It was only a matter of time before the young revolutionaries converged in their Occupy Wall Street uprising in reaction to Casino Capitalism and in the name of Conscious Capitalism. It’s an understandable reaction to the system that has disappointed and failed us all except those few who have benefited from it.
But let’s not forget that the system has no life of its own without the individuals who are inside the system. It’s people who make the choices, who take the actions. It’s people who’ve “not sought consent to extract wealth from others and the earth”. It is human minds that have given in to greed and “put profit over people, self-interest over justice and oppression over equality.”
The problem is not the system. The problem is the consciousness of the people inside the system.
The pain, worry, fear and anger that the youth of America (and we all across the world) are feeling is understandable. But going into reaction and blame is not the solution. Going into reaction keeps you at the same level of consciousness at which the problem resides. Ultimately, you only serve to set off a chain reaction and perpetuate the problem.
Let’s take the current situation to one of its many possible (but highly likely) conclusions. Do you really think that the Wall Street tycoons and the greedy CEOs are at all perturbed by the reactions of the Occupy Wall Street movement? They may make the right noises, they may even comment in public and in the media about how things need to change. But privately, in the inner recesses of their minds, their greed endures. They will not give up their mentality of me-vs-you, ‘if I have then you have not’. They will not give it up because that is the level of their consciousness. That is the level of many of us in our consciousness. And it is the kind of consciousness that has resulted in the current flavour of capitalism which a zero-sum game where if I win, you lose. Current capitalism states that the pie is only so big, and I, though my greed and power, want and can have more of it, and tough luck to you.
Reacting to this to try to change it does not really change things. Revolutions bring about a new order, but they do not bring about a new level of consciousness. Einstein really got it all those years ago when he said that problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them. Occupy Wall Street, if it does serve to overthrow the current system of capitalism, will simply create a new reality to be overthrown again by something or someone else in the future who is more powerful.
Do we really want to continue in this unconscious way?
So what is the solution?
We need to evolve the leaders of capitalism. These leaders need to shift outside of their ego/identity that drives them to take unconscious actions for their own survival and put themselves first at the expense of all others and all else. This is not a blame statement. Blaming them won’t change them. This is a statement of human nature and insight about it. We all do it, just that those in leadership positions do it with more power and more money.
The solution is to SEE our fear-based, survivalist-driven identities in action and, when we see this, we see that we have other choices to act and create business and wealth outside of our habitual me-first human conditioning. We can truly serve the ethos of conscious capitalism which is about creating wealth for ourselves and others, while making the world a better place at the same time.
And the revolutionaries? You’re serving a great purpose in rising up. We applaud you. But you need to serve this purpose wisely and consciously. Move out of a blame mindset. Get out of making ‘them’ wrong and making yourselves right. Look at the facts for what they are. Point them out. But don’t go into reaction about them. Look to how you can contribute and take responsibility for what you want to see in world (to quote Ghandi’s Be the change you want to see in the world), not fling the same amounts of blame and aggression towards the capitalists which you accuse them of. Are you being as collaborative, generous and inclusive – right there, in your everyday lives – as you are wanting the Wall Street moguls to be? If you are, then you are living the changes you want to see in others. Right there you are at your maximum power to effect change. The mindset that’s required is not one of taking away (thereby perpetuating the separation that already exists). The mindset that’s needed is about evolution, about inclusion, about true collaboration in order to evolve us to the next level of business consciousness and a world in which we can all share the profits.
Indeed, Gina, each day business leaders — all of us who work — have the opportunity, even obligation, to work within ourselves and with one another to shed many costly, painful attitudes and behaviors that permeate our culture of work and degrade our experiences and products and services. Our array of cultural assumptions about how to do business and work is so broad and deep that we are simply unaware of many of them as they shape what we do and who we are in our work and as people.
Some of those assumptions:
* Me, first!
* Throttle the competition — both external to our firm and internal.
* My work function is more important than yours.
* The bounty from our work is limited, so I’ll grab mine, we’ll grab ours.
* How can we get — in truth, manipulate — customers to do what we want them to do?
* Pay our employees as little as possible and treat them as means to get us to the ends of higher profits.
Some alternate, truly ethical assumptions that are proving to be more meaningful and effective than the status quo (http://firmsofendearment.com/) can be found in workplace pockets globally:
* When we truly care about one another — about people and their well-being — and do our work in a highly responsible manner, we can do consistently outstanding work.
