Citizens > Consumers: A Cultural Revolution

Someone has to be the consumer, right?

 In 2007, the first ever Iphone was released, and after a matter of years nearly all of us had immediate access to the internet. An entirely different world, millions of lifetimes worth of experiences, knowledge and opinions at our fingertips.

Despite this, a recent study shows 95% of people find phones, specifically social media not to be a source of learning, but instead a source of confusion, a threat to one's attention span and most importantly a source of distraction. 

Realistically, phones are the largest threat to our flow state; you know -  ‘getting in the zone’. Before we used to reach that uncomfortable point, give ourselves a quick temple massage (or go and make some food - depending on how motivated you were feeling there and then) and push on into the state of energised and undivided, full task immersion. Now we reach for our rectangular aluminium pacifier and trade in our own mission to engage with someone else's. An instagram fantasy; glamour, nice cars, expensive holidays, extensive friendship groups and textbook romance. Airbrushed photos, smiles that look permanent but last just a moment before the camera is removed and the shroud of false perfection melts away. A facade that is often so far from reality. Setting extraordinary expectations for ourselves with no knowledge of what steps to take next. Paralysis, hopelessness, depression & anxiety.

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Between these constructions; adverts. Relentless bombardment, laced with pretty pictures and convincing words. Luring us into purchasing products and services. Products and services that will make life easier for us, nicer for us. Or so we think. The thing is, they know how we think. They spend a year's salary on marketing, backed with phycological studies for maximum sales success. . 

The truth is, things don’t really make us happy. I mean sure, they can bring us happiness or comfort to some extent, especially if we have experienced being hard up for money before. But soon the novelty wears off and we want something else. What I'm talking about is true happiness, I mean being really really happy- at peace. All buying ‘things’ does  is scratch the itch, receiving those short lasting dopamine hits while lining someone else’s pocket with enough to buy another holiday home, or enough to feed a thousand hungry mouths, or enough to invest in a new community project. The choice is theirs.

What is really important to us?

The more I talk to people the more I start to understand how individuals are longing for a sense of community. A need to be part of something bigger. A need to socialise. To create together. To compare their human experiences. To debate; agree and disagree. To help. To be helped. To connect. To progress. 

The fact is, what capitalism values is what we; the ‘workers’, are mobilised to do more of-  harvesting and concentrating wealth. What capitalism does not value is proving harder and harder to fulfil - basic things that bring balance, creativity, community and humanity to lives.

Consider the following:

Are there any more you can think of? 

They are usually things we aren't paid for but are important all the same, arguably THE most important. 

So how can we truly preserve what matters to us? How can we integrate our most inner desires within our capitalist society? If we continue to take more than we give there will be nothing left. 

The fact is, the less we consume, the more space there will be for work that is aligned with our innate needs and wants. We won't just be working in a factory, or working behind a till, or sitting at a desk (not that there's anything wrong with these jobs, but inherently, they are jobs which can make life a little repetitive, lacking creativity or opportunity for learning) . We could be doing things like providing a more developed and effective health care service, a better regenerative farming system, more community interest projects, increased health and wellbeing services and more wholesome inclusive education for children. Investment will be put into what matters to us as long as we proclaim it.  

Demand = supply. 

Outgrowing the Consumer Cocoon

When we think of what constitutes a good citizen we often think of a person that has respect for others. Someone who is fair and kind. Someone who is hard working. Someone who takes responsibility for themselves and someone who is empathetic. Someone who recognises their truth and speaks truth with power.

It doesn't take a brain scientist to observe the absurdity of consumer culture. The truth is, the more we learn the more we understand that our lifestyles are currently leading to the violation of basic human rights globally. How can we feel like good citizens when we know our system was built around exploitation 

So how can we nurture a more holistic and sustainable mindset? Balancing the people, the planet and profit.  How can we empower ourselves to become positive change makers? 

Who wants to be a cog in someone else's flawed system, when you can make your own system? It may be hard, but so is working a job you hate for the rest of your life. 

If you know what you really want, the likelihood is many others are thinking the same thing.

So, how can we take steps toward becoming more worldly citizens? How can trade in a desire for more with the feeling of true belonging?

The First Step: Phones as a Source not a Sink

With 95% of people seeing phones as a negative influence, it is vital we start to change our perspective. 

