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TO HEAL OUR BROKEN
WORLD: GLOBILISATION FOR THE COMMON GOOD*
Author: Dr.
Kamran Mofid
Correspondence: k.mofid@btopenworld.com
Introduction and
an Overview
The topic which I wish
to address here is vast; all I can reasonably
hope to do is paint a picture with very
broad brushstrokes. Today's world of globalisation
is marked by immense wealth and acute poverty.
Moreover, total concentration on wealth
creation and economic growth, without knowing
why, what for and how, has led to an erosion
of moral and spiritual values, as well as
a destructive decline in the institutions
that traditionally promoted and protected
these true human values: the family, religious
institutions and community structures. There
is a poverty of values such as love, compassion,
justice, morality, solidarity, spirituality
and faith, while certain parts of the world
are a washed with materialism and consumerism.
Economic globalisation
may be able to address economic problems
but neither the free market nor any other
vale-free system can fill a moral vacuum.
The undeniable fact of life confronting
us on this planet of ours is that there
is gross and growing inequality, amongst
people, different nations and within nations.
Material wellbeing, economic growth and
wealth creation are important. But, to create
a world of true happiness, peace and wellbeing,
wealth must be created for a noble reason.
As an economist with
a wide range of experience, I do appreciate
the significance of economics, politics,
trade, banking, insurance and commerce,
and of globalisation. I understand the importance
of wealth creation. I want to have a dialogue
with the business community. I want to listen
to them and be listened to. Today's business
leaders are in a unique position to influence
what happens in society for years to come.
With this power comes monumental responsibility.
They can choose to ignore this responsibility,
and thereby exacerbate problems such as
economic inequality, environmental degradation
and social justice, but this will compromise
their ability to do business in the long
run. The world of good business needs a
peaceful and just world in which to operate
and prosper.
Economics, commerce
and trade, without a true understanding
of the aspirations of the people it is affecting,
cannot bring justice to all. Social transformation
can be achieved only when unselfish love,
spirituality and a rigorous pursuit of justice
are embraced. Furthermore, as Albert Einstein
once wisely remarked: "The world cannot
get out of its current state of crisis with
the same thinking that got it there in the
first place".
In this study I argue
that the marketplace is not just an economic
sphere, 'it is a region of the human spirit'.
Whilst considering the many economic questions
and issues we should also reflect on the
divine dimension of life, Moreover, and
should, in contrast to what is practised
today, be concerned with the world of heart
and spirit. Although self -interest is an
important source of human motivation, driving
the decisions we make in the marketplace
every day, those decisions nevertheless
have a moral, ethical and spiritual content,
because each decision we make affects not
only ourselves but others too. Today's modern
economists consider their discipline a science,
and thereby divorced from ethical details,
the normative passions of right and wrong.
They have turned their discipline into a
moral-free zone.
In short, this study
views the problem and challenge of globalisation
partly from economic but primarily from
ethical, spiritual and theological point
of view. How can we order the modern world
so that we may all live well and live in
peace? In all, globalisation will need to
combine economic efficiency to meet human
needs with social justice and environmental
sustainability. The study moreover, argues
for the creation of an "ecumenical
space", for dialogue amongst civilisations
and the building of community for the common
good by bringing economics, spirituality
and theology together.
A cornerstone of promoting
ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue is that
world religions can be paths, rather than
obstacles, to peace. Religions can jointly
contribute to the process of peacemaking
by sharing the depth of their accumulated
wisdom and reflective resources. Through
education and meaningful interaction in
settings of openness, dignity and respect,
people of faith can bring about significant
societal transformation.
Therefore, what the
world needs now is a "Spiritual Revolution".
If we truly want to change the world for
the better, all of us, the politicians,
business community, workers, men and women,
young and old, must truly become better
ourselves. We must share a common understanding
of the potential for each one of us to become
self-directed, empowered and active in defining
this time in the world as an opportunity
for positive change and healing. We can
achieve a culture of peace by giving thanks,
spreading joy, sharing love and understanding,
seeing miracles, discovering goodness, embracing
kindness and forgiveness, practicing patience,
teaching tolerance, encouraging laughter,
celebrating and respecting the diversity
of cultures and religions and peacefully
resolving conflicts. We must each of us
become an instrument of peace, promoting
kindness, justice, spirituality and the
love of God and his creations.
One of the main causes
of today's global disorder is the absence
of justice and the rise in the false religion
of materialism. When justice disappears,
it becomes no wonder to see oppression,
corruption, occupation and terrorism reigning.
So, applying justice is a key factor and
necessary step towards restoring peace and
security in the world. Coupled with this,
materialism, the philosophy that argues
what matters most is the matter itself,
denies the existence of all spiritual entities,
and God himself.
These false and self-destructive
values are at the heart of the teachings
of the spiritually-arid neo-liberal economics,
in contrast to the teachings of religions
throughout history.
The major religions
of the world prescribe the unselfish love
and service of others. Only when this love
extends to all humanity without exception
can a dignified and peaceful human future
become possible. The Hindu faith states
that in service to others is happiness;
in selfishness is misery and pain. For the
Sikhs, God is love and love is God. St.
