I saw this photo of one of the OWS people and it got me thinking about the very old question of whether we could all live as well as the wealthiest people. The short answer is no because in the larger view of “wealthy”, the ideal model would be smart, soulful, heartful, healthy, good looking and very capable of providing material wealth…and presumably stay that way day in and day out. But just how far could a society go in achieving this high ideal? Many understand that greed and war-like competition could be traded in for “the best the world has to offer” for people.
I want to discuss how this can happen and what the world might look like a generation or so from now.
Here is the photo that got me thinking:
What got me thinking
We know that Greed—the RedBull of Capitalism brings hard competition and bloody war. We know it costs a fortune both in money as well as “lost peace of mind”—which breeds fear and further mad competition. But some people can’t live without this more primal form of stimulation. Kids playing video warfare games and real soldiers don’t usually go for this ”war” because its boring! The Wall Street guys who brought the crash are said to be like Charlie Sheen. It was/is all about “winning!”. Apple didn’t choose to have some of their grunt work manufacturing done in America in part because shareholders would’ve asked, “why aren’t we going for more “winning!”?
So my first point is that these “animal spirits” are, and must be, reigned in for people to get closer to the ideal of everybody being in the one percent. People have been saying this for a long time.
But just how do we defuse the bomb of our paranoia that someone is going to
get more then us or take what we have in order to boost themselves? The condensed answer is to continue to de-escalate from root greed and to build-up toward a cleaner rendition of “animal spirit”.
A good example of that are those corporate executives who have pledged not to give money to the politicians seeking office. They are looking for more “winning!” but for a more noble, upscale manner. In fact, everybody now seems to want—in George Harrison’s words—to give those piggies (the greedy) a damn good whacking! This is how the animal spirits work. As people grow more sophisticated, we get our kicks in at a higher level of value. We come to replace such impulses as wanting to violently smash the liars, cheaters, thieves and killers with impulses such as forcing them into a system of rewards and punishment based on say…the ability to achieve psychological success through such mundane work as learning math and painting prison walls.
I’ll repeat it: these “animal spirits” are, and must be, reigned in for people to get closer to the ideal of everybody being in the one percent.
Many people understand this and have for a long time. A very smart person once said that you cannot really change another person’s poor behavior unless you show them something better and get them to strive for that particular something.
So what would a world filled with mostly “one-percents” look like? I mean, how can that happen if everybody cannot do everything they want all of the time? Well, it can’t.
The “one-percents” in this better scenario shouldn’t be confused with “the piggies”. There are personal choices, divisions of labor, and access to higher quality goods and services that are always in play. Workloads—and the skills to perform them—can be traded and shared along with access to the higher quality spaces. This happens right now through leasing of properties and time shares. Smart companies such as Apple and Google and Microsoft are already leaning toward new methods for making workers happy. And all of the various types of work that needs to be done—from mundane to creative—should be shared too. It makes for a healthier lifestyle if you leave your desk for a while and go to the warehouse to load up a truck and do a delivery. It refreshes.
Getting the opportunity to do different work is a crucial part of the new “one-percents” mentality. Hogging “position” is as downscale as hogging ownership. It’s bad for us socially and psychologically. When not stuck in a position by any of a variety of circumstances, people normally like to work on different skill sets even as the yoga people practices different poses and techniques for getting the body and “animal spirit” to stop blocking the natural joy of living. I’ll give an example:
I make my living as a residential and commercial painter. It’s a position that often is disparaged (I could tell you stories) because some people think of it as low value, mundane labor often performed by tough guys like former convicts and the border brothers. Actually it is a very diverse profession that involves a lot of different skill sets and offers many different “spaces” in which to work. I often tell people that with the many things I’ve had to learn to become a good painter—that I could’ve become a doctor! And like with doctors, painters will occasionally cut out the gizzard by mistake!
Once, I had a guy who became an excellent “roller man”. He found a method of rolling paint on walls that I hadn’t known about or the guys who taught me to paint had known about. It was very mathematical which was a surprise since the was a “gangsta kid” that lived more off of instinct and impulse then by intellect and rational approaches. He became so good that he would easily catch up with even the fastest of “cut-in men”—the guys who brush in the borders of a space. One time he complained when I told him it was his turn to do the brush work. He preferred rolling because it is actually easier then brushing and with his skills, he was able to catch up to the cut-in man and then kick back and do what he really liked to do—“conversate” as he called it. He was as “chatty” as I can be.
But I told him that I wasn’t going to just let him become one of those guys who only did one thing. It wasn’t what I wanted or what was best for him. My old paint crew performed in something like a “triangle offense” or more complex “passing game”. Everybody was expected to fill in to the different positions as work was completed and new work opened up. That, in essence, is what modern worker industrial engineering is about and in the future that will extend more and more into “cross professionalism”. Maybe a person will work as a doctor three days a week, stay uptown, then work as a painter for two days and go to mid-town. There is an endless variety of possibilities available when people aren’t forced to be stuck in a job. Right division of labor on both a personal and social level is a huge motif in the new “one percents” scenario.
How about issues of ownership of properties? Well, right ownership of properties is a profession of its own. If your goal is to live some measure of 120 years in natural good health and happiness, ownership of properties is a lower concern. Old style Capitalism, filled with downscale “animal spirit”, relies on the accumulation and trading of properties to enforce the “winning!” and “turn and burn” and “flip and fly” behaviors. Fraud and tricky chicanery have long been its chosen method. But all of that has put us in the ditch and left the Wall Street guys with big targets on their heads.
I’ve tried to add to the many who understand all of this and will stick around until this diary rolls off of the page here in case anybody wants to “conversate” on this interesting subject. The time to switch to “RedBull Lite” has come.