The
Spiral Letters is a selected collection of postings made to the Spiral Dynamics
Integral (SDi) listserve over a five year period (2003-2008). It documents the
evolution of my thinking about money within an integral context and
community.
LETTER #1
This post from December 2003 reflects an aha! moment that felt like a total revelation and breakthrough. I was sitting in my bedroom in Chicago, looking at the Sears Tower and skyline while snow was falling on me (through the gap in the window) and I could sense how money pervaded it all - made it all possible and connected the city to everywhere else. During this time, the Art Institute's Terri Kapsalis, Carolyn Ottmers and Jim Zanzi were all very generous in their support to enable my sculpture work and writing to focus on money as social sculpture (which follows Beuys' work and lectures).
Here I could finally 'get' how money could enable integration, connectivity and wholeness via grounded means. Humanity's intentional process of becoming whole - onement - could now be articulated and realized.
Jordan
(Note: the color references come from Spiral Dynamics - a bio-psycho-social model for human emergence)
To: spiraldynamicsintegral@yahoogroups.com
From: Jordan MacLeod
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 17:50:31 -0800
Subject: Re: [SD-Integral] thesis or quixotic daydreaming?
Dear Constellation:
As there probably isn't a better group of people anywhere to ask for help on this, i'd like to run by you my [thesis] intentions (a brief outline below) and welcome any feedback: suggestions, reservations, criticism, warnings, encouragement would all be very openly received.
I write this off the top of my head:
*
The title of my project is called onement, which i define as humanity's intentional movement towards the formation of unity. central to this is the differentiation and reintegration of equality (law), freedom (economic) and unity (brotherhood, sense of connectedness with all things).
I'm beginning with F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, where he demonstrates the superiority of the free market over central planning because it allows individuals greater responsibility (spontaneity) for taking care of their own needs, whereas central planning, regardless of how noble the idea, tries to concretize this idea through the use of arbitrary power. being a good liberal, spontaneity and arbitrary power are certainly relative terms in Hayek's vision. like JS Mill, freedom is an evolutionary process (success brings partialness). we are not Free.
In advanced democratic nations, the idea of a free market can be used as a justification for pretty much anything. once the idea reifies in blue (or red), it results in the undermining of the entire process.
Furthermore, our assumption that we are working under a free market is becoming increasingly inaccurate, primarily because of globalizing forces and problems and because we have not only solved the "material question" in developed nations but have created increasing pressures to increase productivity and consumption. nations are becoming obsolete as they fail provide adequate safety from external threats: especially global problems on the whole, profitization of the planet and terrorism.
In response, we must develop a more spontaneous (thus complex) order, where individuals are more empowered to make choices and actions based on the whole, rather than on partial interests. as profit beomes ever more totalized in our lives, the existing partialness becomes increasingly obvious. we become increasingly incapable of acting on increasingly significant issues.
There is an ongoing search for a new paradigm in economic theory: this new theory must be able to reconnect micro and macro economics. it must be based on productivity (rather than profit). it must resolve the questions of full-employment (it is accepted that about 5-15% of the working force will be structurally and desirably out of work) and inflation (Drucker).
In looking for arbitrary power in capitalist democracies, two obvious centers exist (if we take the
macro to be the planet): the nation-states monopoly on currency production and interest rates (much of this is from B. Lietaer). it is precisely the latter which causes -
1) an insatiable (and impossible) need for growth
2) acts as a tax, funnelling wealth from the poorest 80% to the wealthiest 20% (in developed nations. much more inequitable on the global scale)
3) creates the impossibility of full-employment
4) inflation and the discounting of the future.
Most importantly, it destroys brotherhood as it pits every man to himself (pardon the gender bias) and perpetuates a feeling of division and separation from reality. There is a big difference between competition (orange) and alienation and an eternal desire to conquer (red - "to the victors belong the spoils"). Interest rates, while useful during the transition from the old world to what is to come, are irrational as they prevent us from solving the problems they create. Witness the pressurse on social democracies. Why does any advanced nation tax for social welfare when they are imbedded in a structure which is designed to do the opposite?
Marx threw out the baby with the bathwater when he criticized free market capitalism (Wilber, SES)...it was usury that is embedded within the structure.
As crazy as this sounds, the removal of interest is ecoming increasingly necessary as it is blocking further transformation. It is also the potential catalyst for generating tremendous energy. By understanding money, we come to understand that it is a manifestation of ego working in the world. It is the intermediary between our animal and creative nature. Creativity is essentially an economic concern. From dismal science to creative science.
Removing interest makes sense theoretically, and paves the way for a new economic paradigm based on flow and creativity.
The essential point is that we cannot revolutionize or think this into existence. no one can be blamed (we have to honor where we are coming from). It cannot be acheived any way than in a process of collective (global) voluntary (intentional) movement towards reconnecting with our sense of connection for all things. we cannot blame anyone else. It is up to each of us to empower one another, to be who we are and to allow others the space for same. it is a gradual, step by step realization. nobody can be asked to be anything but who they are.
As we imagine an economics without interest, we come into contact with our own creative powers. free from compulsion what would happen? Could we learn to build a society based on service, where, like native americans, our greatest honour is to give away what we value most?
This may sound hoplessly naive or idealistic, but as problems continue to worsen, it will become increasingly obvious, despite tremendous resistance, that we have no other choice.
Like an artist, we must collectively develop a vision that is open and flexible enough to change as we go, yet maintain an unquestioned resolve that we will make it 'work'. imagine a vision spread through the mind of the world (esp. green and orange vmemes on internet) so convincing (yet crazy!) that humanity is the product of 15 billion years of evolution. We are coming to separate our animal nature from mind. We are the universe coming to know itself. we are an inherently creative technology. by coming to understand money (ego), we gradually learn to put it in the service of this higher purpose (for whom does the grail serve?). centers of brotherhood will emerge and gain immediate attention. successes will gather rapid attention and energy. Tthis could happen very quickly! or not at all! let's make our move to one or nothing. (a challenge to recognize our subjective world).
Warm regards,
Jordan
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