Life choices - Towards real democracy and better global governance

The menu topics below provide supporting information relating to linked sections of [The Case: Life choices]

After originally setting out to learn more about how political engagement might lead to a better and more humane system through the democratic process, the ongoing personal quest has come full-circle.

The mainstream scientific consideration of morality and values was found to be dismissed as being subjective, not objectively verifiable, and only having currency at an individual level. This stance adversely affects the collective morality and ethics of the prevailing system of dark governance. This is consistent with the deeply entrenched 'amoral' [The Case] pro-economic growth agenda of the status quo, as discussed earlier.

Since human values are only deemed to have currency at an individual level, this pointed to the need to use philosophical and psychological perspectives to consider what might be achieved by individuals. The analysis is described in [Moral compass] and [Citizen action].

It is part of human nature to want more, but as Mahatma Gandhi said:

While the word 'want' can be used to refer to a basic need, or to greed, sustained excessive indulgence can gradually turn an apparent want into a need.

In Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory^hon, more actualisation correlates with meeting higher level needs in the hierarchy. More appears better; whether it is wanting more happiness, or even wanting to be more spiritual.

It seems reasonable to speculate that birds and animals might also have a needs hierarchy roughly corresponding to Maslow's basic human needs levels 1-2, and to some extent 3, but without being troubled by higher level free will issues.

Humans have evolved additional higher levels of need, which we deal with by making life choices. For an individual to effectively address any type of greed or addiction issue will imply a free will decision to commit to, and to follow through, an appropriate course of action. It should be evident that making life choices equates to exercising free will. However, this apparently common sense inference is contested by materialists on both philosophical and scientific grounds. The controversy over free will is discussed further in Free will? [Moral compass].

It seems reasonable to speculate that humans who are fortunate in having favourable circumstances and/or high capabilities, for example high ranking corporate executives, would have more opportunities to exercise free will and life choices.

Much has been written on the methodologies used by successful people, and it is to be presumed that many of the power-élites are well versed in such techniques. The (Website. The Global Information Network) is an unusual source, in that it generously provides information in the public domain which hitherto was only accessible to the extremely privileged classes. But essentially all these methods and teachings are about getting what one wants, or more accurately what one thinks one wants.

Before his Enlightenment, the Buddha (personal name Siddhattha, family name Gotama) was born a prince, and "lived in a palace with every luxury at his command" (Rahula, 1959, p.xv).

Successful people cannot be criticised for wanting more, since humans have evolved this way. But élites can be criticised for developing a power and control system which shamelessly exploits this inherent human trait of wanting more, primarily for their benefit rather than for the common good.

It is wanting too much which results in excessive consumption and contributes to unsustainability; the consequences of which could ultimately be devastating for life on earth.

In my view, if those pursuing glitzy worldly success are driving global warming, environmental unsustainability, and are involved in human activities which are incompatible with living in a biosphere, then they are part of the global problem.

(B.Alexander, 2010) argues that the fallout from global free market hypercapitalism is causing addiction and social dislocation on a vast scale. I have attributed the origin of this scourge to the cost externalisations [Power structure] inherent in corporate legislation. It could be inferred that the system of economic growth has been set up to generate addiction, which of course is very profitable for those with vested interests (TwVI). This section identifies some features of addiction in support of this inference. This possibility is discussed below.

The terminology used in the material below refers to drug addiction, but some of the terms are used more generally in this website for illustrative purposes. For example, reading the definitions, mentally replacing the word 'drug' with the word 'profit' hints at the casino-like intoxication [The Case: Life choices] which stock market traders appear to thrive on. The addiction theme also fits well with the observation that despite the seriousness of global warming, society is still so dependent on fossil fuels that the withdrawal challenge of weaning society off such dependence is daunting, etc..

The term 'drug addict' is "deemed to be value laden and judgemental"... "it is more accurate to talk about 'a drug dependent person' rather than a drug addict" ... "In 1964 the term 'drug dependence' ... was defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as: 'A state, psychic and sometimes also physical, resulting from the interaction between a living organism and a drug, characterised by behavioural and other responses that always include a compulsion to take the drug on a continuous or periodic basis in order to experience psychic effects and sometimes to avoid discomfort in its absence. Tolerance may or may not be present'".

"Within this definition there are two components" ... "Psychological dependence [is] defined as a condition in which a drug produces '..... a feeling of satisfaction and psychic drive that requires periodic or continuous administration of the drug to produce pleasure or to avoid discomfort'... "Physical dependence [is] defined as '.. an adaptive state that manifests itself by intensive disturbances when the administration of the drug is suspended... These disturbances, ie the withdrawal or abstinence syndromes, are made up of specific arrays of symptoms and signs of psychic and physical nature that are characteristic for each drug type'". (Sections within double quotes are taken from Drug use and misuse CPPE, 1998, pp.9-11).

