Reinventing Systems Through Cooperative Leadership

Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world It's Ryan. welcome to another episode of The Daily Stoke podcast. a year ago, back in june, twenty twenty five, I was out in LA. I was doing a talk. My wife had a little family reunion and then we swung out near Malibu to go see Rain Wilson white from the office many other wonderful shows and movies Much more philosophical than you might guess unless you've seen anything from his podcast Soul Boom or read any of his books And if you haven't read any of his books, well, I'm going to fix that for you today because I'm bringing you a chunk of his book, Soul Boom. The subtitle is Wh Weeed a spiritual Revolution and this The chapter is called the Seven Pillars of a spiritual Revolution. Why do we need a spiritual revolution? What are the pillars of that revolion And basically it's tackling this big question. like how do we build a better world becausecause it's not going to be tweaking these little things here or there. We to think about the values that O world is built around Ideally, we want to replace competition and greed and cynicism with insiration and compassion, and joy and service, or maybe even some of the stoke virtues, courage, discipline justustice is. So in this lovely little excerpt he's going to be laying out some ideas for what a kind of spiritual revolution could look like Rain's been on the Daily Stoic podcast. I think we had a great conversation, talkalking about philosophy and spirituality and stoicism. That was a two part episode. I'll link to that. And you can also listen to me on Soul booom. You can follow him on Instagram at Rain Wilson. That's two ends in Rign on Twitter at Rain Wilson or on Soul booom. The podcast is great. He's had a lot of awesome guests. I was honored to be one If you don't know who Rain Wilson is, man, what are you doing? One of the funniest comedic actors of all time And as I said Pilosopher as well. Enjoy Look, you should be able to be comfortable anywhere, but you should also be comfortable in ide your own house. Like your space should feel like you should look the way you want it to look. You should have the stuff that you want to have And that's where today's sponsor Wayfare comes in becausecause a budget doesn't need to get in the way of having all of those things. with plenty of options for every style you can imagine, you will definitely find something you like on Wayfare price you can't beat Got got a new rug for the living room on Wayfare. Now, normally rugs are just like crazy expensive and then Do I like this rug? Do I not like this rug We know we' got kids, we got a dog. We don't want to spend Ton of money, but we want something that looks good. 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That's W A Y F A I R Oh Way fair, every style, every home. This year is going to be the ten year anniversary, not just the Daistoic book dailystoke. com email, the podcast, all that stuff And I don't think we would be standing here ten years later it weren't for Shopify. Shopify hass been the back end of so many of things we've done from the New Year, New Ye challenges to The medallions to posters, even right now, if you're going to buy a signed book for me, you're going to be checking out through Shopify at dailystoke dot com or if you're buying something from Daily Dad there, or if you come to the painted porch, we even use Shopify at point of sale in the store. And if you've been sitting on a business idea, Shopify makes it easy to make that happen. You've got everything you need to start selling And Shopify handles the setup in the checkout and you can focus on growing the business. And they've got all the tools to help you with what you need, which is why Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to small businesses just getting started like Daily Stoic was not that long ago With Shopify notothing stands between your idea and real business, so go make it one Start your free trial at shopify. com slash stoic. at's Shopify. com slash stoic to start your free trial. A ten The seeven pillars of a spiritual Revolution Albert Einstein once said, We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them When I was a teenager, I had to buy my own car and as I had no money, if I wanted it to run, I had to learn how to fix it I was nineteen and working full time driving a delivery truck for Ballard Marine supply and hardware and attending the University of Washington on the side. And I bought an old Volvo for four hundred dollars It was a dilapidated piece of jonone But thankfully, it was a hardy piece of junk I affectionately called this car the Nt Burning of the witch scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail The Newt's claim to fame was that I could pull the stick shift up and out of the transmission while driving which would create a large hole that you could peer down into and see the pavement whooshing along about a foot and a half underneath the car floor. Occasionally I would take a girl out on a date and while driving, pull the shifter lever thingy out. and let out a panicked scream as if I had lost control of the car before sticking it back in again This never went over terribly well, but I continued doing it because it made me laugh and Unfortunately, that's just the kind of person I am Over the course of my year with the Nt, I