Paul wrote, "Love (agape) is patient,
love is kind. It does not envy, it does
not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no records of wrongs"
(I Corinthians 13). Buddhism teaches us
to cultivate universal compassion. Judaism
teaches that "those who are kind reward
themselves" (Proverbs 11:17). The Quran
reads, "My mercy and compassion embrace
all things" (Quran 7:156). In these
and other traditions, unselfish love is
deemed a Creative Presence underlying and
integral to all of reality, participation
in which constitutes the fullest experience
of spirituality.
There is an urgent need about realizing
unselfish love in our globalising world.
Love is a joyful and full-hearted affirmation
of the well-being of others that can be
expressed in the forms of tolerance and
forbearance, forgiveness and reconciliation,
compassion and care, and service to the
neediest as well as to the nearest. When
we extend ourselves to others in this way
we become happier and more content, for
paradoxically, in the giving of self lies
the unsought discovery of self. Moreover,
given our desire to realise a globalisation,
which is good for all, it should be noted
that, social transformation can occur only
when unselfish love, spiritual experience
and a rigorous pursuit of justice are linked.
People everywhere, given
a chance prefer to be compassionate, spiritual
and caring. They want to be able to practice
their religions freely. More and more, they
also want to see that their religious values
have a bearing on their economic systems
and structures. This philosophy is nowhere
stronger than in the Middle-East, whose
people by and large are very spiritual,
religious, hospitable, informed and cultural.
They largely do not
reject the pivotal values behind the market
economy. Indeed, the Middle-East region
throughout the history has been the major
area of, and for, business, trade and commerce.
They do know that, under the right conditions,
a market economy can drive development,
decrease poverty, encourage productivity,
and reward entrepreneurial energy. Moreover,
Great many Muslims everywhere want their
societies to be economically and politically
compatible with the West, while remaining
in social and spiritual terms true to their
Islamic heritage. They want to trigger both
the equivalent of a renaissance and a rationalist
enlightened movement in the Islamic world.
Based on our commonly shared values of love,
compassion, justice and progress for the
common good, we should be able to formulate
a partnership for mutual benefit and development.
However, it is a great
tragedy that many so-called modernisers
in the region itself, as well as great many
specialists/advisors from the West, have
misunderstood the people of the Middle-East
by forcing upon them a social engineering
model that is not in harmony with the region's
culture, civilisation and spirituality.
This was very clearly and unquestionably
demonstrated in Iran during the 1973-78
period, resulting in the creation of a revolutionary
environment and the eventual 1978 Revolution.
It would be an affront to humanity if the
same mistakes are allowed to happen again.
This is why we are suggesting a" spiritual/theological
economics" approach to development
and modernisation in Iraq and the rest of
the Middle- East.
The ethical and spiritual
teachings of all religions and their striving
for the common good can provide a clear
and focused model of moral behaviour in
what has been termed "the market place".
The religious and business values and sentiments,
such as human dignity, communal solidarity,
humility, patience, service, compassion,
reciprocity, social justice, equity, efficiency,
growth and profit should go together, hand-in-hand,
leading to Globalisation for the Common
Good, where every one is a winner. We should
acknowledge that, the marketplace is not
just an economic sphere, but, it is a region
of the human spirit, compassion and dignity.
The call for this dialogue
is an appeal to the deep instinctive understanding
of the common good that all people share.
It is an appeal to our essential humanity
to deal with some of the most pressing concerns
of peoples the world over. Religion has
always been a major factor in the growth
of human civilisation. Business and wealth
creation when they are for a noble reason
are blessed and vital for human survival.
As I strongly believe
that any message will be understood much
better if one knows the messenger well,
in the first section of this paper- after
the introduction- I will shed light on my
spiritual journey, enabling me to be a different,
and I hope a better economist. It has been
an intellectual, emotional and spiritual
journey; it has involved wrestling with
a diverse range of concepts, ideas concerning
the relationship between economics, theology
and spirituality as well as concerns for
human dignity and socio-economic justice.
In the second part I
attempt to provide answers to the question:"
How can we order the modern world so that
we may all live well in a world that is
just, free and prosperous?" I will
argue that the most serious challenges in
this globalising age to all transcendental
and metaphysical values spring mainly from
two sources: 1- The materialist-mechanistic
understanding of the world, with its denial
of every sort of transcendental value and
2- The existential approach, which denies
and rejects the religious and spiritual
side of ethics and moral values.
Globalisation for
the Common Good and How it all Began
From the dawn of our
creation, our ultimate desire has been to
find happiness. This desire is in the nature
of things; it is common to all of us, at
all times, and in all places. Nature, the
material of the universe, is modified by
us to create wealth so that this desire
may be satisfied.
Today, at the dawn of
the Third Millennium, our civilisation has
scored its greatest successes in the material
sciences. Our glory is the willing application
of these achievements to daily life: they
have brought us enormous benefits. However,
in our understanding of the forces governing
the relations between people in society
we have shown little aptitude.
So tragic is this failure
that we have turned the masterpieces of
the material sciences into engines of destruction
which threaten to annihilate the civilisation
which produced them. This is the challenge
of our time: we must either find the way
of truth in the government of our relations
one with another, or succumb to the results
of our ignorance.
Many philosophers and
theologians throughout history have reminded
us that there are two forces at work in
society, the material and the spiritual.
If either of these two is neglected or ignored
they will appear to be at odds with one
another: society will inevitably becomes
fragmented, divisions and rifts will manifest
themselves with increasing force and frequency.
