The Economic Realm
Everything that I do for you.
Remember an activity might have several layers of motivation or purpose, but that part of an action that is for the other is happening in the Economic Realm.
That includes business, farming, industry, but also aspects of every organisation.
If you are going to do something for someone then it is important to do what they need you to do. This may or may not be what they want. However, if you do something that they don't need, then whether they wanted or not, they are certainly not going to be grateful.
Your activity is therefore directed, as far as you can discern it, by the need of the other. This attitude of "being directed" is in polar distinction to the situation in the Cultural Realm where you are free. Activity in the Economic Realm is directed, not free.
There is an interesting distinction needed here, otherwise, we run in to the concept of slavery. The activity in the Economic Realm is directed, once the individual has, out of freedom, chosen to unite to the purpose of the activity.
The need that is being met is the purpose of the activity. This purpose is the thing that directs the activity. It is having this single purpose that allows an organisation to coalesce. It is the meeting of the purpose that links together the individuals in shared endeavour to a system.
It is this shared endeavour that leads us to the next characteristic of the Economic Realm, for this is the realm of Fraternity. This is the realm of team work, or esprit-de-corp. It is here that we find the efforts of the team becoming greater than the achievements of the individuals.
Fraternal endeavour carried out in freedom with love for the deed. That is the motto of the Economic Realm.
There is no place for competition in team-work. Everyone has a role and the outputs of one become the inputs for the next. Together the we achieve our aim of meeting the needs of someone else.
How do the Cultural and Economic Realms connect? In a myriad of different ways. How is the team chosen? There is competition for the places… In our Cultural Activity we consume the product of other people’s Economic Activity. How do we solve problems in the Economic Realm? Someone has an idea – the Cultural Realm provides spiritual nourishment for the Economic Realm.
An organisation has a purpose. It may have a management hierarchy with a Chief Executive. The Chief Executive is accountable to the purpose, and is responsible for discerning the need in reality and directing activity to meet that need. The management team is accountable to the Chief Executive for working towards the purpose. The team members are accountable to the managers for working towards the purpose. Thus the activity of the whole system is directed to meet the purpose. If the purpose is real and meaningful then there is a real possibility of the work being sustaining and rewarding.
These are the basic concepts for the Economic Realm: You, directed, fraternity and co-operation.
Chapter 9, The Idea of Freedom: “Only when I follow my love for my objective is it I myself who act”.
Chapter 13, The Value of Life “He determines the value of life by measuring achievements against aims”.
Thus we see that if we are lucky enough to work in an organisation that consciously organises itself according to an understanding of the Cultural and Economic Realms we stand a very good chance of being truly fulfilled. If we unite ourselves with the purpose of the Organisation and work out of freedom with love for the deed then not only will we be fulfilled but we will help to meet people’s needs. We will be helping to bring strength, warmth and light in to the world.
Some Farm Facts
Sebastian,
Thanks for these clear and beautifully written explanations of the Cultural and Economic Realms. I'm starting to get a clearer picture of them both now that they're setting each other off. As a farmer I can see with growing clarity how the two poles stand out in our daily work.
"Activity in the Economic Realm is directed, not free." It wouldn't do any good to grow something nobody wanted to buy, and also the land and climate determine what can grow well here. We can't grow good tomatoes, for instance, because the days aren't hot enough. Also, everyone's workday is pretty well choreographed according to the necessity of the situation. The freedom we feel in doing this fits with Robert Frost's definition, "You have freedom when you're easy in your harness."
"The activity in the Economic Realm is directed, once the individual has, out of freedom, chosen to unite to the purpose of the activity." This interests me because only part of us are here on the farm out of truly free choice. My husband and I had no farmers in our living family, and came to it out of our ideals. And several of the young college-educated men and women who've passed through here have done the same. The guys that come up from Mexico are in a very different situation. It's easy to see that it's strictly an economic situation that drives them here, because they can't feed their families in Mexico. So they come up here, without much education, and they could try to get better-paying jobs than farmwork, but they enjoy farmwork and they enjoy being here on this farm. So there's an element of cultural freedom, I suppose, in doing the work you were brought up doing.
Another way the guys express freedom is that they are so used to hard work back in Mexico, carrying 80-pound bags of corn in brutally hot weather, for instance, so to them most things we do here on our farm are fairly easy by comparison. They grew up accustomed to very hard work, and know how to use their bodies and how to do things in rhythm, which is also a kind of freedom. The rhythm carries you along instead of having to rely on muscular strength.
So, even though what brings them here to California is an unfree situation, they find freedom within it, and express it every day in the generous spirit with which they go about their work. They don't need direction as to what our mission is (to grow the best vegetables and flowers we can, and generate a livelihood for all of us) because, once they grasped it, they took it to their hearts. They look to us for direction every day on what tasks they need to do to fulfill that mission. Some of them, usually the younger ones, enjoy taking on roles where they themselves need to make the decisions. Others prefer freedom from having to think too hard about things; they just want to be pointed in the right direction. The ideal of the group effort, of "fraternal endeavour" is very much a part of how they do things. In fact, sometimes tensions arise when someone begins to think of himself rather than the good of the group. Especially the older men, fathers of some of the younger ones, disapprove of any attitude or action that, in their view, doesn't serve the higher good of the farm, because, as they say, el rancho da pan a todos, the farm gives bread to all.
