Cornucopia: Recent Episodes
Karim Benammar
How do we live abundantly? Philosopher Karim Benammar explores the shift from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance. From a world of lack to a world of plenty, from surviving to living, and from struggle to possibility and freedom. Each episode, recorded on a walk, explores a concept in economics, ecology, psychology or philosophy.
Nuclear weapons, greenhouse gases, plastic soups, forever chemicals, genetically modified food, viruses and animals, artificial intelligence: since the dawn of civilisation, technology has been both a blessing and a curse. The parable of the Sorcerer's apprentice, who unleashes forces he cannot control, is thus a cautionary tale. But it is also a tale of apprenticeship, of curiosity and ambition, of learning by making - and correcting - mistakes. As we shape the future of humanity and our planet through technology and policies, doing many things for the first time, we are all apprentices.
Nature is not scarce, but it can be destroyed. Our greatest problem is therefore not scarcity, but our wanton destruction. Ancient wisdom, in the form of the parable of the goose with the golden eggs, illustrates this wonderfully: the abundant growth of the natural world - the golden eggs - and the vulnerability of natural ecosystems (the goose). We unpack the layers and lessons of this teaching tale to inspire our shift to abundance.
Climate Positivity is a way to approach our current climate crisis from an abundance mindset. The challenge we are facing is enormous: we need to start paying back a carbon debt that we have accumulated over centuries. Furthermore, everything that we do produces too many greenhouse gases: our energy use, our agriculture, our production system, our transportation, and our built environment. So, the key is not to produce less, but to produce differently: we need to reinvent everything. We can apply a simple carbon calculus to prioritize the most effective measures. What can you contribute as an individual, as a global citizen, with your organisation and your profession?
Are you rich? Do you feel rich? What does it mean to feel rich? And what would it take for you to feel rich? I argue that we haven't learned to be rich, partly because we have been poor for most of human history, and partly because we are stuck in an endless competition for positional goods. With the shift to abundance, we realise that many of us have access to all that we need to lead fulfiling lives, that we are living lives of plenty, and that we can let go of our fear of coming up short, now and in the future.
If we want to share the riches of our planet equitably, it would seem that we must learn how to have enough. Many of us believe that not taking more than our fair share, and focusing on our needs rather than on endless greed, makes us a good person. And yet this insistence on enough, the belief that if we we take more then someone else will suffer, is a form of scarcity thinking, a form of fear. In an abundant world, we can all have a life of plenty - and this should be our communal ambition, the celebration of a thriving humanity on a thriving planet. By shifting to an abundance mindset, we can celebrate a life of plenty.
What story do we tell ourselves about humanity? A pessimistic story of shame at our shortcomings, or a story of pride at our achievements? We are faced with a paradox: while the world is objectively getting better all the time, we seem to have lost faith in ourselves and in humanity's progress. In unpacking this paradox, we examine the strange power of negative news, humanity as a clumsy but well-meaning adolescent, the surprising idealism of those who argue that humanity is failing, and the power of an aspirational narrative.
We live in a world full of consumer goods, for those who can afford them, and with a seemingly limitless desire for more consumption. But are our desires in fact limitless? Our desires for goods stem from the way in which we play the social status game: our contradictory longing to be part fo the social group and yet to stand out as an individual. This means that most of our consumption is symbolic. And our desires are mimetic, in that they always involve the desire of someone else. But we can choose how to play the status game; as a culture, as a society, and also as an individual. In a world of abundance, we can focus limitless possibilities on what gives us joy.
We need rapid economic growth for a thriving humanity on a thriving planet. Proposals for degrowth are understandable but dangerous. The best solutions for human well-being and ecological health all require and create economic growth.
Scarcity is a formula between needs and resources, but it leads to powerful emotions of fear and to struggle. We feel it in our lives and on a global ecological scale. How can we recognize and overcome our scarcity mindset?
The coronavirus pandemic confronted us with life-threatening scarcity of equipment and vaccines. It brought out the best - our science - and the worst - our lack of solidarity - in us. How can we shift to an abundance mindset to provide the best vaccines for all of humanity?
The surplus - all the energy we have in excess of what we require to stay alive - is the driving force of human progress and civilisations, of all life on this planet, and of our vast universe. How can we understand and use the surplus?
We are undergoing a fundamental transformation in human history: the shift to abundance. Three stories about how to make a shift from scarcity to abundance in our thinking, in our lives, and in how we shape the future.