It is clear that this
is exactly what has happened today. We have
a situation of disequilibrium and disharmony.
Only the reawakening of the human spirit,
of love and compassion, will save us from
our own worst extremes. Physical wealth
must go hand in hand with spiritual, moral
and ethical wealth.
Today, despite a five-fold
increase in economic growth and a twelve-fold
increase in global trade since the Second
World War, a massive economic inequality
exists, an 'economic apartheid', both within
and between nations. Even as it is an economic
phenomenon, globalisation is not limited
to the arena of economics and economic institutions.
Its impact is felt on political and social
institutions, as well as culture. No human
institution is impervious to it. Even religion
is challenged by it.
Globalisation has brought
prosperity and wealth to many nations and
individuals. It has brought the blessings
of science and technology to more and more
people. It has shared knowledge and information
on a scale which is beyond measure. At the
same time, it has its dark and dangerous
side.
The darkest manifestation
of globalisation is the persistence of poverty,
unemployment, and social disintegration
even as economies are being integrated in
the global economy. It is the continuing
destruction of the environment and the marginalisation
of women even as more and more wealth is
created at an unbelievable pace. Economic,
social and political injustice have accelerated
in the wake of the frenzied transactions
in global financial and trade markets. Below
I share some disturbing statistics with
you:
 |
Half
the world - nearly three billion people
- live on less than two dollars a day.
(less than a cow gets in a daily subsidy
in the EU, Japan or N.America for example.
The EU provides annualy $51 billion
in agricultural subsidy, followed by
Japan at $30 billion and the US at about
$18 billion). |
|
The
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the
poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of
the world's countries) is less than
the wealth of the world's three richest
people combined. |
|
Nearly
a billion people entered the 21st century
unable to read a book or sign their
names. |
|
Less
than one per cent of what the world
spent every year on weapons was needed
to put every child into school by the
year 2000 and yet it didn't happen.
|
|
1 billion
children live in poverty (1 in 2 children
in the world). 640 million live without
adequate shelter, 400 million have no
access to safe water, 270 million have
no access to health services. 10.6 million
died in 2003 before they reached the
age of 5. |
|
852
million people across the world are
hungry, up from 842 million a year ago.
|
|
In
essence, hunger is the most extreme
form of poverty, where individuals or
families cannot afford to meet their
most basic need for food. |
|
The
spreading HIV/AIDS epidemic has quickly
become a major obstacle in the fight
against hunger and poverty in developing
countries. |
|
Because
the majority of those falling sick with
AIDS are young adults who normally harvest
crops, food production has dropped dramatically
in countries with high HIV/AIDS prevalence
rates. |
|
In
southern Africa, close to 500,000 people
died of AIDS in 2001 alone, fuelling
a serious food crisis in 2002-2003 in
which more than 14 million people faced
hunger and starvation. |
|
Infected
adults also leave behind children and
elderly relatives, who have little means
to provide for themselves. In 2001,
2.5 million children were newly orphaned
in Southern Africa. |
|
Since
the epidemic began, 25 million people
have died from AIDS, which has caused
more than 13 million children to lose
either their mother or both parents.
For its analysis, UNICEF uses a term
that illustrates the gravity of the
situation; child-headed households,
or minors orphaned by HIV/AIDS who are
raising their siblings. |
|
42
million people are living with HIV/AIDS
in the world - 92.8 percent of them
in developing countries. 3 million are
children under the age of 15. 2.9 million
of those children live in the developing
world, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa |
In all, around the world,
inequality is increasing, while the world
is further globalising. Moreover, even in
the wealthier countries in the west, the
gap between rich and poor; have and have-nots
is growing wider by the day. In addition,
the meltdown in the value of the stock market
has left millions with no pension in their
old age. Given the continuous existence
of such levels of abject poverty everywhere,
and our inability or unwillingness to over
come it- is a true sign of a globalisation
of civilisation in denial. In this respect,
the wise words of Nelson Mandela rings true
"Overcoming poverty is not a gesture
of charity. It is an act of justice. It
is the protection of a fundamental human
right, the right to dignity and a decent
life. While poverty persists, there is no
true freedom".
In all, the globalised
world economy faces a catastrophic series
of socio-economic, political, cultural,
spiritual and environmental crises, as well
as a crisis of security, and they are all
threatening the fabric of society, and life
itself.
What are the main global
problems faced by the modern world? Abject
poverty, Aids, greed, injustice, marginalisation,
exclusion, crime, corruption, sleaze, spin,
anxiety, fear, terrorism, depression, loneliness,
mistrust, drug and alcohol abuse, intolerance,
xenophobia and environmental degradation
and destruction. Much is also amiss with
Western economics-only and value-free capitalism.
This vale-free, spirit less, loveless system
has created a world of materialism, promoting
that matter is all there is, valuing selfishness
and greed, denying the existence of all
spiritual entities, and, of course, God.
Here the wise words of St. Ignatius of Loyola
ring true: The goal of our life is to live
with God forever. God who loves us, gave
us life. Our own response of love allows
God's life to flow into us without limit.
All the things in this world are gifts of
God, presented to us so that we can know
God more easily and make a return of love
more readily. As a result, we appreciate
and use all these gifts of God insofar as
they help us develop as loving persons.
Our only desire and our one choice should
be this: I want and I choose what better
leads to the deepening of God's life in
me. More of this later.
