Okay, not really, but over at EnlightenNext, Tom Huston points to Howard Bloom’s vision of how we need to mend rather than end capitalism.

In the midst of our current financial crisis, it may seem natural to cast doubt on the entire enterprise of Western capitalism and wonder if its basic tenets of progress and production have led humanity astray. But according to avant-garde cultural theorist Howard Bloom, writing in EnlightenNext back in 2005, such dismissals tend to overlook the true evolutionary significance of our economic system:
The problem does not lie in the turbines of the Western way of life—industrialism, capitalism, pluralism, free speech, and democracy. The problem lies in the lens through which we see. Capitalism works. It works clumsily, awkwardly, sometimes brilliantly, and sometimes savagely. So we need to dig down to find out why. We need to reveal the deeper meaning beneath what we’ve been told is crass materialism and see how profoundly our obsessive making and exchanging of goods and services has upgraded the nature of our species.

This is a topic I’ve touched on several times in this blog. It’s also fascinating that these basic ideas of retooling capitalism were hinted at by a German named Friedrich List way back in his 1837 book, The Natural System of Political Economy. For those interested, James Fallows covers this topic extensively in his Atlantic article, “How the World Works” .

Fallows writes that List’s alternative economic view offers a way through the obvious “market failures” that old-school, Adam Smith-style capitalism can foster. Could any of us say that Friedrich List was Buddhist in his leanings? Probably not. But as opposed to the dominant Anglo view of economic reality, List’s alternative rests on interdependence rather than what Adam Smith referred to as an invisible hand. Once List’s style of interdependence begins to influence policy, the market can’t be mistakenly seen as God. Furthermore, like Howard Bloom’s some 170 years later, List’s version of economic reality shows us that markets are merely reflections of how we cooperatively meet each other and meet ourselves.

Over at Shambhala SunSpace, Karen Maezen Miller writes of the struggle she’s had with the little girl initiation of Disney-inspired princesshood and Barbie marketing. This subject is near and dear to my heart as my wife and I are troubled with the bombardment our daughter receives from her peers.

Does the princess myth serve our daughter’s evolution as a healthy, well-adjusted being? Is Barbie an appropriate ideal for her? Are we foisting judgment onto something fairly innocuous; making a big deal over what should prove to be a temporary stage? How might we meet the influences we find harmful in a constructive manner?

Ms. Miller writes of her daughter’s Disney experience:

It is captivating to see a tiny child fall into pure and uncomplicated love. My daughter Georgia’s first major heartthrob was Snow White, who was just one in a color-coded sequence of princesses to be cherished, outgrown, and discarded, but we didn’t know that then. We didn’t know and we didn’t delay. When we took our daughter on her first trip to Disneyland, we strode right up to the real-life Snow White and watched our two-year-old flirt. Then, we bee-lined to the souvenir racks and forked over the bucks for a Snow White doll.

Several people close to our family find that my wife and I have over-thought this issue. Maybe they’re right. Certainly, the entire Disney experience was a source of enjoyment when I was young. The idea that fantasy could come partially alive, even in a corporate way, mystified me. I can remember the first time I went into the Haunted House, holding my father’s hand tightly with thrill and fear simultaneously coursing through my body. That same night, I remember getting on a boat that was to take us to meet the Pirates of the Carribean. I was entranced and  wanted reminders of the escape into the partial reality offered by Disney. I, too, wanted souveniers.

But something happened along the way that started to feel strange. I remember revisiting the Enchanted Kingdom in high school and recognizing that the entire Disney experience was designed to separate me from my money. Realizing this, I made sure that they succeeded only partially. But I noticed that Disney made a killing by using children as agents against their hardworking parents.

“Please, daddy, please,” they’d say. “Can I get a Mickey Mouse hat.” Or, after a visit with the marvelously made up girl, “I want to be just like Snow White.”

A short distance from the Snow White meeting, daddy is directed by his entranced daughter into a store that, in fact, sells Snow White regalia. Partial reality sells partial fantasy. Dad feels appreciated. Daughter is euphoric. All of it, temporary.