* Learn to put our egos aside — embracing confident humility — and we open unlimited doors of workplace fulfillment and accomplishment.
* Our business and work should honor and enrich every single person involved with and impacted by our work — all our direct stakeholders and, really, a whole, whole lot more people. When we do that, we create near unbreakable bonds of trust and loyalty, essential stuff of success.
* Let’s create together a place where people can’t wait to get to work each day — a place where people have a spring in our steps, sparkles in our eyes and smiles on our faces and in our hearts.
* Let’s get smart and welcome our right brains into our work to complement and integrate with our left brains, our hearts with our minds, “soft” stuff with “hard” stuff. When we permit ourselves to be fully human at work, we can soar with meaning, fulfillment and achievement.
* Let’s welcome personality, individuality, joy, fun and, yes, even love into our work as necessary, enabling complements to our essential qualities of rigor, discipline, accountability, business savvy, operational excellence, strategic acumen.
A better way to do work is ours for the taking. It requires a lifetime commitment to personal and organizational self-exploration and growth. It isn’t particularly easy if someone works in a status quo organization. In fact, it can be lonely and frustratiing, and possibly that organization will never change. But people who yearn for a better way to do business and work can find support in such resources as Gina Hayden and others to bolster you to do work exceedingly well in your sphere of influence, whether with your current organization or elsewhere.
And just perhaps all of us working individually and learning and sharing together collaboratively will become a groundswell that will reshape the face of business for much the better for the benefit of all our children for many generations to come.
Keep it up, Gina!
Posted by Robert Moore | October 7, 2011, 1:32 pmThis is exactly the kind of conversation that needs to be nourished and presented consistently in the thoughtful and heartfelt way it is here…our continuing job is to do our part to broaden it so that it resonates more and more widely throughout the world.
Conscious Capitalism, in my view, does not operate at the same level in “opposition” to what exists, but in its best sense takes what’s possible to that higher level of truly transforming where we are to where we want to be…a much more powerful and sustaining framework of thought and behavior.
Thank you, Gina, for your comments and your work toward a more conscious future for us all. We must all continue our daily efforts to do the same.
Posted by Tom Fanning | October 7, 2011, 2:35 pmThank you Tom, your words are so eloquently put. Yes to your views that Conscious Capitalism takes the best of what’s possible forward into truly transforming where we are to where we want to be. I look forward to continuing dialogue with you and with the rest of the world to catalyze change.
Best regards,
Gina
Posted by Gina Hayden | October 7, 2011, 10:01 pmThank you, Gina…and I too.
Kind regards, Tom
Posted by Tom Fanning | October 8, 2011, 7:22 pmThe answer to our problems is so very simple and yet far from easy! We are all to one degree or another, mired in our conditioned, ego-based patterns but holding Einstein’s quote close to our heart, we must remind oursleves over and over that to react from fear only adds to the problem. Transcending it by evolving our own level of awareness is the only way; – not easy but persevere we must if we are going to create a more sustainable future.
Thanks Gina
Posted by drsarahmorris | October 10, 2011, 4:02 pm@Robert – your approach is very constructive starting with the circle of influence – very good.
But, @Gina, I feel that your perspective intellectually is correct, be the change you want… etc, but while you are being wise and reflected – people are out there on the street really raising consciousness to millions and millions about the problem at hand – and the fact that it is time to say; no more, that’s it.
What actual PLAN of ACTION do you have to impact the system, force some decisions and make our ‘leaders’ react. What are YOU doing to make them change their ways, actually DOING?
“Because do you really think the CEOs are going to change their way because you ask them nice, send happy thoughts and recycle…” (parafrase intended) – don’t belittle peoples actions in one sentence and in another say you understand them.
You do know that you can ACT and PROTEST and BE LOUD and still be conscious?
It feels like you don’t want to get your hands dirty – sorry to say – all changes and revolutions involving shifting powers are messy, unruly and often chaotic.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you about consciousness and how we should lead our life’s by example – but sometimes we just have to climb off the horse… you know – the high one… and ACT.
