Energy, Money and Power

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Evolution has largely progressed by the dominance paradigm which in turn has been based on the principles of survival of the fittest or might makes right. This has created a power hierarchy in which qualities like strength, size, aggressiveness etc. dominate collective and unitive qualities like wisdom, altruism and humanism. This power hierarchy, as one of the principles of evolution, worked reasonably well for lower orders of animal life, but for the higher orders, and particularly for the evolution of the human species, it has become increasingly counterproductive.

Money and in particular currency is just a symbol or medium of exchange for energy. But in the Econocracy that rules the first world and is fast spreading across the rest of the globe, it is energy used as “power-over”!  This power-over is energy used in the dominance paradigm, to direct human labor and force things to happen in a way that the top dogs believe will best benefit them.

Can the energy of money be disassociated from power-over so that is just energy itself, free to be applied when and how it is needed? The answer is probably not, at least not without changing the nature of the dominance paradigm itself. We have to move from this dominance paradigm and its associated power hierarchy to a sapiential hierarchy.*

*A hierarchy is a vertically organized system of holons in which the whole system is directed by the uppermost holon. A power hierarchy is a hierarchy directed by the most powerful holon. Sapient means wise or knowing.  A sapiential hierarchy is a hierarchy directed by the wisest or most knowledgeable holon, i.e., the highest consciousness.

The way money is made is inseparable from its meaning

The energy of money cannot be disassociated from power-over because the way capital accrues is inseparable from the meaning of money. The ways in which capitalists and corporations profit and the meaning that money takes on create a feedback loop.  Each energizes the other in an infinite and lethal progression; so that in order to change the one you have to change the other.

If capital is the accumulation of money, and money is just a symbol for energy, then energy is capital. However, it goes deeper than that. Since money is not just energy but energy as power-over, and since this power-over is directed by human consciousness, the quality of this consciousness will ultimately determine how this energy is used, and how it will affect our fate and the ecosystem that supports us. This is why the quality of the consciousness at the top of the socio-economic hierarchy is so important; and why it is equally important to change the way capital is accrued, because this is the only way we can change the meaning of money and thus the dominance paradigm itself.

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? There is no answer which is always right.  It all depends on the way you look at it. Everything is just an element in a complex, interdependent feedback loop. But there is a center and that is consciousness. Every social system is a projection of an underlying consciousness, and consciousness is informed by every social system.

One consciousness is a feedback loop that includes the dominance paradigm, the perception of scarcity and an emphasis on individual survival.  This creates what I call selfish self-interest. Another consciousness , one much higher , is a feedback loop that includes the sapiential hierarchy, a sense of unity of all life, a spiritual connection with nature, and a perception of potential abundance.  This consciousness creates enlightened self-interest.

Selfish self-interest is only interested in numero uno and the rest of the world can “take a long walk off a short pier” as far as it is concerned! Whereas enlightened self-interest is simultaneously concerned with the thrival of the whole system – seen as a continuum from the cellular to the ecological level, not sacrificing either the individual or the human race, but seeing that that they are assembled from the cellular level, and supported and sustained by the entire ecology.

It is both self-evident and axiomatic that the feedback loop of selfish self-interest can only bring about over-consumption, overproduction, scarcity and destruction. Whereas on the other hand the feedback loop of enlightened self-interest will make a positive contribution to the humansphere at every level, and thus will create more and more abundance.

How can we change the consciousness that is at the top of the socio-economic hierarchy, by changing the way capital is accrued!  How can we change the way capital is accrued?  By redefining profit.  How can we redefine profit?  Read the Omnius Manifesto.

Jeff Eisen, Ph.D.