CommonBound 2016 Final Thoughts

This is my final submission about an otherwise great and appropriate conference.  The New Economic Coalition raised over $150,000 to organize this event.  It had been attended by over 1000 persons representing every walk of life.  I observed that there were more women than men attending and the vast majority of those attending, I would consider youth (~18 to 30 yoa).  There was a strong showing by people of color discussing social justice especially appropriate to the racial tensions raised.  There were also older persons and people representing various communities of faith.  Of particular interest were 3 individuals from the United States Baha’i Community Office of Public Affairs – that made a total of 4 Baha’is in attendance.

The general consensus was that everyone was tired of the “making money is the most important thing in life.”  Fed-up with this idea, people were expressing the need to be “making a life” and living in community with others.  I was surprised to see people from South America, England, Germany, and Africa in attendance and contributing to the discussions.

I had many opportunities to discuss the need for spiritual virtues needed in human affairs – all with VERY positive response.  Of particular note, I had a very meaningful dinner with Dr. Edgar Cahn, the founder of TimeBanks.  He expressed a problem within his organization of participants not quite “doing the proper things” while TimeBanking.  He and his wife, Christine, were very taken with the concept of training people in virtues and realized the obvious benefits.  There could be a very good chance that Dr. Cahn will ask for that training.

I personally felt that there should have been more inclusion with other forms of wealth than just money – and the need to restore that wealth with intentional programs of restoration.  My memory of history includes the European Dark Ages whereby Rob Roy, Charlemagne, and Braveheart were leading dismal lives.  Battles were being fought over farmland by baron’s and lords.  At the same time, in the Islamic Countries, citizens were enjoying high culture of arts, sciences (cataract, zenith, azimuth are Arabic terms), and general human well-being; their economy was not based on an “industrial” or material model but perhaps on a sustainable one.

A final thought that I have is one based on practicality.  Our present economic system has a foundation within Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”.  From this book, our economic model has advanced in complexity that utilizes PhD’s in Economics trying to predict economic futures with various tweeks and inputs.  All strata of society need to have some education and training in order to work in our present economy.  I’m thinking that for the next economy, whatever it may become, there really does need to have an educational and training component provided for everyone.  I believe that it would be expecting too much of people to figure how it works without the proper instruction manual(s).

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to submit some of my thoughts to this blog.  It really did provide for my time of reflection on what was a very packed conference.  Thanks for reading my conference updates and hope you find those useful.

JohnK