personally changed the starter and the muffler and the brakes and the calipers and the battery and the tires and routinely changed my own oil and filters. I got to know and annoy the guys at the local auto parts shop as I would pepper them with questions I would love to say that all this effort and sweat set me up with a valuable set of life skills. But mostly it was just a colossal pain in the ass I did learn something quite interesting about cars over that long, impoverished year, however A car, at its simplest, is a metal contraption with an internal combustion engine that transports passengers on four wheels At its most complex, it's a series of interconnected systems all working together to power a moving vehicle The number of structures that need to work in harmony are various and many Besides its body and drive train, every car has an electrical system, a transmission, a fuel system, an ignition, and an exhaust system And when something is not working, you look under the hood or crawl underneath, or if you have a real life automotive garage, you put it up on the lift Take a look in order to try and determine which of these systems is not functioning correctly We can do the same kind of examination for the web of integrated systems that allow human society to operate Continuing with this terrible analogy, if we put the car of humanity up on a lift and take a look around at what's not working, what would we diagnose? Instead of transmission and breaks, we examine healthcare and education. Instead of exhaust and air conditioning, we shine our headlamps onto international trade, human rights or agriculture. Is it one or two systems that are out of whack Or is something more pervasive going on? As we discussed in the previous chapter, it seems that practically every single societal structure has some serious irregularities and design flaws. and most importantly, the systems don't work together in harmony the way they're supposed to. Before I give my personal soul boom diagnosis of what's wrong with the car of humanity Oh truly hate this analogy Let's take a long look forward to where we want to go Hey kids, let's build the perfect world Earlier in the book, we assembled some elements for a new, awesome religion How about we do the same, John Lennon style to imagine the perfect world See what I did there Harkening back to the Blue marble and all those sappy Miss America contestants from the seventies, What would the ingredients be to build this harmonious world What is the soul boom vision for a peaceful, just and united planet filled with a kind and fulfilled population? Well, guess what We already know what the answer is going to be I really don't need to take up a lot of time here to explore it It's quite basic, really The vision of what the aforementioned kingdom of God on Earth looks like is Star Trek But instead of zipping around space, we're dwelling peacefully on our home planet, Earth Everyone gets along As hipp dippy as that may sound, it's really that simple In a nutshell, there's no more war. Armaments are just enough to defend the nation from attack When there are disagreements, the various countries of the world come together to work out their conflicts with the greater good in mind The differences between our cultures will be celebrated so that unity shines through a diversity of humanity. There will probably always be some degree of rich and poor, but the extremes will not be so Well, Extrem There will be enough food, enough challenging employment, enough clean water and enough cheap renewable energy to keep our population both content and motivated The arts and sciences will thrive and be incorporated into all facets of our various cultures Education will be eminently available without any ideology or agenda, except knowledge and enlightenment, with some tangible job training thrown in care will be accessible and thorough and treat every patient with dignity Like our indigenous ancestors, we will cherish our planet, honor its resources and beauty, and seek to live sustainably for the generations that follow Most importantly, in emulation of Jesus Christ, we will all love our neighbors as ourselves We will live in service to one another. kindness and care for the downtrodden and a deep respect for one another You get the idea. Like I said Regardless of political view or religious belief, we can all visualize this utopian future quite easily. But and this is the trillion dollar question How do we get there Do we achieve this lofty goal by making modest reforms, tweaks, and adjustments to existing organizations and ways of doing things Well, let's go back to my stupid car analogy Maybe before this book ends, I can find a better one What do I see when I look under the hood of humanity I see a series of systems, as we've previously explored, that have been faultily, unsustainably engineered Design tweaks, legislation, and more checks and balances won't repair the essential brokenness That would be the equivalent of using duct tape, band aids, and chewing gum to try and jury rig a solution to a much larger issue It comes down to this. The many and various adversarial systems that run our world are driven by and founded on some of the worst qualities of our species gression Self interest, greed, disunity, hunger for power and self aggrandisement Ego One upsmanship Business, sports, and government actually all