3.5 Kindness. Economy. Good & Messy

Profit the Children - Kindness Economy Reboot 2023 by Heather McLeod

Profit the Children, profit the land
Profit the justice you hold in your hand
Profit peace, beauty and joy
Profit the children, profit the land

Such capacity, everywhere
Tryst a stranger, dare to play it fair
Drop defences, open the gates
Welcome every hand before its too late

Own the goal, set the stage
Saving the world takes more than a living wage
Expectations - raise them high
Build that future that calls you and I

Honest questions, open ears
Dream up solutions, speaking without fear
Conversations open hearts
Building communities that give us each a part

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Welcome to Something Different This Way Comes, this season I am imagining the Kindness Economy. And this epidose is a bit of a rant and ramble, a wander around my thoughts and reference when it comes to those two words, kindness and economy

Something Different This Way Comes

So I started the season with a contemplation of the stories we tell. The way we learn and teach one another. The opportunity to do that better - what might that look like? 

And then I dug into food, an essential that hold such opportunity to do better. To grow and manage and share it with more kindness for ourselves and for our environment. 

Then I luxuriated in two beautiful and edifying conversations with great women, good company. They generously and bravely shared their expertise, perspective and ideas imagining the kindness economy with me

And I have more such decadent, delightful conversations to come. They are booked, one least is already recorded, you’ll get those in episodes to come.

But  today I want to dig into economy. 
And kindness.

And I want to start with culture https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/made-of-honor/
Psychologist Ryan Brown. Honour Culture - Exclusionary cultures build on fundamental insecurities, Rooted in surviving violence, invasions, colonialism. Like so many European and Asian histories of vikings and romans, normans and saxons, celts and berbers, wave after wave of invasion and colonialism. Seeds a culture that seeks walls, that is wary of strangers, that divides the world into us and them. And has little compassion or empathy for those deemed other, for them

He said you know an honour culture by a person’s sensitivity to their reputation, markings of social values, and an acceptance of including and excluding people. Homelessness and hunger next to wasted food and empty, heated, perfectly serviceable spaces - Bar fights that start with an unintended slight and escalate- Suicides by those who fear becoming a burden or losing their status

So I thinking about this, and it’s time to make breakfast... Neil Young 

(dmin G amin dmin)

(amin) Some see life as a broken promise
(F) Some see life as a (G) endless (a) fight
(amin) They think they live in the age of darkness
(F) They think they live in the (G) Age of (a) light
It’s an (amin) angry (G)  world and (F) everything is going to (G) be all (amin) right

Yeah it’s an angry world
 yeah it’s an angry world

Hidden Brain psychologist Amit Kumar https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/a-secret-source-of-connection/

Kindness. Paradox. Emotional. Extreme, illogical  - strong. Cupcake. worries. Underestimate impact

Driving past someone needing help. Someone dares to ask you for help, a stranger on the street. Hard to do like Cindy Crowe  - offer kindness. Feelings. Habits

We rely on habits and plans. Get so much done on automatic pilot. I think of my daily commute drives, Of tasks like brushing my teeth and flossing. Our mind  - protects habits & plans. Emotions - and a veneer of reasons

B J Fogg -what it takes to change a habit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8 Floss one more tooth a day.  Give yourself calls to action. Set yourself up with triggers. Give us high levels of motivation. A three step program to change a habit, Make a small decision that is entirely our own, No enemies, no real obstacles outside our brains.

Add exercise to your day? Change your route to work?
Disproportionally hard

Paradox random acts of kindness - random. Unplanned. Challenge a habit

Cupcake - new habit. Obligation, exclusion, Unintended exclusions, Trigger those disproportionate worries again. Dig into that unreasonable support of habits, plans, routines, expectations.

Throw out cupcake?

(a min) Some see life as hope eternal
(F) Some see life as a (G) business (a) plan
(amine) Some wish some would go to hell’s infernal
 for (G) screwing with the life in (a) freedom land

It’s an angry(G)  world for the (F) business man and the(G0  fisher (amin) man
It’s an angry (G) world And (F) no doubt everything will (G) go as (amin)  planned
(dmin) Yea

Back to Ryan Brown psychologist. Hidden Brain. Honour Culture Defence of reputation at the heart of life. Control is important. Honour is important.

opposite: Dignity culture. Where our worth is not at risk, the inherent worth of each is us is at the heart of life. The success of all is a measure of the success of any one of us. There is no othering. There is no risk of being excluded, left outside a wall, of losing compassion of others

= Kindness economy

Yet we are entrenched in powerful habits rooted in our honour culture, Bedevilled by our brain’s paradoxical fear of kindness. How can we accomplish the Kindness Economy?

