Why ‘free markets’ often are not really free. The ‘systems trap’ of success to the successful.

I am reading a powerful and evocative short book, entitled Systems Thinking. It was authored by the late Donella Meadows, a close friend and collaborator of many years. It was edited by Dana’s former research assistant, Diana Wright and published posthumously after her death.

The current debate over health brings to mind a ‘systems trap’ Dana identifies (one of several) that she calls ‘Success to the Successful - Competitive Exclusion.’ Dana writes: (p. 127,128)

‘Using accumulated wealth, privilege, special access or inside information to create more wealthy, privilege, access or information are examples of [this archetype]’ This system trap is found whenever the winners of a competition receive, as part of the reward, the means to compete even more effectively in the future. That’s a reinforcing feedback loop, which rapidly divides a system into winners who go on winning and losers who go on losing.” The business executives about whom I wrote last evening are among the beneficiaries of this trap. Here are some other examples:

In most societies the poorest children receive the words education in the worst schools, if they are able to go to school at all. With few marketable skills, they qualify for only low paying jobs, perpetuating their poverty.

People with low income and few assets are not able to borrow from most banks. Therefore, either then can’t invest in capital improvements, or they must go to local moneylenders who charge exorbitant rates. Even when when interest rates are reasonable the poor pay them and the rich collect them.

land is held so unevenly in many parts of the world that most farmers are tenants on someone else’s land. They must pay part of their crops to the landowner for the privilege of working the land and so never are able to by lland of their own. The landowner uses the income from tenants to buy more land.

Dana does not write about health care, but it seems pretty clear that many those who are the leading charge against health care reform, using their wealth and position are not numbered among the 47 million Americans who lack health insurance, a national disgrace. This includes of course, many - not all - members of Congress. No member of Congress, of course, lacks health insurance coverage. That would be unthinkable. Like many - not all - high-level business executives they view themselves as members of a high caste elite, that is not governed by the circumstances, nor constrained by the moral precepts with which ordinary folk (the low caste and untouchables) must deal.

AN ADDITONAL THOUGHT: This blog later evoked a reflection on how to write in a way that will change people’s minds. This is something I discuss in my ‘International Development’ course. It is a challenge that reformers and spiritual leaders face. The blog I wrote was a reflection of outrage and anger, but if its goal was to transform those whom I targeted as complicit in injustice, it almost certainly did not achieve its goal. The great spiritual leaders often write that such transformations must begin with connection, forgiveness and empathy. Among leaders now living, Nelson Mandela may exemplify this best.

On forgiveness

Forgiveness has long been important to me.  I think it was brought home to me when I was doing the Est Training.  The Training  is not primarily about forgiveness but does offer guidance on how to forgive and why it is important.   For a long time a framed picture of Pope John Paul II forgiving the man who tried to kill him has graced my office.  Another framed picture shows Yassir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin together at the time the peace accords were signed.  Former President Bill Clinton is between them.  

I see forgiveness as a selfish act.  The principal beneficiary is the forgiver, himself or herself, not the one forgiven.  The latter may not even know he or she has been forgiven, or care.   Hatred or resentment is like a bag of rocks that one carries about on one’s back.  For twenty years or more my mother carried such bag on her back.  For most of that period we were estranged.  The ‘rocks’ in the bag were accumulated resentments about the way I had lived my life.  

It was not that my life was a disaster.  I was, a tenured full professor at American University with an international reputation.  One day, during one of our rare visits together, my mother and I  got into one of those pointless arguments in which parents and their adult children sometimes engage.  Suddenly the back of rocks she had been carrying since my adolescent years was unloaded - on my head.  The Est Training had taught me that such unloadings are possible and that when they do the best response is “would you be willing to forgive me.”  When I asked my mother whether she would be willing to forgive me, her response was “I don’t know.”  But she did.  After that memorable day, our twenty year estrangement ended.  

Here is a passage from Bishop Desmond Tutu I have been meaning to share.

‘Forgiveness does not mean ‘forgive and forget.”  It stares the beast in the eye, names the hurt and refuses to return it, seeking not to punish but to heal.’

And the the bushfires raged

This particularly moving passage was sent to me by a Sri Lankan friend who is now visiting in Australia.

Australia – “AND THE BUSHFIRES RAGED…

  

The bushfires continue to burn in Melbourne’s suburbs, though the worst is almost over.

 

We are left with a blackened, desolate landscape, with overwhelming grief for those who died and with the shattered lives and guilt of those who survived.

 

Why do such dreadful disasters happen?  We search for answers, but there are none.

 

As those who have suffered slowly come to terms with their pain and loss, will they, and we, find it in ourselves to forgive…?

 

Why forgive?

 

It is the hardest, but most important act of all:  As a victim – to forgive yourself for living, while your loved ones have died, your home has burned, your life’s possessions are gone.  As a volunteer, a doctor, a fire fighter – for being unable to comfort another, save a life, put out a fire.  As a person – for being unable to do more to help.