There have been many
studies on the sorry state of our world,
on what has gone wrong. They all agree on
the role of one vital element: dishonesty
fuelled by greed. We forget at our own peril
that honesty and greed are essentially spiritual
and moral issues. They lie within the province
of religious faith, which seeks to apply
God's wisdom to the formation of moral and
spiritual values.
The greed-motivated
neo-liberal world is spinning out of control.
Perhaps it is time for us to redefine our
values. From a religious perspective the
two main problems with market capitalism
are greed and delusion. In modern economic
theory, and the kind of market it promotes,
the moral concept of greed has inevitably
been lost; 'today it seems left to religion
to preserve what is problematic about a
human trait that is unsavoury at best and
unambiguously evil at its worst'. Religious
traditions have tended to accept greed as
part of the human condition, but they have
seen a great need to control it.
This will come as no
surprise to those with a traditional orientation
to the world. By far the best critiques
of greed are provided by the established
religions, all offering a wealth of teachings
on how we should ethically and morally lead
our lives, on how we can achieve happiness
without greed or delusion.
The neo-liberal ideology
has created a globalised world in which
we have all been dehumanised, turned into
producers and consumers devoid of true spiritual
values. We have developed a junk culture
based on self-obsession and the cult of
celebrity, on shopping 'til you drop, watching
24-hour junk television and eating junk
food, all of which promote feelings of hopelessness
and helplessness as we see no alternative
to this superficial existence. In particular
there has been a marked decline in traditional
religious values. The rise in materialism
has brought a pervasive philosophical incoherence
and a scramble to pursue happiness under
false assumptions. We have produced a generation
of nihilists, forever substituting sensory
and emotional pleasure for authentic human
purpose. The absence of spirituality and
love in our globalised culture is profoundly
harmful; it has frozen our imaginations.
To reverse the crisis
we have to awaken the desire to ask deeper
questions about life and its purpose. Modern
globalised culture desperately needs a conscience;
it needs morality, ethics and spirituality.
It needs faith. Then we can make economics,
politics, business and the trend towards
globalisation more relevant and acceptable.
Many social scientists
have addressed ethics, morality and justice
but addressed them philosophically. They
have neglected the most important source
of human understanding of what is right
and wrong: religion. Philosophy can shed
the light of reason on ethical dilemmas
but it is less convincing about why we ought
to behave well. It lacks the compelling
urgency of religious faith. As it has been
observed, we are only just beginning to
understand how intimately and profoundly
the vitality of a society is bound up with
its religion. The religious impulse unifies
a society and culture. The great civilisations
of the world do not produce the great religions
as a kind of cultural by-product; in a very
real sense, the great religions are the
foundations on which the great civilisations
rest. A society which has lost its religion
and its spirituality becomes a society which
has lost its culture, and sooner or later
it will fail to exist, as did many civilisations
before it.
Why should we try to
combine religion, spirituality and economics?
Because they have a common end: that all
may live happily; it is just that they employ
different methods in order to achieve this
end. One uses the production and exchange
of goods and services, the other selfless
service, love and compassion. Religions
could - if they will speak with their original
source of inspiration - greatly contribute
towards restoring the balance between the
material and the spiritual elements and
thus show the way to live fully human lives
in a peaceful, just and sustainable society.
The ethical and spiritual
teachings of all religions and their striving
for the common good can provide us with
a clear and focused model of moral behaviour
in what we term 'the marketplace'. An overall
ethical orientation to the challenges of
daily economic activity can be related to
each of our faith traditions. In the Jewish
tradition we see the effort to balance pragmatic
considerations of economic efficiency with
ideals of interpersonal equity and social
justice. The key themes of Christian and
Islamic thought are respectively a concern
for human dignity and a concern for communal
solidarity. These three themes are not separate:
they overlap and interlock; and they are
shared by all three traditions. Together
they form an inspiring mosaic of Western
religious ethics.
The traditions of the
East have somewhat different themes from
those of the Abrahamic religions; nonetheless,
there is much that is similar. The importance
of humility and patience characterises the
Hindu view of economic life. In Buddhism,
the theme that resonates most strongly is
compassion; in Confucian thought it is reciprocity.
These, also, are not separate themes, but
overlapping and interlocked. The mosaic
they form is not sharply distinct from that
of the Western traditions. Related to the
marketplace, it would inspire businessmen
to exhibit mutual compassion, while individual
achievement would not be at the expense
of communal solidarity. Steady economic
and moral improvement would be pursued with
humility and patience. These must become
the guiding principles, the vision behind
the teachings of a new economics: the marketplace
is not just an economic sphere, 'it is a
region of the human spirit'.
In short, we are caught
in a strange world of contradiction: a world
of progress and of poverty. The poor, marginalised
and excluded, have been forgotten. However,
even those who are well off financially,
it seems, are unable to live well in human
terms. In the materialistically saturated
western world, anxiety, depression, insecurity
and real desperation are the main causes
of ill health and premature death. We were
told that economic prosperity, with its
share dividends and material comfort would
bring us happiness. What a delusion!
We need to wake up
and begin to see the bigger picture. The
only remedy, we are told by those who have
brought us all this misery to begin with,
is to strive for more of the same mores:
more economic growth, more production, more
consumption, more cost-cutting, and more
sacrifices to achieve them as they impose
harsh human and ecological costs. Who are
the people who think that all these sacrifices
- personal, family, social, cultural and
ecological - are necessary to meet their
bottom line?