Season jumping over the how to imagine the goal, the point, the destination. But today I’m stepping back a bit to think about these obstacles.The tendency to avoid opportunities to be kind. The emotional work required to get to those really good feelings. Being kind. Receiving kindness. The instinct to control, to other, to see things as win/lose, right/wrong binary decisions. When in fact our options are much more complicated, and flexible 

theme

I have some thoughts on how. But first: Thank you for listening... Independent . References on each episode’s landing page. Library of Hope at www… Newsletter (email). Sponsor (Go Fund Me) & see budget, income. Thank you Leea McKay - web design. Ad Walleye

Something…

Talked about Kindness & the psychology of change. Now let’s talk about Economy, how to get from now to Kinder and more economic, more efficient at doing what we humans want to and need to do. 

This is a bit of a top-candidates list of things I keep thinking of, or that keep coming up, as likely tools in accomplishing this.

Start: Universal Basic Income

CERBS huge, all have experience with. ⅓ of Canadians who had earned at least $5K in 2019, collected CERBS

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2021001/article/00021-eng.htm

5% of those were identified by CRA as “high risk” of being not actually eligible for the income, and 65% of that 5% were found to be “fraudulent” but push back on discussion on how / whether to pursue that fraud talks about how poor those people were.

Maybe they didn’t earn $5K in 2019

Maybe they were collecting another income replacement and ended up getting one clawed back

A few were collected ℅ SIN and info re: dead people - reflection on our personal info government systems as much if not more than those successful criminals

How quick. How low cost administratively. How needed. How effective. How compares to WSIB, Welfare - so many more steps to qualify, apply, collect, retain. Also - example Basic Income here in Tbay for a bit until current ON gov’t stopped it. Testaments to how much more dignity and respectful recipients found it than those more regulated and administration-heavy programs

Own experience with impact of patriarchal assumptions in our current systems, that a dominant income earner precludes their spouse from a right to their own modest income, that support for children falls on parents and when it is not met it is not easy to make it happen

A universal basic income would shake up those patriarchal, overly rigid, judgemental and simplistic impositions of qualifying and no longer qualifying for support.

Could really impact financial abuse in marriages and the financial security of children! If applied with an emphasis on dignity over honour

Profit the Children, profit the land
Profit the justice you hold in your hand
Profit peace, beauty and joy
Profit the children, profit the land

Address the risk of basic income becoming insufficient that has overcome other income replacement programs over time, the temptation to not keep up with inflation and to exclude essential expenses compounding over time

Needs to be paired with addressing the housing security crisis (40 years since government last invested substatively in ensuring the sufficiency of a living wage by encouraging housing solutions and food solutions.)

Addressing the food security crisis

Addressing the health care security crisis (fill the gaps: mental, therapeutic, drugs, addiction…)

Unlocking access to education 

(example understanding of dinosaurs - what I learned when that was my obsession has changed, even when I thought I was paying sufficient attention I actually was clinging more to that outdated understanding than I realized. And felt defensive when challenged.

Now we need to remove all barriers to learn, so those willing can get current and skilled. That is a gift to our economy. A truly economically sound kindness.

Opportunity for economy of kindness in penal system

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/02/02/denmark-doesnt-treat-its-prisoners-like-prisoners-and-its-good-for-everyone/

Venn diagram necessary to achieve the intended goal of basic income: basic income itself, and comprehensive food, housing, healthcare and education security.

Unlock artists

Unlock informal care for one another

Unlock unpaid work - domestic and local environmental…

Give us back autonomy and dignity, being valued and empowered

Pay us dividends in Social Capital - people power.

Such capacity, everywhere
Tryst a stranger, dare to play it fair
Drop defences, open the gates
Welcome every hand before its too late

Unlock capital - Walrus Talks this week, New City. https://thewalrus.ca/the-walrus-talks-a-new-city/

Entrepreneur Urban Farmer encouraging collaboration, economic autonomy, the power of small scale enterprise to life lives and tailor solutions https://www.sundanceharvestmarket.com/

Young developer inspired by densely populated apartment neighbourhoods in his family’s ancestral home, with micro-commerce and intergenerational, flexible housing solutions that leverages the deep roots and connections of Elders, allows them to age at home with family and neighbours that become also family at just one thin remove. Open to broader range of solutions than single family houses with yards and a car. https://www.alkarimdevani.com/

House poor - need help owned houses and not-houses be upgraded - replace natural gas with electric heating & cooking, improve insulation, add heat pumps & solar panels. Facilitate renovations to adapt to changing needs & become multi-generational

Both mention supporting young and micro entrepreneurship, a theme also strongly supported Bren Smith and Green Wave, ask new Kelp Farmers to commit to sharing knowledge and building supportive community. https://www.greenwave.org/

Micro-loan lessons of limited value of Canadian insistence on “skin in the game”

Young person entrepreneurial plan, skills, commitment - need 20% capital to trigger grants, loans, qualify for financing including all these programs intending to support women, youth, immigrants.

