Last week the World Economic Forum had its 40th annual meeting in Davos, where the theme was Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild – the Global Economy, of course.
But the Global Economy can only be rethought, redesigned, rebuilt if the economy is truly understood. This requires a plunge into Fractal Systems Architecture. Very quickly, the agricultural economy led to the industrial economy which led to the digital economy. Looking at each of these more closely, it is evident that the agricultural economy is about working on land (a physical construct) with physical implements to create physical product. It is therefore a manifestation of the physical phase of the ubiquitous physical-vital-mental fractal for progress. The industrial economy is all about the creation of large flows of product supported by large flows of cash, supported by large flows of transportation and telecommunications. It is all about the vital level. The Digital economy is much more about ideas. Witness Amazon, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, amongst other idea-driven plays that are much more at the mental level.
Hence the global economy is a manifestation of the physical-vital-mental fractal and in the scheme of things is self-organizing. Or rather, in our model, there was impulsion to complete the fractal for progress because of the DNA of progress in circumstance. This is what we are saying: billions of years of repetition in the earth-sun dynamic have embedded this pattern of progress into life.
The question though is, in spite of the break-downs and global dysfunctions, is progress happening? This will depend on the orientation of actors in the system. If actors have a physical orientation, then change is not progress. If actors have a vital orientation – then this is all about self-aggrandizement, and getting rich at the expense of others, etc: therefore, progress has happened. If actors have a mental orientation – then this is more about free-thinking and even idealism. So progress for these actors has not really happened. But if the few are getting rich at the expense of the many, is this progress? If people, communities, society, earth have to pay an unfair price, is that progress? This moves us to the notion of a fractal-in-a-fractal. If we imagine that the whole development that has happened has been part of an overarching vital phase, then progress has happened.
Further, movement into the Digital Economy indicates that we are at the mental sub-phase. Hence we should be hitting limits. Is this true. YES: we are seeing increasing resource shortage, widening inequalities, decreasing happiness, and a massive crises of perception. Further, if we consider the modern-day corporation, essentially the corporation has many rights of a person but with limited liability. Add to this the ability to transfer large flows of cash without accountability, and it is certain that today’s corporation is essentially a vital animal. Hence putting two and two together we can say that we are at the end of a vital phase, and that what is going to happen is a transformation of the modern-day corporation and economic activity, or the death of an outdated system of activity.
Now let us look at Davos in this context. At Davos they talked about a changing model of capitalism where addressing Climate Change, Global Poverty, and Unemployment are critical. This is no doubt a huge step forward. To actively talk about one sphere of activity with the others was unthinkable a few years ago. Also in his opening comments (http://wef2010.unitec-media.tv/index.html), Klaus Schwab, the Founder of WEF, talked about the financial crises of 2008, the economic crises of 2009, a potential social crises of 2010, leading perhaps to a future inter-generational crises. However, as I see it, these are all waves upon an ocean, and the real crises is the underlying change or shift in consciousness that must occur at the level of the person so that there is awareness of the underlying fractal system, and the central part that each person holds in the build-up of the world-fractal, by virtue of existing at its very base. So long as this does not occur, this shift in awareness and consciousness, one crises after another will continue to arise, as a means by which the needed shift can occur at the base-level of this massively interconnected fractal.
The effort and thinking at Davos, which is naturally reflective of the world business and political community is all about acting on the surface of the system – it is about skimming the surface. Regulation, job creation, financial overhaul, public-private partnerships are all well and good, and even necessary. But it will be difficult for efforts to bear fruit, however, unless the conversation at Davos begins to focus on this system behind the system: hence leading to the fractal bases of the economy. It is not just that lateral or horizontal thinking and interconnecting is required, but these have to RECONTEXTUALIZED by a penetrating vertical plunge that uncovers once and for all the intimate relationship between personal perception and behavior and the world that is created as a result of that – which incidentally is what Fractal Systems Architecture is about, and what I cover in my book Connecting Inner Power with Global Change.
In last week’s discussion on the Economy Pattern at VoiceAmerica (http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=43971) we began to understand the deeper logic of the limits we are up against, and the fact that such limits will continue to arise because they must form a rite of passage that changes the very nature of commerce by changing the people doing commerce. Unless our consciousness – as consumers, decision-makers, leaders – changes, to try to address Climate Change or Global Poverty or the Global Financial breakdown, will remain a highly inefficient effort.
