Building on the August 2009 release of my now-bestselling business book, Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), I have spoken around the world, to everyone from heads of organizations to Heads of State, on how, in a world where we should be asking, "What do I have to give?", far too many of us are simply asking, "What do I get?"
I also outline how what we are experiencing in this global economic crisis is no normal recession, that in fact it is "not a recession, but a reset." I have written on my definition of a "reset" here in previous articles on the Huffington Post.
I have gone further to suggest that this crisis is the story not so much of the failure of free enterprise and capitalism as of the failure of greed.
Most recently, I have said that at bottom, this is not so much an economic crisis but a crisis of virtues and values, that instead of obsessing about what made this country great (the power of meaningful ideas), we have turned to simply obsessing about money. We have made the biproduct the product. No wonder we are in a world of hurt and cannot seem to find our way. We have "lost our storyline."
Having said this, I now believe I need to say a bit more.
This crisis is no normal thing. Let me explain.
Whether an individual is spiritual or not, I think we can all point to scientific evidence that our small shared planet can live without us, but we cannot live without the planet.
Having no reference of religion, we can all agree that the earth as we know it was once literally covered by water (all major world religions basically recount the same historical events, simply told from their cultural and geographic perspective and around the same period in shared world history). Christians relate to this period through the story of Noah's Ark, and it reflects a period when God Almighty simply ran out of patience with you and me, His children -- His stewards in this place.
Human beings (you and me) are essentially animals, no different from the household pet running around your feet about now. That is why a human being who has no connection with his true "humanity," as viewed through the lens of hope, inner meaning and purpose in life, can kill, rape, and maim, almost without conscience. They can do this, because at that moment, they have no conscience. They have disconnected from what makes them truly human.
The only differentiation between man and animal is that human beings have what I describe as "a spirit capable of growth," including the gift of reflection, discernment, love, and hope.
Explained through my own lens, I would suggest that God (I call Him God, but you call Him what you like; God has no self-esteem problem) gave mankind discernment and "free will" and, with those gifts, responsibilities, too -- "dominion over all things." In other words, we are here as His personal stewards in and of this world. In exchange for taking care of this planet and "the least of these God's children," we get to live an amazing, fulfilling life, like no other animal in the known world. Follow me for a moment here. I am almost there.
God does not make bad things happen. He gave us free will, and with that, I believe He anguishes with all our life choices, encouraging us to do right and pained when we chose to do wrong.
And so He does not make bad things happen, but He will help us get through bad things and bad times when we use the gifts He gave us and call on Him for a little assistance. I call this the humility of surrender. Wisdom enough to know who is really in charge around here. Stay with me just a moment longer.
Fast forward from thousands of years ago when water covered the earth, and mankind, failed as stewards, began again.
Today the world is on a bubble. If you look around, nothing is really working all that well anymore.
The environment seems to be, well, busted. Seasons -- what are those? The weather patterns are rewriting history daily.
The global economic system is, well, busted. To put it bluntly, global government spending is essentially keeping the world's economy moving (yes, even in China).
In 2008, at least twice the global economic "system" as we know it simply stopped working. The system of the last few decades -- focused on me, what do I get, and when do I get it -- is simply running out of steam. When you treat clients like a transaction rather than a relationship, and when capitalism is about making money at the expense of everything else, and when no value is given to actually creating something of value through that capitalism, then something is terribly wrong.
When shorting the stocks of otherwise perfectly healthy companies drives the economics of "a good day" on Wall Street, then something is wrong.
Making $50 million simply by shorting a company's stock is not really so much the making of wealth as the simple transfer of wealth. A market maker of that companies' stock had that $50 million yesterday, and today you have it, and the company, its shareholders, its employees, and its vendors are all in free-fall as a result.
Rome succeeded when it was about we and began to fail terribly when it became about (advancing) me. Where are we today as a society?
In short, I believe that mankind really only changes as a result of feeling some level of pain, and today, I believe that God is once again trying to help us avoid literally lighting ourselves on fire as a result of our own choices.
Let's look at just some of the global facts.
