We are a new organism in the market environment; we will change the environment so only ecological companies survive. We will put pollution out of business by rendering consumerism obsolete. If you continue to produce junk, be warned: in five years there will be no more consumers; people will consume only in order to create.

An inspired economy may be better, but surely it’s a matter of luck - can it be developed?  See inside.

Inspired Economies

Economic systems which attempt to control behaviour by incentives, whether material, social or spiritual, whether rewards or punishments, can tap individualistic self-interest, but miss most potential energy.  Incentives are substitutes where inspiration is lacking.  "You cannot overcome decadence merely by waging war against it." - Nietzsche.

Human nature, I dare say, is a passion to create beauty.  That instinct can be frustrated, corrupted, when we discover that we do not live in a world of love.  When we love life, we don't need incentives to motivate - we are spontaneously devoted to becoming eco-logical.  We are curious and innovative.  Incentives pervert as they create conflicts of interest - do what the world needs or sell-out.

Less is more:  Being ecological does not mean 'living with less', being prudent.  As I become ecological, I become intelligent, free, and vital.  I sense being harmonious with Gaia/God; my life is rich.

Beyond the exchange economy, beyond the give:receive paradigm, let's co-create.  Inspired Economies are not Gift Economies, where I give some already-existing thing to you, or vice versa.  In Inspired Economies, we co-create.

Whence Violence?  Violation! Our system requires us to violate our values, to follow $ to buy a mini-paradise in my self-centered world, instead of spontaneously doing what I believe the world needs, treating Earth/God as my employer, knowing that Spontaneity begets Serendipity, that Earth First! = me first, because a healthy ecosystem is a hospitable home.

Faith in chaos:  A classroom which appears chaotic may have a higher level of order than one which appears ordered.  If students are 'all over the place' engaged in diverse activities, its organizing principles are more intelligent than a classroom where all are seated neatly.  There is a type of chaos which I don't trust: as demonstrated in some gardens, humans lacking faith in natural systems will seek to impose an  order which fits their aesthetic capacities, and thus they disorder.  This is war - people have an aesthetic ideal of order, and, trying to impose order, disorder.  If we have faith in divine/natural chaos, we will not create war.  [By this model, is anti-war activism not just another arrogant attempt to impose an idea of order?  It relies on being able to distinguish natural/divine chaos from man-made chaos; fighting natural chaos is war, but striving to un-do man-made chaos is wise.]

OrgasmicPlanet.com - The Entire Economy Making Love with Gaia
If one person is gardening, he/she can be 'making love with Earth', if 2 people are gardening together (perhaps one digs, one waters, ...), they can be in relation with each other instead of with the Earth, or they can be making love with the Earth, together; if 3 people garden together, the specialization of task and division of trade continue; with 4 people, perhaps one person does not touch the Earth, but only provides services to help the gardeners - this person can still be making love with Earth, by consciously appreciating his/her role; this can extend to every person in the economy.  Would the world be different if everyone saw him or herself as making love with Earth?

Ideas - free to a good home.  Perhaps I should employ hundreds of people to develop and market my ideas.  I think my world will be richer, however, if I give my ideas to whomever I think can use them best.  Perhaps they'll "steal them", and then make me pay if I want the finished product.  That's okay - I have too many ideas to develop them all myself.  Perhaps they'll collaborate, because they see that if I have this interest I'll be helpful in the further development and marketing of the product.  Besides, they're not my ideas, they're ideas that originated within me, but as a result of the flow of ideas in our culture, and, well, they belong to the world because the world needs them.  Ego will only hold me back. 

[Challenge: This does not mean that I should not consider the product of my labour as my property, but rather that I should get government grants to fund the research and development of this work.  The application process is not a waste of time; it ensures my work has real and optimal impact.]

If it weren't for industrialization, we would not need industrialization [bottled water image here].  Anything interior design can do, permaculture biotecture landscaping can do better.  yet: The promises of technology have been delivered - practical post-scarcity is now available, but we escape freedom.  Like TV, there is a demand for work, to escape our power (response-ability) to do what the world needs.  Be how you wish the world to become.  

