Understanding the Impact of Capitalism on our Collective Inner Life
* Chapter: Shrinking worlds – understanding the impact of capitalism on our collective inner life. By Inez Aponte.
URL = https://growinggoodlives.com/communities-as-hothouses-for-regenerative-culture-part-1/ [1]
Chapter 5 from the book: New Economy, New Systems: Radical Responses to Our Sustainability Crises, edited by John Blewitt. GoodWorks / Schumacher Institute,October 2022. [2]
Description
Chapter description, from the author, Inez Aponte:
“Given the present circumstances of generalized economic crisis, we must no longer think of pathologies as affecting individuals. We must necessarily recognize the existence of collective pathologies of frustration, for which traditional treatments have been inefficient.”
- Manfred Max-Neef - Development Dialogue 1989
Background: My journey to Manfred’s work was initiated by a question that arose after my first encounter with the hockey stick graph showing predicted global temperature rises for the next century. As I contemplated the consequences of these predictions for the future of my then 1 year old son, I was overcome with horror and confusion: “Why, if we know what is going to happen if we stay on this trajectory, do we not change our ways?” Practice: Over a decade later, I have had the opportunity to explore this question with hundreds of people through the lens of fundamental human needs. Answering the question above, most participants express feeling locked in to choosing from a limited set of satisfiers, mostly those that increase GDP growth regardless of their effectiveness or ecological and social impact. There is a general recognition that our current economic system is not geared towards the actualisation of our fundamental needs. Participants readily grasp the concept of pseudo satisfiers, and express feelings of hurt and helplessness when acknowledging multiple poverties. The framework allows them to make links between the opportunities available to them and their sense of dignity, meaning and worth, moving the conversation about economics away from the surface level of managing scarce resources to the deeper level of how we experience the actualisation of our needs, and why we choose satisfiers that harm ourselves, others and the planet.
Research question: If a post-capitalist economy must be one that meets the needs of all, how can we access our bodies as well as our minds to understand true needs actualisation, and thereby, realise our true needs? Proposal: After a decade of participatory action research, I propose to explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of the grief and trauma participants have expressed as they, in one person’s words, ‘try to live whole and honest lives in an alien system.’ Drawing on the ideas of scholars including Bessel vanderKolk (on trauma and the body), Gabor Maté (on addiction) and John Vervaeke (reciprocal opening/narrowing) I will explore how our attempts to meet our needs through systems of incessant accumulation, control and domination are leading to multiple collective pathologies related to what I describe as the ‘shrinking of our regenerative space’, both outer and inner.
By bringing Max-Neef’s concepts of collective pathologies in conversation with psychological theories of the contemporary crisis of our inner life, I will explore how capitalism’s systemic frustration of fundamental human needs creates a self-perpetuating cycle and seek to develop ideas and strategies for equipping HSD with both an intellectual understanding and practical tools for addressing our crisis and helping communities understand themselves, their needs and how to meet them."
- Book Description:
"The book is for all of us who know that we need to change the economy in response to our worsening ecological and social crises. The authors are all fellows of the Schumacher Institute whose purpose is to assist in developing ‘sustainable systems’.
We would like you to find this book, and related resources, of use on your own path, whatever that may be and invite you to our debates and events. This is the ‘crisis of sustainability.
In the book, we discuss the possibilities for changing the economy by using systems approaches. The responses here are ‘radical’ in several ways: we look at the ‘roots’ of the western view of the economy and make clear its fatal problems; we talk about approaches that produce fundamental systemic change; we discuss and contribute to the political changes that are needed.
Sustainability has made headway in a wide variety of areas of human life, social movements, governance, learning and policy, including international agreements. We call for a radical re-set of the sustainability agenda to recognise the full extent of the changes needed and their urgency. We take sustainability to its next level by integrating economic change fully into the central political agenda."
Discussion
"“In the new economy we are finally giving attention to and valuing the foundations of life and human societies. Our interdependence with the earth and other species is central to all our economic decisions, as are our relationships with each other, starting with our primary relationship of parent/carer and child.
Governments support communities to provide the best possible opportunities for children and young people to thrive and develop into emotionally and physically healthy members of society. The role of parents and carers, and the importance of the domestic sphere, is lifted up and has been foregrounded in our cultural life too. We have shifted our values from the high octane, competitive and dominating to the considered, collaborative and convivial. We value teachers and carers, artists and poets, gardeners and cooks and anyone doing useful things that really meet our needs. We have time to celebrate and – dare I say it – do nothing, laze about, watch the clouds go by, because we are no longer enslaved by a profit driven economic system.
We have understood the meaning of enough and this has allowed us to distribute the earth’s wealth fairly across nations as well as devote considerable efforts towards restoring the earth’s life supporting systems. We use our technologies in service of all life, not just humans. We are no longer afraid of dying.”"
More information
The equivalent of the chapter has been written up as an article series:
- https://growinggoodlives.com/new-economy-new-systems-radical-responses-to-our-sustainability-crisis-book/
- https://growinggoodlives.com/communities-as-hothouses-for-regenerative-culture-part-1/
- https://growinggoodlives.com/communities-as-hothouses-for-regenerative-culture-part-2/
- https://growinggoodlives.com/communities-as-hothouses-for-regenerative-culture-part-3/
- https://growinggoodlives.com/communities-as-hothouses-for-regenerative-culture-part-4/