All living systems, from microbes to human communities, express core principles, including the principle of inexplicability, which is that the forces of life cannot be explained and are unpredictable. These principles are found in lessons nature has gifted us from time immemorial: the holistic interdependence of all life; the diversity that helps us flourish and thrive; small changes that can have large impacts; that all life moves through natural cycles of birth and death; healthy systems seeking right relationships; and that all life is in dynamic equilibrium, constantly changing and imbued with an innate healing potential. This sacred knowledge is embedded in both modern complexity science and ancient wisdom.
Yet, modernity has downplayed this understanding and reinforced a dominant cultural narrative of separateness, built on a belief that life operates like a machine. Our history books are replete with examples of how lives, labor, and land have been used as inputs to fuel an economic machine incongruent with life itself. Though slowly changing, this belief system maintains a tenacious hold on our lived experience.
Individually and collectively, we have lost a sense of individual meaning and collective vision and purpose, and it is no longer possible to ignore the pervasive symptoms of disconnection all around us, including the climate crisis, species loss, economic inequality, burnout, loneliness, and depression.
Eight billionaires now control as much wealth as half the world’s population. To what end? Unknowingly, we have been turned into cogs in an economic machine. Moreover, studies show that when inequality is high, people are more accepting of unethical behavior.
It is clear that a business-as-usual economy is not an option. We can design, build, and embody a life-sustaining economy and consciousness, and we can begin here in the Northland — but not an economy simply for the sake of it. We don’t have to innovate. In fact, G20 countries are employing a life-economy strategy to address multidimensional health and economic inequalities. Across the globe, cities are applying community-wealth-building strategies, an economic development model that transforms local economies based on communities having direct ownership and control of their assets.
The British medical journal the Lancet concluded that the community-wealth-building model can support “the joint aims of economic regeneration, health and well-being improvements, and reduced regional inequalities.”
We can be inspired by the example of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who donated the ownership of his company, valued at $3 billion, to the Patagonia Perpetual Purpose Trust, which owns all voting stock and ensures that Patagonia profits are used to fight climate change and protect lands while shielding the company from pressure for short-term gains. Even though the beneficiary of the trust is the planet earth, “purpose trusts” can be used to benefit employees and communities. This is exemplified by Duluth financial services business Natural Investments, a perpetual-purpose trust. We might also consider the Duluth examples of the Duluth Whole Foods Coop (which is hosting a national cooperative grocery conference at the DECC this year), Positively 3rd Street Bakery, and One Roof Community Housing.
We can create a Duluth Public Bank, owned by the community, modeled after the Public Bank of North Dakota.
Collectively, these organizational-stewardship models are holistic by design and work within a dominant system of legal and financial rules designed with a completely different mindset. Rather than extracting wealth, stewardship models seek to prioritize the longer-term well-being of community, human and non-human.
Transformative economic models that we design require a new consciousness, distinct from our existing cultural belief system. They are the foundation for the next health system.
It is time to put the economy in service to the sacredness of life instead of the other way around.
is an author, facilitator, and an organizational development and living-systems impact consultant. He received the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Achievement Award from the Minnesota Public Health Association for his lifetime contributions to public health.