---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Great Transition Network <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 9:37 PM Subject: The Church of Economism and Its Discontents (GTN Discussion) To: [email protected]
>From Michael Pirson <[email protected]> ------------------------------------------------------- Dear All, Dear Paul, Thank you for starting this conversation. As I am new to the list and duly impressed with the quality of posts and intellectual rigor presented therein, I simply wanted to share some basic thoughts and information. I do agree with most that has been said regarding economics and economism. As Economics is assumption-based it resembles faith. In many ways, other sciences operate on certain assumptions as well, consciously or not (sociology, psychology and physics). While we sometimes call those assumptions laws, they are more malleable than we are made to believe. The reason why economic assumptions are so powerful, I believe, is their simplicity and partial truth. The ontology of the self/human as psychopathic individual accurately describes 1-4% of the people and maybe more so those in positions of power (those positions that social scientists tend to study). There is a self-fulfilling prophecy at work when buying into the narrative (which I agree most institutions largely have, including political and media institutions). While Richard Noorgard argues (if I understand correctly) for a new "ism" to emerge to counter the religious power of economism, I would submit that we may be able to build on an old "ism", namely humanism. A renewed form of humanism which bridges the wisdom of the ancestors (say philosophy/theology) with the insights created by science (say evolutionary biology/neuroscience) will not be able to avoid "ontological assumptions" about who we are as people/humans, but may be able to help transition into a form of organizing society, economy and beyond that is more life-conducive.. The Humanist Management Network, of which I’m a founding partner, has been working on reconnecting the old humanistic traditions with the insights of the sciences to provide an alternative narrative for human organizing ( www.humanetwork.org). The baseline of this group is that to counter the power of economism, you need to have a parsimonious (simple) assumption set of who we are as people and what we wish to organize for. We call it “protecting human dignity and promoting well-being.” This is not new at all, yet possibly quite relevant when examining alternative ways of organizing (which I would submit is the crux of many problems we are facing: poor organization). Here is a link to a video (3 minutes) that may describe the above a bit better: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRcBveTN1Y8 We therefore do not get rid of assumptions, but think we can better defend those (see below) 1) we are endowed with dignity, intrinsic value 2) we do care about us and each other (otherwise we would not have survived) 3) we ultimately wish to flourish/be happy 4) we therefore intuitively understand that treating others with dignity serves us all best (we still need to learn how: education is the humanist theory of change) 5) and we are in pain when we destroy our life-systems. I would argue that the notion of dignity as that which is intrinsically valuable can be helpful. Dignity escapes the exchange and market logics and therefore could be critical in the quest for organizing formats that complement/supersede the market. Just a couple of ideas. Thanks for this rich conversation and all the best, Michael Pirson Director for Social Innovation Director, Center for Humanistic Management Associate Professor, Fordham University ******************************************************************** Friday, October 30, 2015 >From Paul Raskin ----- GTN Friends: I write to launch our NOVEMBER DISCUSSION, which will consider Richard Norgaard’s new GTI essay, “The Church of Economism and Its Discontents.” Please read it at www.greattransition.org/publication/the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents, and consider commenting. Is orthodox economics akin to a secular religion? Are we living in the “Econocene”? Is there a way out? Norgaard, a founder of ecological economics, argues yes, yes, and maybe. In so doing, he guides us further into the terrain of alternative economics we’ve explored recently in our discussions of GTI pieces by Herman Daly, Giorgos Kallis, Peter Barnes, and John Bellamy Foster. I wonder, though: * Is economism still a monolithic ideology? Or are critical currents within the economics mainstream increasingly questioning its reductionist framework and false predictions? * As a framing for our contemporary condition, is “the Econocene” a useful corrective to the geologic emphasis of “the Anthropocene”? How do these compare to GTI’s term, “The Planetary Phase of Civilization,” which aims to convey the multi-dimensionality of the globalizing social-ecological system? I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on these and other issues raised by Norgaard’s stimulating essay. Comments are welcome through NOVEMBER 30. Looking forward, Paul Raskin GTI Director NOTE ON GTI’S PUBLICATION CYCLE: GTN discussions occur in ODD-NUMBERED months, and GTI publishes in EVEN-NUMBERED months. Each discussion takes up a new essay or viewpoint prior to its publication. After the discussion closes, GTI publishes the piece, edited comments from the discussion, and a response from the author (along with other new articles). You can review all GTN discussions at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-forum. ----- Hit reply to post a message Or see thread and reply online at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/171-the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents/1410 Need help? Email [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a message Or see thread and reply online at http://www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/171-the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents/1413 Need help? 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