It is this bottom-line mentality, so damaging
to human relationships and personal well-being
that has caused so much anger around the
world. Today, everywhere you look you see
this anger and the forces of destruction
at work: crime and the gun culture, alcohol
and drug abuse, cheap sex and human trafficking,
xenophobia and bombs - smart bombs and not-so-smart
ones, even human bombs.
Why are we doing all this to ourselves and
others? What globalisation! What shabby
custodians of God's gifts we have been!
Is this the kind of world we want or would
like to leave to our children? Is this a
world which Sa'adi, the wise Persian poet,
would have understood all those centuries
ago? His words are inscribed at the entrance
to the United Nations Secretariat in New
York:
The Children of Adam
Are limbs of one another,
In terms of Creation,
They're of the self-same Essence.
As it has been noted
time and again by so many researchers round
the world, globalisation as it is today,
has not delivered what it said it would,
because it has turned itself into an economic
only phenomenon and nothing else. It is
time to understand that global money-only
capitalism becomes corrupt without democratic
civic values and ethical restraints.
Looking at what is
being recommended, we can note that, nearly
all of the proposals on the global economy
concern the need to unleash the power of
the market, liberalise trade, deregulate
and privatise- which are all purely economic
considerations. It is as though humanity
and the environment are irrelevant except
as servants of the overarching need to expand
the global economy- as if that could satisfy
all human needs and aspirations. Material
wellbeing, economic growth and wealth creation
are important. But, to create a world of
true happiness, peace and wellbeing, wealth
must be created for a noble reason. Economics,
commerce and trade, without a true understanding
of the aspirations of the people it is affecting,
cannot bring justice to all. Social transformation
can be achieved only when unselfish love,
spirituality and a rigorous pursuit of justice
are embraced.
Before I elaborate further,
it is important for me to share with the
reader why and how my spiritual journey
began. What happened to me that while once
teaching the value-free modern economics
began to realise that neo-liberal economics
is nothing but an emperor with no clothes.
Following, is my story which is very relevant
to a better understanding of what this paper
is all about.
My Spiritual Journey
to New Discoveries:
The Story of My
Life
I was ready to tell
the story of my life
but the ripple of tears
and the agony of my heart
wouldn't let me.
I began to stutter,
saying a word here and there,
and all along I felt
as tender as a crystal
ready to be shattered
in this stormy sea
we call life.
All the big ships
come apart
board by board,
how can I survive
riding a lonely
little boat
with no oars
and no arms?
My boat was finally
broken
by the waves
and I broke free
as I tied myself
to a single board.
Though the panic
is gone,
I am now offended -
why should I be so helpless,
rising with one wave
and falling with the next?
I don't know
if I am
non-existence
while I exist
but I know for sure
when I am
I am not
but
when I am not
then I am.
Now how can I be
a sceptic
about the
resurrection and
coming to life again
since in this world
I have many times
like my own imagination
died and
been born again?
That is why,
after a long agonising life
as a hunter,
I finally let go and got
hunted down and became free
Rumi
How It All Began
I was born in Tehran,
Iran in 1952. In 1971, after finishing high
school, I came to England to further my
education. In 1974 I married my English
wife, Annie, and two years later we emigrated
to Canada. I received my BA and MA in Economics
from the University of Windsor in 1980 and
1982 respectively. We returned to England
in 1982, and in 1986 I was awarded my PhD
in Economics from the University of Birmingham.
From 1980 onwards, for
the next twenty years, I taught economics
in universities, enthusiastically demonstrating
how economic theories provided answers to
problems of all sorts. I got quite carried
away by the beauty, the sophisticated elegance,
of complicated mathematical models and theories.
But gradually I started to have an empty
feeling. I began to suspect that neo-liberal
economics was an emperor with no clothes.
What good were elegant theories, which were
unable to explain all the poverty, exclusion,
racism, corruption, injustice and unhappiness
that exist in the world?
I came to feel that
my life as a lecturer was like a make-believe
movie: sit and relax … in the end models
dreamt up by detached economists will sort
out the world's ills! My classrooms were
becoming unreal places. I began to ask fundamental
questions of myself. Why did I never talk
to my students about compassion, dignity,
comradeship, solidarity, happiness, spirituality
- about the meaning of life? We never debated
the biggest questions. Who am I? Where have
I come from? Where am I going to?
I told them to create
wealth, but I did not tell them for what
reason. I told them about scarcity and competition,
but not about abundance and co-operation.
I told them about free trade, but not about
fair trade; about GNP - Gross National Product
- but not about GNH - Gross National Happiness.
I told them about profit maximisation and
cost minimisation, about the highest returns
to the shareholders, but not about social
consciousness, accountability to the community,
sustainability and respect for creation
and the creator. I did not tell them that,
without humanity, economics is a house of
cards built on shifting sands. Where was
the economic theory that reflected my students'
real lives? How could I carry on believing
in such an unreal world? I could not go
on asking them to believe unbelievable theories
in the name of economics.
I wanted to run away
from all the white elephants: the barren
theories and models in my textbooks, the
department of economics, the MBA programme
which created managers who couldn't manage
anything. I could not carry on defending
the indefensible. How could I respect modern
economics when it had no respect for other
disciplines?
