On the cusp of the 2012 harmonic, we work to integrate our cultural past, to take what can really work for a New Age, and finally let the rest go. Perhaps nothing, in this regard, defines us or confines us, and also offers us new realities like our over-arching economic systems. From the point of view of consciousness, however, both capitalism and socialism are states of mind projected outward toward the world, and because these projections have concretized themselves so deeply into our imaginings, histories, and activities, they cannot just be upended. They will not disappear, but they may be transformed.
Capitalism may be re-envisioned as more than mindless profiteering. Of course, if individuals acted like some multinational corporations do, they would immediately be imprisoned, by even the most open society. Running around like an elephant in a garden, trampling communities, individuals, and the natural world, and using financial influence to control governments and the like are the extreme manifestations of individualism unchecked by any greater sense of belonging or responsibility.
Socialism, on the other hand, may be re-envisioned as more than government-controlled economies and the stifling of individual initiatives to conform to some hardened group concept. The dramatic failure of this approach is visible in the economic and social backwardness of every state-controlled, totalitarian system and in their need to resort to violence to maintain power.
When we look within, however, we see these aspects in ourselves. We are the profiteers, calculating everything in our own life in terms of personal or extended personal benefit. And we are the hardliners who cling to the way things are and castigate the parts of ourselves that may dare to blaze new pathways. On the other hand, the capitalism of inventiveness, awareness of opportunity, and just and free exchange is what has made freedom of expression and hope possible. And socialism, likewise, has offered universal compassion and awareness of the larger ramifications of our actions, along with a genuine inclusiveness that elevates the human spirit.
What if we dare to bring these states of mind into the alchemical alembic of our lives, into the vessel of our musings and actions? Might it be possible to hold the opposites of the individual and the group in such a patient and clear way that they ultimately transform one another? Can we create communities that we can depend upon and interact with, and that can yet allow individuals to pursue their own dreams? Can we foster individual strength and initiative that can be simultaneously and joyously responsible to the community, the environment, and the expanse of generations?
In many ways, the Advanced Manifestation Groups that have grown out of the Creating the Work You Love seminars are laboratories of future possibilities. We meet in circles, holding a group energy that demands the presence and accountability of every individual. We work on ourselves, clarifying our own intentions and projects, while receiving the support of others, whose experiences and various forms of expertise may be incredibly relevant to and supportive of our own. Everyone is accepted by being listened to, no one is excluded, and with time, a sense of belonging emerges that does not block individual freedom. This, of course, is just one of many like forms that are emerging on the planet, but it is the emergence that is crucial. The life-threatening and oppressive economies of the world cannot be allowed to rob people of their opportunities to live soulfully and truthfully through mindless commoditization, useless productivity, state controlled imaginations, lifeless secularity, and the utter disregard of the natural world.
Our lives are too precious to sell out the possibility of true vocation for anaesthetized comfort and fear-based security. Come join us in transforming our work to gift our families and our futures with the best that has been given to us.
