The Economy Within

The Times (London) columnist Alice Thomson http://inchdeep.blogtownhall.com/2008/10/10/the_upside_of_a_recession.thtml cites a number of studies that show that recession may not be all bad. She says that folks tend to eat and drink more during boom times, and that lean times financially can translate into lean (read healthier) bodies. She mentions that a down economy means we have more opportunity to visit elderly relatives (not, of course, if they live far away) and that we spend more time with our children. Ms. Thomson is just one journalist among many to explore the consequences of the world’s changing financial picture.

In suggesting that we may be moving from a country of the miserable rich to the happy poor, it helps to remember that relative to the rest of the world—particularly developing areas—the average American lives a life of unimaginable luxury and comfort. More important still is to question the cultural paradigm that leads us to refer to our lives as a rat race or a grind, to coin such phrases as same sh**, different day. Could it be that a gathering global economic crisis is revealing to us precisely that truth that we have been seeking to avoid, namely that in locking our step with a consumer society we have enslaved ourselves to corporate masters?

Maybe so, but we can’t blame companies for manufacturing the goods we say we want, nor can we blame advertisers for pandering to those desires with slogans and images that urge us toward more and faster. In fact, for all but the poor and struggling, it may be time to stop blaming anyone but us. An economic downturn may be a turn away from this economic model—which is based on leveraging, gambling, and making goods we don’t need for us to buy with money we don’t have—but that doesn’t mean there are not other good models out there. Might it not be an idea, for example, to apply a chunk of the $700BB bailout to develop the restorative and sustainable technologies the world so badly needs (clean water, alternative energy, efficient food production and distribution), and become leaders again instead of finding ourselves mired in a global morass?

Any economic system is no more or less than a reflection of the people who create it—their values, goals, aspirations and industry. The first step in building a new world outside is to build a new one inside. This means getting in touch with the emotions that drive us, with our definitions of success, and with our notion of “enough”. Certainly there are people in this country who are afflicted by genuine poverty, but it may be that an emotional hole is even more common. If we feel a sense of powerlessness or futility, if our lives lack meaning and we feel out of control, we may not be thinking clearly enough to change things for the better.
Mind/body practices exist precisely to help us out of this hole. Working inside established traditions like tai chi, yoga, and meditation helps us out of the speed-and-greed world we have created for ourselves and puts us back in touch with a natural world we have forgotten, one born of our own biology and our true rhythms and needs. Inside a quieter space we may discover the foundation of a new and better economy, one that might, for example, prize peace more than power, and community and self-sufficiency more than acquisitiveness and dependence.

Given half a chance, we may remember that charity begins at home, industry begins at home, economy begins at home, and home is on the inside. If all this seems hopelessly utopian, good, for what better time to shoot for the moon than when we are rebuilding the gun?