Halcyon Imagines

Imagining an economy based not on scarcity, but on sufficiency...

 

..."an economy designed to promote not unchecked growth, but a steady state of wellbeing", characterised by gratitude.

 
Many now believe that such an economy must come to realisation through the most far-seeing entrepreneurs of our time, from people who dare to think beyond the confines of the old box.

This was also effectively the central theme of a major recent social entrepreneurs' forum, which is striving to create partnerships, networks, knowledge and collaborative pathways between the social, policy, academic and private sectors.

Imagining not trying to keep up with the Joneses

 

"It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbours, or even our relations" - Bertrand Russell

A consistent message through religion and philosophy, this one, from biblical commandments not to covet thy neighbour's possessions, through Alain de Botton's recent analysis of status anxiety, and now the same concern is being highlighted in the mainstream media.

Perhaps much future pain and conflict - personal and societal - could be avoided if we could only find a way - through tools, techniques and role models - to build this into our daily behaviours. 

Competing is clearly a key part of the human condition and an essential survival skill in evolutionary terms but, for more of us, more of the time, what dividends might a growing, conscious focus on acceptance and gratitude pay?