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R E V I E W S I N MY OWN WORDS • S C I L L A E LWORTHY SOUL POWER: A CONSCIOUS HUMANITY We live in an extraordinary age – an age of both mortal danger and unprecedented opportunity, if only we can understand what’s happening and why. Our capacity for destruction, both military and environmental, is vastly greater today than it was half a century ago, and will be greater still tomorrow. It seems as if this mortal danger is forcing us to take a great leap in our evolution that we might never have made, were we not driven to it by the crises facing us. This leap consists of an expansion of human consciousness; a shift from seeing ourselves as the dominant species on this planet with a right to exploit its resources for our own needs, to seeing ourselves as utterly dependent for our survival on an extraordinary living web of planetary life. This great web of life, formed over countless millions of years, will not survive unless we respect the interdependence of its living systems. At present we live irresponsibly, unconsciously, as if we can do what we like to the Earth, without consequences. We live as if there is no purpose or meaning to our lives beyond meeting our material needs. We live as if we are separate from each other and the planet. We live as if the presence of soul or spirit is irrelevant. The treasure that we have lost is a living relationship with the soul. In the past, the word ‘soul’ conveyed meaning: the greatest artists, poets and mystics were engaged in keeping people in touch with their soul. Today the word means little in a culture unaware of the value of an inner life. Our brilliant technological culture inflicts intolerable stress on us because it grants no value to mystery. It allows no time for relationship with the soul, no time to awaken to the beauty and wonder of the extraordinary treasure that lies within us, and the magnificence all around us. Given that we may have only a few decades to heal ourselves and the planet, how do we recover our lost sense of being part of something totally sacred? How do we develop respect and compassion for Nature? How do we meet the needs of the human heart for love, relatedness, connection? The ‘heart and soul’ nebulae PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY ESA/ESO/NASA We can make radical shifts in our everyday lives in the way we do things, in the way we think, in how we are. Instead of seeing the current crises as frightening, we can see the opportunity they offer to transform the deficient values that currently drive our economies. We can develop new energy technologies that are benign rather than destructive or polluting. We can adjust our domestic decisions – decisions about travel, heating, conserving food and precious resources – to the needs of the planet. We can take our business away from dehumanised organisations to more connected ones, where we can form a relationship with a person, such as local barter systems. In our workplace, we can suggest and support moves away from hierarchical structures to horizontal ones that are personalised and connected and enable individuals to develop and thrive. We can demonstrate to leaders and managers that ‘top down’ change cannot succeed without ‘bottom up’ consultation and engagement. We can move away from the sickness of greed and ruthless competition towards an understanding of our path in life, of what we are really here to do. We shall need emotional intelligence, understanding not simply the point of view but the needs of the ‘opponent’. Nonviolent communication is now being learned and used by people all over the world, simply because it works, and works wonders. We are being offered new opportunities to grow and become more complete human beings. Servant leadership for example is a powerful way to learn how I – as an ego – can step back, and I as a servant can step forward. An ongoing practice of reflection or self-awareness could become a daily support. Self-knowledge enables us to develop the ability to confront and transform darker emotions. Our book explains how each one of us can find our own unique path. In fact this may be the most important thing we ever do; to perceive how our particular skills can be of most use to the planet and future generations, and how this can inspire and guide our actions. Soul Power: An Agenda for a Conscious Humanity by Anne Baring and Scilla Elworthy is published by Booksurge (2009), ISBN 978143923415. Scilla Elworthy is Founder of Peace Direct, which supports grassroots peace-building in areas of conflict. www.peacedirect.org 64 Resurgence No. 258 January/February 2010
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MORAL ANALYSIS Jack Santa Barbara suggests we need only to attend to those relationships that preserve the integrity, resilience and beauty of the commonwealth of life. Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy Peter G. Brown and Geoffrey Garver Berrett-Koehler, 2009 ISBN 9781576757628 Right Relationship is a book for the ‘worrying-about-collapse’ weary. It is a book for those of us who realise that the world we live in is in great peril and that something fundamental has to change to ensure that the human story continues and flourishes. While there are many features of the book that make it hopeful, two in particular stand out. The book lays out a broad framework for change, including a moral base, that encompasses all arenas from the local to the global, and it arises from a Quaker tradition which has had remarkable successes in the past – the abolition of slavery being just one noteworthy example. The neoclassical economic paradigm that has been so successful at providing material goods is clearly identified as the main culprit in both the destruction of ecological systems and the creation of enormous inequities that characterise the current condition of our special planet. As the authors point out, the economy is about relationships, as is ecology. And the current relationships we humans have with both are wrong. They are wrong because our economic activities are destroying the life-support systems for the commonwealth of life that sustain us, and these same activities reward those who least need more and disadvantage those whose needs are greatest. The authors’ analysis of the problem we face is not new, but what is different about Right Relationship is the moral basis for both the analysis and the solutions offered. And what may be even more refreshing for some is that the moral basis is not derived from a ‘sacred text’ but from the fundamental truths of science. Many of these truths are also included in sacred texts, so there is no conflict but rather an integration of traditional spiritual values with the more recent perspective of current scientific inquiry. The authors point out that even within the hard sciences of physics and chemistry, the earlier reductionist approach has given way to an holistic systems approach: one of contexts or relationships – the increasing recognition that everything is connected in complex and profound ways. This recognition, however, has not yet been integrated with how we make use of the Earth’s finite resources to provide for our wellbeing and how we run our economy. Hence the wrong relationships of our economic activities give rise to ecological catastrophe and social inequity. Right relationships are those which “tend to preserve the integrity, resilience, and beauty of the commonwealth of life”. They are wrong when they do otherwise. The term “commonwealth of life” is also defined in terms of embracing all living things (that is, not being human-centric), emphasising the interdependence of all living things, and as something that is concerned with the common good. The focus on the economy as the arena for radical change leads to a series of basic questions: what is the economy for? How does it work? How big is too big? What is fair? How should it be governed? The authors outline the steps that need to be taken to achieve a Whole Earth economy, but what is encouraging about this outline is that it is not just a series of steps identified and then left to others to implement. The book itself is part of a larger Quakerinitiated project called the Moral Economy Project (www.moraleconomy.org). Its aim is to take the steps and implement them. There is no sugar coating on the difficulties involved in creating a new economic paradigm based on right relationships. But the book does identify a wide range of activities and institutions already in place which are actively working for one or another aspect of this grand plan. One of the proposed institutions is a Global Federation, the purposes of which are “global security and the protection of human rights and life’s commonwealth”. For those concerned about a potentially Orwellian global government, the authors point out that the status quo “is to allow actual control of the planet to remain in the hands of the current de facto Big Brother of unelected, unaccountable commercial leaders and entities that recognise no responsibility for the public good”. In addition to proposing four global institutions needed for a Whole Earth economy, the authors provide a summary of how close, or far, we are from making such institutions a reality. They ask whether the concepts behind these proposed institutions are ready for implementation. They conclude that models already exist for three of the four proposed institutions, although modification is needed for adaptation to a global level. Federalism, for example, is a well-known and established political mechanism that can be adapted to the common good; but no attempts have yet been made to establish it at a global level. The institution that is least ready is what they term the Global Reserve. “The principal purpose of the Global Reserve is the analysis of the Earth’s life support budgets and their uses in accordance with right relationship with the commonwealth of life.” The goal of the Global Reserve is to prevent “the total human economic impact from overrunning the integrity, resilience and beauty of life’s commonwealth”. This brief overview of the book may make it sound simplistic and idealistic. While the book is written in a straightforward and accessible style, there are many practical perspectives and informed suggestions to shore up this idealistic framework. And the approach rightly, I believe, clearly identifies the values and ideals that need to change for a Whole Earth economy to work. As the authors point out, “what is truly unrealistic is the idea that continuing down the current economic path will ever serve the common good, or save the life forms and cultural traditions of this planet from their march toward extinction.” Jack Santa Barbara is Director of the Sustainable Scale Project, a member of Transcend, and Associate of the Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University. Resurgence No. 258 January/February 2010 65

