Source: http://www.hemscott.com
The following was originally posted on July 20, 2010. Given the Occupy ______ movement, it seems more relevant than ever….
In “economist-speak,” a V-shaped recovery refers to a market’s rapid rise following an equally rapid decline. Clearly not the kind of economic recovery we’re experiencing today.
But I do think we’re experiencing another kind of V-shaped recovery…where V stands for Values. It’s a fundamental shift in our culture that mainstream economists and pundits are missing entirely.
The most important part of this values-shift is a rejection of consumerism as life’s lodestar. After many decades of zombie-like devotion to the rabid accumulation of wealth and goods, of living under the spell of Madison Avenue mavens who so cleverly turned our ignorance and insecurities into the jet-propelled engines of economic growth, we are now just beginning to wake up.
It’s a process that may seem at present to be imperceptible, but it is happening: a slow stirring just below the surface of our collective mind. And soon it will be unmistakable—heralded not by the meager market-correcting pop of an economic bubble, but by the epoch-shifting burst of an economic illusion: The illusion that material wealth, beyond a surprisingly low set-point, brings greater happiness and a more secure and serene sense of self. Millions of therapy sessions, pills and carbon emissions later, we know that is not true.
This is why the current attempts to resuscitate the economy are all failing. Why, after billions of dollars of stimulus, we’re still stagnant. At some very profound level that we do not really understand, and that for many of us remains unconscious, we have simply opted out of the madness of endless materialism. In its place seems to be an emergent reverence for relationships—with each other and with the natural world—and a dawning sense of responsibility toward the future generations of all life.
In other words, it seems we are beginning to mature. It had to happen eventually, but the implications are huge: Nothing less than a complete rethinking of the purpose and function of every cultural institution we’ve created.
It’s going be a wild ride…one that just may resemble the shape of a V.
Filed under: GMS News & Views
