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What is the mindset change needed to facilitate the transformation to After Capitalism? Put differently, what is the core promise of capitalism that needs to be adjusted? I submit it’s convenience. If you have the stomach for it, immerse yourself in advertising. It probably won’t take long to see that the basic promise is making your life easier. It is manipulating our generally over-worked and harried life by suggesting the life of convenience is there … if you can afford it.
The question came up during a talk on Imagining After Capitalism I recently gave to the Future of Packaging consortium. I asked the audience if they could imagine going back to their organizations and recommend shift away from convenience as the goal – sounds like heresy. What might they do instead. How about exploring a system relying on bulk foods over single service might work?
The problem with convenience is the context we are living in: it is easy not now, nor will it be easy in the emerging future. LIFE IS GOING TO BE HARD. The path to After Capitalism is going to require work!
So how do we capture the needed shift away from convenience? FROM convenience TO what? It was harder than I thought, so I posed it students and colleagues in our Foresight Activation Lab. We had fun brainstorming it: Advantage, Challenging, Character-building, Commitment, Compassionate complexity, Conscious consideration, Consideration, Conviction, Craftsmanship, Curation, Deliberate, Depth, Difficult, Diligence, Disciplined, Effectiveness, Efficacity, Efficaciousness, Effective, Effectualness, Efficacy, Empowerment, Engagement, Enrichment, Focus, Impact, Inconvenient, Intention, Intention, Intentional, Intentionality, Inventive, Just Right, Meaning, Meaningful, Mindfulness, Ownership, Participation, Purpose, Purposeful, Purposeful Action, Right, Rightness, and Stewardship. I’m leaning toward “purpose.” I like that it shifts us from a passive state, convenience, to an active one in purpose.
My only hesitation is that purpose is a bit strong for a post-capitalist world. I’m thinking of Jay Ogilvy’s “Living without a Goal.” I like that idea that it’s okay to just be or exist. However, I’m also persuaded we’re still pretty far from that. For the transition period, we need action! We need to craft this future, — there is much work to do, and it’s going to be inconvenient. — Andy Hines
This article is a wake-up call to comfort and complacency. Many organizations function like a collegial country club while lacking the drive to fulfill their strategic mission. This article serves as a wake-up call against comfort and complacency. Many organizations operate like a collegial country club, lacking the drive to accomplish their strategic mission. I appreciate Andy’s perspective here.
I would add that the bombardment of “capitalist” messaging is that we should expect to have an easy convenient life, which isn’t reflecting the context we are in now or the emerging future.
I would also add that I don’t want to be seen as saying people are lazy … it’s the imagery of the goal of convenience that I’m focusing on.