Category: Resources

A mandala for our times

A mandala for our times

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth is the most important and inspiring new book that I have read this year. It delivers an informed and devastating critique of mainstream economic theory, and advocates a plethora of remedial alternatives, many of which are already gaining traction.

The eponymous doughnut defines the “safe and just space” between the basics of life (from the twelve UN 2015 Sustainable Development Goals) and the ecological ceiling comprising nine planetary boundaries (Rockström, J. et al. (2009) ‛A Safe Operating Space for Humanity.’ Nature, 461(7263): 472-475.). I had used the latter, which is curiously absent from Raworth’s bibliography, in my 2009 Diploma Thesis, Jungian Ecopsychology: Depth Psychology Meets Deep Ecology in the Anima Mundi and the Arc of Life.

Raworth radically redefines the goal of economics from (endless?) GDP growth to getting, and then staying, within the doughnut. Whether conscious or not, her choice of a circular image conveys wholeness and balance, and from a Jungian perspective is an archetypal symbol of the Self—the totality and ordering principle of the psyche. It will certainly appear, with permission, in my book. Meanwhile, here’s a really great animation:

New book recommendations

New book recommendations

Two books published this year that are definitely worth reading are Defiant Earth by Clive Hamilton and Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil (full citations in Resources).

Hamilton, a Professor of Public Ethics, describes his book as “groping towards an understanding of what it means after 200,000 years of modern humans on a 4.5 billion-year-old Earth to have arrived at this point in history, the Anthropocene.” (p.vii) His call for a “new anthropocentrism” argues that unique power brings unique responsibility but, in my opinion, goes too far in rejecting the more biocentric world view of deep ecology. According to my own thesis, this is because he doesn’t take the unconscious into account. I am nonetheless in agreement with almost all of his unflinching analysis as far as it goes, and wonder whether our differences can be attributed to the old adage “If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” In other words, Hamilton uses the tools and language of his discipline (moral philosophy), I use those of mine (depth psychology). I truly admire his courage and honesty for writing “How to finish a book like his? I don’t know; it’s too hard, too uncertain, too new.” (p.157) Perhaps my forthcoming book can help…

O’Neil, a former quant, has surely come up with one of the best titles of the year! The subtitle, “how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy” prepares the reader for a chilling exploration of the arcane world of algorithms and models, in which the latter are succinctly described as “opinions embedded in mathematics.” (p.21) This is for me a crucial observation. Among the many revelations of her survey, perhaps the most surprising and disturbing to me was her convincing demonstration that even models created with positive social intentions can, through unchecked feedback, become self-reinforcing with toxic consequences. O’Neil clearly knows her stuff, and can communicate it intelligibly. It has been said, only partly in jest, that “mathematicians assume everything except responsibility”; this book is a welcome and timely exception.