self-interest

Navigating the path of self-improvement and moral development, I delve into the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius as we explore the progress of the soul. In this episode, I embrace the power of self-reflection and examine the commitment of my soul. Aurelius prompts us to question which guiding principles influence our actions and to evaluate our inner state. Join me as we identify different soul types, from the impulsive child to the wise leader, gaining insight into our current state and areas for improvement.

Throughout my life, self-interest has often driven my actions, chasing instant gratification like a wild animal. But as I embark on this journey of self-discovery, I vow to align my character with that of a wise, compassionate, and empathetic leader. No longer will I be bound by the whims of impulsive desires, but instead, I will seek to understand and empathize with the experiences of those around me.

Past actions may have caused discomfort and friction, but dwelling on them will not bring about change. Instead, I will focus on being fully present and intentional in my interactions, listening with empathy and compassion. My commitment is to become a more devoted and understanding person, guiding my soul towards greater virtue and inner alignment.

By regularly questioning the state of my soul and seeking growth, I embrace the Stoic principles of self-improvement and moral development. Join me as we navigate this path together, discovering the transformative power of self-reflection and the fulfillment that comes from progress of the soul. Let's embark on this journey of growth, wisdom, and compassion, as we navigate the day with renewed purpose and dedication to doing the right thing without expecting rewards.

Thank you for listening and joining me on my journey of self-discovery!

Mediations and Prompts influenced from The Daily Stoic Books

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Many young Christians feel a call to ministry, some a call to be a missionary. In this episode, I discuss this popular unction and the culture of American evangelical Christianity that produces it. The missional movement is a self-identified movement within the 21st century. While missional church just claim to be biblical, this is a much used argument made by evangelical to justify their latest pragmatic strategies - such as missional. I question the biblical fidelity of the missional movement and highlight common pitfalls for church planters. 

This missional movement also creates a heightened desire for Christian to be missionaries. Many young Christians in the church feel pressure to enter ministry or go overseas. Why does this happen? How do we deal with the fallout of missionaries leaving ministry if not the faith all together? Oftentimes the call to ministry is pitched as the most sacrificial thing a Christian can do. In teaching this way, leader often create unbiblical and unrealistic expectations. We need to have a deeper understanding of going to the nations so that we can better understand our calling to our own nation here. 

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“How Should Christians Speak in Public?” Tim Keller - https://mereorthodoxy.com/how-should-christians-speak-in-public/#post-133708-footnote-1

“Negative World Arrives in Australia” Simon Kennedy - https://mereorthodoxy.com/negative-world-australia/

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This episode discusses the work of the hugely influential political theorist, Hannah Arendt, and how it provides profound insights into the nature and purpose of both politics and democratic organizing. Arendt's books include the Origins of Totalitarianism, Eichmann in Jerusalem, The Human Condition, and On Revolution. These works, along with her numerous essays, are vital for understanding the politics both of her day and ours.  I discuss Arendt’s understanding of politics, power, violence, and the resonance between Arendt’s work and organizing with Leo Penta. If you know nothing about Arendt and her work, this episode is a great introduction. And if you are a veteran reader of Arendt, this episode opens up how Arendt's work connects to and is a key dialogue partner for existing forms of grassroots democratic politics.

Guest

Leo Penta is a Catholic priest, community organizer, and academic. His doctorate focused on Hannah Arendt’s concept of power, a focus generated by his time as a community organizer in New York where he helped found the East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC) organizing coalition. He has continued to work as both a priest and organizer, first in the States and then, since 1996, in Germany.  While in the States, Penta spearheaded an effort of the Industrial Areas Foundation from 1990 to 1996 to develop “IAF Reflects”, an institute for reflection on organizing. The Institute conducted seminars with the participation of both well-known academics and renowned practitioners to deepen the theoretical base for the work of organizing. From 1996 to 2017 Leo Penta taught at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, developing a focus on community development. In conjunction with this, he developed the first community organizing initiative in Germany, called “Menschen verändern ihren Kiez/Organizing Schöneweide.” In 2006 he became the founding director of the German Institute for Community Organizing (DICO) which is dedicated to developing the practice of community organizing in Germany and training professional community organizers. He has continued to study Arendt’s work and how it can help frame organizing throughout his career. For contact and further information: www.communityorganizing.de and www.dico-berlin.org

Resources for Going Deeper

Hannah Arendt, “On Violence, part II" in Crises of the Republic (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1972), 134-155.

Hannah Arendt, “Action” in The Human Condition (various editions), Part 5.