essentially run on the same fuel of combative competition. Continue the preposterous automotive metaphor. We're headed for a breakdown. We have a spiritual imbalance, a spiritual disease And the answer, rather than being political, economic, or legislative primarily spiritual as well sppiritual solution for an essentially spiritual problem. Of course, we need to acknowledge that in part, we have an innate adversarial nature and that it's an aspect of our species, our history, and our homo sapiens' reality. We don't need to be victims of those baser impulses We don't have to build our society on them and their dynamics. We need to transition from basing our systems on the worst qualities of humanity basing them on the best of humanity. And what is that exactly What is this rumored best of humanity I'll tell you It's the essential spiritual qualities illumined by the deep reservoir of religious teachings that go back to the dawn of time. Ancient wisdom combined with divine attributes and positive character traits Selflessness, kindness, compassion humility Honesty and generosity Dozens of other virtues as well As crazily simplistic as it may sound It all boils down to working together in cooperation rather than opposing each other in competition and conflict The essence of this work is summed up by one of my all time most cherished quotes by everyone's favorite philosopher, slash architect, slash futurist Minster Fuller. You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. The new model that makes the existing model obsolete Easier said than done, right Unfortunately, I, a mere actor, do not have the skill set to present an action plan that is thorough and expansive enough to inspire all of humanity to reorganize itself around spiritual principles For that, I apologize I do, however, wish to leave you with a series of key concepts and action items that I believe will be crucial in igniting a transformation Seven pillars, if you will, on which to potentially build this movement, or at least give us a head start It's an eclected group of ideas that is, like the rest of the book here to shake things up a little and inspire a deeper conversation They are. create a new mythology. Celebrate joy and fight cynicism Three Destroy adversarial Systems F Bu something new protest Five systematize grassroots movements Six Invest in virtues education Seven Harness radical compassion but the most important one Write a new mythology of humanity Everything begins with a story The story is the most powerful of art forms because it shapes how we think about the world Remember Story has the word story embedded right in it As someone working in film, television, and theater, I've been privileged to be a part of telling dozens and dozens of amazing stories I've witnessed their power and importance to the human heart I've seen stories change lives For over a hundred years, we've heard and retold the legend of the Homo sapiens How we evolved from living in caves to living in towns and then cities and then nation states We hunted, killed, and conquered We've heard about how our species was propagated by survival of the fittest And in this dog eat dog world, the most aggressive and technologically advanced nations and peoples prospered while others were enslaved, oppressed, and left behind taught over and over again at school that every human undertaking is based on a quest for power. Epic after epic of Wars In fact, my son, Walter, took a preposterously stupid AP world history class that was almost entirely made up of memorizing the dates and locations of various wars and who won them because As our children are insidiously brainwashed, History was written by the Victors and To the victors, go the spoils That's one way of looking at it But what if we start telling an altogether different story What if we rewrote the legend of the Homo sapiens? I once had a discussion in which a fascinating question was posed What was humankind's biggest idea ever What's the grandest concept we've ever come up with as a species One of the propositions that arose was that money All its powers, complexities and dynamics was humankind's biggest idea to date Sadly I tend to agree Think about all the various facets of commerce and capitalism and how deep their tendrils have been woven throughout the whole of human society and history over the ages. It affects every single thing we do and has a deep, complicated and dark history as well Madman and philosopher Slavo Zik has said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is the end of capitalism and I kind of agree with him You have a thing and I want that thing and I pay you a sand dollar or a shiny rock or a shell, or eventually a coin for a said thing I stockpile my shells or coins and leave them to my children The more of this money I accrue The more social capital, clout, and dominion I and my tribe can amass Money becomes connected to ownership in empire. We eventually create money lenders or banks that stockpile stacks of these currencies and lend it with interest, generating even more Surfs have to pay off debt to landowners. Wealthy merchants fund sailing expeditions across oceans to bring back goods as an investment Gold equals power, Labor gets compensated by wages in the industrial age. Money buys armies, arms, companies, land, homes, prestige. Then there are stocks and bonds and treasury notes, then