"Tolerance [is] the increasing resistance of the body to a drug resulting in the need for increasingly large doses to achieve the required effect" (CPPE, 1998, p.132).

"Withdrawal [refers to] the physical effects seen on stopping the use of a drug and can be considered as the body's reaction to the sudden lack of a drug to which it has become accustomed" (CPPE, 1998, p.10).

Life could be thought of as a succession of fleeting moments, but we do not tend to think much about what led to any given moment, unless it happens to be 'life-changing'.

For most of the time our conscious thoughts are bound up with a mixture of information from memory and extrapolations forward in time. But of course we can only actually do anything now. Our lives could be thought of as a succession of now moments, whereby each moment-to-moment choice collapses the wave function, and manifests our observable/ tangible physical space-time reality.

Quantum entanglement [Moral compass]

Some of the implications of this are addressed further in [The Case: Life choices], with acknowledgements to René Descartes and (Goswami, 1995, pp.105-112) for the quotation below.

Notes: Events leading up to 'life-changing' moments

Notes: Mindful free will

A lot of intentionality on the part of the photographer was required in order to obtain the skylark photograph above, even though it only captured a fleeting moment in the bird's life. For the picture to have been obtained the bird was presumably either unaware of, or did not feel threatened by, my presence.

The above detail aims to depict a significant feature of the human condition in a simple graphic form. It was influenced by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. Maslow long recognised a dismissive attitude of mainstream science towards "mentalism" and values.

Abraham Maslow's pioneering work on human values [Moral compass].

He also identified behaviours and experiences which appear to be more spiritual in nature^mob. If it is assumed that 'more genuinely spiritual' equates to 'less selfish', then some kind of transcendence of the (separate) self ^sst would seem to be necessary, as depicted in the above image detail.

Given that humans have evolved a successful hard-wired, wanting more, psychology as a survival strategy, one might well ask why would people choose the opposite - to choose to want (or accept) less? An obvious answer would be: if to do so became a new or more urgent survival strategy. Something like this actually occurred (a new normal) during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

But in contrast to the urgency of political response to coronavirus, there is a general problem in the case of political (and public) priorities for tackling major long term human-caused problems, for example climate change. If dire consequences have to occur before the necessary lifestyle changes and reductions in consumption are implemented on a global scale, it might be too late to avoid major consequences for life as we know it.

Are we on course for a hothouse earth? [Issues]

My first encounter with the work of Abraham Maslow was while reading Up the Organisation (Townsend, 1971, pp.126-127) which cited (McGregor, 1960). Townsend's book was aimed at business people, to give them wise advice in a concise, punchy style. Townsend described man as a wanting animal, whose behaviour is determined by unsatisfied needs that he wants to satisfy, and that these needs form a value hierarchy which is internal. He described the motivational need levels in manner along the lines of:

It was discovered later that this concise description referred to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. This asserts that "...basic physiological needs must be met before people can find the energy to meet their other, higher level, needs..."...."at the apex of the hierarchy are self-actualisation needs.."..."the self-actualised human closely resembles the person who has successfully resolved Erikson's last developmental stage..."(Berger, 1991, p.47), Berger cites (Erikson, 1976).

Maslow also explored what he called "peak experiences" and "...the perception of the Being, the otherness, or the intrinsic nature of the person or thing..". This was introduced in the previous section:

Does doing the 'right thing' matter?

Does doing the 'right thing' matter? What is the 'right' thing - and right for whom? It certainly matters about what state the world is in, and it is not right that we are not getting to grips with the human-caused problems.

But the situation is not going to be remedied unless enough people care, know what to do, how to do it, and are empowered to act effectively. Being ethical and caring is not enough, when faced with the straitjacket of legislature underpinning the corporate power structure which controls our lives. It is therefore not surprising if many feel an overwhelming sense of disempowerment; rallying calls of power to the people might seem naive.

Traditional democracy is under increasing threats from numerous forms of voting system corruption. Consumer democracy, now increasingly accessed via the internet, lulls us into ever easier and more instant gratification, resulting in an increased passive dependency upon ever more products and services. We are bombarded with marketing messages about technology, deals, and packages.

In a sense, consumer culture is a form of democracy; the democracy of the market. Of course this type of 'market democracy' is only sanctioned by governments as an integral aspect of economic growth. We can have democracy [Big 3 reform] - as long as it generates economic growth.