These conflicts caused
me much frustration and alienation, leading
to heartache and despair. I needed to rediscover
myself and a real-life economics. After
a proud twenty-year academic career, I resigned
from my position as lecturer and, after
a debilitating year of soul-searching, decided
that I would become a student all over again.
I would study theology and philosophy, disciplines
nobody had taught me when I was a student
of economics.
It was at this difficult
time that I came to understand that I needed
to bring spirituality, compassion, ethics
and morality back into economics itself,
to make this dismal science once again relevant
to and concerned with the common good. It
was now that I made the following discoveries:
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Economics, from
the time of Plato right through to
Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, was
as deeply concerned with issues of
social justice, ethics and morality
as it was with economic analysis.
Most economics students today learn
that Adam Smith was the 'father of
modern economics' but not that he
was also a moral philosopher. In 1759,
sixteen years before his famous Wealth
of Nations, he published The Theory
of Moral Sentiments, which explored
the self-interested nature of man
and his ability nevertheless to make
moral decisions based on factors other
than selfishness. Smith remarked that,
"To restrain our selfish, and
to indulge our benevolent affections,
constitutes the perfection of human
nature". In one passage, he said:
"What can be added to the happiness
of the man who is in health, who is
out of debt and has a clear conscience?
To one in this situation, all accessions
of fortune may properly be said to
be superfluous; and if he is much
elevated upon account of them, it
must be the effect of the most frivolous
levity." Smith was true to his
words, practiced what he preached:
he put others before him to the end,
when he died he had no money, he had
given it all away, adhering to his
benevolent affections, leading to
the perfection of human nature, exactly
as he had noted and recommended in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
In The Wealth
of Nations, Smith laid the early groundwork
for economic analysis, but he embedded
it in a broader discussion of social
justice and the role of government.
Students today know only of his analogy
of the 'invisible hand' and refer
to him as defending free markets.
They ignore his insight that the pursuit
of wealth should not take precedence
over social and moral obligations,
and his belief that a 'divine Being'
gives us 'the greatest quantity of
happiness'. They are taught that the
free market as a 'way of life' appealed
to Adam Smith but not that he distrusted
the morality of the market as a morality
for society at large. He neither envisioned
nor prescribed a capitalist society,
but rather a 'capitalist economy within
society, a society held together by
communities of non-capitalist and
non-market morality'. That morality
for Smith included neighbourly love,
an obligation to practice justice,
a norm of financial support for the
government 'in proportion to [one's]
revenue', and a tendency in human
nature to derive pleasure from the
good fortune and happiness of other
people.
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The
leading figure in the establishment
of the American Economic Association
(AEA) in 1885 was the progressive economist
Richard T. Ely. He sought to combine
economic theory with Christian ethics,
especially the command to love one's
neighbour (as did Adam Smith). He declared
that the Church, the State and the individual
must work together to fulfil the Kingdom
of God on earth. Few economists or economics
students today know much of this history:
that, for example, twenty of the fifty
founding members of the AEA were former
or practising ministers. Ely himself
was a leading member, in the 1880s,
of the Social Gospel movement; he was
better known to the American public
in this capacity than as an economist.
He believed that economics departments
should be located in schools of theology
because 'Christianity is primarily concerned
with this world, and it is the mission
of Christianity to bring to pass here
a kingdom of righteousness.' As a 'religious
subject', economics should provide the
base for 'a never-ceasing attack on
every wrong institution, until the earth
becomes a new earth, and all its cities,
cities of God.'
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The
focus of economics should be on the
benefit and the bounty that the economy
produces, on how to let this bounty
increase, and how to share the benefits
justly among the people for the common
good, removing the evils that hinder
this process.
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'Economic
rationality' in the shape of neo-liberal
globalisation is socially and politically
suicidal. Justice and democracy are
sacrificed on the altar of a mythical
market as forces outside society rather
than creations of it.
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Every
apparently economic choice is, in reality,
a social choice. We can choose a society
of basic rights - education, health,
housing, child support and a dignified
pension - or greed, pandemic inequality,
ecological vandalism, civic chaos and
social despair. Modern neo-liberal economics
ignores the first and promotes the second
path as the way to achieve economic
efficiency and growth.
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The
moral crises of global economic injustice
today are integrally spiritual: they
signal something terribly amiss in the
relationship between human beings and
God.
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Where
the moral life and the mystery of God's
presence are held in one breath - because
the moral life is the same as the mystical
life - the moral agency may be found
for establishing paths towards a more
just, compassionate and sustainable
way of living. 'Moral agency' is the
active love of creation (for oneself
as well as for other people and for
the non-human creation); it is the will
to orient life around the ongoing well-being
of communities and of the global community,
prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable;
it is the will to create social structures
and policies that ensure social justice
and ecological sustainability.
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In
contrast to this sensibility, which
weds spirituality and morality, stands
modern economics' persistent tendency
to divorce the two, in particular to
dissociate the intimate personal experience
of a close relationship with God from
public moral power.
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It
is the belief in collective responsibility
and collective endeavour that allows
individual freedom to flourish. This
can only be realised when we commit
ourselves to
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There
are three justifications for the common
good which are not commonly discussed
in economics:
- Human beings
need human contact, or sociability.