credit cards, student loans, budgets and deficits on a household and governmental scale, subpime mortgages and global financial crises The crypto gold rush. On many levels, the history of humanity can be boiled down to a history of money The first known writing was a four thousand year old tablet recording of what song A myth, a fable, a funny story money acccording in Kuna form of the wages of some Mesopotamian workers I don't mean to indict all of capitalism Many could cogently argue that all of the progress that humanity has made to this point has been due to the exchange of goods and services, and money has been and still is, the most convenient way to oil the wheels of commerce that leads to humanity's social and material evolution posit that the epic list of improvements to quality of life and lifespan over the centuries couldn't have happened without some kind of currency or marketplace But at times it sure seems like the entire definition of humanity and its journey forward is about the getting and owning of things Consumerism and materialism The taking of things away from other people who have things We end up with a culture that mirrors the famous quote by John D. Rockefeller, who, when asked by a reporter how much money is enough responded J a little more How much is enough and can I make a little bit more pretty much sums it up To quote the esteemed philosopher David Lee Rooth, by happiness can buy a yacht that seils right next to it. Surely at this juncture in human progress, we can find a bigger, grander, more all encompassing idea than commerce And maybe our new mythology can also rise above the dark, dystopian visions of the future that our children have been raised on through countless books and movies. A story about humans overcoming their differences, prejudices, and pettiness to create something global and beautiful, perhaps Where is our big imagination now this most crucial of crossroads Here's an example I remember in school being shown pictures of tall trees and short trees and how survival of the fittest applied to a forest The tall trees win. I was told repeatedly The weak trees, lose and die, we were taudght Tall trees get all of that precious sunlight and grow the deepest root systems while weaker plants struggle but eventually don't make it Natural selection in the woods In her nature masterpiece, Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Samar disproves this theory and instead shows a kind of collective altruism from tree to tree She documents with science, personal history, and exquisite emotional sensitivity how the interconnected ecosystem of trees operates. Before Avatar, she was pioneering research into this interplay and interdependence she calls the Woodwide Web Samard discovered that trees and plants communicate and share information and resources like a vast green brain The network in the soil is a neural network, and the chemicals that move through it are the same as our neural transmitters, end quote No longer trees as solitary creations seeking their own self sufficiency, but repeated examples of mossy, loamy interdependence on a grand scale Dctor Samard revolutionized how we think about nature itself In addition to helping inspire the Tree of Souls imagery in James Cameron's avatar And the central character of the Pulitzer Prize winning The Overstory by Richard Powers, Dr. Simard has single handedly changed how botanists and ecologists and triologists theorize about how a forest works All this by rewriting a story. A story of Darwinian's sururvival of the fittest transformed into a tale of cooperation, connection, and mutual support with mushrooms and root systems Can we not apply that same vision to our rich history of human cooperation and interdependence Can we not look forward while holding that vision as a goal? r Bishop Desmond Tutu once said, quote Atomized homogenous groups that existed in the past are no longer the truth of our world. We must recognize that we are part of one group One family, the human family Our survival as a planet depends on it. part of one family And we are fundamentally good end quote Every time you look at your phone, there's another chaotic headline You almost feel like you had to be glued to your screen to keep out But saving for your future doesn't have to be this hard Be Wealthfront helps you tune out the noise and earn more with a high yield cash account and sophisticated, easy to use investing products Their cash account lets you earn up to a four point three percent variable APY The free checking features and free instant withdrawals to eligible accounts. 