In principle, the customer can choose whether to purchase an item. This is democratic and fair providing that: there is little wealth inequality in the society; the consumer knows what they are purchasing; and that adequate consumer protections are in place. With these preconditions, the consumer is able to choose whether or not to consume or resist the temptation to overconsume.

In practice there is significant inequality in societies, and of course the rich have more consumer choices.

Citizens are 'valued' by the status quo to the extent that we can be persuaded to overconsume and to pay our way [The Case: Power structure]. To the extent that the consumer is a player in the market system - by virtue of having sufficient disposable income - he who pays the piper calls the tune.

During the period leading up to the US presidential election of 2020, artist Grayson Perry researched a Channel 4 television 3 part series entitled Grayson Perry's Big American Road Trip. In episode 2 he describes the well-heeled well-educated typically Democrat-voting professional classes who live in nice neighbourhoods, live nice comfortable lives, and have nice well-intentioned values. He refers to this sector as liberal-élites.

This use of terminology takes the spotlight off the power-élites, who are in a different league in terms of wielding power, wealth, and control.

As the butts of Trump's populism - his targetted sector for votes - the liberal-élites are made to feel guilty for their comfortable lives; knowing about societal inequalities which they prefer to shut out rather than address. Their inaction could only help Trump. Much to the frustration of Perry, broadcast of the television series was deferred until after the election.

But any of us who consume more than we need could do more to reduce our environmental footprint.

Those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford to be consumers can choose to become more discerning in their purchases.

Becoming a discerning consumer [Citizen action]

However this does not appear to be happening on anything like the required scale from an environmental point of view. Some reasons for inaction have been considered in the context of climate denial.

Denialism [Citizen action]

From a mental health point of view, discernment is needed more than ever when browsing the internet, where social media platforms struggle to moderate uploaded content.

The toll on online content moderators

Serious commitment can be expected to include going cold-turkey for a period to become 'weaned-off' significant consumer dependencies; having to research unsavoury information about how bad things really are; and having to think more independently in order to resist the natural tendency to seek comfort from belonging to a society of less-discerning consumers.

Notes: Weaning-off from consumer dependencies

Notes: Refraining from being an overconsumer

The very ease of making on-line transactions would be nullified if consumers had to take time out to become better informed about the potential consequences of their actions. People like to just click and receive what they want, especially if it is perceived to be a 'good deal'; with no questions asked.

On a 'use it or lose it' basis, it is possible that our faculties of discernment could gradually atrophy. We will only have ourselves to blame if we do not grasp this opportunity to utilise our consumer democracy to resist the relentless erosion of human values, and the consequences thereof.

An increasing threat is posed by organised criminal activity on-line, as discussed below.

The relentless demise of the high street retail sector in favour of on-line shopping poses a significantly increased risk of an escalation in organised criminality. The convenience of a click or tap might yet be a very high price to pay.

As more products and services are purchased on-line, it will become increasingly difficult for on-line customers to discern the trustworthiness of a transaction; to know who they are buying from, and what they are buying. Meanwhile the societal trend of easy on-line transactions makes it easier and more compelling for organised criminals to operate in this cyberworld, and to become élites.

This is not reassuring. Consumer democracy is under threat, as discussed earlier, but more seriously, society as a whole is under threat if organised criminality is allowed to proliferate through our on-line purchasing choices (Anon., 2019a). It is difficult to see how this shady form of on-line retailing can be curtailed.

Commodification drives an ever broadening interpretation of the concept of 'consumer democracy'. The consumer is free to surf the internet for all manner of 'infotainment', which can include a very wide spectrum of material. Young people are being exposed a bewildering range of such material, with grossly inadequate censorship by the (commercial) social media platforms. This can result in depression, and even suicide [Power structure: Notes]. The toll on employees tasked with censoring the worst components from this proliferation of material is discussed in the next section. This form of sociological cost externalisation, including exposure to politically charged material like that described in (Theroux, 2022) and (Anon., 2020e), places increasingly difficult challenges to responsible parenting.

Most organisational goals may seem perfectly reasonable within the context of the status quo, but rather less so when questioned from viewpoints such as the ethics of: causing environmental unsustainability; weapons manufacturing/ deployment; promoting excessive consumption; promoting addictions; etc.. This type of situation resulted in a personal experience of a lack of goal congruence at work, as noted in the [Introduction] page. But since we all have to pay our bills, some level of values conflict has to be justified and tolerated by an employee.

Employer/ employee activism [Citizen action]

Conscientious objection to a professional work assignment should be addressed in the first instance by discussion with an individual's line manager. Depending upon the extent of the internal values conflict experienced by an employee, an employer may be in a position, and prepared, to reassign the employee to alternative work which reduces the values conflict. If this is not possible then the employee either has to put up with the values conflict, or find another job.

