GOOD VALUE - Reflections On Money, Morality And An Uncertain World

GOOD VALUE

Reflections On Money, Morality And An Uncertain World

Stephen Green

Penguin India 2009

Pages 207  Rs 550

Where do we go from here? 

What part did we play in what went wrong? 

What do we do in the future? 

It was inevitable. This introspection. These perplexing, disturbing questions. Unbridled progress (however defined) needs ‘correction’ – to use a term from the stock market; questions need to be asked and answered.

One wouldn’t readily agree though with Stephen Green, that ‘we are at one of those moments in history when it seems as if the tectonic plates are shifting’. Alvin Toffler, much earlier, called this the ‘hinge of history’. These tectonic shifts and cardinal movements have been going on for ages, ever since the wheel was invented, through history recorded and unrecorded – through Galileo and Gautam Buddha, Jesus Christ and Einstein, and through Hitler and Stalin… old orders have changed yielding place to the new. Admittedly they were few (though far reaching); they are more palpable now with their frequency rising at a disturbing rate. Be that as it may, the need to reflect and mull over where we have reached and where we are heading has always been with us.  Attend a funeral and hear the philosophising about the ephemeral nature of human existence, the mastery of Father Time, the need for life to go on…. The current worldwide meltdown has been a strong reminder to us that, indeed, all is vanity.

And there are many asking these questions:

Arun Maira in Transforming Capitalism (2008) avers that the purpose of business is not just business – it has ultimately to be improvement in the quality of life.

Robert Reich in Supercapitalism (2008) decries the transformation of the citizen into a consumer who looks for the best deal – to his own detriment.

Rajni Bakshi in her Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom (2009)  speaks of the on-going struggle between treating the earth as an abode and as a marketplace, with a hesitant hope that the current meltdown may lead to “a healthier culture of commerce in which bazaars are conversations about not just freedom of exchange and material opportunity but also about purpose and social and moral values” – a culture beyond greed and fear, a culture not driven by limitless wants.

Stephen A Marglin in The Dismal Science (2009) attempts to understand what is lost as economic development proceeds, and concludes that what is lost is community. He further examines whether there was inevitably a trade-off between material prosperity and maintaining cultural integrity of the family or village?

David C. Korten in Agenda for a New Economy (2009) speaks of Phantom Wealth (illusory; created by inflation of asset bubbles unrelated to the creation of anything of real value or utility) and Real wealth (healthy happy children, loving families, caring communities, and a beautiful, healthy natural environment; healthy food, fertile land, pure water, clean air, caring relationships and loving parents, education, etc.).

And Ayn Rand’s warned in Anthem (1938) there is no scope for us to escape moral responsibility for wherever we have arrived at, by wailing: ‘But I didn't mean this!’"

The double-barrel word, as Green calls sub-prime (-lending), has been the symbol of the loss of easy certainties as time progresses. He refers to Chekhovian wistfulness about an illusory golden age. And the Faustian bargain. He also refers to our tendency to, and need for compartmentalisation as a refuge from the surrounding ambiguity – it enables us to simplify the rules by which we live in our different realms of life, and so avoid the moral and spiritual questions.

From The Phenomenon Of Man (de Chardin – 1955) to Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (Amartya Sen – 2006) there has been a call for recognition of the full range of links that have woven people together across divides of religion and nationality over the centuries

An interesting question that Green asks is ‘why should I bother?’ and in the process considers the ramifications of ‘corporate social responsibility’ as the raison d’etre of the company. From this he moves on to the concept of individual social responsibility which cannot be an optional extra or an adjunct to a life focused purely on work/pleasure. The responsibility involves the whole person: it cannot be limited by compartmentalisation, on discharged just by writing checks.  There is an interesting analysis of the rich young man in the New Testament which is a close equivalent of the Faustian bargain – which grants immediate and undiluted pleasure in exchange for acceptance of the consequences.  We take this option in many small ways all the time, and sometimes we justify it because we can’t bear the ambiguity of imperfection.

That Stephen Green is an ordained priest is significant; his position at the HSBC is incidental. The book is a reminder of all that we can be.