IEF president and longtime EBBF board member (among many other things) Arthur Dahl (in photo, on right), gave a thrilling talk on “ways forward to true prosperity”. In some way he looked like an Olympic athlete, cruising through 60 slides in less than 30 minutes with seemingly effortless grace, passing through the current state of the world, the rather grim outlook of the next few decades, the new values and system involved in a sustainable model of continued human life, and what that model would look like. He even had time to begin with a few words of caution.
I have a very short period of time to give you solutions to all the problems of the world, and I’m bound to fail so don’t be disappointment. I should be given a health warning to hang around my neck, saying, ‘this is dangerous to your health. What I tell you could lead to nightmares, depression, anxiety, etc.
Then on to talk about the end of the current business and political paradigm where growth is in the center:
There is a conflict between growth and sustainability. If company isn’t growing, off with your head, if GDP isn’t growing, change the president. But there are limits to planet. There isn’t anywhere else to go that is accessible except for to astronauts, and they generally want to come back here.
“On current trends, …humanity will need twice as much energy as it uses today within 35 years…. Produce too little energy, say the economists, and there will be price hikes and a financial crash unlike any the world has ever known, with possible resource wars, depression and famine. Produce the wrong sort of energy, say the climate scientists, and we will have more droughts, floods, rising seas and worldwide economic disaster with runaway global warming.” (John Vidal in The Guardian Weekly, 2007)
We shall probably do both at the same tine
Since we are operating on a limitless growth model with a shrinking resource base, our civilization is headed towards collapse. The question is when. If we continue on the current road at the current rate, says the model that though updated hasn’t changed since the 70s, around 2015 or 2020 we are going to be hitting a crisis of food, resources availability, industrial output, translating into a lower standard of living for all.
In this century we’re coming to an end of the growth paradigm. This is interesting for business based on exponential growth. Economic growth has depended on population growth, energy growth, resource growth and tech innovation. The first three all end this century. All running out. Even these rare earth elements in cell phones are cameras, are very limited, and we’re hitting lots of limits. All we have left is technological innovation. We’re left with brains and heart.
Retreating to a fortress of old values (forgetting bananas and pineapples) and keeping the poor out isn’t possible. We have no option but to move towards a new, sustainable paradigm.
All models show that this is technically possible. We have the knowledge, we have the technology, what we don’t have is political will. We have to look at questions of balance. What is the optimal size of company? Optimal size is not endless growth. Optimal size of a mouse is not an elephant. Dematerialization, how can we do with less. And figuring out working with a closed system, reusing what we have over and over again.
In this new paradigm we must redefine prosperity, and along with this the kind of civilization we want to build. He used the Bahai writings for inspiration on this theme:
Man’s merit lieth in service and virtue and not in the pageantry of wealth and riches. Take heed that your words be purged from idle fancies and worldly desires and your deeds be cleansed from craftiness and suspicion. Dissipate not the wealth of your precious lives in the pursuit of evil and corrupt affection, nor let your endeavours be spent in promoting your personal interest. Be generous in your days of plenty, and be patient in the hour of loss…. Guard against idleness and sloth, and cling unto that which profiteth mankind, whether young or old, whether high or low.
…although material civilization is one of the means for the progress of the world of mankind, yet until it becomes combined with Divine civilization, the desired result, which is the felicity of mankind, will not be attained…. Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and beautiful it may be, it is dead.
That purpose must be sought in spiritual dimensions of life and motivation that transcend a constantly changing economic landscape and an artificially imposed division of human societies into “developed” and “developing”.
the real purpose of development… is laying foundations for a new social order that can cultivate the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness.
So we aren’t talking about no growth, but a new kind of growth: growth in beauty, in science, in creativity. There are all kinds of possibilities for growth, if we define prosperity in different context.
He then painted the outline of the New World Order, the institutions that we need to build in order to create a sustainable society, based on the principles of unity and justice. (You can see this part of his presentation— and many other parts that I’ve skipped, skimmed, or misrepresented(!)—on the conference website.)
Arthur then addressed the question of how to get there (sustainable world order) from here, highlighting the role of ethics and values in this process.
Ethics is the social equivalent of DNA. In biology everything is coded in a cell’s DNA tells them how to each other. In society these types of interaction are determined by its values. The most important way to transform a society is through its values. Otherwise a society will need an elaborate system of laws, backed up by a significant police force and large prison system. If individual knows how to behave, and is self-directing, it’s a cheap and effective system.
We are trustees of this planet. Sustainability itself is an ethical concept, for it has to do with being moderate and humble. We must ‘be content with little and be freed form all inordinate desire”. Just as an individual doesn’t only eat and grow forever, so likewise a company.
Sustainibility therefore requires a new kind of entrepreneurship. We are in the midst of a major global transition. We can either consciously work for change, or wait for catastrophe to force us to change. There are new forms of wealth creation and business out there that haven’t been done before, so we need creativity.
[Note: Photos to follow. Also, I'm posting only about 10% of what's happening here. We've had guided walk in the woods while talking about issues of sustainability, workshops galore, and other interesting talks. This is all to say, being here is much better than reading this!]