But if an employee desperately needs the remuneration from that job, then putting up with an untenable internal-values conflict can be intolerable. A modern day example of this situation is the increasing political pressure for moderation of uploaded internet content. The high price paid by some employees doing this type of work is intolerable (see the next section).

But even following some public exposure of bad practice, corporations manage to maintain a shameless stance at all times, however unethical their behaviour has been, especially the fossil fuel industry (Anon, 2022p). Their priority is to 'make the money first, and mop up some of the bad consequences once the genie is out of the bottle, if it would be bad for business and the brand not to do so'.

The job of an online moderator is necessary and worthwhile for the safety of us all. The online 'share?' culture has been promoted by some social media platforms through algorithms which optimise click-addiction for commercial reasons. When used maliciously such algorithms have resulted in a proliferation of dreadful content, which is adversely affecting the mental health of many online users. It particularly affects young people [Power structure: Notes], who would never have been exposed to such images and videos in the past. Political pressure is increasing for the social media platforms to moderate uploaded content, but still leaves it to them to define the guidelines and filtering criteria. AI may be used for this purpose; it remains to be seen whether the situation improves or not.

A BBC4 TV documentary (Anon., 2019c) describes the work of thousands of online content moderators in the Philippines. The price paid by some of these employees who have to view, assess, and allow or block vast amounts of this material every day, for the safety of the rest of us, is shocking.

One such employee soldiered on as her conscious sacrifice for the common good, despite the toll it was taking. Another young female employee became so concerned that the work was seriously affecting her mind that she had to quit.

One employee requested a transfer to a different area of work several times because he was struggling to cope. His request was ignored by his manager, and his vulnerable mental state was not picked up by the company psychologist. He took his own life, which the company tried to cover up; the final words on an internal email about it were business as usual.

Speculations on societal trends
and some possible implications for the future of 'work'

Adverse consequences arising from past cost externalisations can be expected to accumulate, and so internal-values conflicts faced by employees can only get worse. The business concept of insurance itself might collapse under the weight of relentless property damage claims arising from record-breaking intense flooding, forest fires etc.. Markets may fail as the consumer base is progressively eroded by periods in which people have little money to afford non-essentials for various reasons.

Maybe the days of overconsumption are numbered. Indeed, underconsumption is already becoming a feature of modern life, with near zero bank interest rates in the recent past. Many people are still picking-up-the-tab following the 2008 financial crash. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic resulted in a period of underconsumption, with loss of jobs in many business sectors; aviation, hospitality, retail etc.. On top of this a period of rising inflation, exacerbated by the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022 which pushed up energy costs, is likely to have further inhibited consumption. In the UK, the consequences of Brexit continue to complicate trading arrangements.

It was surmised earlier that much of the current business interest in AI and robotics is linked to an expectation of ever greater profits through employee reductions. Given that this would result in fewer people having disposable income, it is clear which sector of the global population is expecting to be the primary beneficiary of such economic growth.

It is not clear how an increasing number of long term unemployed will be treated. Perhaps the default plan is for everyone to be paid a flat subsistence income? Given the reality that people need to work for their own sense of purpose in life, are we all going to be expected to become volunteers to keep the show on the road, or for our sanity? These matters are discussed below.

This section addresses some of the implications of moving towards a different type of economy, one which is compatible with living in a biosphere. Reducing overconsumption is likely to result in a period of job losses. But for various reasons it is possible that the spectre of long term mass unemployment may happen anyway, as discussed above.

The idea of everyone being paid a universal basic income (UBI) [Big 3 reform: Notes] has been suggested as a humane solution to long term mass unemployment.

It has been concluded from the personal quest to date that it is important for an individual to engage in meaningful or purposeful activity, irrespective of whether it is paid, paid well, or unpaid. This begs the question about what each individual would find sufficiently meaningful or purposeful. But aside from this, it is contended that a 'meaningful activity' does not need to be remunerated beyond that necessary to be solvent, and in a position to adequately honour familial, social, and societal obligations.

Depending upon how societies are organised in the future, in terms of the freedom of choice individuals are given regarding meaningful activity, and on the priority given by the authorities to moving towards sustainable living within the biosphere, a UBI could lead to a golden age [Issues].

It is sobering to realise the extent to which our present dire situation was anticipated [Issues] back in 1973, and yet allowed - indeed encouraged - to develop.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this important systems understanding was capitalised upon (literally) by some people with large vested interests, to secure their own golden age - in advance by making a lot of money; and plundering virgin natural resources while they could. The phrase 'making hay while the sun shines' comes to mind, a key externalisation being climate change; despite ardent denialism by those with vested interests.