Top scientists in the world warned us decades ago about the devastating effects of what they described as a coming environmental crisis, now most commonly known as global warming. Politicians and others, playing a purely short-term, fear-based game with our children's future, rationalized it as the ravings of the irrational.
Not so very long ago the world experienced a tsunami in Asia, but smart people wrote that off as something that just happens in third-world countries.
Bringing the crisis closer to home, we have had more hurricanes in Florida over the past few years than any time in recorded history, but smart people wrote that off as simply the reality of Florida being in "Hurricane Alley."
Bringing the crisis literally to many of our doorsteps was Hurricane Katrina, which mostly affected those whom I and the Bible term "the least of these God's children." But smart people here in the United States wrote that off as a crisis of poor people, as if somehow they brought it upon themselves. Someone even jokingly said to me at the time, "Is Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi even still part of the United States?" It wasn't funny then or now; it was just sad.
That said, it spoke to something that I have felt growing for some time in the twenty-first body-culture of a country I love, and a country that frankly the world needs to one day lead again.
It spoke to something much more powerful and insidious than what even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and my personal hero, Ambassador Andrew Young, dealt with, even in the midst of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. Dr. King, Young, and other noted civil rights leaders of the day dealt squarely with the issues of love vs. hate, but at least they knew for the most part what they were dealing with.
The issue today is not so much an issue of love or hate but rather of radical indifference, and indifference is the death knell of the soul. When I don't care enough about you to hate you, the world is in bad shape.
Sensing this growing cancer on the spirit of a great country and her people, I launched Operation HOPE in 1992, following the Rodney King Riots in South Central Los Angeles with a series of Bankers Bus Tours. I was seeking to "re-weave the nature of community, and our utter inter-dependence," back together. Or as Dr. King once said, "The movement is about saving black men's bodies and white men's souls." What was clear then is also clear now: we are all in this together.
But we have heeded none of these messages, from Asia, to Florida, to the Gulf Coast here in the richest country in the world.
And so, unable to get a measure of our collective attention, I believe that God sent a message that, once and for all, we could all relate to, and at the same time: a global economic crisis. A crisis that hit everyone, rich and poor alike and on all six continents, at the same time.
The question before us now, is where do we go from here?
My mentor Quincy Jones, national co-chair of our 5 Million Kids initiative, tells me that "it takes 20 years to change a culture," and in the last 20 years we have all made dumb sexy. We have dumbed down and even celebrated it. There is even a multi-million dollar Diesel Jeans "Be Dumb" campaign currently being advertised throughout the whole of mainstream America, and no one has said a word about it. It is like we're saying, "Well, it's okay. It's now simply who we are." Well, I believe it is about time we make smart sexy again and take our communities and our culture back.
At every level, it is as though we have been hijacked by what I can only call thug culture, and I am not simply talking about inner-city drug dealers and gangster rap here. I am talking about everything from Wall Street to Main Street.
We are all in this together.
Rainbows After Storms
The 20th century was about the emergence of democracy all over the free world. As a result, we witnessed the visionary and inspiring emergence of leaders such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa; Gandhi in India; Michael Collins in Ireland; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, John Lewis, and Andrew Young in the southern states of America. All were after essentially after the same thing; they sought to make democracy relatable to you and me, by giving us, for example, the right to vote.
The right to vote commodified, if you will, democracy for us all. It made democracy relatable to us and empowered us to make changes in our own lives and our own communities and, in so doing, to re-write our own generation's cultural norms in the process.
Today, in the 21st century, we now arguably live in an age and an era of economics. There are more than 40 million Americans without bank accounts today, which is more Americans than there were without the ability to vote in Dr. King's 1963.
In this environment, I have said, "If you don't understand the language of money, financial literacy, and you don't have a bank account, you are nothing more than economic slave." Ambassador Young, our global spokesman at HOPE, has said, "Dr. King and I integrated the lunch counter, but we never integrated the dollar," and, "To live in a system of free enterprise and yet, not to understand the rules of free enterprise, is the essence of slavery."
Financial literacy is the new civil rights issue of our generation, and the first global silver rights empowerment tool of the next generation.
