The Business of Business is Peace
When you put Peace first, the rest comes easier
At every twist and turn of history the time has always been the right for peace. It’s time for peace now at this point in history, and this time it’s more urgent than ever.
If you have been reading our newsletter you will have grasped that we are not talking about peace as the absence of war, rather positive peace: with ourselves, each other, the Earth and the future.
There are several reasons for the urgency. One is that we are consuming resources in a way that is threatening life on earth, and we are not getting happier. The other is the economic system, whilst making the rich richer, is hardly fit for purpose as more and more are plunging into poverty. It’s global. We as humanity are in the same boat.
And the economic system is made up primarily of organisations organised as businesses. Each of these organisations in their own small way, with each of their employees are contributing, in some positive ways and in some negative ways in others.
Whatever it is, it’s not working and it is taking us to a place no-one wants to go. We need something else. A new order. Fortunately we all carry the answer within ourselves: Peace. Our message is simple: concentrate on creating a culture of peace.
Anything that does not support peace we can discard. We need to forget economic growth, forget ultra comfortable life-styles and to concentrate on what we as humans makes us happy. And it is peace that truly makes us happy, so let's aim for that primarily, and take care of all the Earth systems we have upset at the same time.
These premises might be hard to swallow, so let me provide some evidence and explanation. The Earth has had its challenges - the dust bowl and then depression in the US, two world wars, famines and droughts - but never has the entire population of Earth been threatened before.
As this article explains, scientists are warning that the amount of heating of the climate, and the fact that fossil fuel burning doesn't look likely to stop, lead to the most likely outcome to be the end of civilization as we know it. The things we have built up - cities, agriculture, transport, our economic system etc. will all be undermined by climate instability and extreme weather. And our societies are built to run on fossil fuel burning so just stopping burning won’t work. We simply won't be able to get our world functioning.
This is because of tipping points. A tipping point is where a system - an eco-system or geophysical system like a glacier, is so heavily impacted by changes in its surroundings that it ceases to function. Scientists have identified sixteen such tipping points - like ice melting to raise sea levels - and four are close to happening. See this article.
We can’t have an overall plan for humanity - everyone must work together as best they can, but we have some guidelines:
Get the basics right : set things up so that everyone gets what they need in terms of food, shelter, inclusion, water etc. And set it up to be resilient to extreme weather and climate instability, whatever that may mean in your part of the world.
Listen to the wisdom of old, as Socrates said, know yourself - start with knowing who you are and the peace you carry as your birthright within you.
Earth systems are in a bad way, work to restore and repair them together with others.
We may, as a species not get out of this, enjoy the gift of life every day, our forefathers did all they could to get us here, let us honour them by truly enjoying what it is to be alive.
Focus on business: the one activity that affects the earth and its inhabitants is the production system that extracts, produces and distributes our goods and services. IF we can make the business of business peace then we can usher in a new order.
That we have to do this is clear, but how is another question. Subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t already, and join the conversation. Learn more on our website. https://Investorsinpeace.com