Creative destruction
"New thoughts and ideas emerge from chaos and devastation," according to Bhutan's PM Jigme Thinley. Therefore, the time is ripe for making Gross National Happiness more important than Gross National Product, say those who'd rather BeinBhutan.
While the US automakers were pleading for billions for their bailout and investors were watching their stocks plummet, scholars and policymakers at the Fourth International Conference on Gross National Happiness, in Thimphu, were discussing the relevance of GNH to the rest of the world. (I presented a paper on GNH and biodiversity conservation back in 2004 at the first GNH conference.)
It's an intriguing idea that out of the economic meltdown that's going on right now, innovative ideas emerge and take hold. Maintaining a Buddhist philosophy like PM Thinley certainly helps. But there are examples here at home too: the success of Van Jones' Green For All, which suggests that we can revive the economy and improve the environment by investing in "green collar" jobs. This idea is not particularly new - at least in the circles I run in - but some how it never caught hold until now. Like the Onion headline said after the election, things in the US have finally gotten bad enough that the country will make social progress. Hooray for creative destruction!
While the US automakers were pleading for billions for their bailout and investors were watching their stocks plummet, scholars and policymakers at the Fourth International Conference on Gross National Happiness, in Thimphu, were discussing the relevance of GNH to the rest of the world. (I presented a paper on GNH and biodiversity conservation back in 2004 at the first GNH conference.)
It's an intriguing idea that out of the economic meltdown that's going on right now, innovative ideas emerge and take hold. Maintaining a Buddhist philosophy like PM Thinley certainly helps. But there are examples here at home too: the success of Van Jones' Green For All, which suggests that we can revive the economy and improve the environment by investing in "green collar" jobs. This idea is not particularly new - at least in the circles I run in - but some how it never caught hold until now. Like the Onion headline said after the election, things in the US have finally gotten bad enough that the country will make social progress. Hooray for creative destruction!
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Imminent White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel offered one of the most ominous harbingers of America's future with his outrageous, abominable, and revealing statement "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." The outlandish nature of that statement should alarm all but the most blindly obedient Kool-Aid drinkers on the left (whose ranks have admittedly swelled in recent years).