Posted by Greeting from Norway - Patrick | October 11, 2011, 8:05 pmHi Patrick
Unfortunately the reports I’ve been reading so far seem to say that the OWS protestors are a sort of scattered rabble of misspent youth, without a clear direction or leadership. No matter, that is how uprisings probably start. At least now a leader and unified seems to be emerging in Jesse LaGreca. It’s also very interesting that the US press didn’t make a big deal about what was going for a very long time and the international press did. So god bless Jesse LaGreca and people like him who are taking on the US media and getting the world to sit up take OCW even more seriously by spearheading the revolution.
Love your comments, thanks! Your honesty is great and just the kind of hot debate we need around this topic of changing the world. I would say a big YES to people out there on the street raising awareness and making a big, loud NOISE about what we will no longer tolerate. It’s very necessary and good on them. I really wish for them to be loud and conscious!
A note on being loud and conscious – it is tricky because when we’re coming from an ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ perspective we naturally invoke a defensive reaction in the other, in this case CEOs. This doesn’t produce change, it becomes about overpowering and then someone loses power and angry, so the whole cycle continues. CEO’s are more inclined to dig in their heels and carry on as they were – and they have the money and the power to do so. See below about my strategy for coming in through the back door instead…
On ‘asking them nicely, sending happy thoughts and recycle’…this is absolutely NOT what I (or any of the people connected through this conversation thread I started) are about!
This is not about softly, softly – you’re absolutely right: the CEOs are not going to give a damn. This is about tough talking, about showing them how through Conscious Capitalism they can actually make MORE profit (research by, e.g., Raj Sisodia in Firms of Endearment is showing this). It’s about getting them onside in what drives them most – money. Then they can begin to see how adopting business practices that are different (conscious business practices) can actually create more for them AND for others AND the world. So, you see, it’s not a bit about recycling – it’s tough, real and commercial. It’s about the language that they speak.
What am I doing? Good question. Well, if I were in NY I would be joining them on the streets (as some of the readers of this post are), but not being ‘la revolution! la revolution!’ about it. I would be asking them about the alternatives, I would be talking about Conscious Capitalism as an alternative so that their minds can also be expanded. Since I’m not in New York, I’m writing about it as much as I can on the internet, publishing comments in newspapers, influencing the influencers e.g. by publishing posts at http://www.consciouscapitalism.org, sending messages to Jesse LaGreca, giving a talk next week to business leaders (MacDonalds included) about conscious capitalism and conscious leadership, writing articles about conscious capitalism for magazines, writing a book about it and connecting with people all over the world to help join us up in a movement to shift things and shift the world.
And, your question is a good one, because it prompts me to think about what else I can also do….
Best wishes,
Gina
Posted by Gina Hayden | October 12, 2011, 5:44 amGina,
I am impressed with the quality of your thinking and writing and, while you may not be on the streets, you ARE making a huge contribution to ushering in the SHIFT towards a healthier, saner way of humanity living on this planet. I am pleased and excited that people are taking to the streets and that this protest movement is spreading to many other cities. It all helps. It draws attention to the fact that the so-called silent majority is waking up, and starting to take some responsibility for change (participating is a choice that often involves hardship). Many are simply hurting, angry and feel helpless and will welcome those who can show that a better way is being practiced and works (ie Conscious Capitalism).
For my part, I am trying to take this debate into the travel and tourism community through a movement called Conscious Travel – http://www.concioustourism.wordpress.com and any help you and your readers can contribute is much appreciated as I am one individual trying to create debate in an “industry” (it isn’t really an industry) that moves 800 million people across international borders every year and ten times that if domestic trips are counted.
We each have our role to play. Please continue writing, blogging and tweeting – it’s an inspiration to me and others.
To inspire means to breathe life into and your work energises an older, somewhat weary veteran of change and gives me hope for the future.
Posted by xplorer | October 14, 2011, 6:08 pmAnna,
Your post was very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to comment. And, some of your words cause me to sit up and take notice a little bit more. It’s good to be reminded that the protest movement is also an indication of the silent, previously helpless majority waking up (and not just reacting). And even though some or many may well be in reaction, and wanting to overthrow one faulty system with potentially another faulty one, it is still an indication of them wanting to take responsibility and therefore a sign of our evolution. Your post was a reminder to me not to make reaction wrong (which is an unconscious position within me), but also to view it as a form of ‘waking up’. Thank you.
