The Rise of the Abundantly Absurd
In which spirituality and capitalism have a love child
In our journey to the “both/and” world, this follows last week’s theme about joining two things and making a hotchpotch, rather than an inspired solution.
On one side – Capitalism.
The goal of capitalism – make money.
Rules to achieve this – win against the competition, work hard, or take risks. (Taking risks involves starting a business, stealing, or games of chance.)
On the other side – Spirituality.
The goal of spirituality – create more love in the world.
Rules to achieve this – forgive, love, be kind; avoid things like greed, anger, envy, and narcissism. (Seven deadly sins are reasonable guidelines.)
Good aspects of capitalism – the desire to make money encourages us to work hard, get an education, learn a skill, express our creativity, and be a nice person (because if you’re not a nice person nobody will employ you or no-one will want to buy what you’re selling). Without these drivers, we might be tempted to lower our standards or laze around all day.
Bad aspects of capitalism – it preys on our fear of poverty, and our neediness for “stuff” or status. We push ourselves to work harder and win more, which means we can end up burnt out, anxious, or depressed.
Magical aspects of capitalism – when there is no longer any need, we can magically create need through the association of ideas. For example, you can spend $5 on a candle or you can spend $1,000 on a Dior candle. Both make a flattering light in the room, but the Dior candle says something about you (perhaps something along the lines of “Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste”.
Good aspects of spirituality – it makes the world a better place.
Bad aspects of spirituality – it can be turned into Religion, a whole different ballgame featuring moral superiority, the literal interpretation of metaphor, and the anthropomorphizing of Love and Grace into an authoritarian male figure who demands you kill his enemies.
Magical aspects of spirituality – miracles like healing.
*
For centuries people were capitalists six days a week and became spiritual on Sundays. But these days we’re all about integration, which has led to New Age Spirituality. It goes something along the lines of this…
Stop working so hard. You’re a human being, not a human doing.
But who will do all the jobs that nobody wants to do – the bus driving, garbage disposing, machine sewing…
There will always be people who aren’t smart enough to be highly spiritual.
But I have bills to pay.
Attract what you want through the Law of Attraction. Abundance is a spiritual principle therefore God wants you to be rich.
But this isn’t just about me, I have children to feed, clothe, and educate.
Consider the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin.
But my children don’t know how to photosynthesize.
I can teach you spiritual magic. I have high-level keys and codes.
What does this involve?
Love. Forgiveness. Gratitude. Self-love. Belief in your innocence. Connection to the source of love and creativity.
But haven’t these been freely available for over 2,000 years? Why is this so expensive?
You love money. Losing money hurts. If you pay a lot, you will actually do these things instead of talking about them.
But I don’t have that kind of money.
Ah, you don’t want to invest in yourself – a classic symptom of low self-worth. But just think, if you do my program you’ll be able to charge ten times more for your products or services. After all, that’s what I’m doing.
Hang on, isn’t this a trick?
No, it’s the magic of spirituality.
So, just capitalizing on my fears and flaws then?
Er, that’s why it’s called capitalism. The clue is in the title.
This is not to take away from the many people in the world who are doing amazing work creating services and products that care about people and the environment without ludicrous claims and ridiculous price tags.
Most truths are succinct, for example, Know thyself – as true today as when Socrates said it almost 2,500 years ago.
To this, I’d add Be savvy – know the tricks of the trade.
I’ve written before about marketing in the new age, but as far as selling is concerned, identifying a gap in the market is as relevant as ever.
Former Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts found a gap in the market. As products became more sophisticated and sterile, he realized the heart was the missing piece. He went on to coin the term Love Brand. Suddenly everyone wanted their product to be not just a brand but a Love Brand – a brand with heart. A brand that could spark unreasonable joy in the receiver. (Note this is a spark, not a flame. Sparks are short-lived, so even Love Brands can end up in landfills).
These days, as life becomes more distracting and overwhelming, it’s the soul that’s the missing piece, the gap in the market.
This means we can easily be seduced by a Soul Brand… a methodology or product to reach high states of spirituality. Words like “find your purpose, your divine power, your inner genius” are bandied around like bullet points on a shooting range.
Luckily a soul gap can be filled by simple things – a walk in nature, meditation, laughing, listening, giving, generosity of spirit, random acts of kindness.
We all have the wiring inside us to tune in to the source of miracles… to have a creative thought that could turn the ship around, turn the relationship around, turn the fear around.
A creative thought can prompt a creative action, one that could fill the gap, meet the need, calm the inner yearning.
Spirituality vs Capitalism… the conclusion.
Spirituality is a wild card, and as such it can easily trump the power of capitalism.
We need to add more jokers.
If we take the best of both worlds we get Love + Creativity. No conflict.
But having free will we are always free… to buy another program, another secret sauce recipe, or the ultimate…
Love this Eleanor!