Two Kinds of Economic Recovery

by Brian McLaren 02-10-2009

I just watched President Obama’s Indiana speech and town hall meeting from my hotel room in San Diego. I was watching on MSNBC, with Chris Matthews hosting and Pat Buchanan commenting. Pat (predictably) panned the speech, saying that people in Elkhart make RVs, and Obama’s speech failed to explain how we’d get Americans to buy RVs again. His comment, it seems to me, perfectly epitomizes an adventure in missing the point, and perfectly articulates two kinds of economic recovery.

For many people, economic recovery means “getting back to where we were a few months or years ago.” That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life.

I’d like to suggest another kind of recovery … drawing from the world of addiction. When an addict gets into recovery, he doesn’t want to go back and recover the “high” he had before, or even to recover the conditions he had before he began using drugs and alcohol. Instead, he wants to move forward to a new way of life — a wiser way of life that takes into account his experience of addiction. He realizes that his addiction to drugs was a symptom of other deeper issues and diseases in his life … unresolved pain or anger, the need to anesthetize painful emotions, lack of creativity in finding ways to feel happy and alive, unaddressed relational and spiritual deficits, lack of self-awareness, and so on.

Similarly, I’d like to suggest whenever we hear the word “recovery,” we as a nation see it not as a call to get back our old addictive high, but rather as a call to face our corporate and personal addictions, including the following:

1. Our addiction to carbon. Fossil fuels are an addictive substance. They give us speed … quick energy … serving as a kind of cultural amphetamine. Meanwhile, they toxify our environment and throw the ecosystem in which we live into dangerous imbalance.

2. Our addiction to weapons. Weapons are one of the most addictive substances possible. They give us a feeling of well-being and security, removing our feeling of fear and anxiety, much like a barbiturate. But like a drug, they make us lazy and slow — lazy and slow in the much more important work of relationship-building, justice, and peace-making, lazy in seeking the common good. And they plunge us into an addictive cycle, because if everyone in the world is getting more and more weapons, we aren’t safer … especially when increasing numbers of those weapons are nuclear, biological, and chemical.

3. Our addiction to fear. Religious leaders, media leaders, and political leaders have all discovered that you can raise quick votes, dollars, and members through the hallucinogenic stimulant of fear. By making straights afraid of gays, conservatives afraid of progressives, Christians and Jews afraid of Muslims, citizens afraid of immigrants, and vice versa, these leaders get a quick organizational high — crack for their unity and morale. But the more fear you pump into your system, the more fear you have, and pretty soon, you go from being stimulated to paranoid, seeing things that aren’t there and missing things that are. And soon after that, you move from paranoia to paralysis, leaving you in greater danger than ever.

4. Our addiction to stuff. Jesus said that a person’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of her possessions. An economy that measures growth by the number of durable goods (resources) extracted from the environment and turned into non-durable goods that are bought, used, and then thrown away into a landfill … that economy “succeeds” by turning goods into trash, and calling it success. That’s not success. We need to imagine moving beyond an extractive, consumptive economy to a sustainable economy, and beyond a sustainable economy to a regenerative economy. I believe that in God’s world, if billions can be made destroying the planet and exploiting people addictively, trillions can be made caring for the planet wisely and caring for people justly.

5. Our addiction to a single bottom line. During the president’s town hall meeting, a man from Indiana told how he started a solar-powered attic fan company, and how he chose not to ship manufacturing overseas, but instead, to provide good employment for his neighbors. That meant, he said, that he had a little less cash in his pocket … but wouldn’t you agree that being a good neighbor has a value that can’t be measured in dollars? The single bottom line of financial profit is addictive, and like an addiction, it destroys families and communities. We need to rediscover a triple bottom line — financial sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability. So we need a recovery of family values, and we also need a recovery of community values, and neighborly values, and ethical business values.

6. Our addiction to easy answers. “Government is the problem.” “Just throw money at the problem.” We can’t afford our addiction to these kinds of easy ideological slogans and facile reactive fantasies in a complex, real world. Ideology is, in many ways, a drug that substitutes the quick high of unthinking reaction for the hard work of acquiring wisdom.