 

Can we forgive a God who wreaks such havoc on innocent people for no apparent reason?  Or the looters and opportunists who are preying on the victims?  Or the firebug who knowingly lit those fires? 

 

Are we capable of such forgiveness?

 

The tongues of orange flame leap out at us, day after day – from our TV screens, newspapers, computers – burning into our psyche, our memory. It engulfs me. I cannot watch anymore.  An ambulance screams through the city streets, on its mission of mercy.  Its piercing call cannot be ignored. The pall of grey smoke hangs heavy over the city, making it hard to breathe. And I choke, remembering.  It permeates the buildings, reminding us.  Reminding us it isn’t over yet.   

 

Perhaps it will never be, for those who’ve seen and suffered.

 

From the ruins of the fires, the grass and trees will grow tall again, the flowers will bloom. Just as they did after the deadly devastation of Hiroshima.  Or following the terrible tsunami.  Just as the flowers bloom in the fields of war.  

 

It is the first sign of hope and healing – it tells us that the time to rebuild has come.

 

Reconciliation and hope through Sri Lanka's Current Crisis

I was recently asked by the Anglican Bishop of Colombo to share my thoughts on Sri Lanka’s crisis with clergy and lay persons who are participants in the diocese’s ‘Program on Peace and Reconciliation.’ Much of my talk focused on challenges that Sri Lanka faces, drawing on my recent lectures and published work. However saying something meaningful about Reconciliation and hope was a challenge. For assistance I borrowed a King James Bible from my hostess and researched the concordance (list of topics with scriptural references).

What I found most compelling were the passages about forgiveness (there were none about reconciliation).

The gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6
• Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
• For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 6
• But love ye your enemies and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the children of the Highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
• 36. Be ye merciful as your father also is merciful.
• 37. Judge not and ye shall not be judged; condemn not and ye shall not be condemned; forgive and ye shall be forgiven.

The Gospel of Luke Chapter 23
• And when they were come unto the place which is called calvary, there they crucified him and the malfactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 2
• 9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in darkness, even until now.
• 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

Pauls Epistle to the Ephesians Chapter 4
• 31. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice
• 32. And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

I concluded my talk with the following:

About two years ago, one of my close friends, the writer Elizabeth Neeld, shared with me her new book entitled, A Spiritual Primer, a Guide to Quiet Time and Prayer. One of the meditative practices she describes begins with what is know as the prayer attributed to St. Francis. Since reading this book, I have begun most days with the St. Francis Prayer. And it is with this prayer that I should like to conclude our search for understanding of Sri Lanka’s crisis, hope and reconciliation, this evening.

There must be many among you who know this prayer and you should feel free to join me, either silently or aloud.

O Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy
O divine master, let me seek not so much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to live
For it is giving that we receive
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life

Forgive us, Lord, forgive

This evening I attended an evening worship service in the small community church near my home in the country. It was ‘A Service of Holy Eucharist from the Celtic Tradition.’ I was powerfully impacted by the ‘confession of sin’ which was a major part of the service.

Lord, we heard that you were hungry, and we did not share our food.
Lord, we heard that you were thirsty, and we kept our drink for ourselves.
Lord, we saw you as a stranger and we closed our door and our hearts.
Lord, we say you go naked and we fussed about our clothes.
Lord, we discovered you were sick and we avoided contact with you.
Lord, we heard you were in prison, and we pretended not to know you.
Lord, you made us to live in harmony, with all creation, but we have walked too heavily upon the earth and damaged the natural balance of life.
Lord, we saw your image in the world, yet we have treated our fellow creatures with contempt.
Lord, you would come to us again and again, but we are closed up in ourselves.
Creator of all, Lover of all, you have entrusted the world to our care and we have betrayed you.
Holy Wisdom, you entrusted us with the care of our neighbors and we have betrayed you.
Brooding spirit, you have entrusted your gifts into our keeping and we have betrayed you.

Forgive us, Lord, forgive.

Forgiveness

This morning, I was reading from a pamphlet of daily devotional readings, Forward Day By Day, that is distributed by the Episcopal Church to its congregations. Each reading begins with a brief passage from the Christian Bible. A commentary follows. This morning’s passage was from the fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel, verses 11-32, the parable of ‘The Prodigal Son.’ The concluding paragraph of the commentary called to mind one of my own shortcomings. I know that forgiving is important, not for the individual forgiven, but for one’s own mental and spiritual health. But deep inside, I often find it difficult, especially when I have been the object of harsh treatment by people whom I love and wish to be close to. I printed out a copy of the paragraph and posted it over my work-table as a reminder. The paragraph follows:

FORGIVENESS
I’d rather stay sheltered in my Father’s arms. My heart is too small and my arms are too heavy to be the one offering such grace. And yet we are called daily to plan ways of welcome, to be as merciful and generous as the Father, to follow our Lord into the paths of reconciliation - and ultimate rejoicing.