Gina
PS: Congratulations, good luck and thank you for breaking new ground by taking consciousness into the travel industry. May many more follow your pioneering work.
Posted by Gina Hayden | October 15, 2011, 12:34 pmOUTSTANDING! innovative initiative, Anna, in the realm of your vocation, expertise and passion! WOW! What if others of similar “conscious” values do same in their spheres of influence? Actually, some are. We need more, always. Every contribution by every single person — respectfully, purposefully on the streets; as consultants; as leaders and “followers” at all organizational levels — rings up on the plus side of enriching people’s lives. (FYI: I’ve shared previously with Gina that the concept of “consciousness” isn’t currently my underlying concern or interest. What’s important to me is working and living together in loving, caring, highly responsible ways that honor and enrich people’s lives — today and many generations to follow. That, of course, appears consonant with the tenets of “conscious capitalism,” “conscious tourism” and conscious living, so, great!) All the best with your noble conscious tourism initiative!!
Robert Moore
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
Posted by Robert Moore | October 15, 2011, 7:17 pmThank You Robert and Gina and all who have sent encouraging words. Please make a quick visit to the Conscious Travel site (www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com) and leave a comment. I need to show momentum and interest to the travel community. We’re all travellers after all.
To me conscious is code for being awake, alive and aware. It’s also code for caring. Conscious Hosts create and steward “places that care” and that means bringing value and benefit to all stakeholders be they guest, employee, supplier, host community and host environment. Thanks again and I am excited to find people like Gina and yourself and hope to work together going forward….
Posted by xplorer | October 15, 2011, 9:52 pmBeautiful words, Anna, and thanks for your comment on what “conscious” means to you — including, and I’m sure not limited to, awake, alive, aware, caring. While important — this from a communications professional — words are never the essence. The heart of living is the meaning, intent, attitudes and behavior giving life to our words. I’m delighted for the opportunity to add some affirmation to your blog!
Posted by Robert Moore | October 16, 2011, 12:30 amIt seems to me that we should all be praising these young and not so young people for simply getting out from behind their computer screens and taking to the streets. I am so proud of them for not staying silent, for saying something and saying it loudly. They do not claim to have all the answers and although they are receiving much criticism for it, they are doing what they set out to do – WAKING UP A SLUMBERING MAJORITY. You say this is not the way to conscious capitalism – I disagree. The problem did not have a single cause nor does it have a single solution. There are lots of ways to get home, when home it the only place to go. Let us stop saying “You are doing it wrong.” and start saying “Hurray, you are doing something!!”
Posted by Judy Rigale | October 18, 2011, 3:00 pmDear Judy,
Just to be clear, I am not ‘against’ the protests. I think they have been amazing as a force for waking up the world, and they are indeed part of the reform and evolution that must happen. Hurray indeed to the protestors all over the world doing something! My issue is more to do with the mindset with which they are carried out. Peaceful is fine. It’s better than aggressive (see the London riots only recently). But how about active protesting with a conscious mindset?
To illustrate with some examples, today the Burlington Press wrote an article (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20111020/BUSINESS08/111019028/Is-there-a-role-for-business-in-the-Occupy-Wall-Street-movement-Ben-Jerry-s-thinks-so?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE) about Ben & Jerry’s founders helping out, joining in, dishing out ice-cream, showing solidarity, that sort of thing. The founders are bang on the mark with conscious capitalism; couldn’t be closer to what capitalism should be looking like. However, the potshots that came from the sidelines is what I am rallying against: unconscious comments like “Yeah that’s supportive…Unilever (who bought Ben & Jerry’s) is what these people are protesting against! Big Corporate Giants!” to “I’ve bought my last pint of B&J ice cream. A big corporate giant masquerading as a socially responsible company supporting the protest of corporate America.”
Where’s the evolution if you are so busy making everything wrong and generalising so that it’s all lumped into the same can that you can’t even see the good that is being done in the very things you are rallying against? Not ALL corporates are bad. There are loads of conscious capitalist companies that do brilliantly at contributing to the world and giving, giving, giving. Yet, they’re tarred with the same brush by the scariest combination in mindsets: revolution + unconsciousness. It is this attitude that needs to shift.