Whilst phones can be used as a distraction, means of avoiding thinking through real life problems, they can also help us solve real life problems. Once we have learnt to moderate and filter our intake (ensuring phones are not an energy sink), we can start to understand their use as a source. Using them as a free university, if you like (saving you £35,000 - or more).

As mentioned, a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. A vast amount of courses, and not just paid courses! There is so much free content out there. Fabulous YouTube tutorials, credible books, informative websites and articles on every topic (accessible via Google Scholar). Learn to Code, learn about AI, learn history (such an important one), learn self defence, learn how to train a dog, learn how to read body language, learn a new language entirely, learn about the climate, ecosystem damage, the importance of biodiversity. Learn about the brain, learn about healthy food and healthy habits, learn about the economy and politics, learn about different cultures, the good and the bad, learn how to undo generational trauma and learn how to be a better person. 

But be sure to take your knowledge from reliable sources. Not just Karen from Facebook. Or biassed individuals or organisations with ulterior motives. Studies from credible sources. Science. Those with a neutral stance, or those with the best interest of everything and everyone at heart. Use it to your benefit. Develop your personal values and principles. Create opportunities for yourself. Stand up for what you believe in. Be kind to one another. Have understanding for one another. Help each other. 

The Second Step: Career choice

Firstly, your career is the biggest ethical choice of your life. With over 80,000 hours spent at work over a lifetime. It is hugely important that our values are integrated with our employment if we want our economy to be representative of what we value the most. Hold your bosses accountable. Have hard conversations. Have patience and understanding. Change your direction. Learn. Redefine yourself.  Transition from a consumer-focused mindset to a holistic approach that considers social, environmental, and ethical aspects.

Champion employers with good values and strong worldly visions. Those that offer cycle to work schemes, health and wellbeing services, charity partnerships and high environmental standards. 

Imagine a capitalist society that values health and wellbeing, one that offers individuals with real positive opportunities in their work lives. One that does not miss the centre mark, a persons ‘Ikigai’. One that exists in line with our common goals and values and understands its place amongst the wider system. 

The First Steps to Take When Decarbonising a Business.

Youth Advisory Boards: why should large organisations consider getting one?

Youth Advisory Boards are increasingly popular and can be seen present amongst organisations including Unicef, Local Councils and even The London Natural History Museum. 

But what’s the point?

Ideally, youth advisory boards represent diverse ages, backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. They help organisations serve the needs of future generations by giving young people a voice in decision making, helping to shape new policies and strategic direction that will directly affect the rest of our lives. 

They educate both adults and young people on the issues the youth are facing and provide opportunities for those keen to express their concerns, their hopes and their dreams. They aim to hold decision makers accountable and often help identify new priorities that are often around social and environmental justice. 

Many of us held little to no power as children. We did what we were told, learnt what we needed to and were often encouraged away from questioning what was around us too much. We grew into teenagers and began to observe complex political and economic structures, and similarly we were often taught not to discuss such controversial topics with family, friends or strangers.

Could it be that as adults, we become victims of indoctrination? Deep rooted social constructs embedded within our thinking; considered ‘the norm’, but ultimately just one of many possibilities. Are adults often less sensitive to what they observe and experience? Quick to make biassed judgements, unconsciously resistant to change? Resistance to changes which could lead to outdated procedure upgrades resulting in new and beautiful outcomes (if resourced adequately and implemented sufficiently). 

Youth Boards are a fabulous opportunity for young people, empowering them to step out of their repressed state, encouraging them to express opinions and take hold of their power as positive change makers and future leaders. 

‘Question everything, learn something & answer nothing’ Euripides.

Are youth boards what we need to encourage us to no longer accept what we cannot change, but change what we cannot accept?

A brand new in-depth blog post coming soon, watch this space:

Identifying Sector Specific Barriers to Circularity

** conducting research **

How do you Manufacture a Mindset?

A brand new in-depth blog post coming soon, watch this space:

The Increasing Importance of Holistic Perspective

Wholesome Holism

A holistic perspective is one that is characterised by the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole. A person with this perspective understands balance and often votes to take a step back and look at the bigger picture when strategizing; understanding how one system relates to the other (long term), in the hope their actions are creating a better future. 

The word Holistic is often ‘snuffed’ out by people as Illegitimate wishy-washy bullsh*t; but interestingly this term is becoming increasingly present (and normalised) amongst organisations with a visionary approach. 