The quality of that interaction
is important, quite apart from any
material benefits it may bring.
- Human beings
are formed in the community - their
education and training in virtue
(their preferences) are elements
of the common good.
- 3A healthy
love for the common good is a necessary
component of a fully developed personality.
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The
marketplace is not just an economic
sphere, 'it is a region of the human
spirit'. Profound economic questions
are divine in nature; in contrast to
what is assumed today, they should be
concerned with the world of the heart
and spirit. Although self-interest is
an important source of human motivation,
driving the decisions we make in the
marketplace every day, those decisions
nevertheless have a moral, ethical and
spiritual content, because each decision
we make affects not only ourselves but
others too. We must combine the need
for economic efficiency with the need
for social justice and environmental
sustainability.
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The
greatest achievement of modern globalisation
will eventually come to be seen as the
opening up of possibilities to build
a humane and spiritually enriched globalised
world through the universalising and
globalising of compassion. But for 'others'
to become 'us', for the world to become
intimate with itself, we have to get
to know each other better than we do
now. Prejudices have to disappear: we
have to see that the cultural, religious
and ethnic differences reflect an ultimate
creative principle. For this to happen,
the great cultures and religions need
to enter into genuine dialogue with
each other.
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Finally,
today more than ever before, given the
collapse of Communism and the increasing
human and environmental cost of capitalism,
there is a pressing need for alternative
economic models. Activists are renewing
Martin Buber's search for what in 1943
he called 'a genuine third alternative
… leading beyond individualism
and collectivism, for the life decision
of future generations'. Crises for our
species such as mass starvation, Aids,
unrestrained violence and the degradation
of our biosphere - crises that transcend
economic systems, political dogmas and
national boundaries - are bringing us
face-to-face with questions about self-preservation
and self-restraint, personal and communal
responsibility, moral authority and
political power - questions that are
at the very core of our religious traditions.
If the idea of divine authority offends
contemporary sensibilities, the environmental
imperatives of creation may be seen
to be as pressing as any divine commandments.
The 'market value' of the world's great
faiths is at an all-time high in the
ongoing enterprise of human liberation.
It is time to call for a theological
economics which can bring us sustainability
for the common good. |
After concluding my
theological studies, I wrote a number of
books and articles on my newly discovered
areas of interest and founded an annual
international conference, 'An Interfaith
Perspective on Globalisation for the Common
Good', to address the problems and challenges
of globalisation not only from an economic
perspective but also from ethical, moral,
spiritual and theological points of view.
Paul Ormerod, former
Director of Economics at the Henley Centre
for Forecasting, in his book, The Death
of Economics notes that" Good economists
know, from work carried out within their
discipline, that the foundations of their
subject are virtually non-existent…Conventional
economics offer prescriptions for the problems
of inflation and unemployment which are
at best misleading and at worst dangerously
wrong…Despite its powerful influence
on public life, its achievements are as
limited as those of pre-Newtonian physics…it
is to argue that conventional economics
offers a very misleading view of how the
world actually operates, and it needs to
be replaced".
An equally accomplished
economist, Mark Lutz, in his book, Economics
for the Common Good, observes that "Modern
economics is the science of self-interest,
of how to best accommodate individual behavior
by means of markets and the commodification
of human relations…In this economic
world view, the traditional human faculty
of reason gets short-changed and degraded
to act as the servant of sensory desires.
There is no room for logic of human values
and rationally founded ethics. Human aspirations
are watered down to skillful shopping behavior
and channeled into a stale consumerism.
One would think that there must be an alternative
way to conceptualize the economy".
Therefore, what is there to be done? Is
there an alternative to this selfish, self-seeking,
neo-liberal, economic/money-only globalisation?
To this end, I recommend the practical vision
and mission of Globalisation for the Common
Good. Globalisation for the Common Good
means the promotion of ethical, moral and
spiritual values - which are shared by all
religions - in the areas of economics, commerce,
trade and international relations. It emphasizes
personal and societal virtues. It calls
for understanding and collaborative action
- on the part of civil society, private
enterprise, the public sector, governments,
and national and international institutions
- to address major global issues. Globalisation
for the common good is predicated on a global
economy of sharing and community, grounded
in an economic value system whose aim is
generosity and the promotion of a just distribution
of the world's goods, which are divine gifts.
Globalisation for the
Common Good is not about charity. It is
not about collecting money. It is about
justice. To know justice and to serve it,
is to feel the pain of, and to become one
with the sufferer; is to ask fundamental
questions about the roots of injustice and
to fight for their eradication. Today's
global problems are not economic or technological
only. The solutions are not more economic
growth, privatisation or trade liberalisation.
What the world needs is a spiritual revolution,
where I, I, me, me, culture is replaced
with we and us culture. Globalisation for
the Common Good is that needed culture:
the culture of solidarity and oneness with
the poor, suppressed, marginalised and excluded.
Globalisation for the Common Good is for
the practise of Economics of Compassion,
Economics of Kindness and Economics of Solidarity.
These kinds of economics can only be practised
by people who are compassionate and kind.
Globalisation for the Common Good is the
way to build a world that is just, free
and prosperous.
THE ESSENTIAL DIMENSIONS
OF GLOBALISATION FOR THE COMMON GOOD:
The acknowledgement
of God, Ultimate Reality, or the One.
