What if instead we believed that people naturally want to do the work we are each best suited for. Instead of believing money is salvation and the epitome of the "pursuit of happiness', what if our creative contribution to society is the real object of the "pursuit of happiness'.
What does that say about how our corporations chould work? Instead of looking for the cheapest labor and highest profits, corporations might be the structure that allows us to band together to creatively make life better for all of us.
Another philosophical pillar of western belief comes out of the Enlightenment. It is the belief that reason is the primary source of legitimacy for authority. That freedom comes when we apply rationality to every problem, while irrationality must be distrusted. But look around and see what that philosophy has brought us to. We are on the brink of either catastrophe or transformation. It is crazy to use the same methods that got us here in the first place, so what will we do?
We are an unbalanced society in that we repress and devalue the feminine values of feeling and intuition, while elevating reason and facts beyond their true function. Using intellect without the deep feeling function can lead to dishonesty, hypocrisy and cruelty. Believing facts at the expense of intuition opens us to manipulation of those facts to suit our own agenda. A one-sided belief in the superiority of rationality gives rise to irrational religious beliefs because the intuitive function has been repressed and twisted.
So I'd like to vote for this change of core values. To be an enlightened civilization, we must give value to emotional intelligence and acknowledge our connection with everything and then let our intellect decide how to get what's best for all of us. Let us learn to listen to our intuition and use facts to support and flesh out the visions we see.
Now is the time to ask: what makes for a good economy? Is it the bottom line of how much money it brings in or is it how creative and secure people are? What does "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' mean now, in the depleted, poisoned world we've created? What are the really important things that make for a full life? Can we make those things the central vision of our culture, rather than the corporate vision that dominates us now?
It's time we start thinking about these things if we are to be an enlightened citizenry, if we are to reclaim our democracy.
The major players for this solar eclipse new Moon are:
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