 By Jim Selman | Bio
Anyone familiar with 12 Step programs knows that the literature generally characterizes the ‘ism’ or addiction as a disease of ‘self-centeredness’. This is basically a way of saying that the behavior (that is, the alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, etc.) are symptoms—not causes. The nature of the problem is that people become trapped in a ‘self-referential’ relationship with the world, live in various states of denial, and pursue increasingly self-destructive behaviors until they ‘hit bottom’. At that moment, they can begin the process of recovery—assuming they will take the first step—to acknowledge that they are out of control and powerless and that their life is ‘unmanageable’.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
Over the past few years, I have written about
how life in our society is increasingly becoming a 'spectator sport'. I
am again reminded of this as I listen to week after week of pundits
second-guessing President Obama and other leaders as if their points of
view are a) true, b) somehow contributing to a civil public discourse,
and c) honest and not contrived to produce controversy or provoke
conflict and drama.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Leadership
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By Jim Selman | Bio
One of the more consistent maxims in life is
that money doesn’t buy happiness and that happiness is the bottom line
of living—otherwise, what is the point (unless you believe in one of
those ascetic cults or religions that promote suffering as good for the
soul)? This is actually good news, given a whole lot of people are not
going to have much money for a while and maybe not a lot of opportunity
to get it. We all hope that this financial crisis is going to be
short-lived, but don’t hold your breath. According to an article on Harvard Business Publishing, capitalism is[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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By David Korten | Website Read the previous post in this series. This brings us to the most important reform of all:
changing the way we create money. One key to Wall Street’s power and to
the inherent instability of the financial system is the current
practice of private banks creating money with a simple bookkeeping
entry each time they make a loan. Because the bookkeeping entry creates
only the principal, but not the interest, unless the economy grows fast
enough to generate sufficient demand for loans to create the new money
required to make the interest payments on the previous loans, debts go
into default and the financial system and the economy collapse. The
demand for repayment [ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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By David Korten | Website
Read the previous post in this series. Far from serving the financial needs of Main Street, Wall Street treats
Main Street like a colony to be managed for the benefit of its colonial
master. In alliance with the Federal Reserve, Wall Street players have
used a combination of control over the money supply, predatory lending
practices, and lobbying and campaign contributions to suppress wages,
dismantle social safety nets, and capture the value of productivity
gains for themselves. The top 1 percent of U.S. income earners
increased their share of national cash income from 9 percent to [ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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By David Korten | Website
Read the previous post in this series. The first item of business is to get the immediate
crisis under control. Wall Street institutions have long claimed their
trading activities create wealth, provide the funds that keep business
moving, increase economic efficiency, and stabilize markets. The
financial meltdown pulled away the curtain to reveal a corrupt system
that runs on speculation, the stripping of corporate assets, predatory
lending, and asset bubbles like the real estate and dot-com “booms.” [ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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By David Korten | Website The financial crisis has put to rest the myths
that our economic institutions are sound and markets work best when
deregulated. Our economic institutions have failed, not only
financially, but also socially and environmentally. This, combined with
the election of a new president with a mandate for change, creates an
opportune moment to rethink and redesign. President-elect
Obama has promised to grow the economy from the bottom up. That would
be a substantial improvement over growing the top at the expense of the
bottom. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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