Comments on the Allegory - Coming of Age

These Comments are thoughts on The Allegory of the Three Travelers

Human beings normally go through a transition fairly early in life.  It is the point where we leave behind the care givers who saw us through our childhood.  It is the point where we face a future that will unfold based on our own choices.

Perhaps you remember the uncertainty that you had at that time.  Imagine now how that moment might be different if your care giver was different.  Imagine how that moment was for each of our three travelers.

The first traveler understands life to be a competition.  In a competition we expect that there will be winners and losers.

If you are one of the lucky ones, your care givers taught you the rules of the game and the skills it takes to play it.  How would things be different if your care giver told you that you would never amount to anything?  How would things be different if you were in foster care because your parents where in jail?  Imagine trying to play the game when you don't know the rules and don't have the skills.

When we turn our backs on the losers in the economic competition we create the second and third travelers.

I can remember that time when I transitioned out of the care of my parents.  I had no confidence in my ability to "make it" in the world.  What if I did not have a college education and a law degree?  What if no one was willing to hire me or I failed at building a law practice?

In fact the market only has a limited number of jobs.  Only some of those jobs pay a living wage.  What do we expect of people who work as hard as they can and still cannot give their children what they need to thrive?  How would you feel if there was no prospect that you would ever get ahead in life?  Perhaps you would believe that life is controlled by a powerful elite intent on holding you down.

In a different life I am afraid I might have taken on the views of the third traveler.  What if the best job you could find came with a supervisor who used that position to take advantage of you?  Is the money worth the humiliation?  I might have begun to believe that life is a war in which the victors take what they need.    

It is interesting that these three different views of life do not correspond in any way with a person's socio-economic status.  There are corporate CEOs and janitors cleaning toilets who agree that life is a competition.  I know some very comfortable people who see themselves in a struggle with a powerful elite.  Both the liquor store robber and the hedge fund manager running a ponzi scheme plan to take what they need.

These three views of life have one thing in common.  They all assume that there is not enough to go around.  What if we could heal the vessel and in that process produce enough food, shelter, learning, health, belonging and purpose for every human to thrive?

That is what we explore at the Living Systems Institute and our story, "How the Cook and the Gardener Saved the World" describes the process that can accomplish that.  Perhaps you will join me in understanding that life is a vessel that needs our attention to carry us where we want to go.

The Living Systems Institute

How the Cook and the Gardener Saved the World

Part Three: Comment on the Allegory - Repairing the Vessel
Part Four: Comment on the Allegory - Human Potential



Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 12, 2018 at 12:32 PM

    Dave - thanks for the time and thoughtfulness that was put into the Traveler Allegory. Helping each other move into a new paradigm requires focus, commitment and vision. It is the vision that will drive the first two. We are part of a living planet - all of us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Patrick T AndersonSeptember 21, 2018 at 10:17 AM

    >> They all assume that there is not enough to go around.

    Shareholders seek profit.
    But profit requires scarcity.

    Imagine a new way to invest,
    where shareholders are consumers
    who prepay for products (like crowdfunding)
    but then become the real property owners of the land and tools required for that production.

    These special consumer/owners do not buy the finished products back from themselves.

    The price each pays as a consumer is simply the costs paid as a co-owner and profit does not exist.

    ReplyDelete

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