It has been argued that 'net zero by 2050' (or later) is just the latest manifestation of the élite plan.

For there to be the possibility of a new golden age, citizens will need to resist any dystopian trends, for example oppressive surveillance [Power structure] by the authorities which could be used to control citizens. For example, to carry out forced labour in return for minimal UBI subsistence payments.

It is inspiring to discover NGOs comprising groups of citizen activists who are actively engaged in resisting oppression. The Corner House is such an NGO, and provides a valuable resource by documenting their ongoing work and experience (Website. The Corner House).

Many inspirational possibilities have been proposed, covering transformations at the individual level (Cormack, 2007) to the societal (Alperovitz, 2016), (Anon., 2014a). Within a suitably enlightened global governance system, and humane corporate legislation, profoundly necessary policy decisions could be contemplated. Financial compensation scenarios such as corporate courts used by TwVI could be quashed, and constructive schemes aimed at reducing MHCPs could be established. For example, in our present situation regarding the urgent action necessary to reduce fossil fuel combustion, nations whose economies were genuinely reliant on their fossil fuels could be required to rapidly phase them out, meanwhile funds could be allocated to compensate them for a transitional period. Similarly compensation could be paid to the island-states currently suffering from the consequences of sea level rise due to climate change, which they were not responsible for.^twt Historic third world debts could be cancelled. In due course major changes to the debt-based monetary system could even be made.

There is certainly no shortage of issues requiring the meaningful engagement of global citizens.

^twt As noted earlier, at COP27 there were finally some hopeful signs of progress on this, however time will tell. In the past it has been known for promised funds to fall short, and for IMF 'development' loans with strings attached to benefit large corporations and add to developing country debt. The large land reclamation projects urgently needed by island-states could succumb to this pattern.

The modus operandi of power élites is dark governance; with apparently little qualm that their benefit is at the expense of people and the planet. Corporate, government, and military élites exercise direct power over people's lives by virtue of their roles. Many people, and much of the planet, suffer long term consequences from the inherent cost externalisations, as already discussed.

Rogue operator behaviour [Power structure]

Given such a modus operandi, it must surely follow that if an individual happens to exercise considerable power in his/her career, perhaps as a high ranking corporate executive or military officer, then if he/she is a conventionally 'good person' he/she will have a conflict of values when working. The question then arises as to how such individuals cope with this; how do they appear to be so 'thick-skinned'?

The following analysis refers to corporate executives, but with the prevalence of the revolving-door in élite circles (Rothkopf, 2008, pp.133-134, pp.149-151), it seems likely that much of the analysis will also apply to political and other élite individuals.

The late Anita Roddick, founder and head of the Body Shop International Plc, set out to run her business ethically, but her vision was massively shaken after it became a public company; later describing the initial stock market flotation as a "pact with the Devil" (Bakan, 2005, p.52).

This paragraph is my paraphrase of a part of Joel Bakan's book The Corporation which is based on an interview with Anita Roddick (Ibid., pp.51-52, pp.55-56). The double quotation marks refer to Bakan quoting Roddick. He said that she blamed the "religion of maximising profits" for business's amorality, which forces otherwise decent people to do indecent things. [Corporate culture] obliges people to compartmentalise their lives and their values. It "stops people from having a sense of empathy with the human condition"; it "separate[s] us from who we are...." "The language of business is not the language of the soul or the language of humanity," she says. "It's a language of indifference; it's a language of separation, of secrecy, of hierarchy." It "is fashioning a schizophrenia in many of us".

The double quotation marks below refer to my quoting parts of Bakan's description of an interview with 'Dr. Robert Hare, a psychologist and internationally renowned expert on psychopathy'. Bakan says that while Hare acknowledges that corporate operatives "must often manipulate and harm others in order to pursue their corporation's objectives", he "insists that they are not psychopaths"..."because they can function normally outside the corporation"..."Business people should therefore take some comfort from their ability to compartmentalize the contradictory moral demands of their corporate and noncorporate lives, for it is precisely this 'schizophrenia', as Roddick calls it, that saves them from becoming psychopaths" (Ibid., p.56).

The following section is my interpretation of this material for the purpose of this website. Not being a psychologist, a common sense, inference, and speculation approach [Inference] has been used to better understand my observations of business as usual behaviour over many years.

Adapting Robert Hare's explanation of how corporate executives normally cope with conflicted internal values, this will be categorised as a robust (type i) coping strategy, whereby :

Most corporate executives are mentally tough enough to compartmentalise their lives between working (when human values are ignored as necessary), and not working (when normal human values are applicable).

