Values For a Life Economy

By Reboot the Future

"Values for a Life Economy" begins with the opening of one's heart: love, compassion, and empathy expand from within. 

We are never disconnected. Like the flapping of th

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reboot the Future
• Release date: Aug 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781739625511

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Copyright © Reboot the Future 2022. All rights reserved

ISBN: 9781739625511

First published by Reboot the Future in 2022

Reboot the Future

rebootthefuture.org

The Exchange, Somerset House, West Service Yard Goods Entrance, Victoria Embankment, London, WC2

Printed and bound in the UK by IngramSpark

Graphic’s by Nuno Ribeiro Copyright © Reboot the Future 2022

Other books by Reboot the Future include:

Imaginal Cells: Visions of Transformation

Available to purchase from:

www.rebootthefuture.org/store/products/imaginal-cells-visions-of-transformation

Rise Up to Reboot the Future

Available to purchase from:

https://globaldimension.org.uk/resources/campaign-book/

We dedicate this book to all those who remind us that a better future is possible if we treat others and the planet as we’d wish to be treated.

I dedicate this book to my family including my husband, our sons and their expanding families, our siblings and our deceased parents, as well as many friends who have taught me so much about how to love and care.

Kim Polman

For Florence, Alice and Grace, with special thanks to Hannah

Anthony Bennett

Imaginal Cells

The imaginal cell is the cell that lies innate in the caterpillar and holds the vision of the butterfly. This makes a great metaphor for what is happening in the world today.

The caterpillar gorges during its lifetime, similar to the overconsumption that much of humankind has inflicted upon itself over recent decades. Finally, the caterpillar reaches a point where it can’t eat anymore – just as the planet has reached the limit of the human overconsumption that it can support without falling into climate breakdown. At this point, the caterpillar builds its cocoon, inside which it starts to decay, perhaps as many human societies are now doing. That process activates the latent imaginal cells within the caterpillar, each of which has a different purpose, such as creating a leg, antenna, colour, or eye, of the new being that will emerge. The caterpillar’s cells start to attack the imaginal cells. The cells, used to the old way of doing things, do not like the new ways that are emerging, similar to what we see in our societies today. However, the imaginal cells emit a common frequency, which we liken to the rippling message of care created by practicing the Golden Rule. They find each other, start to cluster, and together are able to overcome the old way. As more of us begin to live by the Golden Rule, we will reach a tipping point so that the new way of living emerges just as the beautiful butterfly emerges from its cocoon, while all the different purposeful imaginal cells unite to form something new.

At Reboot the Future, we encourage people to become imaginals by living the Golden Rule. This book is a collection of ideas gathered from many conversations with imaginals: individuals who each have a different purpose but are united in one goal: to help change the world for the better.

Introduction to Values for a Life Economy

Kim Polman and Anthony Bennett

We, citizens of the world, wish to improve the state of the world, not only for humans but for all life, as a matter of urgency.

The Values for a Life Economy begin with the opening of one’s heart: love, compassion, and empathy that expand from within.

We are all connected. Like the flapping of the butterfly’s wings, what we do in our own lives affects others, even those on the other side of the planet.

The Golden Rule leads us to recognise the sacredness and fragility of the world and to treat the earth and its species with compassion. Ultimately, it leads us to promote a Life Economy – a system that works towards the wellbeing of all life on our planet.

Background

Despite growing awareness of the damage wrought upon the planet in the last 50 years, humanity has continued its aggressive, disastrous pursuit of consumerism. This has led us to a dangerous place. While manifold innovations have emerged – with many having been lifted out of poverty by economic growth, and healthcare allowing longer and more active lives – a storm has been brewing. The pandemic of 2020 has afforded us a moment to think again about the toxic systems we have developed.

When Covid hit and nations locked down one by one, people everywhere started asking many questions. Three partners, Franklin University in Switzerland, Future Food Institute in Italy, and Reboot the Future in England came together to start a series of conversations to capture the reflections, questions, hopes, fears and, more importantly, the lessons being learned.

This book is the culmination of a year of these conversations called ‘Good After Covid 19’ that began shortly after lockdown started, with the first ‘fishbowl’ being held in March 2020. The fishbowl model of conversation is a way of democratising a discussion so that everyone feels welcome to share their views and experiences. Usually, people will sit in a circle, with a few chairs in the middle. Participants take turns going into the inner circle. This style transferred well to Zoom calls. Two or three conversation starters are invited to share their ideas on a central question before everyone is invited to join.

Each online fishbowl focused on a different theme, such as the environment, health, finance, education, the arts, food and finance, asking participants what they were learning from Covid, and how they could reboot that sector. Each conversation had different participants who came from different sectors and backgrounds, young and older, students and professionals, from businesses, NGOs, governments and activist groups. Over 300 people joined from around the world, so this was a truly collective effort.

The conversations were rich and extremely thoughtful, with all participants sharing a passion for changing from the old way of doing things to a new system. Common themes emerged, such as a deep desire for less greed, less competition, more collaboration, more truthfulness, more openness, more support for all life on Earth, and more empathy and compassion. There was an urgent and passionate call for change in each sector.

This call for change had already been given impetus by the creation in 2015 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the time, there was a call for an 18th goal that would define the values behind the other 17, reasoning that without a deep understanding of why the Goals existed, they could neither be achieved nor maintained.

Later, in 2020 and early 2021, there was another call, for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the world, a plan that would be more environmentally focused, rich in technical solutions and clear on the values that would drive them. There are many names for this new order of things, for example, compassionate economy, doughnut economy, caring economy, conscious capitalism, net positive. We think Life Economy embraces all these concepts because what is really wanted is human systems that embrace and support all life, not just human life.

This call inspired the fishbowl partners to hold one last plenary conversation in March 2021 that would conclude the series of nine ‘Good After Covid 19’ conversations. Leading up