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Base APY is as of january thirtieth, twenty twenty six and subject to change. For more information, please see the episode description. Your customers don't want to wait around for a callback. They don't want to call three times. They don't like getting a message. They don't like not being able to get through to someone or do what they are trying to do, right? They're trying to book an appointment. They're looking for a quote. They just need a little help The point is if nobody answers, they're calling somebody else or they're going to forget about it. And that's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, QUO, the business phone system built so you never miss a call. It is the number one rated business phone system on G two, trusted by over ninety thousand businesses, who rely on it to stay reachable and look professional every day All your calls, texts and voicemails live in one place. So anyone on your team can pick up the conversation, see the full history, and respond fast and quQuote integrates with the tools your team already uses Hubspot, Zppier Claud whatever. it helps you save time, stay organized and spend less effort chasing down information between systems. Money is on the line, always say hello with Qo Try quote for free. plus get twenty percent off your first six months when you go to quote dot com slash daily stoke. Fuo. com slash daily stoic Humanity is one family and we are inherently good Now that's a story for us to get behind This is the first pillar of our spiritual revolution The creation of a new mythology for humanity during its transformation into a lovingly united global community based on a foundation of spiritual principles instead of adversarial ones We will not obtain this story from any current world leader, politician or internet personality but rather think of it as something we all visualize, create, and hope for collectively. There's an idea This new mythology, this new story, this new big idea needs to have something in it that is unabashedly hopeful I'll give it a stab here It may not be right, but it's a start The newew leegend of the Homo sapiens When humans lived in caves and villages, community was everything We sought safety, warmth, love and family in the collective We communed with nature. understood it, feared it, lived in harmony with it Over the years we aimed high and dreamed big, invented world changing ideas and concepts, worked together to eradicate diseases, came together to try and solve problems and fight evil Sadly, along the way, we also lost sight of our inherently sacred and spiritual selves We found ourselves at a crossroads. Humankind had a choice doing what we've always done or hit restart We took a bold and revolutionary path of hopefulness, relying on the idea that the human spirit is inherently good build a new world based on heart centered wisdom We left behind our selfish aggressive ways and came together as one family And the result Humanity achieved peace and unity and found, dare we say it Joy. What do you think of my new mythic story? Or do you like the old one better Speaking of joy brings me to my next foundation for a spiritual revolution. Foster joy and squash cynicism poem by Emily Dickinson. is the thing with feathers Purches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all I studied acting for a time with the great theater director and philosopher Andre Gregory. He was the subject of the amazing art film, My Dinner withith Andre He would have tea occasionally with his students, and as I was finishing a cup with him one day and getting ready to leave his beautiful West Village apartment, I turned to him and said something to the effect of Mr. Gregory, sometimes I just feel so bitter So hopeless about the future, it's so hard to not be cynical I'll never forget what happened next. He grabbed me by the wrist, pulled me closer, looked into my eyes with a ferocious intensity and said Do it Give in to cynicism If you do, they'll have one you to be cynical because then nothing will ever change. You must keep hope alive going Promise me you won't give in. I nodded, a bit overwhelmed and stepped out onto the cobblestone street seeing the world in an ever so slightly different way I'll never forget that interaction for as long as I live And as I write this I realized that not only was Andre Gregory spot on But there was most probably a pandemic I left off my list in chapter two Cynicism We're also cynical bitter so pessimistic these days. Myself included I struggle every day to not give in And the more cynical we get, the more nothing gets done because, well, what's the point This particular pandemic is insidious because we don't realize we're suffering from it especially the youth To what extent is this wet blanket of hopelessness contributing to the deadly, overwhelming mental health epidemic they are suffering from? David Brooks in The Second Mountain says brilliantly. Our society has become a conspiracy against joy. too much emphasis on the individuating part of our consciousness. individual reason too little emphasis on the bonding parts of our consciousness the heart and soul I think Mr. Brooks and Mr. Gregory are onto something with this idea of a conspiracy against Joy The forces that control and shape our world, and no, I'm not talking about some conspiracy about a cabal of the super wealthy smoking cigars in boardrooms or in Davos, Switzerland things to stay the same so that they can continue to profit from the world staying exactly the way it is How could we ever quote build a new model that makes the old model obsolete? end quote, If we believe in our heart of hearts that things will never change, that they will always stay in the same messed up mode So what is the remedy? I propose that the opposite of cynicism isn't optimism Opposite of cynicism Joy Why Optimism has a kind of inherent clueless, look on the bright side sheen to it And recent research in the field of positive psychology tells us that there is such a thing as toxic positivity where one can feel externally pressured to be positive at all times in a way that is insensitive to the difficulties