Hannah Arendt, “On Humanity in Dark Times: Thoughts about Lessing,” Men in Dark Times (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1968), 3-32.

Hannah Arendt, “Totalitarianism,” The Origins of Totalitarianism (various editions), Part 3

“What remains?” Interview with Hannah Arendt on her life and work by Günter Gaus for German television (1964). With subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVSRJC4KAiE

• For more information & relevant updates follow me on Twitter: @WestLondonMan
• For readings to download relevant to or discussed in an episode visit: https://ormondcenter.com/listen-organize-act-podcast

Yancey Strickler (@ystrickler) is an entrepreneur and writer, co-founder of Kickstarter, The Creative Independent, and the author of This Could Be our Future, A Manifesto for a More Generous World. He’s a Distinguished Fellow at the Drucker Institute, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People, and an angel investor in startups, including Hopin, Mati, Organise, Realtime, Supercritical, System, and Wren.

Host Anne Mühlethaler met Yancey over Zoom, with 50 or so others, curious after hearing him speak of his Bentoism project on the James Altucher show in Spring 2020. Having gotten to know each other over the past few months via the Bento Society, Anne starts the conversation by asking Yancey about his upbringing in rural Virginia, his passion for reading, writing and the early days of his career as a music critic in New York City. Yancey talks Anne through the inception of Kickstarter and shares what he learnt about manifesting ideas during the years he spent supporting thousands of creative projects launched on the crowdfunding platform. 

He explains how he came up with the Bento (Beyond Near Term Orientation), a tool he designed while he was in the process of writing his book. After pondering on the meaning of value and the Self, Yancey was in need of a metaphor as he explored how to balance decision making between near and long-term, and going beyond the ‘now me’ of the present self’s needs. The two also chat about data, reputation and identity in the digital age, tribes,post-individualism and self-interest. They finish the discussion on whether the Bento can be helpful in building a better future for the planet, or as per Yancey’s original idea, how it could lead us on an intentional path to a better 2050. 

A fascinating and fun conversation, happy listening!

***

Selected Links from the episode 

You can find Yancey @Ystrickler on Twitter or via his website Ystrickler.com

The Creative Independent - https://thecreativeindependent.com/

Bentoism & The Bento Society - https://bentoism.org/join

Yancey interviewed on the James Altucher's Podcast - https://omny.fm/shows/the-james-altucher-show/589-yancey-strickler

The Trouser Press Record Guide - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/899268.The_Trouser_Press_Record_Guide

Kickstarter's Stats page - https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats

Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations

Jerry Colonna Reboot - https://www.reboot.io/podcast/

Don Cherry - Relativity Suite 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_Suite

The Weirdest People in the World  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_World

Priya Parker - The Art of Gathering  - https://www.priyaparker.com/thebook

Peter Hook  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hook

Joy Division - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division

Our Band Could Be Your Life -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Band_Could_Be_Your_Life

Not for Bread Alone -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_by_Bread_Alone

***

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This episode is brought to you by AVM Consulting 

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For more, you can read and subscribe to Anne's Substack, the Mettā View, her weekly dose of insights on coaching, brand development, the future of work, and storytelling, with a hint of mindfulness.

This episode discusses power, defined simply as the ability to act. It focuses on the relationship between power and democratic politics, the distinction between "power over" or unilateral power and "power with" or relational power, and questions such as who has power, how should it be analyzed, is anyone really powerless, the nature of self-interest, and how does organizing build power to effect change.

Guests

Robert Hoo is the Lead Organizer and Executive Director for One LA-IAF. He has fifteen years of organizing experience with the Industrial Areas Foundation in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Sacramento. And before that served as an AmeriCorps member in Connecticut.

Ben Gordon is senior organizer with Metro IAF which he joined in 2016. He currently works with the IAF organizations in Boston, Connecticut, Milwaukee, as well as several labor union partners. Prior to joining Metro IAF, he was Director of Organizing for the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), a 200,000-member affiliate of the public employees union (AFSCME). He began his professional organizing career in 1987 with the Southern Region of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union organizing clothing factory workers in the Southeast.