Another example from the article: “To the extent that the Occupy Wall Street protests are calling for an end to capitalism, I staunchly disagree. Capitalism has created miracles from which we all benefit every day, even the protesters. Meanwhile, some of the protesters are willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and call for an end to capitalism even as they use capitalism-derived innovations to help them communicate and organize (iPhones, computers, Facebook).”
Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It’s what it’s all about. Capitalism is not wrong, bad or destructive. It is a neutral, free-trade zone. It is the mindsets of the practitioners of capitalism that need to shift, the ones that put profit above people. That is what this post is all about.
Best wishes,
Gina
Posted by Gina Hayden | October 20, 2011, 11:40 pmI agree with Gina that it is all about mindsets. What would be better is to change the name from OWS to EWS: ‘Enlighten Wall Street’! Bring alternatives, and make an end to ignorance. What I mean with ignorance is that we do not realise that we are all part of the problem. Do not blame brokers for their casino mentality, but ask yourself the question in how far you are attached to your properties, how greedy are you yourself?. If you have a mortgage on your house, or pension savings you should realise that the only way to build the capital up is by taking part in stock markets, otherwise the profitability will not be high enough to pay your debt, or to have enough after retirement to continue your fine life. The prosperity we are all enjoying right now (in the capitalist world) has been built up on debts, on money we do not have. We are all addicted to energy, and we are exploiting the earth.
The World Food Program (www.wfp.org) is fighting hunger but is in big problems , the main reason being that the so-called ‘rich’ countries are unwilling to pay their contribution. This is the mindset we are talking about, and we should realise that we are all contributing to the system which caused the mindset (“Me first”). Do not blame bankers or casinokapitalists or CEO’s of big cororations, YOU are responsible yourself!! There is no real difference.
As long as we are not willing to share with all people on the world, as long as we go on exploiting the earth and all animals which live on it, it is no use pointing our finger to anybody.
Posted by xplorer | October 23, 2011, 7:47 amHello Gina,
I agree with you that it is all about mindset! Let ‘s be clear: we all share the collective mindset called “Me First”.
We are all expecting to maintain our standard of life, even at the expense of others. This objective is integrated into all political systems. We let our politicians decide to cut promised contributions to the UN World Food Programme (and this is the main reason that the Programme will not reach its objectives, and millions of people are starving), we expect that politics regulates prices for energy, food, etc. and keeps going on subsidising harmful technologies and nondurable production because we do not want to pay a cent more. We are addicted to energy, and do not object to the ongoing exploitation of the earth and its animals. So let’s be honest: it is our collective mindset of greed which is the root cause of the world’s problems. Greedy bankers and greedy corporate tycoons are just a symptom of this collective mindset. As long as we are not aware that we are all utterly responsible and that we start taking action according to this awareness nothing really will change. We should also realise that at consciousness level we are all connected, a fact which is emphasized by all spiritual leaders and which can be found back in all ‘holy books’. The consequence of this is that suffering inflicted to others (as a result of our greed and the ‘me first’ mindset) will ultimately fireback on ourselves, since we ARE all the others.
Posted by Peter Ramaekers | October 23, 2011, 9:45 amIn reply to XPLORER (Anna!) and Peter, indeed, the challenge is we. It is I. That’s the conclusion of all sages. U.S. comic strip character Pogo Possum famously concluded: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” U2′s Bono plaintively, knowingly sang in “When I Look at the World”: “When there’s all kinds of chaos and everyone’s walking lame …” (http://www.macphisto.net/u2lyrics/When_I_Look_At_The_World.html). Amidst our bluster, pride and elbowing for position, prestige, power and recognition, I do see a poignant lameness, brokenness in each of us, certainly in me. Wasn’t Gandhi so insightful in counseling first himself and then others to: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”? Steven Covey (“7 Habits of Highly Successful People”; https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php) reflected same in his compelling model that maturing people move in life from “dependence” to “independence,” (where Ayn Rand stopped and) where we enjoy “private victory,” and then to the most sublime, essential level of “interdependence,” where together we enjoy “public victory.” The progression and personal and social attributes and outcomes track those of the journey from unconscious to conscious. I daresay we never achieve full consciousness or selflessness. Yet, while I work on myself, I feel compelled to humbly, lovingly, boldly point to others who will listen perhaps a better way of living together in this world.
Have a bountiful day, all, amidst all that life presents you!
Posted by Robert Moore | October 24, 2011, 1:20 pm