Deep ecology is not anti-technology, it is the ultimate technology - by developing love of life, we boost efficiency of consumption, ecological productivity, and human productivity.

Spontaneity begets Serendipity.  Adam Smith wrote a parable against spontaneity.  He described a man who thought the world needed his wooden duck sculptures, so he cut down 10 trees and carved 100 ducks.  Each carved duck cost $8 in materials plus 5 hours of his time. When he tried to sell them, he sold 20 for $10 each, 30 for $5 each, and 50 for $1 each (possibly bought for firewood).  So he spent $800 + 500 hours and received $400.  Some people blame the free market for the sufferings of business failure, but he should have tested the market first, and it is thanks to the free market that he got feedback (a reality check) before he cut down more trees.  The logic of this market-praising argument relies upon an assumption that labours of love are narrow-minded: the carver's idea of what the world needs was not an informed idea.  Eco-centric people, lovers of life, however, ensure their decisions are informed -  informed better than they would be if we relied upon the market.  We are disciplined by a reality more powerful than the market, we are disciplined by the planet.

Inspired economies do not reject the market.  Inspired economies are not anarcho-communist economies; inspired economies save capitalism from capitalists.  I want to do a thousand things for the world, but scarcity is as real as abundance, so I must choose which projects I will join.  Since being  eco-centric is anthropocentric and ego-centric, I am eco-centric; I allocate my resources to the greatest wholistic profit.  So we listen to the market, but we are aware of its limits.  We are aware that it doesn't reflect the fact that the non-renewable energy input for getting non-organic eggs onto my plate is 9 times the energy value available in the eggs (that prices do not reflect true costs).  We are aware that even in an ideal Pareto-efficient market, the market is not efficient if people's values are inefficient/unsustainable.  

Exercise market leadership, don't just satisfy demand, claiming virtue while "just following orders".

The most efficient and ecological way to improve quality of life is via imagination - conscious interpretation, Pragmatic Poetry. 
Everyone is an artist - we all interpret our experience.  Everyone is a scientist - we all develop and test models/theorems.  Every interpretation is a model, an abstraction, i.e. a fiction.  Consciously create your world.  Choose healthy interpretations, pragmatic poetry.  Pragmatic Poetry is fiction which, if you choose to believe it, works!  Reality is a fiction, but not all fictions pass the reality check.  Scientists are artists and artists are scientists: formulating and testing hypotheses.  Yet many/most 'rational' atheists and agnostics have blind faith in the reality of reality.  So they are victims of their presumptions, and they are not empowered to energize themselves.  Metafiction: by seeing how fictions are created, we are freed to make healthy choices in the fictions/stories we are living/presuming.  So we are more inspired, so we are more productive and innovative.  Thus a post-realism economy is more productive and ecological.  

This is not to say in an inspired economy you would buck off bosses - I would be happy to hire a manager to manage me.
I want a manager, a boss, because I want my resources to be allocated optimally, I want my full potential to come to fruition. 
Most managers allocate my resources in 'sacrifice' to Mammon, or to a cause which has merit but which fails to make full use of my endowments and is a distraction from the cause I am meant to serve.
Therefore, until/unless I find my ideal manager, my most worthy manager is myself.  
Jesus may be Lord, but the Bible does not provide me with the computing systems I need to research, design and implement my Budget for God, Not-for-Profit.
Inspired Economies' mandate includes providing tools so everyone has the skills of an MBA.
Guided by my business plan, I monitor my progress.
I host Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Meetings, and
I post Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Reports.
I would like to see the whole world doing this self-management. We can still engage in long-term contracts, and be employees with managers, and yet still retain our power to self-manage so we can participate in / do God/Gaia's work.

Start your own Inspired Economy today!

Recipe:
    Estimated Time to Complete: 1 hour.
        Ingredients:
            Method:
                - landscape
                - nutrition
                - nothing
                - energy anatomy
                - I.T.
                - collaboration 

Improv Theatre:  
    Play with the rules of reality.  
        Scenario:   a fantastic world - no gravity; no need for law; no hierarchy; no need for money; 
                    no need for ego; people practice playful pragmatic poetry.
        Characters: gardener, chef, jack-of-all-trades.

Submit Feedback or Questions