So … maybe we can sabotage our addictive tendencies by letting the word “recovery” have a meaning that wakes us up rather than drugs us into the comfortable, dreamy, half-awareness in which we have lived for too long. That’s my hope and prayer. (For more on this, see my book Everything Must Change.)

Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is a speaker and author, most recently of Everything Must Change and Finding Our Way Again.

Categories: Economics

RV

i hope it as easy how i read it...

RV Reviews

it just takes a good citizzen for a peace living...

RV

What are your thought's on the recent Health Care Summit?

jrz715

"6. Our addiction to easy answers. “Government is the problem.” “Just throw money at the problem.” We can’t afford our addiction to these kinds of easy ideological slogans and facile reactive fantasies in a complex, real world. Ideology is, in many ways, a drug that substitutes the quick high of unthinking reaction for the hard work of acquiring wisdom."

Thanks for saying this! I tend just hide behind my reactive fantasies. This is good stuff to consider.

However, I still do think we need to strive for ideals. I think Jesus commanded us too!

comment59

In my ir-responsible age of learned behavior that gave rise to uttering and edifying what I'm against, I had to learn what I am for! Other than a thin lining of suggested cure in #5, these briefs appear to sieze and embrace an addiction of what the writter is against. After digesting this writing some on the band-wagon may extol "Yea! Right on" while other cycicism rings a loud "Whatever." Then pulling the covers over thier head they mutter "what can only one person do about it", while the rest of humankind is in the great divide struggling to makle sense of what just hit 'em. As an alternative to "for more on this, see my book....", another carbon burning, virgin material or post-consumer printed manifesto to add to the rest of my stuff, consider using your much-respected, widely-published, emergent voice ring out. In the same space used for this editorial, narrate what you are for. What are you for? When a problem emerges bring a solution or, at minimum, a suggestion. Nothing can withstand the power of collective thought by thinking minds. Oh yeah, confessional prayer helps, too.

BuckeyeDon

thecommonloon:
I apologize for not replying sooner to your comments. I got caught up in the Darwin's birthday thread and didn't see your reply right away.

You make some good points, and I thank you for your insights.

Blessings,
Don

BillSamuel

I agree, Brian. Glad to see you back to a prophetic voice, after supporting someone who wants to "defend our way of life" which is exactly all the things you say. Since you campaigned for him, do you think you could talk to him about these things? The pro-consumerism, pro-militarism policies of Obama are a true disaster. He doesn't seem to have a clue as to the real problems, but is willing to mortgage the future in a futile attempt to protect the paradigms that you so eloquently tore down in Everything Must Change.

Common Loon

My point exactly. I would hope that McLaren is willing to critique the current administration when they don't live up to the ideals of God's Kingdom. So far, he still seems to write mostly about the GOP's failures and the Dems' bright spots. To be clear, I supported Obama too and I'm glad there's a new sheriff in town. My concern is that McLaren seems unable to untangle his allegiance to Obama from his allegiance to the non-partisan Prince of Peace.

If we as the Sojourners community hope to remain truly prophetic, we need to critique both the right and the left when they stray from the Kingdom values of peace and justice. Does the issue of the Afghanistan war not matter anymore now that Bush is out? Is FOCA in line with what we like to call "a consistent ethic of human life"? Just because Obama was the best person for the job doesn't mean we have to get behind all of his policies. Many progressives are unaware of his support for capital punishment for example.

After the last eight years of failed leadership, I understand how hard it is to resist the "victory lap" urge to take few more swipes at the GOP and cable's talking heads like Buchanan. They are easy to find fault with. But if "God is not a Republican or a Democrat," this should mean that followers of Christ will not be one-sided in speaking truth to power.

BuckeyeDon

"Whose Kingdom are we trying to build here?"

Indeed. That's the question McLaren is asking, buddy.