It is a global issue, and together with a radical shift of our virtues and values both backwards and then forwards, and with the launch of a global civil rights movement (defined as finally making free enterprise and capitalism work for "the least of these God's children"), we just might help save free enterprise and capitalism from itself.
As my friend and fellow Young Global Leader Matthew Bishop, editor for The Economist, writes in his new book The Road from Ruin (Crown Business), "The early American-watcher de Tocqueville observed, optimistically, that 'the greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.'" He continues, "For America, and the rest of the capitalist world, this is a moment when we need to show that we can repair our faults. This is going to require serious reflection to work out what went wrong and how to put it right, avoiding the pitfalls of returning to old orthodoxies. This is a lot to ask.
This said, we have asked God Almighty for much more, and now it is time for us to rise to the level of real stewardship and Love Leadership that God demands, humanity deserves, and unborn generations to come, will need.
Follow John Hope Bryant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnhopebryant
John Hope Bryant has written a classic, pompous self-righteous, "God has revealed to me," promo for his book! Why do Christians keep saying that Bible stories actually happened?
Anyway I picked out few indefensible lines in your article about your book and famous friends:
The Earth was never "covered by water."
Mankind has not failed as "stewards of the planet" in the past.
Smart people never said that "tsunamis only happen in 3rd world countries."
"If you look around, nothing is really working all that well anymore." Ridiculous.
"The environment seems to be, well, busted." The global "environment?" Hunh?
"I believe that God sent a message that... we could all relate to... a global economic crisis." The global economic crisis is your god's fault? He wants what?... for us to buy your book?
What I find is interesting about all comments critical -- they focus on minute details and not the larger issue of the crisis that the world genuinely faces today. And if you don't like my answer, or solutions(s), which is fine I might add, then let me here your own. When asking for answers, this is generally where most comments go silent.
We must figure out what we are for, and not just what we are against (and to be angry, all the time).
Wish you well.
And, I guess I think that grownups who believe in Bible stories ought not use these stories when they are writing for the general public. I don't find it a "minute detail" that you believe the world was covered by water by your god, when he was angry, and use the Noah story for support that we are lousy stewards of the planet!
Congrats on blowing your credibility and contradicting yourself. There was no global flood a few thousand years ago. No reputable scientist would agree with you. The world may have been mostly covered with water a few billion years ago but nice try. Second god doesn't cause bad things to happen and then you say that he caused a global flood to wipe out the human race when we were being bad stewards? So god causing a global flood doesn't count as god "making bad things happen"? Luckily we know that it never happened but the fact that you apparently believe it did and at the same time say god doesn't make bad things happen is ridiculous. I'm also impressed at how well you've apparently managed to map the mind of god. Please provide your source as I'm sure there are others who'd like to hear from him.
God occassionally steps in, frustrated by man, to "start again." You can agree or disagree, but my question is --- I now have a sense of what you are against, but my question is what are you for?
No one ever succeeded in life, long term, becoming simply an expert in what they are against.
I am open to other solutions. Let me hear yours.
While other animals in the kingdom are capable of everything you attribute solely to humans (love, compassion, etc). What truly marks us different are the volume of our baser acts, our ability to change our world, and our creativity.
I wonder if people ever truly consider the end result of a world where god allows suffering and such as a sign they are moving away from some value. Let's say, people finally get it right. After that point, there are no more problems, no more accidents. How long before stagnation sets in?
If "bad things" or evil are a consequence of free will, then will the next existence (heaven in this case) not be a place where we have freewill? Hard to mesh. If free will is the desired position then I would have to imagine that free will would be present in heaven. Which then would imply that heaven would be subject to housing evil or "bad things." I'm guessing that doesn't go well with most believers view of heaven.
If heaven does not allow free will then anyone who extols the superiority of free will would have to admit that this existence, on earth, is preferable to heaven. Seems like another contradiction.
Perhaps though heaven is simply being the presence of our God and not truly an existence as we might imagine. Then again it begs the question of is that a preferable place to be to our current existence on earth? And if so then again why is free will held with such high accord?
The quote from the article I cite was the motivation for the ideas I presented. Simply food for thought.
