LIVE PEACE INTO BEING ~
The New Economics - Kosmos May 2013 Newsletter:
At last a Masters Degree program in THE NEW ECONOMICS at Schumacher College designed to shift world views. In an interview with Julie Richardson, designer of the program, she said, "I think that really gets to the nub of the issue of values...whether ecological thinking is enough in itself. The following is an excerpt from that interview:
CT: What is the significance of the ecological worldview for addressing issues such as social and economic justice, which have really come to the forefront through things like the Occupy Movement?
JR: I think that really gets to the nub of the issue of where values come from, whether ecological thinking is enough in itself. Personally, I don’t think it is. I think it can help us learn about life-sustaining systems and principles around resilience and adaptation and cooperation. But I think the issues of our human social systems also have the important question of values. Where do values come from within ecological systems? Do they evolve out of the relationships? Or do you have a value-based system which is the founding principle, and then relationships evolve out of that? I think that is really where some of the most exciting thinking is happening at the moment. It’s around that role of values and how they are integrated with ecological thinking. Because I don’t think ecological thinking in and of itself is sufficient. I think it’s very important for understanding the qualities of a healthy whole system. But the issue of values is more about the evolution of human consciousness.
Overcoming Obstacles
Is life an obstacle course? Sometimes it may feel like it. If you join the military
you will be sent around an obstacle course of increasing degrees of difficulty.
Why? To increase your strength and stamina and expand your creative
capacity under strain. So it is on the course called 'life' - you can choose to
perceive people, situations or events as obstacles, or you can choose to use
these things to strengthen and expand your capacity to be creative and to find
ways round, under, over. The choice lies in your perception. Obstacles are never
ever 'out there', they are always in our own minds.
~ Thought of the Day
Economics ~