that might surround a person. By urging people in a blanket way to always keep a positive mindset, we disregard the complexity and darkness of being human. generalized positive attitude of optimism, frequently propagated on social media, flattens out any authentic experience and can cause shame in someone who is struggling to process superficial platitudes like quote, keepeep your head up and que Turn that frown upside down. Joy, however inherently acknowledges sorrow It doesn't disregard the hard stuff Joy knows that negativity is a part of life as well Joy says that life is hard, but there is a place you can go, a tool you can use. Joy is a force, a choice. somethingomething that can be harnessed decision to be made Even if one is not feeling it in one's heart, one can spread joy to others Abdul Baha gives us one of my all time favorite quotes about joy. Joy gives us wings In times of joy, our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded We seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness In other words, joy is a superpower. It gives us strength, clarity, and resilience, and helps us find our path especially in helping others Completely identify with what Abdul Baaha is saying As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety my entire life I find truth in his observation On those occasions, when I feel more joyful, I'm more focused, productive, and open to new experiences and my mind and heart work in far greater harmony Now, this is not a chapter on how to find joy. There are plenty of those works out there. In fact, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama have an inspiring treatise called The Book of Joy There are also about three gazillion books on happainess How to find it, achieve it, and hold ont to it I don't have the space to explore this topic here, I'm afraid. But I will add another tremendous quote attributed to Abdul Baha If you are so angry, so depressed, and sore that your spirit cannot find deliverance and peace even in prayer. Then quickly go and give some pleasure to someone lowly or sorrowful or to a guilty or innocent sufferer Sacrifice yourself, your talent, your time, your rest to another to one who has to bear a heavier load than you We just love the message contained in this profoundly spiritual and utterly practical teaching Essentially, if you're feeling down Give happiness and comfort to someone who has it worse than you do. The sppreading of joy, in other words, has a positive impact on one's own emotional state. This is what is referred to as pro social behavior and its efficacy has been backed up by innumerable studies in the field of positive psychology Those who engage in altruistic behaviors have a greater sense of wellbe than those who don't Yet another example of where science and spirituality coalesce Joy is a depleted resource these days As is hope, the thing with feathers In a world with so much discord and disunity, how do we nurture them the International Governing Council of the Bahai Faith, the Universal House of Justice underlined a terrific way for us all to move forward in a letter they wrote in twenty twenty. They challenged Bahais and others around the world to quote Discover that precious point of unity Contrasting perspectives overlap and around which contending peoples can coalesce The idea is both important and inspiring Finding a precious point of unity as a path to finding hope I remember speaking with the brilliant climate activist, Callum Greeves, who works with Greta Thunberg, as well as other youth activists, and he told me essentially the same thing. He was speaking about his work on climate change and told me of the clean air initiatives he had worked on. He said that people's opinions about climate change may differ in countless ways depending on their political point of view But something like clean air is something that folks on all sides of the political spectrum can get behind. It doesn't matter if you think that climate change is some kind of liberal hoax or the greatest possible threat to our future Everyone wants cleaner air for their children and grandchildren It's the precious point of unity at the center of the climate conversation And guess what Cleaner air means less CO two and other emissions that cause climate change. Win, win all around The author Alexandra Rowand made quite a splash a few years ago when she introduced a concept for an entirely new genre of fiction In response to the unwaveringly dark works of fantasies like Game of Thrones, and the hundreds of despairing dystopian novels, films and TV shows churned out each year which are sometimes referred to as Trim dark She coined the term for the opposite Works of fiction in which a vulnerable and human protagonist fights against an unjust system and seeks to bring meaning, balance, and yes, hope to the world She is quoted as saying Hope punk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something Anything requires bravery and strength Punk isn't ever about submission or acceptance. it's about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It's about standing up for other people. It's about demanding a better er world and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can with every drop of power in our little hearts Although Hope Punk's manifesto was built around the field of imaginary and speculative fiction, I envision the