Another type of coping strategy will be denoted as ruthlessly selfish (type ii), which might be utilised sometimes :

Some individuals may find it easier (less demanding) to be more selfish; and choose to suspend their normal human values and become ruthless. In extreme cases this could lead to corruption, criminality, organised crime, and money laundering.

And ever hopeful - an open strategy (type iii):

Some might be courageous enough to be trying to relinquish their corporate life, and face the toughest challenge of all - transcending themselves. In the meantime they might attempt to transform aspects of corporate behaviour from within.

To recap, in the case of a type (i) coping strategy, it is necessary for an élite individual to effectively compartmentalise his/her life into work/ not-work aspects.^efw

^efw Having exercised free will to choose to work for a particular organisation/ corporation, in the full knowledge of how such organisations operate; noting the fact that materialists do not believe in free will.

Life choices, free will, and values [Moral compass]

On the plus side, a type (i) coping strategy is robust, glass half-full, positive, and cheerfully 'have a nice day' optimistic. But if the business activity associated with this posture is based on withheld relevant information, lies, or deceit, then it deliberately conceals conflicted internal values, and can mislead others.

Favoured approaches of business include:

^cce Carbon sequestration can work, in principle; of course it is what nature does all the time. However, when referred to in a business context, things are rarely what they seem. For example, an airline might claim that its operations are carbon neutral because it plants forests. Governments signing up to the COP climate change process are depending upon imminent and fanciful performance from yet to be developed carbon capture technology. Before accepting such claims at face value, people need to do some homework.

Most of these approaches are discussed elsewhere on the website. Some sound reasonable, and could be fair in principle, but in practice they never are because of the way business works. They amount to a smokescreen, such as 'greenwashing', where the undisclosed but mandated objective is, as always, to pursue what is best for the corporation.

From time to time revelations appear about some of the consequences of personal pressures suffered by individuals arising from extreme work assignments.

A recent television documentary series about the aftermath of the Iraq war showed harrowing interviews with several senior US military personnel. One described how they were trained to become 'killing machines'. Video footage was shown of senseless brutality towards innocent civilians. It was clear that living with such experiences afterwards unsurprisingly caused severe psychological strains (Anon., 2020a & 2020b).

But how long will take for such evidence to permanently change attitudes towards avoidance of military conflict in the first place?

As the trend towards some high profile public figures openly discussing their mental health continues, perhaps more stories will come out. Some of these might be about employees within large organisations who do the dirty work at the coal face, and who suffer the largest internal values conflicts; as in the online content moderators example. Public awareness and outrage at high-profile government and corporate figures can only get worse, as more 'chickens come home to roost' in this age of increasing problems, rising inequalities, and the ubiquity of social media.

The very affluent might even begin to feel fear that their favourable personal circumstances could be endangered as the severity of the feedback mechanisms of the biosphere they also inhabit become increasingly apparent; perhaps resulting in the collapse of their business insurance arrangements. They might recognise that their relative financial security is not actually bringing them happiness anyway.

A reality check (I) [Power structure] - for business

Under such conditions élite individuals might be keen to reduce criticism of their previous complicity by publicly choosing to direct their expertise towards the common good. There is certainly no shortage of HCPs to be addressed.

It is postulated that there are Iimits to an élite individual's capacity to tolerate internal-values conflicts, which when reached, might cause the individual to resort to a type (ii) or type (iii) coping strategy.

Notes: A price too high?

Notes: The toughest challenge of all

Bruce Alexander writes at length on the fallout from global free market hypercapitalism which is causing addiction and social dislocation on a vast scale (B.Alexander, 2010). These are sociological cost externalisations [Power structure]

From observations of some key features of dark governance, using a black-box approach [Inference], it was inferred that:

The inherent I want more tendency of human beings is formally amplified in a power structure whose Corporate Personhood legislation has built-in the ingredients for creating an addiction to power, wealth, and control.

There is an expectation that each year a corporation's profits must be bigger than those in the preceding year.

This a central tenet of economic growth. Consequently BAU has no interest in the concept of sustainable business, in the sense of just meeting the needs of its customer base year-on-year.

It can be observed that:

Success in making money at all costs tends to correlate with greed, excess, lies, deceits, lack of transparency, corruption, criminality, and ruthlessness.

It would be reassuring to believe that cases of extreme disregard for human life occur only in crime fiction thrillers.

The psychology underlying the above inferences is addressed in Man wants more and Addiction.

