This is a question that the producers and artists of the Von Krahl Theatre in Estonia have asked.

They lived through the meltdown of the Russian empire. That is how Estonia achieved independence in August 1991. So they are keenly aware of the fragility of empires and able to anticipate the challenges that the American Empire now faces.

Their hope? To inspire a conversation from which a new, richer story for mankind can emerge.

As the financial crisis unfolds, the question “Is There Life After Capitalism?” is one that many people are asking.

Von Krahl has invited entrepreneuers, community planners, philosophers and media leaders from around the world to help them engage the Estonian people and — through Estonian TV and the Internet — an international audience.

To view some of the presentations to-date, including Ron Hopkins on Transition Towns , see http://vimeo.com/vonkrahl.

Tonight I had dinner with Von Krahl founder Peeter Jalakas, producer Elo-Liis Parmas, consultant Henri Laupmaa, and Paul Jay, founder of The Real News who will also be speaking tomorrow. The conversation ranged from community currencies to the nature of living in Canada and Estonia, as both are bordered by a large, unpredictable neighbor.

Dinner was at The Garden, one of the Von Krahl restaurants. The Garden proved that these artists/entreprenerus are as extraordinary at producing culinary creations as leading world-changing conversations.

Is there life after capitalism? What do you think?

19 Comments

  1. We don’t need money and we have never needed money. We are Life, one and equal with all of existence. There are enough resources for everyone. We have given money a value outside of us separate from us, we have chased and desired worthless pieces of paper and have made it our god, determining every aspect of our entire existence here and enslaving ourselves to money, and we have allowed the nature of us to become worthlessness, self-dishonesty, and self-interest.

    We must first change the self-interested and self-dishonest nature of ourselves first (where we are only concerned with our own desires and ignoring and destroying life), through self-forgiveness and self-honesty, and live that change, through self-corrective application. The nature of many people now is self-interest, in which they only care about their own desires and ignore everyone else. People must change, to change our reality. External reality is a hologram, mirroring internal reality, one and equal.

    I’ve already come across The Venus Project website. Even if we create a Resource-Based Economy, if we don’t change the self-interested nature of ourselves, nothing will change. As we change ourselves, we can bring forth a Resource-Based Economy or something similar where all life is one and equal in lived application, sharing and caring and concern for life would be our nature, and everyone considering all of life instead of their own desires would be how communities would work.

    Check out the following sites:

    http://desteni.co.za/

    http://www.youtube.com/user/DesteniProductions

    http://desteni.multiply.com/journal

  2. If s person abondons culture and values in the life ends badly;
    the sam case is a society but at a larger proportion; you as a society gave up anything which
    could make you civilized and life meaningful

    Toronto/Sarajevo

  5. If one’s life is one’s money, then many will find no life after capitalism.
    If one understands what is real, shifts are happening and humans are being manipulated.

    Everyone says Social Security won’t be there for them. It’s because since JFK the will has been lost in this country. With criminals in charge, the path is different. JFK scuttled and covered over was the beginning of many signals to corruption that the people permit cover ups.

    Everyone says Social Security won’t be there for them. It’s because they are parroting the marketing line of the investment pros who want them to send them their money. An alternate system which Catherine wisely points out tethers a family’s sense of well-being and future security to the mob is not a good substitute for Social Security.

    Seal the borders. Reduce government and its share of our productive economic donations. Let’s help the farmers and small business owners, not with subsidies, but with laws that don’t continue to favor everyone but U.S. Bring our troops home. Turn off the TVs of the world and the tickers. Yes, there is life after capitalism (another intellectual construct).

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