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?
Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism (including collectivism and populism based on nationalist values); Third Position (including class collaboration, corporatism, economic planning, mixed economy, national socialism, national syndicalism, protectionism,); totalitarianism (including dictatorship, indoctrination, major social interventionism, and statism); and militarism.[13][14]
Capitalism
First we must define capitalism…and agree upon the definition. From Websters New World Dictionary…capitalism is defined as:
Economic system whereby all or most production and distribution (including land) are privately owned and operated for profit, under competitive conditions, and tendency toward concentration of wealth for the few…in later times…as in now – growth of great corporations, with increased governmental control.
Under this definition, and if we look at history, we see that capitalism has created a system wherein a few hold the wealth and these few control our world.
Under capitalism there exists polarities – Capitalists (the wealthy) and Labor (workers), the rich (few) and poor (many). The Labour Unions came about to mitigate against this great divide. But…eventually even the Labor Unions, emerging to neutralize capitalism, became themselves capitalists!
Between the two polarities, rich and poor, capital and labor, there is a third system and that is the “sharing society.”
Those who are concerned for humanity do not stand on either side of capitalism or labor. They place themselves and are located at the center – standing for humanity and its needs.
The world needs a new system (beyond capitalism, a next developmental stage) – that of equitable sharing. Which directs us toward two deeper more relevant questions – can we create a sharing society, how, and can capitalism exist within a sharing society?
What I like about this is that it is happening at all. An openness and a presentation of different views and dialogue mostly good I feel. To be able hear and consider the views of others is very healthy for me.
Right before the election I had the opportunity to be involved in a blog where most of the people “meditate” and the folks who own the blog put out an email expressing their views and asking folks to look to their “own hearts”. In other words, they shared their “hearts” and didn’t preach to others but asked them to do likewise. They also opened their blog for people to voice their hearts and their views. Probably 80% of the people had a positive response to their doing this, but about 20% (my guess only) literally verbally attacked them and asked to be removed from his list and much more.
I found it fascinating, because as I read everyone’s comments, I realized that I could have said most of what everyone of them said at some point. And in effect, I found that at the end, I changed my mind about who to vote for. Not because I believed that the canditate I voted was not as I thought in terms of the information I had, but because I was able to see a bigger picture and respond from what I was seeing where I heard him speak, what came through from his heart.
The whole thing was an exercise for me to see a bigger picture, to be aware that any of us can not see the whole picture. Anyone who is familiar with Epistemology we are never seeing everything that is there. We make our decisions, make up our minds from limited information ALWAYS. There is no absolute truth.
Depending on our worldviews, our religion, what we have spent most of our time “learning”, our professions, where we live, our family culture…so many things…we will have prejudices. May be we would do better off by looking for what we have in common as opposed to what is “wrong” with others ways of being.
In that blogging I mention, I had felt anger, I felt agreement, I felt love, and then I remembered my dear friend who is now passed. Back in 2004 I was quite a lefty environmentalist as he called me, but one day when we were having quite a yelling match because he insisted we needed to attack Iraq saying “Are we suppose to let them come to kill here?” and I yelled back they have never come here! Anyway, there was a moment when he looked like he might have a heart attack, I stopped in my tracks and all I could say from my heart was “oh my god” repeatedly, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to hurt him. And I remember that I really cared about him. I brought him some herbal tea and that ended that for that day anyway. He and I were to have many such matches until something happened for both of us, the love we had for each other gave us a deeply spiritual bond, and as one friend said to me, “there is a deeper truth”.
The same way we are partially brained washed by TV & newspaper media, we are partially brain washed by any thing we immerse ourselves in. This is one reason that having an open mind and heart is so important. And I find Catherine’s blog a place to for such conversation.
Hi Catherine!
Quite a “dramatic” question 🙂
To put it short: capitalism is a system. It is made out of people. Defined by values. When values change, people change and the system changes. That can be played both ways – towards the good or the bad. Awereness is the key. The mainstream media is playing an important role in this. We all should be much more critical about them and what we watch and what suggested values we are taking in our minds and hearts. These influence on what/how we think and act. And that is what eventually makes “a system” good or bad.
Maybe shuting down the TV is the best thing to do. Makes much more sense to go out, talk to friends, family, meet new people, going to a concert, visit a gallery, a workshop, read books, search for positive news channels on internet, think positive … and “the system” will change.
Kind regards,
Mathew
Wonderfully positive.
Of course the ‘solutions’ from problems would come more from those caught between major ‘isms’. Interesting that the giant spy case, the one that ‘greatly hurt’ NATO, just emerged from Estonia. Being said that nothing of this magnitude in the spy world has surfaced since the “Year Of The Spy”. That was 1984 nearly ¼ century ago!
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12566943&mode=comment&intent=readBottom
Easy to infer info passed to Russia from NATO was economic, not military.
Simplified- the world camps are divided between ‘protectionism’ and ‘free trade’. These are not ‘isms’ in traditional sense but between total control and a trend toward smaller and smaller self-sustaining economies. Though it might seem confusing at first, the greater overall problems of environment and population common to all will be solved much easier between many small groups that are not threatened from the outside than by any controlling empire.
The thrust of ‘protectionism’ is coming mainly from the south, Africa and South America. It is confusing as war becomes more and more asymmetrical. Notice the similarity with China in the late forties, it comes from the inside first, coastal areas are last. But here different because force is ‘headless’, no central command. Tip O’Neal’s dictum takes time. And often guns.
Michael
Wow, there are hours of the presentations available. And I have started listening. I think this time well spent for anyone, and I am going to spend most of my day listening. It is very mind expanding to hear this. Wish Obama would listen!
I think there is life after Capitalism, because life was never dependent on Capitalism 🙂 I find all of this very exciting, without even listening to any of the presentations. It is events and happenings such as these that make our time more exciting and filled with opportunity for major changes in our world. Thank you Catherine, as always, for being who you are and sharing all that you do.