This post originally published on BetterCapitalism.org in March 2021. At that time the world was a year into the COVID-19 pandemic and acutely aware of our collective move from order (the known) to disorder (the unmaking of the known) as we lurched toward reorder (the making of a new unknown). The pandemic was truly an object lesson in Order-Disorder-Reorder.
Today, four years later, the United States has entered a different kind of Order-Disorder-Reorder, one that is primarily economic and political, while other nations have been experiencing their respective versions of Order-Disorder-Reorder. It seems timely to revisit and relearn this topic so we can individually and collectively build a better Reorder.
A fantasy many of us grew up hearing is that we can design, control, and live the perfect lives we imagine, or others imagined for us. What did your fantasy story sound like? The basic story usually includes doing well in grammar and high school, going to college and graduating into a good job with a high salary, and then continuing an upward trajectory of uninterrupted success like we were trains on perfectly laid rails. Your story might include successes related to whatever early talents you displayed, like sports and music or desires like wealth and status. No matter the details, our fantasies always seem to include that “upward trajectory of uninterrupted success.”
That fantasy cracked apart for me in my early 30s when an insurmountable crisis threw me off my rails. My ordered life had been fractured apart and thrown into disorder. My upward trajectory was clearly interrupted. Did my shift from order to disorder – being thrown off my rails – mean I failed? I painfully thought so because I didn’t know any other story. Survival meant having to reorder much of my life and in the process reinvent myself. In that experience I was also forced to exchange the old fantasy for a new awareness of reality: sustainable growth is a process of order–disorder–reorder.
Few of us want to leave our order, much less face the likely pain of disorder and reorder, particularly when it’s not part of our plan. Take a moment to scan the big and little movements of your life. Where have you experienced order-disorder-reorder?
Image Credit: Jakayla Toney in Unsplash.com
The order-disorder-reorder pattern applies to systems and cultures too. This includes systems like capitalism and democracy.
Our methods, processes, systems, and cultures work as they do, until they don’t. The COVID-19 pandemic was an abrupt example of physical disorder on a world-wide scale. During the pandemic our individual, and collective world order had moved to disorder, and we scrambled to figure out the reorder at every level. A similar, howbeit less immediately deadly, seismic shift is happening with regard to America's economy and politics.
Our present-day form of capitalism entered its current period of disorder decades ago. We mark the start date as September 13, 1970. Not as abruptly or on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, but every bit as present. The fractures appeared with regular criticisms of wage stagnation, the vanishing middle-class, stakeholder primacy, executive compensation, subsidies to corporations, wealth inequity, and other evidence of an unlevel playing field. The breadth and depth of the fractures grew under the strain of the pandemic, even as the pandemic exposed new fractures and fragilities.
The reordering of our economy and the way we practice capitalism, much like the individual trying to reorder after being thrown from his or her rails, must be thoughtfully guided for the transition to be successful and sustained. This reordering and reinventing isn’t a task that can be left to chance, like a damaged ship drifting downstream hoping it’ll safely dock at its port of call. No! Without a plan we’ll more likely wind up with an economy further damaged if not permanently run aground. Rather, this reordering needs to be attended to intentionally and intelligently, with the goal of a stronger, more equitable form of capitalism.
Scholars have observed that capitalism has the ability to reinvent itself, and it does. By some estimations, notably former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, capitalism reinvents itself about every 50 years. We here at BetterCapitalism.org are encouraged by that insight. First because it acknowledges capitalism experiences the rhythm of order-disorder-reorder, just like individuals and other systems. Second because it appears capitalism is right on schedule. By our calculation the present-day form of capitalism was birthed by Milton Friedman, with his opinion that the only social responsibly of a company was to maximize profit, which started to get traction by the mid-1970s, fifty years ago.
So it seems like capitalism is right on schedule for its reinvention. The danger, of course, is that capitalism could be further reinvented for the few and select rather than the many and common.
What does the best version of a reorder and reinvention of capitalism look like to us? As we advocate in our book Better Capitalism, we envision the next form of capitalism to be one based in theory and practice on the twin ethics of "enough + mutuality."
This is an improved capitalism, where people and the entities that comprise those people partner with each other to seek mutual benefit. This mutual benefit is created by engaging in exchanges that are profitable for our self and the other – pursuing our economic neighbor’s interest as well as our self-interest. This is a partnership ethic that moves us from a narrow perspective of competition within a zero-sum game, into a broader perspective of collaboration that grows the pie for everyone involved.
Perhaps the most attractive part of the vision for the current reordering of capitalism, is that the hardest part is simply an adjustment of our individual and collective mindset. As we learn to recognize our present capitalism ethic of "maximize profit" for what it is – a false narrative whose damaging flaws are now increasingly obvious – we will begin to see the twin ethics of enough + mutuality as the framework for correct reorder, because it resonates with both our lived reality as well as our visions for a profitable and sustainable future.
The same is true of America's politics and our form of democracy.
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