Our lives are grounded in an Ultimate Reality,
the source of the sacredness of all life
and of the spiritual power, hope, and trust
that we discover in prayer or meditation,
in word or silence, and in our striving
for just relationships with all existence.
The investment of
spiritual capital. The most powerful
way for faith and spiritual communities
to influence beliefs, norms and institutions
is through prophetic voice and public action.
Highly visible faith and interfaith affirmation
of the great spiritual truths of peace,
justice, and the sacredness of the Earth
and all life can make a tremendous contribution
to Globalisation for the Common Good. Action
and service by spiritual and faith communities
and groups can provide a vital source of
inspiration and energy for the healing of
the world.
The practice of selfless
love. The most important point of convergence
shared by the world's great spiritual traditions
is to be found in the practice and power
of selfless love for all humanity. It is
the wellspring of the best hope for a better
future.
The cultivation of
interfaith dialogue and engagement.
It is absolutely vital that religious and
spiritual communities come together with
one another in honest and open dialogue.
It is also essential that these communities
enter into dialogue with secular groups,
organizations and governments working for
a better world. Religious and spiritual
communities - in mutual respect and partnership
- must engage the critical issues that face
the planetary community as the 21st century
unfolds.
The nurturing of
cultures of peace. True cultural evolution
is perhaps best measured in the growing
rejection of violent approaches to conflict
resolution in favour of the cultivation
of the infrastructures of forgiveness, reconciliation
and peace. Our greatest contribution to
the future lies in ensuring that our children
grow to maturity in cultures of peace.
The struggle for
justice. Justice is the heart of all
creation. It is the profound feeling of
oneness with all other beings in the universe.
Today, it finds its most vital expression
in social and economic fairness, concern
for others and the vigorous defence of human
rights.
The realization of
gender partnership. Challenging the
assumptions and infrastructures of patriarchy
is essential to cultural evolution. Women
and men, living and working together in
harmony and equity, can build stronger,
more creative religious communities and
societies.
The path of sustainability.
In this rapidly changing world, our
reverence for the earth will determine the
fate of the entire community of planetary
life. This deep, visionary and unconditional
caring for what is yet to come, is the love
of life embedded in ecological sustainability.
The commitment to
service. Service is our link to spirit.
Personal action for a better world is the
discernable manifestation of the divine
in the human. The essence of service is
the grace of giving. We give because giving
is how life begins and how it continues.
This process will enhance personal responsibility
for the common good.
Globalisation for the
Common Good affirms that economics is, above
all, concerned with human well-being and
happiness in society and with care for the
earth. This cannot be separated from moral
and spiritual considerations. The idea of
a "value-free" economics is spurious.
It demonstrates a complete misunderstanding
of what it means to be a human being.
We affirm our conviction
that genuine interfaith dialogue and cooperation
is a significant way of bringing the world
together. It is indispensable to the creation
of the harmonious global culture needed
to build peace, justice, sustainability
and prosperity for all. The call for Globalisation
for the Common Good is an appeal to our
essential humanity. It engages the most
pressing concerns of peoples the world over.
Globalisation for the Common Good, by addressing
the crises that face us all, empowers us
with humanity, spirituality and love. It
engages people of different races, cultures
and languages, from a wide variety of backgrounds,
all committed to bringing about a world
in which there is more solidarity and greater
harmony. This spiritual ground for hope
at this time of wanton destruction of our
world, can help us to recall the ultimate
purpose of life and of our journey in this
world.
* Based on: Marcus
Braybrooke and Kamran Mofid, Promoting the
Common Good: Bringing Economics& Theology
together Again, (Shepheard-Walwyn, London,
June 2005). Details: http://www.commongood.info/book2005.html
Dr. Kamran
Mofid - a member of The MEJB International
Board - was awarded a doctorate in economics
from the University of Birmingham, U.K in
1986. In 2001 he received a Certificate
in Education in Pastoral Studies from Plater
College in Oxford. From 1980 onward, he
has been teaching economics, business studies,
international business, and the political
economy of the Middle East. In recent years,
Dr. Mofid has developed short courses, seminars,
and workshops on economics and theology,
the economics of the common good, spirit
in business and an interfaith perspective
on globalisation. He has been a frequent
speaker at major international conferences
in Europe, United States, Canada, Japan,
Australia, Russia, Africa and the Middle
East. Dr. Mofid's work is highly interdisciplinary,
drawing on Economics, Politics, International
Relations, Theology, Culture, Ecology and
Spirituality. Dr. Mofid's writings have
appeared in leading scholarly journals,
popular magazines and newspapers. His many
books and articles include: Development
Planning in Iran: From Monarchy to Islamic
Republic (1987); The Economic Consequences
of the Gulf War (1990); and Globalisation
for the Common Good (2002). These are
highlighted in his collaborative book, Promoting
the Common Good: Bringing Economics and
Theology Together Again: A Theologian and
an Economist in Dialogue, Rev. Marcus
Braybrooke and Kamran Mofid, Foreword by
Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford and
, Afterword by Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder
Singh, ( Shepheard-Walwyn, London, June
2005). Dr. Mofid was recently invited to
deliver two keynote lectures at Live8 Social
Issues Series in Philadelphia. In 2002 he
founded an annual international conference
"An Inter-faith Perspective on Globalisation
for the Common Good." <www.commongood.info>
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