
Feature,
New Economics
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