Tag Archives: capitalism

Fearless Aging

N.O.P.E.: National Organization of Pissed Off Elders

By Jim Selman | Bio

I want to create a new organization to stamp out stupidity and indifference and restore common decency and goodwill into society. I think I’ll call it the National Organization of Pissed-Off Elders (N.O.P.E.).

What’s pissing us off?

A lot more than just ‘aging’ issues like Social Security, pharmaceuticals and our sex lives.

First, it pisses us off that the people in charge are squandering away the opportunities they had to make the world work, or at least be a better place. For example…

  • Thinking we get stupid as we get older
  • Growth at any cost
  • Short-sightedness
  • Self-righteousness
  • Special interests
  • Contrived controversy
  • Bullying, greed and intolerance
  • Turning an economic mechanism like capitalism into an ideology
  • “Us versus Them”ism

N.O.P.E. could have both positive and negative strategies. For example, when we’re talking to someone who is speaking baby talk to us or raising their voice so we can hear, we could shout

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The Great Turning

Smart Growth

By Jim Selman | Bio

One of the more consistent maxims in life is that money doesn’t buy happiness and that happiness is the bottom line of living—otherwise, what is the point (unless you believe in one of those ascetic cults or religions that promote suffering as good for the soul)? This is actually good news, given a whole lot of people are not going to have much money for a while and maybe not a lot of opportunity to get it. We all hope that this financial crisis is going to be short-lived, but don’t hold your breath.

According to an article on Harvard Business Publishing, capitalism is consuming itself and Capitalism 1.0 is being reinvented to become Capitalism 2.0. The old notion that growth is simply a function of producing and selling more stuff is being replaced by the idea that we need “smart growth”, not more of the same old growth. Said differently, if all we

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The Great Turning

Getting a Return

I have been thinking a bit about ‘returns’ lately. I read a blog about ‘return on energy’ that pointed to the growing awareness of our choices and what is at stake when we make them as we age. Are we getting more out of life than we’re putting in? This kind of ‘capitalist’ metaphor got me thinking. Is life a transaction in which we need to measure the return as a basis for assessing our ‘life worth’?  

I am a capitalist insofar as I believe in free enterprise. I don’t know

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