We have as a species certainly come to a point where we need to redefine growth. Economic and material growth, it seems, have been viable concepts in the past, which pulled many out of poverty and into the plenty and abundance of modern capitalist consumer societies, but more and more people feel a void opening up deep inside, while simultaneously the number of the disenfranchised grows.
While most economists and industrialist like Olivier Scalabre mainly discuss economic growth as yet again the sole solution to a well known problem, and forecast increased productivity which mankind will harvest from the forth manufacturing revolution, others like historian Yuval N. Harari or entrepreneur Martin Ford warn us of a material growth trajectory which will terminate our species and make way for the next step of evolution: pleasure maximized immortal man-machines.
Considering the finite material resources, we are endowed with on planet Earth, growth in purely economic terms is a dead end. I would even go as far as perceiving both the linear as well as the circular economy as a dead end. It won’t be enough to make a choice between the two, because some parts of our behavior will not stop to be linear and a circular economy only will hamper growth. The resulting stagnation doesn’t seem to be a viable outlook for the centuries to come. Imagine 14 billion people by 2100 most of them living in a blend of conditions like present day Tokyo and the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, craving for more Pachinko and Wiesn Beer. More of sensory pleasure seeking for even more people can’t be the answer after thousands of years of doing exactly that.
While most economists and industrialist like Olivier Scalabre mainly discuss economic growth as yet again the sole solution to a well known problem, and forecast increased productivity which mankind will harvest from the forth manufacturing revolution, others like historian Yuval N. Harari or entrepreneur Martin Ford warn us of a material growth trajectory which will terminate our species and make way for the next step of evolution: pleasure maximized immortal man-machines.
Considering the finite material resources, we are endowed with on planet Earth, growth in purely economic terms is a dead end. I would even go as far as perceiving both the linear as well as the circular economy as a dead end. It won’t be enough to make a choice between the two, because some parts of our behavior will not stop to be linear and a circular economy only will hamper growth. The resulting stagnation doesn’t seem to be a viable outlook for the centuries to come. Imagine 14 billion people by 2100 most of them living in a blend of conditions like present day Tokyo and the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, craving for more Pachinko and Wiesn Beer. More of sensory pleasure seeking for even more people can’t be the answer after thousands of years of doing exactly that.
Left: Tokyo Pachinko saloon - Right: Hacker-Pschorr beer tent.
The letters at the far end read fittingly: Hacker-Pschorr - Bavarians' Heaven.
The letters at the far end read fittingly: Hacker-Pschorr - Bavarians' Heaven.
Genuine growth then must be something different, something which cannot be solely found in the exogenous sensory sphere of being, but some resource in our endogenous existence, which is sufficient to satisfy cravings of - according to the UN - 36 billion humans by 2300. A larger Oktoberfest or more Pachinko saloons won’t do.
The physician Alexander Lowen once said that happiness is the consciousness of growth. One can only grow in the present, if the past is made alive. If the past is cut off from the present, there can’t be any future. He did not refer to growth on a spiritual level only, but he did acknowledge that growth is quintessential to our well-being. Growth according to him is not only a psychological reality, but the essence of being. Man is compelled to grow and growth it seems, is man’s inevitable destiny. But what is a destiny without destination? To those who have overcome the plights of famine, disease and war the search within should be an obvious choice after millennia of suffering caused by the search without.
The French Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin wrote that the purpose and objective of the evolution is the growth of consciousness. Reading Lowen and Chardin together, we must come to the trivial conclusion that life is essentially about being happy, no? If happiness is the consciousness of growth and the purpose and objective of the evolution the growth of consciousness, well-being must come from growing one’s consciousness. So how do we grow our consciousness?
Genuine Growth set out as a 9 month long training based on latest insights from neurology, psychology and centuries of religious practice, which facilitates participants to engage in a transformative experience by merging science and spirituality. The resulting book project explores the correlation of consciousness growth, well-being and compassion to prepare ourselves for an individual choice between genuine growth or a digital deluge. We have a responsibility; each one of us. And we have infinite potential; each one of us. But only together we can grow.
The physician Alexander Lowen once said that happiness is the consciousness of growth. One can only grow in the present, if the past is made alive. If the past is cut off from the present, there can’t be any future. He did not refer to growth on a spiritual level only, but he did acknowledge that growth is quintessential to our well-being. Growth according to him is not only a psychological reality, but the essence of being. Man is compelled to grow and growth it seems, is man’s inevitable destiny. But what is a destiny without destination? To those who have overcome the plights of famine, disease and war the search within should be an obvious choice after millennia of suffering caused by the search without.
The French Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin wrote that the purpose and objective of the evolution is the growth of consciousness. Reading Lowen and Chardin together, we must come to the trivial conclusion that life is essentially about being happy, no? If happiness is the consciousness of growth and the purpose and objective of the evolution the growth of consciousness, well-being must come from growing one’s consciousness. So how do we grow our consciousness?
Genuine Growth set out as a 9 month long training based on latest insights from neurology, psychology and centuries of religious practice, which facilitates participants to engage in a transformative experience by merging science and spirituality. The resulting book project explores the correlation of consciousness growth, well-being and compassion to prepare ourselves for an individual choice between genuine growth or a digital deluge. We have a responsibility; each one of us. And we have infinite potential; each one of us. But only together we can grow.
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