Business As A Social Calling ... Part 1
Posted on Jul 9th, 2007
by 
Joseph
Joseph
Morning all,
Welcome to a new week!!! I got a great quote today from Zaadz Quotes: Stoicism:
How has business changed the world for the better, improving the lives of individuals, whole societies and even the planet herself?
How has business become the dominant social institution on the planet and how can we use it as a social institution to create a future worth living in together?
What are the expectations and demands that we want to be placing on business to improve the quality of life for those living today and tomorrow ... not just for ourselves and our loved one, but for all those who will come after us?
There seems to be no question that business has become a dominant and powerful social force. Yet because of this we have come to resent the imposition of business, or maybe the businesses, in and on our lives.
Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.I really like this idea that we can choose to begin again, anew each day. In fact to a great extent I believe that it may be the only sane way to approach the lives we are given. Staying on theme: as social beings our lives are inextricably intertwined with one another, we are by biological default connected. Therefore each day we begin our lives anew ... together. It seems to me that we are becoming more aware of the evidence of this as we struggle to come to grips with living in a patently connected world. We are living in times of unprecedented technology, and two aspects of the technology available to us today connects us globally in ways unimaginable even half a decade ago ... transportation and communication. We can be virtually anywhere we want to be physically on the globe in twenty-four hours or less and we can be anywhere we want to be virtually on the globe instantaneously. We know more today about what has happened across the continent more quickly than our grandparents knew about what happened in the next town. One of the incredible inventions of our species, trade/business/commerce moves directly on the rails of transportation and communication. Business has both been changed by and in turn changed the nature of how we move ourselves, products and information around the world throughout known history. Business has proved to be a major force in shaping not only those directly affected by in by choice or proximity, but also the planet herself. Now we are beginning to ask some different questions about how we want this change to be affected, and about the larger and true cost of business to individuals, society-at-large and the planet. We are beginning to ask, and even demand, that businesses begin to act more responsibly and responsively to these larger questions and the issues they raise. And, I'd say rightly so ... However, are we also asking the better questions as well? These might be questions about:
-Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD)
When we remember that we created the idea of business, what it is ... how it works ... what it can and cannot do ... and that all of these things are only interpretations that we can change, adapt and modify to use as we please in ways that best serve us all ... then business can once again be seen for what it most surely represents ... a potent human idea with the potential to be transformed into an ideal if we are willing to invest ourselves to make it so.One of my quests has been and continues to be to find the leverage points to help business to become this ideal. I do this with leaders of businesses ... executives, entrepreneurs, partners, owners, professionals ... and I find them open and willing, even excited, by the idea of the possibility of this transformation. I teach this to students in the BBA program at Parsons | New School University in New York City ... students who come from all over the world attracted by a world-class business education. I find these students ready and willing to consider a larger obligation to the societies they come from and the world-at-large to practice a different and more responsible kind of business practice than they have become familiar with hearing about and seeing up until now. Each time I approach this subject I find hope ... Simply it seems like the time has come to question and overturn what has been put forth as the most basic tenant of business in capitalistic framework, i.e.: the only obligation of business is to make money for the shareholders. This standard no longer applies, no longer seems enough in a world as connected as ours has become ... a world in which the very permission to conduct business demands meeting the obligations of a global community and not only the local one where that business originates.
Until we free our minds of the limits of what we know ... we will remain incapable of creating what we don't know yet ... never has this been more pertinent in the expression of human action we call business than it has become today in our super-connected world.Yet I believe with proper consideration and conservation we can change the institution of business making it the greatest impetus to positive global change in the history of our planet. We of this day and age are the clarion call to that future becoming the one we bequest to our children and our children's children. SO, what do you think? Am I deluded to believe that an institution as corrupt as some have come to believe that business has become can change to be the single most positive force in the world ... or does the sound of the trumpet in the distance really beckon us forth to a new beginning? Best regards, Joseph Riggio, Social Ontologist Princeton, NJ PS - I'll bring it back down below 30,000 feet for the rest of the week ... stuff like sustainable business practices and human systems in business ... I just want to set the platform high `'~>
Access: PublicTagged with: business, society, global, conservation, social, technology, communication, transportation, capitalism, trade, commerce, community, sustainable, human systems, transformation
business
August 2007
Hi joseph I cannot but agree more “Until we free our minds of the limits of what we know…we will remain incapable of creating what we don't know yet.”