BuckeyeDon

Well, Lord_Voldemort, I have to wonder which viewpoint will be regarded as loopy one hundred years from now.

The carbon economy is doomed. Of course McLaren doesn't know what will replace it--nobody does. But it will be replaced, one way or another. The earth itself is crying out. The only thing we know now is that we must put our minds together and work for solutions.

And yes, maybe it will mean a lowering of our standard of living. Moving from an exploitative, consumer economy to one based on stewardship and conservation might force some people to forgo their Hummers--even their RVs.

Forward-looking people are often thought of as mad by their contemporaries. But history often demonstrates that that they, of all people, were really the most sane.

grafnagle

I believe that the core addiction among Jim’s list are numbers 4 and 5. They are what make all of us (CEO’s, stockbrokers, auto repairmen, secretaries, writers…) responsible for the economic mess and therefore make all of us responsible for cleaning it up.

The government can legislate and administer the best of all possible recovery programs, but we, who have caused the mess, will not have changed – at all. So we will merely take the money, tax breaks, and other incentives and recapitulate the problem all over again. WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH OURSELVES FIRST.

We are all addicted to having money and stuff, and the proof of it is that most of us, if confronted with it, will deny our addiction. Denial is the giveaway. And then of course there are our houses and apartments full of stuff, much of which we don’t need but merely want in order to massage our egos.

When each of us begins to face our own addiction we have a chance of making a difference. The hitch is that, alcoholics and drug addicts have a place to go for recovery – there is AA and a host of treatment and recovery programs. But where do we consumer addicts go to recover?

One would think that since Jesus taught, as Brian says, that we should not be egocentrically piling-up ‘stuff’ and that instead we should be focused on the needs of others, that we addicts could simply go to any Christian congregation where treatment and recovery would be the primary service offered – and we would all get better!
Except that people in most congregations I know of are not only in deep denial themselves, but are happy enablers of other consumer addicts. It’s not a complete desert out there, though. There are exceptions: the Amish, Old Order Mennonites, and other Anabaptists, along with a number of Catholic religious orders. But that’s a tiny fraction of the Christian world and most of us would not be able to find our way to any of those, or be accepted even if we did.

We need to create Christian recovery programs – convert our contemporary congregations into halfway houses which would be capable of helping all of us to begin living simply, sustainably, and faithfully instead of being pawns of an obsessively materialistic culture based on the bankrupt and immoral neoclassical economic model.

I feel so strongly about this that I created a website, www.christiansimpleliving.org, to promote that kind of change. You can’t buy anything on the site and you can’t even donate any money there, nor do you have to join anything, but I would appreciate anyone’s ideas on how we can get together and make a difference right here in our own families and towns and perhaps even spread the idea.

Then maybe we can recover and find a real solution to the crisis.

Common Loon

A very partisan piece as usual from McLaren (with the obligatory book promo), but he does make some valid points.

1) We should not expect (or desire) to return to the level of material prosperity we once enjoyed. We are reaping what we've sown.

2) On a detached philosophical level, it would certainly be nice to be free from our collective "addiction" to carbon, weapons, fear, possessions, money and political slogans. Sign me up for the 12-step program!

On a more practical level, however, McLaren offers little substance beyond the typical jabs at conservatives for their contribution to this mess (excessive military spending, de-regulated corporate greed, fear of non-WASPs, etc). When it comes to a discussion of progressive leadership and ideas, McLaren suddenly has nothing to remotely critical say.

How long can we keep looking back at the Bush years before we have to start being prophetic in the here and now? Even if you grant that Democratic Party control is the lesser of two evils, this should not be license for progressive and moderate Christians to give them a free pass on everything. Last I checked, right-wing Republicans don't have a monopoly on the use of fear, cheap slogans or military spending.

If McLaren is so concerned about addressing the complexities of the economic crisis with "the hard work of acquiring wisdom", surely an author as accomplished as he could have at least offered some ideas on how "trillions can be made caring for the planet wisely and caring for people justly." Apart from the stimulus package, where will this kind of money come from? How realistic is it to expect businesses to survive these days with a "triple bottom line — financial sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability"?