The rest of your comment here is quite difficult to disagree with, mainly because of how abstract it is. As for the Chopra quote (I'm in the Michael Sherman camp, full disclosure here), I can see the beauty and hopefulness of the quote, but I also don't find much reason to take it for anything but that. A nice idea. Obviously it does take faith to believe such a concept as is presented in that quote, but I personally have found little reason to grant my faith to such a concept. Right or wrong there are many many different religious or spiritual concepts out there, all of which require some degree of faith. Some people find it easy to place their faith in certain concepts or ideas or people, some people like myself see no reason too. But what we have in common is there are concepts out there John, that you probably don't put your faith in. You find their precepts or foundations to be wrong. So how do we choose? How much material evidence is needed before one can take that "leap of faith"?
Contradictions aside I agree that "nothing is really working all that well anymore". The root of the problem is mis-guided values. We must learn to choose connection over separation, love and hope over fear. We must recognize that the earth presents us with abundant resources if we choose to use them corrrectly.
Our survival really does come down to free will and the choices we make.
Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites
"God does not make bad things happen. He gave us free will, and with that, I believe He anguishes with all our life choices, encouraging us to do right and pained when we chose to do wrong.
"And so He does not make bad things happen, but He will help us get through bad things and bad times when we use the gifts He gave us and call on Him for a little assistance. I call this the humility of surrender. Wisdom enough to know who is really in charge around here."
Sure, you can object to the "He" reference, in the same way feminists taught us that we are not all "men," even though it is customary to use that as a uniuversal. And if you think that somehow technology alone can easily remedy the downward spiral we are in, you are kidding yourself.
And if you think we are beyond needing help from some source, you have no sense of the dimensions of the problem we face. We need hope to face the future responsibly. I accept help wherever it comes from and whatever the source. This piece is filled with hopefulness.
It amazes me when I hear/read such drivel. How does anyone know God exists (outside petty human metaphors), let alone what it wants or expects.
Before anyone tells others what God wants or doesn't want or intends or doesn't intend or how it feels toward us or how it's this or that, prove it is there in the first place.
As gently alluded to in the article, yes, we're an animal species: one amongst millions of species alive today. If we realized that we are in fact full-fledged animals (without any negative connotations), maybe we would start respecting the environment on which we depend. We're made of the same DNA as all creatures and the atoms of our bodies came from the same high-mass stars. One doesn't need a deity to be spiritual in a naturalistic sense.
With respect to the environment, again, it's a matter of self-interest. But if people need faith to be motivated, we're all doomed.
Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o
God is just an infinite regress: if God created everything, what created God? And if you say He is the prime mover, then maybe the Universe is its own prime mover.
In other words, using God of the Gaps is a really unconvincing argument. It's bankrupt.
I'd like to recommend this talk by Lawrence Krauss (he speaks after Dawkins' quick intro): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo
Or just one portion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFMmzKDonRY&feature=related
There was a period when the earth was covered 98% in water...this was of course over 2 billion years ago....so There were not a lot of people around to know about it (there werent even fish yet).
Brings up another problem.....Humans are the stewards of the world? Really? We've been around for what? 300k years? Who was the steward then? Basically it is just a really confused piece, filled with a lot of incorrect statements, weird assertions, and confused logic (god sent the finance crisis?).
Its like one of those Glenn Beck rants that would take a page long essay to explain why every sentence is wrong, because it is so dense with nonsense.
His whole premise is silly, because the guy seems to be a YEC.
You lost me after that one ~ when you started describing 'emotions' to this entity, your argument collapses.
I agree about free will. With it comes accountability ~ "duh?" Too many times, "An Act of God" s been used to justify the actions of a person's 'free will' (there's where we get to the 'greed' part)
I suggest humankind is about 5 years old, playing with its 'Masters of the Universe' toys ~ manipulating those 'god heads' to suit their dreams ~ and just like a 5 year old, once the 'games' become boring, humankind moves on to the next version of *bling! "oh look! a new, improved god!"
It's time to put away childish things.
"You'll put your eye out with that" ~ mom
You don't have to (ever) agree with me, but what I do want is for individuals to think for themselves, and to figure out, "what are they are," and not simply what are they against.
Thank you
"I'm Spartacus!" ; )