Resources for Going Deeper

Frederick Douglas, “West India Emancipation” (1857). A key statement of the importance of power in radical democratic politics. Available online: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress/ 

Bayard Rustin, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement.” Discussed in this and other episodes.  Available online: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1965-bayard-rustin-protest-politics-future-civil-rights-movement-0/ 

Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (New York: Vintage, 1975). Considered a classic, this book gives an account of the urban planner Robert Moses. Organizers consistently refer to this book as a detailed and very revealing case study in how to gain power even when you don’t hold an official or elected post, how power operates institutionally, how to get things done, and how to analyze power;

Saul Alinsky, John L. Lewis: An Unauthorized Biography (New York: Vintage, 1970). Another case studies in how power is built up and wielded effectively, this time in a non-state focused form of politics, that of union organizing; 

The distinction between “power with” and “power over” originates with Mary Parker Follett, Creative Experience (New York: Longmans, Green, 1930 [1924]); 

Hannah Arendt also sketched a conception of relational power in her essay “On Violence.” See Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (London: Penguin Books, 2006 [1963]), 105–98; 

Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992). A reading of the New Testament and the ministry of Jesus as exemplifying creative, non-violent resistance and the use of relational power to bring change; 

Amy Allen, “Feminist Perspectives on Power,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (on-line), https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-power/

• For more information & relevant updates follow me on Twitter: @WestLondonMan
• For readings to download relevant to or discussed in an episode visit: https://ormondcenter.com/listen-organize-act-podcast

Scripture Used: Mark 10:35-45

Notes:

1. Desire for Greatness
2. Two paths to Greatness
   1. Path of Self-Interest
   2. Path of Humble Servanthood
3. Remember there is one Lord

Quotes:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone. (Lewis, Mere Christianity)

#015 - How can we tune out the noise and know where to begin dismantling white supremacy? Like unraveling the knots of many issues, taking a look at beginnings and isolating variables is always a good place to start.

This episode is a little different. A joint experiment. A nebulous mission.

In this inspiring international discussion, I was honored to be joined by two co-hosts: Dawna Jones of Vancouver and Gert Penne of Belgium.

And three guests: Willow Bumby and Lindsey Henwood of Vancouver, and Josh Shaffer of Tampa.

With 6+ participants, spanning 3+ countries, 3 continents, and 3 generations we explored not only the future of work, but also the future of education.

Dawna Jones is the AUTHOR of DECISION-MAKING for DUMMIES. Her book appears on Steve Denning's (Forbes) list of 8 Noteworthy Books for 2014. Dawna is also the host of the “Evolutionary Provocateur” podcast.

Gert Penne, an account executive in the tech industry, is a an Empathic Problem Solver, who takes a principle-centered approach to teaming across cultures, disciplines, and generations.

At the end of a 2-continent, 3-country Skype call, Dawna, Gert, and I found ourselves talking about generational differences globally. With the goal to learn how the next generation sees the Future of Work, we decided to invite 3 Millennials to a follow-up call. This show is that call.

Millennials fall just after the Gen-Xers. They were born between 1982 and 2004.

We were fortunate to have 3 Millennials join us.

Josh Shaffer is an early Millennial, and works for Accenture in Talent Acquisition in Tampa.

Willow Bumby is an iOS Engineer, designer, and writer, as well as a teacher at Lighthouse Labs in Vancouver.

Lindsay Henwood is a User Experience Design Instructor at Red Academy, a rapidly growing Tech School startup in Vancouver.

Two other Millennials joined us virtually.

Lauren Kirmil is a Marketing and Media Specialist and a former technical recruiter in the San Francisco Bay Area. During her extensive travels throughout Southeast Asia she worked as a freelance travel writer.

Grace Liu is a former Outreach Support Officer at the British Consulate in Guangzhou, China. She recently received funding to start a venture in Shenzhen. With the assistance of her NYU professor she also plans to start an NGO incorporating ancient contemplative practices, including meditation.

In this discussion we covered a wide range of topics.

• Distributed workforces and workplace flexibility and the big American offensive to change the workplace.
• Self-responsibility, self-awareness, self-perception.
• Cultural fit: the “techie” mold and the pressure to fit in.
• The dying days of the industrial model, the irrelevant university degree and the rise of bootcamp style education.
• The need to understand the next generation, and the companies which will die.
• The rise of the robots and the growing fear of job loss.
• Capitalism and its schizophrenic booms and busts: do we want an economy based on self-interest or creativity and collaboration?
• Tribalism and the need to belong: do we become global citizens or nationalists?
• Surviving the industrial model and designing the new workplace.
• The need to shift easily into different industries and the costly risk in over-specialization.
• The silliness of our current system and people's inability to work with power.
• And the power coming from the “Millennial values”.

EconTalk host Russ Roberts is interviewed by long-time EconTalk guest Michael Munger about Russ's new book, How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness. Topics discussed include how economists view human motivation and consumer behavior, the role of conscience and self-interest in acts of kindness, and the costs and benefits of judging others. The conversation closes with a discussion of how Smith can help us understand villains in movies.