They are so bright and good-hearted. I used to feel so upset that they had to come here, when they should have been teachers, farmers and storekeepers in their own country. It's all due to social forces which move huge numbers of people here and there and give some people the necessity of learning how to work hard while depriving other people of that necessity. So that we couldn't survive with a college-educated work force, because in general, they're all for the cultural freedom of farming, but are shocked when they have to confront the real facts of farm economics.
Thank you Lori, and thank
Thank you Lori, and thank you for your spot-on example.
I heard a Steiner story on the same theme. He and one of the BD pioneers went to see a farm deep in rural Germany. The farmer lived a very simple life and had very little book learning. Afterwards, Steiner commented that it was a very long time since he had met such a free individual. "But Dr.Steiner, it is certain that he hasn't read the Philosophy of Freedom".
I imagine that the farmer was aware of and united with the purpose of his farm, accepting of his situation and loving in his deeds.
There is another layer to the fraternal aspect of the Economic Realm which you have put me in touch with. Think how much time we spend at work. More than we spend asleep, more than we spend at home. Work is the thing that most of us do most of.
Think about how fulfilling spending time with friends can be, or a good conversation, or working together on a task. In my experience of life, I feel most alive when I am with someone else. I think that is because of the feeling of connectedness that I experience.
Work, organised in line with the 3-fold, is an experience of fraternity or brotherhood. It is about connectedness - with your team mates, and with your customers. It seems wholly appropriate to me that something so inherently fulfilling as working together should be the thing that we do most of.
A life devoted purely to the Cultural Realm can be a supremely lonely and hard life. Think of a pianist, practicing all day alone, playing the concert alone. Think of an author, typing away in to the night, alone. Think of an artist trying to draw out of himself the picture in his mind. Although in the economic realm you devote yourself to someone else’s needs, at least there is togetherness.
What do iPods say about modern day connectedness?
ipods
Interesting posts Lori and Sebastian, I like the question you posed Sebastian.
I think that for many, ipods signify that music and musical tastes can be shared as well as the spoken word. The vehicles for making money from music are there already and a lot of money is made however the cost used to be prohibitive for the musical artist unless he had a distribution vehicle. Pear to Pear networks while allowing distrubution and exposure brought a great deal of attention to copyright and ownership issues.. Most of those are still unresolved, for the artists at least. Kind of makes me think of the 'Art Bank' that Beethoven dreamt up, long before organized copyright monitoring existed.
There are beginning to be a lot more spoken word books available and this is a good thing. Ideas are more portable and soon thru this technology, teaching and courses in all manner of fields will emerge, making ideas and knowledge available without cost prohibitive educational institutions, and the medium of television which is are closed shops to those with little financial means. Kind of leveled the playing field as has the internet and sites like this one, providing opportunity for growth and development thru sharing of ideas and opinions at 2 cents a dance.
That's my two sense worth. In fact I am currently involved in developing course material for ipod delivery. Within 2 years the hand held devices will store and playback hundreds of hours of material and interaction with a mentor will be a click away. Actually that is already here now. Just what is profitable is more the issue.
Cheers,
Cisco
Sociable Work
Sebastian,
Your comment on the importance of other people in the economic realm is so right, and in so many ways. The luxury of meaningful work may even be secondary to the luxury of working with great people who put their heart into everything they do! When I hear the guys singing in the field, or when they're laughing and joking together, I get the sense that my job, above all, is to provide the conditions for their on-the-job joyfulness to flourish. Of course that's not really true, as an ex-farmer friend likes to remind me. My job above all is to see that the farm generates profits. So I suppose one part of my job is in the cultural realm and the other in the economic realm. Because really I want the farm to be a joyful place so that I can be joyful, so I'm doing it for myself. But if it doesn't generate the profits, pretty soon there won't be any farm. On the other hand, if my friend doesn't see the connection between joyful working conditions and better produce and sales, maybe that's why he had such a hard time keeping a crew back when he was a farmer!
As far as iPods go, my husband bought me one for Christmas, but I rarely use it. My solitary work usually involves bookkeeping and organizing things, which require concentration. When I do get the luxury of solitary work that doesn't require thinking, such as thinning in the greenhouse, I almost always want the mental space to think about PoF or something else, instead of having my head filled up with music. But my husband has taken to wearing the iPod almost all the time in his solitary repetitious tasks. And I've noticed that when he's wearing it, and I need to speak to him, he often replies in an irritated voice, as if I'm intruding into his private world! So I've started to see the gadget as a kind of rival. And it's ominous to me that it can go everywhere we go and create this private world inside our heads, blotting out all possibility of thinking! Especially for kids.
There seems to me to be a
There seems to me to be a polarity between "the joy of working together" and the "pursuit of profit".
My strong sense is that "love of the purpose" means that both the above happen automatically. In other words by making the meeting of others' needs your purpose (remember they have to be grateful enough to be happy to pay) you will create a happy working environment and make enough profit to sustain the business.
Meeting needs is a very sophisticate concept. It is not a question of meeting the needs you think they have, or of meeting the needs they think they have. It is about meeting the real needs, which have to be drawn out using your skill and communicated, again, using your skill.
In other words, success is still down to talent - even in the 3-fold. That is where the cultural realm creeps in with the competitive element. The CEO of an organisation will be trying to perceive the need and communicate the purpose - it he or she is no good at these jobs then the organisation will fail. Luck helps as well. But luck can be created - predictable miracles...
The iPod is a great communication device between people far apart, and an impediment to communication between people in close physical proximity.
Well isn't that interesting! The same can be said for telephones, computers, cars... Always, always, always, paradoxes to be resolved, contained, managed...!