Also, since America's "addiction to weapons" is high on his list, can we expect McLaren to use his influence to advocate against Obama's expensive Afghanistan war policy with even a fraction of his disdain for Bush's military strategy?

Whose Kingdom are we trying to build here?

jeffp

This is a clear example of politics as usual times 10. Change We Can Believe In?

jonabark

Complete balderdash. Not short lived, very hard to recover. FDR's actions created significant job growth. both then and now laissez faire capitalism led to massive crashes. These ideas are literally bankrupt.

PASTOR JEFF

Yes, I'm serious. Do you think the Federal Reserve is controlled or accountable to the U.S. government? Have you ever heard of "greenbacks"? Your statement about banks not controlling the money supply is both true and false. The Fed controls the levels by increasing or decreasing the deposits of the paper and coin generated by the mint. Thanks for the link.

Lord_Voldemort

On first glance, this article comes across as outrageously self-absorbed and smarmy. But on a second reading, it is remarkably honest and in its own way brave.

Not that I agree with a word of it: our use of oil doesn't flow from emotional neediness but from practical matters of chemistry and engineering -- distill oil into gasoline and what you have is a remarkably powerful fuel for running engines that can do useful work. One can argue about specific applications, like RVs, but if God forbid Brian McLaren should have a heart attack, a gasoline engine is -- still -- the best way to power a vehicle that will get him to the hospital quickly.

But at least McLaren is honest about what he wants, the end of the strong America of the 80s, 90s and the first few years of the 21st century, an America that had a potent military and a sophisticated market economy with energy drawn from fossil fuels. And if he is vague about just what he would replace it with, at least he doesn't pretend to be overly concerned with the prospect that material living standards might go down dramatically. What's important to him is that we be emotionally healthy.

Again, I think this is all pretty loopy. There's no guarantee that sudden poverty won't just drive us even crazier. But if Brian McLaren is a crackpot, at least he's an honest crackpot. His program, and the vision that motivates it, are right out in the open.

LV

jonabark

Lotta RVs out there for sale cheap. Not likely to change. Making RVs definitely doesn't have a bright future and no political party will change that. I Don't see too many on the road either. I think those who live in Rvs are parking as often and as long as possible.

Brian is right and both parties need to wake up. Nobody out there is going to start lending so we can start spending. The banks are bankrupt. The economic house is collapsing like a big domino game and the days of happy motoring, malls and suburban sprawl are over.

I thought the bank and Insurance bailouts were wrong. The stimulus package could help but we need major cuts and the biggest expense is the bloated military budget. The urgency of time seems more real than the bank bailouts and the Republican adjustments are really lame. Rebuilding schools is a good idea and a good training ground for an energy efficient building program, will also reduce burdens on states and localities.

It is nice to have a president who can talk and who thinks in clusters of his own paragraphs rather than repeating the last 2 sentences beamed into his hearing device. I only wish he was the radical reformer he was accused of being.

xfree9

The depression of 1920 was short-lived precisely because the government did nothing. In its first year the recession was deeper than the first year of the Great Depression, but it quickly rebounded because the market corrected itself and was not propped up by the State who thought it expedient to enact policies that otherwise couldn't be passed.

I really wish we'd read our history. I really wish we'd learn our lessons from FDR and Hoover. Both were interventionists, and both exacerbated the depression.

xfree9

Banks haven't controlled the money supply since 1912 when the Federal Reserve was established.

Try: http://www.gettomontv.com/

Quick video about the money supply (and a plug for his book which was released today).

PASTOR JEFF

It is my understanding that the US government does not print money. Why are so many saying that Congress is doing this?. Don't the banks control the money flow/supply? I give you credit, nuclear, for saying that the money is borrowed. How is it that there is all this hoopla about spending money in the USA, but not an eyebat at hundreds of billions for the "War on Terror" exacerbated by tax cuts and tax stimuli by the Rs?