Barbie doesn’t seem much different. I’m concerned that, left unchecked, my daughter may let the psychological schema that Barbie fills assume a place in her own mind that it shouldn’t. I don’t want hypersexualized Barbie to breed adolescent self-loathing within my daughter or anyone else, for that matter. Nor do I want Disney’s partial reality to inspire commercial craving within anyone. But how do we, as parents, do this effectively?

In the process of recognizing these beliefs, I know that I must hold them loosely. less they become a hindrance for my daughter as well as my wife and me. Neither Disney nor Barbie will destroy my daughter. But walking this path is already starting to be a challenge. And she’s not quite two.

I liked this post from Rev. Danny Fisher, about one of my favorite films, The Last Temptation of Christ (now available on Hulu.com):

Speaking about the film, its “blasphemous” qualities, and the international outrage surrounding the project, I think critic Roger Ebert put it perfectly when he wrote:

What makes The Last Temptation of Christ one of his great films is not that it is true about Jesus but that it is true about Scorsese. Like countless others, he has found aspects of the Christ story that speak to him. This is the Jesus of his two most autobiographical characters, Charlie in Mean Streets and J.R. in Who’s That Knocking at My Door? Both of those characters were played by Keitel. Interesting that he choose Keitel this time to play Judas. Perhaps Judas is Scorsese’s autobiographical character in The Last Temptation of Christ. Certainly not the Messiah, but the mortal man walking beside him, worrying about him, lecturing him, wanting him to be better, threatening him, confiding in him, prepared to betray him if he must. Christ is the film, and Judas is the director.

So well said.

Great piece over at Shambhala Sun Space:

… the Wall Street Journal is talking about The Dharma of Capitalism and quoting the Mahabharata:

In [the Mahabharata], the queen asks her husband, Yudhishthira, about unmerited suffering: “When everything was going so well for us, why was our kingdom stolen in a rigged game of dice?” she complains. She exhorts her husband, who gambled away the kingdom, to raise an army and get their possessions back. But he reminds her that he has given his word to his enemies to remain in exile for 13 years as punishment for losing the game.

“What is the point of being good?” she persists. “Isn’t it better to be powerful and rich than to be good in an unfair world where those who steal and cheat sleep on sheets of silk and pillows of down while those who are good have to settle for the hard earth? Why be good?” To this he replies in the only way that he knows: “I act because I must.”

The King’s answer represents the uncompromising, compelling voice of dharma. [...] Dharma is needed by everyone to live a happy, flourishing life. [...] We must learn to live with imperfection but seek the sort of regulation that not only catches crooks but also rewards dharma-like behavior and nobility of character.

Arguments in favor of character? Interesting.

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How do we ever move past the addiction to a sense of self? Furthermore, how do we ever get past our clinging to the ideals of the way we think things should be? If we loosen up around our sense of what is black and what is white; what is right and what is wrong; who we are and who we aren’t; then a spacious path into Truth-realization is possible. Opening, therefore, is our work.

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At last night’s sitting, I read one of my favorite poems. The intent was to clarify what this Path is really about. So often, deep spiritual work is seen as a way to escape from what is going on when in actuality, awakening involves nothing less than an intimacy with what is going on. The Invitation nails this. I’ll share it here:

The  Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being a human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from Its presence.

I want to know if you can live failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,”Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

May all beings uncover the truth beyond the matter.

At last night’s sitting, I read one of my favorite poems. The intent was to clarify what this Path is really about. So often, deep spiritual work is seen as a way to escape from what is going on when in actuality, awakening involves nothing less than an intimacy with what is going on. The Invitation nails this. I’ll share it here:

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.

I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being a human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from Its presence.

I want to know if you can live failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,”Yes”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

May all beings uncover the truth beyond the matter.

via Infinite Smile.

Dog as meditation cushion

Originally uploaded by Michael G. McAlister