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R E V I E W S

I N MY OWN WORDS • S C I L L A E LWORTHY

SOUL POWER: A CONSCIOUS HUMANITY

We live in an extraordinary age – an age of both mortal danger and unprecedented opportunity, if only we can understand what’s happening and why. Our capacity for destruction, both military and environmental, is vastly greater today than it was half a century ago, and will be greater still tomorrow.

It seems as if this mortal danger is forcing us to take a great leap in our evolution that we might never have made, were we not driven to it by the crises facing us. This leap consists of an expansion of human consciousness; a shift from seeing ourselves as the dominant species on this planet with a right to exploit its resources for our own needs, to seeing ourselves as utterly dependent for our survival on an extraordinary living web of planetary life. This great web of life, formed over countless millions of years, will not survive unless we respect the interdependence of its living systems.

At present we live irresponsibly, unconsciously, as if we can do what we like to the Earth, without consequences. We live as if there is no purpose or meaning to our lives beyond meeting our material needs. We live as if we are separate from each other and the planet. We live as if the presence of soul or spirit is irrelevant.

The treasure that we have lost is a living relationship with the soul. In the past, the word ‘soul’ conveyed meaning: the greatest artists, poets and mystics were engaged in keeping people in touch with their soul. Today the word means little in a culture unaware of the value of an inner life.

Our brilliant technological culture inflicts intolerable stress on us because it grants no value to mystery. It allows no time for relationship with the soul, no time to awaken to the beauty and wonder of the extraordinary treasure that lies within us, and the magnificence all around us.

Given that we may have only a few decades to heal ourselves and the planet, how do we recover our lost sense of being part of something totally sacred? How do we develop respect and compassion for Nature? How do we meet the needs of the human heart for love, relatedness, connection?

The ‘heart and soul’ nebulae PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY ESA/ESO/NASA

We can make radical shifts in our everyday lives in the way we do things, in the way we think, in how we are. Instead of seeing the current crises as frightening, we can see the opportunity they offer to transform the deficient values that currently drive our economies. We can develop new energy technologies that are benign rather than destructive or polluting. We can adjust our domestic decisions – decisions about travel, heating, conserving food and precious resources – to the needs of the planet. We can take our business away from dehumanised organisations to more connected ones, where we can form a relationship with a person, such as local barter systems.

In our workplace, we can suggest and support moves away from hierarchical structures to horizontal ones that are personalised and connected and enable individuals to develop and thrive. We can demonstrate to leaders and managers that ‘top down’ change cannot succeed without ‘bottom up’ consultation and engagement. We can move away from the sickness of greed and ruthless competition towards an understanding of our path in life, of what we are really here to do. We shall need emotional intelligence, understanding not simply the point of view but the needs of the ‘opponent’. Nonviolent communication is now being learned and used by people all over the world, simply because it works, and works wonders. We are being offered new opportunities to grow and become more complete human beings. Servant leadership for example is a powerful way to learn how I – as an ego – can step back, and I as a servant can step forward. An ongoing practice of reflection or self-awareness could become a daily support. Self-knowledge enables us to develop the ability to confront and transform darker emotions.

Our book explains how each one of us can find our own unique path. In fact this may be the most important thing we ever do; to perceive how our particular skills can be of most use to the planet and future generations, and how this can inspire and guide our actions.

Soul Power: An Agenda for a Conscious Humanity by Anne Baring and Scilla Elworthy is published by Booksurge (2009), ISBN 978143923415.

Scilla Elworthy is Founder of Peace Direct, which supports grassroots peace-building in areas of conflict. www.peacedirect.org

64 Resurgence No. 258 January/February 2010

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