What people don’t realise is that ultimately a holistic approach is the most wholesome, logical yet simple approach of them all. It’s one that strips back hundreds if not thousands of years of complex, institutional, best self interest endeavours and reveals human truth; that which we all have in common. It is the balance that we all hope for and the things that matter to us most. Our physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and financial needs.  All factored in, none neglected or pushed to the side in favour of someone else's. Holism encompasses equality and sustainability. It respects our consciousness and provides a perfect foundation for ethical growth. 

Thought:

Every year the healthcare system prescribes an increasing percentage of us with antidepressants and anxiolytics (anxiety medication) for mental health issues. They prescribe medication for cardiovascular diseases, respiratory issues and diabetes. It has become standard practice to ‘treat’ illnesses by masking the symptoms and altering our natural chemistry, rather than acknowledging the increasing toxicity of our foods, drinks and that which we inhale, we voluntarily numb ourselves to the increasingly threatening environment we are trying to live in leaving us with no other option but to dissociate. 

But why are we being numbed to the environment when the environment could simply be improved? 

A holistic approach is a preventative approach.

But why would ‘they’ encourage preventative healthcare when it has the potential to turn off their profit tap? The UK’s health care industry is worth 17.3 billion pounds. Strangely some of the top shareholders of the Covid-19 Jabs; Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca are those same shareholders who profit from Coke, Unilever, Nestle, Kelloggs. Again, these are the same shareholders who own and control a significant portion of Sky, CNN and Fox. It is up to us to take control of our own lives and create means to a better future. (More hints on how this could be achieved in Blog Post: Citizen > Consumer).

Cultural Creatives

In a book called ‘The Cultural Creatives’ written by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologists Sherry Ruth Anderson, approximately 90 million individuals are acknowledged in Europe as those working to change the world. 

The term ‘cultural creative’ is used to describe those who since about 1985 have developed beyond the standard paradigm of modernists or progressives versus traditionalists or conservatives. This collective includes many writers, artists, musicians, psychotherapists, alternative health care providers and other professionals. They combine a serious focus on their spirituality with a strong passion for social activism. From what I can understand, it seems cultural creatives are often those that work to integrate holism into society.

Their characteristics and other values can be found below:

Are you a cultural creative?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cultural_Creatives

The Power of Holism

If found, ‘perfect balance’ has the power to sustain the health and wellbeing of everything and everyone. It offers us time to relax, enabling us to spend time with those we love, allowing us to enjoy our hobbies and get creative. Simultaneously, adequate balance will support us financially, allow us to make the most of the skills we have, pave pathways for learning and progression, make room for creative expression and give us the tools we need to cope with change, boosting our confidence, benefitting our relationships and developing our sense of fulfilment. 

“It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” -Charles Darwin

Balance helps us understand reciprocity. It increases our gratitude and builds our capacity to respect and our scope for understanding one another. With increased health and wellbeing, dissociation will be reduced, increasing conscious choices and conscious community participation.

Balance is the goal. 

So what are we balancing?

Source: Resident Wellness Program — yale.edu.

Many of you will be familiar with the combination ‘mind, body & spirit’. An old concept, with a somewhat religious connotation, used to represent balance. Strangely, the diagram shown above seems to be just that of an elaborated version, and according to Wikipedia.. It is that which constitutes a best case ‘new era’.... (FYI - I do not consider myself a religious person).

Corporate Holism

Many challenges within business are a consequence of misalignment. Taking a holistic approach helps us understand the root causes of the misalignment, ensuring the proposed solution is one that targets the root, rather than targeting the response (which almost always leads to further challenges down the line).

It is no assumption that our thoughts create our habits, identity and reality which is why good health and wellbeing are vital when supporting and sustaining workforce efficiency, strong morale, a healthy team dynamic and a common vision. Holism can increase staff engagement, enhance innovation, optimise resource allocation, increase customer experience, improve resilience and enable long term success. With an individual spending an average of 80,000 hours at work over their lifetime it is important staff members are preserved and treated as humans and not just workforce.  A holistic approach happily adopts corporate social responsibility, promotes responsible practices that benefit not only the company but also the broader community and the planet.

PS. Imagine the staff you would have if everyone wanted to work for you?

After all this talk of balance, I struggle to comprehend the repeated cycle of voting in one political party at a time; when all possess different motives that alone create an unbalanced and unsustainable system, but together could bring good balance.

3 way coalition?