Capitalism as a Metabolic Disease

Since I was a child I was told to be grateful that I was born in the West and into a peaceful country. Here in the West, Capitalism allowed people to be free, to pursue their dreams, ‘to make it’. I dutifully engaged on the well trodden path of gathering stuff to attract a mate and to pass on my genes. So far so predictable; what made the worm turn? Ten years ago I lay seriously ill in hospital. Late one night a supply nurse I had not seen before or since, conducted her checks, read my chart and then asked me - ‘Have you worked out why you were spared?’. Clearly I had not and my life since has been anything but predictable. Richard Rohr talks about life in two halves – the acquisitional phase and the purposeful phase. The purpose of the first is to prepare us for the second, but often a life-changing event must detach us from the former so that we can make the shift. Part of my shift is to appreciate the gift of life more fully. I want to help humanity to thrive rather than just survive and from the time I left my hospital bed I have been asking ‘What would happen in a perfectly healthy body?’ Whether considering personal, societal or corporate health the question is the same. My underlying premise being ‘If every cell in the body is healthy then the body must be healthy’. Which political world view would best support the healthy body of humanity? Judging from the level of conflict in the world humanity has not yet found the answer. What we see is chronic inflammation manifest as political tensions, extreme inequality and conflict. We are in crisis and rapidly approaching change but as Richard Rohr sees it, the transition may be painful. Researcher Thomas Seyfried has dedicated his life to the exploration of cancer as a Metabolic Disease. He has continued the journey begun by Nobel Prizewinner Otto Warburg with his observation of how cancerous cells adopt fermentation as their primary method of energy generation. This is thought to be a primitive survival strategy to which cells revert when their environment has made normal cellular respiration too difficult. One downside is that the inefficient fermentation process requires some 18 times more glucose than normal respiration to create the same amount of energy so that as the cancer grows the rest of the body is starved. Is this what’s happening societally? My school biology lessons listed growth as one of the defining features of life. But it was well understood that in a mature creature growth meant cellular replenishment, not the constant scrabbling to maximise quarterly profits while wantonly wasting the planet’s resources. Seyfried’s research has promoted the Ketogenic Diet as a key element of a strategy for recovery from cancer. Cancer cells are less adaptable than normal cells and cannot burn fat for energy. A diet rich in healthy fats starves and greatly weakens cancer cells. Perhaps we similarly need to reign in our destructive capitalist model by expanding its goals beyond Profit to also include People and Planet in a ‘Triple Bottom Line’ as espoused by Elkington and others? Our destructive aberration of capitalism has no interest in genuine human and societal growth. If we were to place as much emphasis on People and Planet as we do on Profit then the current model, of rampant exploitation for maximum monetary profit, would be starved and weakened and would eventually run aground. We could change the economic environment so that the current paradigm would eventually disappear. Paradoxically, such a system provides the best chance for the survival of humanity.