So what are the limitations placed on truely creative free enterprise that helps both greatest self and social actualization…it is the way the “capital” (meaning currency system) in capitalism…monetary banking system was designed. I am engaged in bringing a peaceful revolution through public awareness of the blindspots of capitalism and how we the people can redesign it for the whole society and economy to function synergetically. See my blog and and email received today
Dear SusMita,
“Your profile has been selected for the member spotlight and is now posted on the online services portal and dgCommunities home pages.”
http://www.developmentgateway.org/
dgCommunities is a collaborative space for professionals working to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development worldwide. It is a place where you can share knowledge, tools, contacts, and more with members in 200 countries. Each online community is centered on specific themes and guided by experts in the field. Thousands of information resource links are included, plus valuable member services.
Thank you for helping to make dgCommunities a success.
Nancy Bellegarde
Web Coordinator
Development Gateway Foundation
Susmita,
The dgCommunities site looks fabulous. I can imagine that it would be a great place to spend time given that you are working in the midst of that orientation. I am humbled and impressed.
I think in part the blind spot/s that you refer to include the idea of capital in the service of self-interest first and foremost. My position has been a difficult one to hold even for myself … that the basis of capitalism, or capitalistic systems, resides in the willingness of the communities/societies that house them to allow them to operate.
Another way to say it more simply might be:
For capitalism to work, i.e.: for a capitalistic system to flourish, the society that houses it must give the individuals within it the freedom to act from self-interest so that they might pursue opportunity and assume risk - while simultaneously recognizing that the marketplace comprised of the members of that same society create the permission for the businesses that emerge within them to exist.
This can be a delicate balancing act … and has been historically prone to falling out of balance when a few individuals, either on their own or collectively, benefit to a much greater extent … even disproportionately … than all others who are by virtue of their ongoing participation allowing the system to sustain. In many cases governments have been all too willing to support this disproportionate distribution of resources to ensure their own growth and dominance in an ever increasing global marketplace.
Yet, given all this I still hold to the belief that capitalism will both survive and triumph as the preferred mechanism to enable and ensure the most equitable distribution of resources available to all concerned. I am even so brash as to believe capitalism can accomplish this feat within a totally sustainable structure … social, environmental, economic …
Best regards,
Joseph
Thanks Joseph for your views. But by blindspots I mean much more than self-interest. My whole post got eaten away. So I encourage you to read my blogs on Capitalism and join my pod on Transforming Capital in Capitalism
You may be shocked initially. And that's the point. It is a fascinating thing because we model our entire lives chasing monetary pursuits but do not really take the time to understand it. Modern capitalism, where money is produced as compound interest bearing debt by few private comercial banks out of thin air via fractional reserve banking is mathematically unsustainable and based on pure greed (which is different than self-interest). There is a great need for people to wake up and get enlightened about money very quickly.
Regards
mita
mita,
I have read some of your writing and I get what you are suggesting. I think your comments and concepts are interesting, yet I can’t say I agree with all of them. The fundamental principals and premise of capitalism make sense to me philosophically and empirically.
My understanding of capitalism extends beyond the rigid and constrained definition of who “owns” what, i.e. property, resources …
The standard references limit the idea of capitalism as a system that is based on/in the private ownership of property, resources … vs. socialism which suggests a modification of capitalism by taking the results of a capitalistic system (i.e.: profits) and distributing them over a greater range of the population, or communism which suggests the abandonment of private ownership for ownership by the collective … theoretically eliminating inequity.
However, more than the question of “ownership” capitalism address the concepts of responsibility and accountability as well. When there is ownership in the more ethical sense of the word, beyond the legal concept … maybe more akin to stewardship than ownership … there is a caretaking aspect that emerges. This in my mind is capitalism at its best.
We are social beings … a prime concept in my system of thinking. As such we make sense of our experience in relation to others and with others. I’d go so far as to say we create our experience socially. In this regard I think that ample evidence exists that suggests that capitalism offers a valid path to social evolution leading to highly desirable results in many domains.
The backlash against capitalism represents in many ways a backlash against social evolution. Any social system beyond “tribal” will begin to suggest in the fundamental interactions between members of the society aspects of capitalistic behavior. The question I have goes beyond capitalism as it has sometimes been narrowly defined to:
Can we successfully evolve into a social capitalistic society where individuals will be charged with creating the successes of teh society vs. the other way around as we have seen in many socialistic and communistic systems globally?”
In the paraphrased words of one far-thinking U.S. President:
“Ask not what the world can do for you, but what you can do for the world.”
My two cents …
Joseph