message and moniker spreading to ever wider pastures as we collectively demand a better, kinder world. as we don't shrug and retreat under the toxic wet blanket of pessimism and hopelessness Sign me up Let's weave hope Punk into the altogether new myth and story of our species The better, kinder world that she speaks of is only possible if we rethink all those broken systems and start replacing them One by one Reinvent adversarial systems Over a decade ago, when cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and several hundred others, and blockchain were first launched, there were hundreds of articles and blog posts written about how these new peer to peer digital currencies, not dependent on any banks or central governments, would change how money is used and would eventually transform the world for the better Treatuses were written about how crypto and blockchain would end poverty, revolutionize finance, and democratize banking tools Although we've only been collectively exploring this crypto world for a little over ten years, and there may still be some transformative benefit yet to be found It currently seems to most to not be delivering on its promise. In fact, what started as an encouraging premise for those who work in its sphere, has given way to the reality that the world of crypto is just as corrupt as other financial systems, if not more so. Why Because this brilliant new concept that reinents financial infrastructure is ultimately driven by the same greed that drives the old school systems Instead of a coterie of banking and Wall Street elites raking in money from transactions, it's a somewhat larger and different coterie of quote crypto bros profiting at other people's expense And there is no incentive to stabilize cryptocurrencies because the volatility itself leads to the variety of pump and dump get rich schemes that flood and define the crypto marketplace One friend who worked in the field described it as a quote, junkier stock market where the value of the currencies has zero correlation to performance The market mania of crypto is driven purely by self interest and not by any purported altruistic intentions to transform the economic system The core of this system was built on the same old foundation of competition, self interest, and greed It is both a symptom of a deeper spiritual malady as well as something that exacerbates this imbalance I'll provide an altogether different example that I believe best highlights what the opposite looks like In her book, High confonflict, Wh Weet Trapped and how we get Out. New York Times best selling author and Wall Street journal and Te journalist, Amanda Ripley, investigates a seemingly modern, but most likely timeless and universal human issue The conflict gradually morphs into something larger and more toxic than the original disagreement itself Her work tracks people who were able to get out of the loop of blame and outrage and move into healthy conflicts from which they are able to grow and evolve Partisan politics and the divides it creates is one of her central topics In her book, she actually uses the Bahai faith as an example and examines how it organizes and conceptualizes its elections She says, B high elections are to politics, what mediation is to the legal system. differentifferent game allogether One designed to exploit the human capacity for cooperation rather than competition In the Bahai faith, there are no clergy. So the entire administrative system is made up of elected common folks We in service to a larger idea On the local level, every year a community, town, or city will elect nine members to serve on what is called the local spiritual Assembly. Every year, Bahais at the district level elect delegates to vote for a governing body for their respective country called the National Spiritual Assembly. currently around two hundred of these national governing councils Every five years, the members of the National sppiritual Assemblies gather in Hifa Israel for the election of what is called the Universal House of Justice governing body that oversees the guidance of the entire Bahai world Ripley describes the process like this. Every spring, everyone in each of the seventeen thousand Bahai locations gathers together to elect leaders It's very close to a pure democracy operating in two hundred and thirty three countries and territories Here's the twist. Everything about these elections is designed to reduce the odds of high conflict People are not allowed to campaign for a position or even discuss who might be the best person to serve They can only discuss which qualities are most needed. end quote These elections are undertaken in a completely unique fashion campaigning or electionering, there are no nominations for potential positions or any kind of parties or coalitions to be formed either. The Hes vote by secret ballot and are encouraged to choose those who are of Unquestioned loyalty. of selfless devotion of a well trained mind of recognized ability and mature experience As Sh Gif Endy once wrote Not only that, but the voting process is also undertaken in prayerful silence and meditation acccording tohogyiafnd, quote The elector is called upon to vote for none but those whom prayer and reflection have inspired him to uphold. When you go to a Bahai election, it is astonishingly different from any other you've ever witnessed in your life.