Get rid of the “skin in the game” requirement

Risk well worth the benefits

Particularly if invest in administrative supports to make the hats necessary to business ownership that are not what got them into business: being a boss, long-term financing, pricing, contract negotiation… as easy as possible for micro-businesses. Let them leverage their passion and expertise, make the business-generic ones hard to get wrong

Own the goal, set the stage
Saving the world takes more than a living wage
Expectations - raise them high
Build that future that calls you and I

Unlock Big Business - like they did in World War II: https://www.sethklein.ca/book

Cap on profits until given goal achieved (win the war = meet 2030 emission targets…)

Finance clear opportunities sufficient to inspire refits, sector transformations (and let those not embracing those goals & opportunities to suffer the lack of financial incentives - lead with carrots and clarity)

Policy is important: - Grandpa and banking International Monetary Fund 

https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/317037/now-a-professor-of-economics-at-atkinson-college-at-york-uni

Dr. Alexander N. McLeod, York University & IMF

Episode began w psychology of change, honour vs. dignity culture, and the kindness paradox

Circle back to that and talk about talking

How to change entrenched systems, habits, minds

How did Ireland okay abortion - with a referndum? This Catholic, conservative country

Citizens Assemblies - Women equality then, Drug addiction now

Random of all - committ to every weekend for most of a year - those you accept get sorted to create 99 that are a demographically precise representation of the whole population, plus one independent chairperson. Commit their time, attention, respectfulness, open-mindedness

Start with basic education and information, while invite all to offer to inform the assembly, from first hand to expertise.

Once through the initial educational orientation, the assembly decides what to do with their time, who to listen, what more  information to gather.

Conclusions are very precise: cost, process, wording, timing, implementation

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government_in_ireland/irish_constitution_1/citizens_assembly.html

Cheap - they detail the cost. And effective! Convincing. Quick (ish)

Jump frogs the bottlenecks of current system between rubber meets and road and where decisions shaping that experience are made

Democracy. Dignity. 

Honest questions, open ears
Dream up solutions, speaking without fear
Conversations open hearts
Building communities that give us each a part

Final word: Seth Klein and David Suzuki Youth Climate Corp - trail in BC, now asking Feds to make it National. Exciting potential. Easy opportunity to support.

https://www.youthclimatecorps.com/

https://www.climateemergencyunit.ca/climatecorps

Good. & Messy
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The podcast Hidden Mind interview with the psychologist who studies exclusionary and inclusive cultures. He calls them honour and dignity. He relates the honour cultures to histories of surviving horror, of invaders ruining your security, and governance failing you, sparking cultures that put walls up and decide who is inside, and who is outside. So in an honour culture you live with the risk of failing to get inside, or being thrown outside. And your honour, how you are respected and positioned in your community is really, really important. You need to think about and defend your honour. So in an honour culture you tend to think in terms of winning and losing, right and wrong. And you are socially kind of wary, politeness is important, it helps avoid potentially escalating conflicts as people defend their honour. Colonial cultures are honour cultures. And colonialized cultures can become honour cultures. 

The scientist researching these markers and impacts of honour cultures points to incarceration rates, suicides, bar fights and all kinds of clearly North American things as tied to our honour culture. And all of his examples made me think of control. Of controlling who received, and who did not. Of controlling how you are seen and controlling what is allowed, how things are done and who gets to do what. He called them honour cultures but I heard a lot about the appeal of control.

The dignity cultures he talks less about. I don’t think they’re his focus, but wonder if perhaps they are also  harder to see. He explains a dignity culture is one in which the good of the whole comes first. A person’s individual value is a given, not something you can lose or fail to gain. A dignity culture values everyone, and strives to value them equally. Valuing one who is able to do more over someone who needs care, would be wrong in a dignity culture. And excluding someone from that dignity, not welcoming or trusting a stranger for example, or exiling someone, would be against the core beliefs of a dignity culture. The success of the group is measured by the health and security of everyone. Essentials like food, shelter, healthcare, respect and a valued role to play for everyone, those are everyone’s job and first priority for everyone. They are not individual but collective goals. And whatever time and plenty there is to spare once those group goals are met, that’s where the wealth is found. Where art and sport, adventures and quests for understanding can be pursued and afforded. That is the true measure of a culture’s wealth. The health and security of its people is a baseline, their creativity, art, sport, food and fun - that’s proof of success. 

Headlines and statistics illustrating these dignity cultures are harder to find. But I think a dignity culture is a family you can’t fall out of, a community you can’t lose, no matter how badly you misstep or how far afield you wander, you are always included and integrated into that community. I think  indigenous cultures that enrich their ecologies, investing in their relationship with their place, the land and water and life they live within, those are dignity cultures. Dignity cultures trust and empower, they support and forgive, they share and include. They are good. And they are also messy. Not predictable or controlled. Not perfect, but flexible. 

This is the kindness economy. It is kind, and it is economic. It costs less. That’s what I am imagining today.

So kindness is not easy. It takes work. It takes vulnerability, sometimes courage, and often flexibility. But it feels right, it feels good.