When you write “ Unfortunately, however, the market has its grip even on the spiritual realm, making it difficult for people to find parse the meaningful from the profit-maximising; ”
We can pause and ask further, which market has us in this profit-maximizing death grip?
A market is just a social space in which people can come together to interact transactionally.
This is an essential part of our uniquely human way of being in the world.
There are many different kinds of markets.
The marketplace of ideas, and the social spaces of civil society, including social media.
Markets for stuff: enterprise and exchange; business.
Markets for money: family & friends; church & philanthropy; taxing & spending; banking & lending; exchanges & funds; pensions & endowments.
Markets for votes: electoral politics; campaign contributions; and protests in the public square.
Only one of these many different markets is driven by profit-maxization: the exchange markets for money to finance enterprise.
That market promises liquidity to all who enter there.
To deliver on that promise, those markets need constant growth in share prices that will attract new buyers willing to buy that will allow current holders to sell.
This is the source and origin of The Growth Imperative from which the principle of profit-maximization is derived.
The Growth Imperative tells us that it is socially good to be transactionally bad; to be reductionist, extractive, externalizing, dehumanizing and uncaring.
How did we let this Imperative get us so completely within its grip?
When you write “ Unfortunately, however, the market has its grip even on the spiritual realm, making it difficult for people to find parse the meaningful from the profit-maximising; ”
We can pause and ask further, which market has us in this profit-maximizing death grip?
A market is just a social space in which people can come together to interact transactionally.
This is an essential part of our uniquely human way of being in the world.
There are many different kinds of markets.
The marketplace of ideas, and the social spaces of civil society, including social media.
Markets for stuff: enterprise and exchange; business.
Markets for money: family & friends; church & philanthropy; taxing & spending; banking & lending; exchanges & funds; pensions & endowments.
Markets for votes: electoral politics; campaign contributions; and protests in the public square.
Only one of these many different markets is driven by profit-maxization: the exchange markets for money to finance enterprise.
That market promises liquidity to all who enter there.
To deliver on that promise, those markets need constant growth in share prices that will attract new buyers willing to buy that will allow current holders to sell.
This is the source and origin of The Growth Imperative from which the principle of profit-maximization is derived.
The Growth Imperative tells us that it is socially good to be transactionally bad; to be reductionist, extractive, externalizing, dehumanizing and uncaring.
How did we let this Imperative get us so completely within its grip?
How do we set ourselves free?