Of course, The Corporate Person^[PS] is a legal entity which cannot become addicted. But there is an insidious influence on those with corporate responsibilities. Some of the physiological symptoms referred to above might well be experienced by a CEO who fails to achieve the expected level of profit. Those working 24/7 on the stock market might not be immune either.

Market confidence [The Case: Life choices].

It is commonly said that 'you can't buy happiness'. The Beatles' song entitled "Can't Buy Me Love" is in a similar vein. Undaunted by such widely accepted truisms, business as usual (BAU) thrives on persuading us of the opposite. The eminent French developmental economist Serge Latouche writes "... the utilitarian reduction of happiness to pleasure, of pleasure to the satisfaction of needs, of need to a quantum of consumption, and thus finally of happiness to its money measure, has to be doubted."(Latouche, 1993, p.241)

Despite utilitarian economics, once a person's basic needs are met, having more, including 'pleasure', does not necessarily equate to more happiness. Latouche says happiness 'relates less to having than to being' (Latouche, 1993, p.241).

Life expectancy per se does not correlate strongly with income per capita above a fairly modest level (Wilkinson, 1996). Beyond a minimal level of comfort, it is generally accepted that more wealth is not necessary for well-being. Happiness is more about Being than having.

Using common sense psychology, and noting that those who deploy dark governance care more about profit than about people, it is reasonable infer that the utilitarian reduction of happiness to money referred to by Latouche is very revealing about the psychology of élite individuals who most thrive in the corporate world.

It is evident that to address the shortcomings of aggressive capitalism would require a fundamental redefinition of the corporate law which gives business its mandate. Of course this is not a new idea, but the complete absence of progress in the right direction to date is a clear measure of opposition to the notion by TwVI.

In principle, with a sufficiently enlightened global governance system in place, a new corporate legislature with ongoing maintenance of compliance could be developed. If enough global citizens were able to access real democracy, many good things might be possible:

Inter-national debts, such as those crippling the poorer countries, could be written-off.

Perhaps all outstanding (financial) debt could be written-off.

The monetary system could be reformed

Corporate legislation could be humanised, with a built-in moral compass.

In the quotation below, the author is referring to corporations. In the present context, her point that any human-made institution can be changed is especially pertinent:

"But the briefest look at their legal and internal structures shows that they are in fact merely a legal and ideological construct, organised to advance vested interests. As such, they are as vulnerable to change as any other human-made institution. The more people recognise this, the sooner we can move on" (Spencer, 2004, p.26).

But such legislative reform would take decades to develop, even if it were ever sanctioned. For such reforms to happen, citizens have to get together and stand up to TwVI. With the steady worsening of global warming, we are running out of time to act.

Notes

Life could be thought of as a succession of fleeting moments, but we do not tend to think much about what led to any given moment, unless it happens to be 'life-changing'. Then questions might be asked, such as, if X hadn't happened, then would Y have happened? An awareness of how interconnected we all are might complicate identification of the relative significance of other factors. Then if one had felt partly responsible for the occurrence of some unfortunate event, 'sharing of the burden' might be a source of comfort. If one had wanted to take credit for contributing towards some prestigious or successful achievement, then one would have to share the glory. The extent to which one's course of action was mindfully chosen would affect such feelings.

How much choice do we actually have to influence events? Much of what we do seems pre-determined: carrying out duties; meeting obligations; and honouring commitments and responsibilities. We might also be constrained or disadvantaged by our circumstances, or by our capabilities. How much time do we dissipate in non-mindfulness such as daydreaming, or perhaps just through tiredness? After making all due allowances, how much opportunity and free will do we really have?

In the time potentially available, free will mindfulness might be applied in choosing to engage in an activity requiring total absorption in relaxed concentration, such as driving a car, reading a book, or having a conversation with someone. If an activity is 'undemanding', such as making a cup of tea, it might require a special effort to be fully mindful throughout the task.

To the extent that technology can be controlled by the user and be useful, then it can be regarded as (human) value-neutral and a positive good. But if it starts to take control over the user in some way, then alarm bells should sound.

One of the insidious consequences of business as usual (BAU) is how it titillates and exploits the I want, now propensities of 'customers'. The term consumer dependency refers to a level of consumerism beyond just meeting basic needs.

Man wants more

Addiction

Smartphone addiction [Power structure]

Electrosensitivity [Power structure]

Product marketing techniques have become very sophisticated, and inevitably contribute towards some alcohol, smoking and drug dependencies. Addictions to gambling and pornography, for example, are increasingly facilitated by the ease of internet transactions.

Many other milder and less obvious habit-formations have adverse environmental effects (eg. plastic pollution, transport) and significant socio-cultural consequences (eg. fast food, tourism).

