The Role of Productivity in Community Success: The Jesuit-Guaraní Cultural Confluence

By David Satterlee

(Note: This material appeared previously in "Chum For Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters" by the same author.)
This historical essay, drawn from the deepest jungles of Uruguay in South America, examines the creation of a flourishing culture and economy that lasted for almost two centuries. It explores the guided development of a virtuous web of social and economic controls that mixed the philosophy of Catholic Jesuit missionaries with the traditions of the native Guaraní peoples.

An unprecedented experiment in progressive community-building may have once created that rarest of cultural treasures – a functional and stable utopia... ended only by outside pressures of conquest and exploitation.

This is a living parable for our changing world, now suffering from seemingly-intractable political, cultural and economic turmoil... and struggling to be born into a tenuous future on uncertain threads of hope and despair. Rapid introduction of technology, educational systems, health care systems and social order have succeeded before – balancing competition and consumption in a new kind of community – and might be made to work again as we seek to create our own "new economy."

In this startling synthesis, Mr. Satterlee brings together and introduces:
• historical records,
• the social theories of the Catholic Church,
• the management theories of Peter Drucker,
• the psycho-social theories of Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics Integral, and
• the economics ideas of William Lewis and the McKinsey Global Institute on “the power of productivity.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Satterlee
• Release date: Jul 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301804849

David Satterlee

David Satterlee has eclectic interests that drive the broad range of his work. His very human stories often explore developing relationships. His essays advocate for personal, family, community and societal growth. “[His writing is] humorous, bold, and adventurous all at once ... channeled through a facility for language and the music of words.” David writes to tease, teach, and entertain. He does not spoon-feed every detail but, like other good literature, leaves morsels on the table to be picked up, examined, chewed and savored.After retiring from a quarter-century of industrial control, computer and communications work in manufacturing and refining, David spent a decade as a consulting herbalist, and went on to manage media production for a Utah publisher. In all this time, He pursued a personal quest to understand why we think, believe, and act the way we do. He developed from a lay minister, through interests in meditation, natural healing, psychology, and philosophy. Now mobility and neurologically disabled, he reads, writes and hopes to make his part of the world a better place.David and Dianna live in a small, rural Iowa town deep in the middle of the middle of elsewhere. Despite being married, they are exceptionally-good friends. They recreate with cats, mostly, in a remodeled 1880s Workman's Victorian home right on Main Street. Dianna is a retired elementary school teacher with additional experience in library science, gifted/talented programs and music. She still gives music lessons and indulges a passion for writing and playing music "in the cracks." In their spare time, they entertain neighbors with their liberal and eccentric antics.

Book preview

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