creating a new myth

Creating a new myth

• About capital and its place in the world

• And you and your place in the world

Three myths

Redemptive violence

Exodus reclaimed

Gospel of wealth

Redemptive violence

• the myth of redemptive violence; from babylon with the god Marduke playing the part of Gary Cooper, knocked down, humiliated in public he then rises up and defeats the forces of chaos and restores order.

Exodus reclaimed

• Baptists were forbidden by Episcopal land owners from preaching about exodus as a collective political reality; it was by and by. The civil rights movement reclaimed the original myth and threw out the one perpetrated by their masters to keep them locked into thinking of themselves as property

Gospel of wealth

• “Capital is not amenable to the ministrations of the do gooders but is instead a force of nature,” promulgated by Andrew Carnegie, it spawned Milton Friedman and enshrined selfishness as the highest good for an investor. Risk and return, with no regard for impact.

The new myth

• We need a new myth of capital, to dethrone the gospel of wealth.

• One that is not a rationale, but a compelling sexy fundamental truism for our society around stewardship of resources, global equity. Why it matters to me

Some of the people we’re talking to

• The accidental wealthy

They’re not like old money

It used to be that wealth = proof you have been a good person

• Or wealth = proof you have been a bad person

• With the new, accidental wealthy, there’s not much guilt, but much more confusion

Why newly rich people are open to a new myth:

• Wealth is seen as accidental

• Something happened, it was real, but then it was gone

• So what is real, and worth it?

• There’s a new moral hunger

Neuroscience meets myth making

• We know giving is tied to primal passion centers

• We can actually see which neurons fire and which don’t before and while you donate to a cause

• And we need a new, deep story

The story is about you

• And what you care about

• And what you want as your impact. Your footprint. The way you want to live in the world, in your community and in your family or circle.

It includes your time

• You’re spending it in a new way

It includes your consumption

• You’re buying more consciously

It includes the way you give

• You are looking deeper into the money and time you donate

And it includes the way you invest

• You are asking different questions

• And have different, additional expectations by you measure success

• Risk, return, AND impact

You want a new story

• Of yourself

You want a new story

• Of how you live in the world