Healing addictions (see below)

Discerning consumers need to learn to resist going with the crowd, short-termism, and to better understand feedback loops, especially those occurring in consumer markets, and in natural systems.

For example, an overconsumer might previously have thought something like "It doesn't make any difference if I choose to travel by air, or not, as the aircraft is scheduled anyway". But in a consumer market, markets adapt. If more people decided not to fly so frequently, it would become uneconomic to schedule so many such flights. This actually happened during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes: [Power structure] Pithy references about huge differences in emissions between rich and poor.

The following thoughts are derived from a common sense perspective. I should state that I have no credentials in psychology or counselling.

As a generalisation, secular methods of healing aim to relieve symptoms, sometimes with unwanted side-effects apart from the financial cost, but do not necessarily deal with the underlying cause of the problem. It seems reasonable to suppose that counselling an individual about an addiction (for example smoking, drugs, gambling etc.), or providing advice and support (for example debt-counselling), is unlikely to be effective if the real source of the problem is not understood and addressed. However well-intentioned and genuine the humanitarian concern, helping by doing something rather than nothing is not necessarily better. It might be a waste of time, and/ or could even exacerbate the problem in some cases.

Whether or not an individual is undergoing some form of conventional counselling or treatment for an addiction, an appropriate meditation practice can help to dissolve the 'psychological baggage' which contributed to the problem. Such a practice can reduce craving, and lead to more equanimity.

The toughest challenge of all (see below)

Following the conflicted values and life-compartmentalisation theme, it might be inferred that high remuneration packages used to entice high calibre employees are, in part, financial compensation in advance; for future 'legal' but unsavoury business activities. Activities that will cause them to have to compartmentalise their lives; perhaps trapped by contractual obligations involving creative interpretations of 'commercial in confidence' and/or 'non-disclosure agreement' legislation.

There can be little doubt that the need for élite individuals to compartmentalise their lives can only be exacerbated if their work requires them to routinely exhibit some of the more unsavoury rogue operator behaviours characteristic of business, which are significantly contributing to major HCPs. Defensive posturing in politics, 'liddism' in military strategies (Rogers, 2000), and the use of semantic inversion in corporate PR are just a few of the signs of élite deceit.

For any normal citizen, however well-off we might be, in our heart of hearts, and however deeply we deny it, it must surely be admitted that it is difficult to be completely at peace while there other sentient beings suffering, especially if we have caused or significantly contributed to this suffering.

Furthermore, "Attempting to keep the lid on insecurity - 'liddism' - without addressing the core reasons for dissent, will not work. It is more likely to make western élite societies more vulnerable, a trend already beginning to be recognised by some military analysts"..."countering socioeconomic divisions and embracing sustainable development are actually core requirements for stable international security" (Ibid., p.10).

From a spiritual point of view, the biggest obstacle each of us have to face is to transcend her/his separate self. The more psychological baggage we have acquired in life, the harder it will be.

As previously acknowledged, I have no credentials in psychology or counselling. But at a common sense level, whether or not an individual is undergoing some form of specialist counselling or treatment it is to be expected that an appropriate form of meditation could provide a way forward, but is likely to be very difficult, and time-consuming. Those who choose this path will need to be as fully committed to dismantling their psychological baggage as they were to creating it.

Rogue operator behaviour, for example by corporate executives and others who have become addicted to power, wealth and control through over indulgence and craving ('I want/ don't want'), will generate a lot of psychological baggage.

Arrogance towards people [Power structure]

Meditation might need to be viewed as a kind of 'power, wealth and control rehab'.

The following paragraphs are reproduced from Love is the way [Being]:

The notion that human beings 'across the border' can be legitimately killed in times of war does not respect the sanctity of life ... the nation-state mindset has compromised universal truths and moral principles of major world religions. For example, the original Christian teaching "Thou shalt not kill" now means "Thou shalt not kill a human being of one's own nation-state, but in times of war it is permissible to kill a human being of the same faith from another nation-state" (Hagger, 2018b, p.94).

Democratic global governance needs to begin with more of the stance of 'hate the sin but not the sinner', and a proper respect for the sanctity of life. There should be no perception of enemies across the border. This is not to condone criminality, but to work for a system of justice which is based on love.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel/ Gaza conflict, and the Israel/ Iran tensions provide just a few examples which demonstrate just how far some of the prevailing political élites are from such a stance. International law is violated on a daily basis.

Appeals using softer UN styles of diplomacy which appeal to common humanity, or the sanctity of life, are routinely ignored.

Military training to turn people into killing machines, with the intention that they act on it, is not conducive to peaceful minds.

Notes: Non-dual meditation practice [Being]