If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me. The guardians who have so benevolently taken over the supervision of men have carefully seen to it that the far greatest part of them (including the entire fair sex) regard taking the step to maturity as very dangerous, not to mention difficult. Having first made their domestic livestock dumb, and having carefully made sure that these docile creatures will not take a single step without the go-cart to which they are harnessed, these guardians then show them the danger that threatens them, should they attempt to walk alone.
Who wrote this? Some 21st century "indigné"? No, it comes from "What is enlightment" by Immanuel Kant, 1784. Read the original writings here.
Think about it "I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me". Sounds familiar? Haven't we become this "docile creature" harnessed to a go-cart, (to a shopping cart), too dumb to think and trained to be good obedient consumers?
That where WALL-E comes in. The image that came to my mind was this threatening one: obese creatures almost bone-less, brain-washed by advertisements, stuck in their "pods", wired to their popping screens, sucking desperately sweet artificial nutriments from their straw, totally unable to walk alone. MacEconomy?
Eve devouring her own children...
What does it have to do with Umair Haque?
Now, here's an extract from Umair Haque's article, in the Harvard Business Review,
The roots of the recovery begin with each of us bringing a thick economy roaring back to life. The only lasting recovery is the transition to a thick economy — one that's not just a glorified Ponzi scheme that rips off the natural world, the powerless, and the future. That transition will only be sustainable when each of us lives it. An economy isn't built by big governments, giant evil corporations, or nerdy academics. It's built by the tiny choices of individual people.
What Umair Haque offers to "reboot" our economy is "handcrafted with love, purpose and meaning", by each of us." Yes, you read these words love, purpose and meaning. Not what you would expect from an economist, especially one who is posting day after day on Twitter outbursts of anger, bitterness and disgust on the state of our current economy. Well, you need to dive a little deeper than the apparences and face the naked truth, which may not be a pleasant view. I remember one day, Umair Haque posted on twitter a picture of Saturn devouring his children, by Goya.
This is how disruptive and thought-provoking he can be. No wonder why so many people cannot put up with his style and prefer to shut their ears and their eyes.
But we are not left with despair and horror. We hold the keys to our own prisons. It's called our freedom of thinking, our passion, our heart, brain and soul.
Every day, with our actions, we construct a new economy, and create the future. Today, perhaps, it's time for the 21st century to be handcrafted with love, purpose, and meaning — not by Barack Obama, Wen Jiaobao, or Ben Bernanke. But by each of us.
Do you have faith in governments having the desire, the knowledge or even the power to radically shift economics? I believe the shift must come from us, "the people", with our consumer choices, with our freedom of thinking.
How to achieve this? The first step would be to "have courage to use our own understanding". Dare to know, open our eyes and walk alone. That is the motto of enlightenment.
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Post very much inspired by @Paminaaah and her article in French "Kant à moi..."
I kind of like to see Kant, Umair Haque, WALL-E, Goya and Greek mythology in the same post...
Now, I also need to have a walk and smell some roses...Focus on how I can bring more love, purpose and meaning into my own life and grow it locally.
