Transitioning to a sustainable and just economic system is the ultimate challenge of the 21st century. History no doubt will judge our generation by how well we acknowledge, embrace and take up this challenge. Before racing into action…. let us begin by recognizing and professing the truth.
John Fullerton
The Ultimate Challenge
Topic: Society & Civil Religion
“At the end of The Kingdom of God is Within You, Leo Tolstoy underscores the importance of grounding our lives, and by extension, our society and institutions, including our economic system, which profoundly impacts all life on earth, on the bedrock foundation of truth.
“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.” — Leo Tolstoy
Transitioning to a sustainable and just economic system is the ultimate challenge of the 21st century. History no doubt will judge our generation by how well we acknowledge, embrace and take up this challenge. Before racing into action, into our Cartesian predisposition toward logical problem solving, let us begin by recognizing and professing the truth.“
John B. Fullerton, The Capital Institute Founder and President.
The Relevance of E. F. Schumacher in the 21st Century
Fullerton, John. The Relevance of E. F. Schumacher in the 21st Century, The Center for New Economics.
John Fullerton
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John Fullerton, The Relevance of E. F. Schumacher in the 21st Century
An Inherently Unsustainable System
“New and appropriate technologies and massive shifts to improve resource efficiency and reduce waste no doubt will help and buy time. But we cannot underestimate the profound inconsistency of a resource intensive material economy built on perpetual growth, operating within the physical limits of a finite planet. Such an inherently unsustainable system is not built upon wisdom. It is built upon a foundation of sand that intentionally rejects the very principles of traditional virtue, as Keynes explicitly pointed out.
Unlike during Keynes’ time, when the human population was small and relatively poor (therefore placing few resource demands on the environment) and the earth’s resources appeared limitless, it is now time that we transcend to an economics built upon wisdom. Schumacher’s instruction is clear and compelling. “From an economic view point, the central concept of wisdom is permanence. We must study the economics of permanence.” This intention takes us in a profoundly different direction than conventional, Cartesian thinking. “Permanence” suggests valuing durability over efficiency, stability over speed. These are different values from those typically celebrated in the marketplace….
We do observe excitement around new “green” initiatives, usually technology based solutions to the problems we perceive. Technology breakthroughs are essential and inevitable, surprising even the optimists among us. Advances in technology and the great human entrepreneurial spirit are essential in tackling the sustainability challenges we face. However, while we run down this path, which we certainly must, we should also heed Einstein’s admonition, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created the problems.”
Relying on technology solutions alone to solve our sustainability challenges, which are largely the product of technological advances, is not wise. We must think differently, seeing the complexity of the sustainability challenge in a holistic fashion, in the search for genuine lasting solutions. According to Schumacher, we need solutions consistent with an “economics of permanence,” which he tells us is derived from prudence. My research reveals that prudence is the first among the cardinal virtues and is best understood as “truth.” Thomist scholar Josef Pieper, in The Four Cardinal Virtues, closes his chapter on prudence by saying, “The good is prudent beforehand; but that is prudent which is in keeping with reality.” Schumacher is telling us that economics is prudent only if it is truthful, that is to say, only if it is “in keeping with reality.””
–John Fullerton [The Relevance of E. F. Schumacher in the 21st Century (Schumacher Center Essay, May 2008 Edited by Hildegarde Hannum)].
An Economics of Permanence
Following Schumacher’s lead, we should look to the great wisdom traditions for direction in this truth. Where better to look than to the ideas and teachings from all cultures that have stood the test of time, rather than restrict ourselves to contemporary economic theories that we know are limited and incomplete.
Schumacher is relevant to our critical 21st-century challenges precisely for this reason. His philosophy, his concern about the limits of materialistic scientism, his distinctions between divergent and convergent problems, and his ideas of decentralism, appropriate technology, and human scale to name but a few, are all rooted in the great spiritual and philosophical teachings. Not surprisingly, his ideas, in addition to being humane and just, are aligned with nature and nature’s sustainable way, the only truly sustainable system we know. They are, I believe, rooted in truth as best as Schumacher could discern it, and therefore they represent wisdom, the wisdom of permanence….
Our challenge now is to refine and update this thinking and to chart a practical path of convergence between the reality that exists in our economic system today and the principles we strive to uphold and upon which our long run prosperity undoubtedly depends. We will need to stimulate and utilize “appropriate” technological breakthroughs on this path, but at the same time remain grounded in truth. Clarifying the first principles of this truth, as best as our collective wisdom—both past and present—allows, is our most urgent task. The opening decades of the 21st century may be our best chance to launch the critical transformation of our economic system to an economics of permanence. We need to get it right, as only our collective consciousness will allow….
–John Fullerton [The Relevance of E. F. Schumacher in the 21st Century (Schumacher Center Essay, May 2008 Edited by Hildegarde Hannum)].