Rabbit Hole

After my own hospitalisation in 2008 I wondered why I’d fallen ill. All my life I’d had a varied exercise regime. Although I was never at competition level I kept myself reasonably fit through running, swimming and cycling. But when it came to eating, I simply didn’t have a clue. As it turns out, neither did the hospital consultants. They did a wonderful job of saving my life. The professionalism of the entire hospital staff was exemplary but it was after my discharge that my GP gave me the clue I needed. According to the guidelines my blood chemistry indicated that I needed statins, which she offered me. Initially I thought I’d need them for a couple of weeks like a course of antibiotics but when she told me this was for life I felt trapped and implored her ‘There must be a better way?’ ‘There is’ she told me ‘but it’s too difficult for most people and they prefer to take the pills’. She went on to explain the lifestyle overhaul I would need and was surprised when I chose to engage with it. Several months later my blood tests told a very different story and she told me ‘Whatever it is you’re doing, keep doing it. It’s working better than any drug I can prescribe for you’. Naturally I was delighted and asked if I could quote her. She gave me an emphatic NO. My journey down the rabbit hole had begun. In the ten years since my operations I have explored many aspects of a healthy lifestyle and I am constructing my own jigsaw from my findings. Today I recognise my hospitalisation as a gift, summarised in the modern day beatitude – ‘Blessed are the broken, they let the light in’. My engineering training has proven very useful. It demands an enquiring mind and is biased toward practical applications of theory to find solutions for problems. Unlike in modern medicine, dogma is discouraged. I’ve come to appreciate the freedom of thought engineering has given me. Sometimes the concept of a Health Coach baffles people – ‘What do you know about health? You’re not even a doctor’. ‘Thank God I’m not a doctor, I’ve less unlearning to do’. One can too easily become transfixed with all the problems facing our world and environment. I believe that this in itself can so affect us emotionally that we become chronically depressed and bring disease upon ourselves. When people ask me ‘Are you not worried about …..?’ I now respond ‘I worry about nothing but I’m concerned and will explore it further’. From a place of worry we become ineffective. But with a healthy concern for Public and Planetary Health we become avid researchers, educators and motivated campaigners. Many times I have been labelled ‘Stuck in the mud’ or branded ‘Anti-technology or anti-progress’. This is plain wrong. Mankind is hugely innovative and engineering is a wonderful career but along the way we’ve mistakenly exchanged the thrill of discovery for the imperative of commercialisation. When the love of money is our primary motive we are undone. Instead we must now use our unparalleled scientific knowledge and capabilities to understand natural processes and systems so that we bring our way of life into harmony with nature and clean up the planet we have trashed for too long. I love the rabbit hole I’ve discovered and I’ve met many likeminded explorers. By helping people recover their health and understand how to protect it, we will bring about a transformation in our thinking that protects our planet for future generations.

Benevolent Dictator

I can’t ever remember hearing of a dictatorship that worked for the benefit of the people. Things certainly didn’t go right under the communist regimes of Joseph Stalin or Nicholas Caucesceau. Humanity breathed a sigh of relief at their passing. What is so captivating about power that those who have it often cling on long past their use by date? Recently, when considering the dire state of affairs in our world, a friend suggested that what we really need is a ‘benevolent dictator’ to run the show. Someone who takes the tough decisions for the good of the whole and yet can resist the trappings of self-aggrandisement. Does such a creature exist? I think so, at least on a small scale. I think it’s called the human body. It is said that every cell in the body is replaced over a seven year period. The job’s done quietly and continuously so that we don’t even notice. The cells of the intestine may change every week. Blood cells last a little longer and bone cells last the longest. But all of them die; there’s no avoidance of this natural process. David Attenborough has amazed us with his films of the natural world. He has shown us how animal herds collectively choose which way to go in search of a watering hole, how shoals of fish bunch together to confuse predators and how herds of wildebeest cross crocodile infested rivers during their migration. There are always losers of course. The slow and elderly gazelles most commonly become the meals of predators and perhaps more randomly some wildebeest get torn apart as they ‘take one for the team’. In balance however the herds are fitter, faster and of manageable size. No one animal ever decided which way to go or who should live or die. Nature, when working properly, orchestrates everything perfectly. Perhaps things only go astray when a creature has no natural predator to keep its numbers in check. Humans are on the top of the species tree. Isn’t it remarkable that our species, endowed with big brains and opposing digits, should so misuse its free will as to bring all life on earth to the brink of extinction? My early career, as an electronics engineer, was both interesting and rewarding. Technical challenges were overcome, technology advanced and we marvelled at how nature can be harnessed for our purpose. But now humanity has become like a mountaineer who climbs a mountain just because it’s there, just because it’s possible – regardless of whether it’s actually necessary. But unlike the mountaineer who wagers his own skill and life against the elements, faceless money-men exploit the talents of scientists and engineers to wager not only our lives but the very future of our planet. We have artificially created our own predator – ourselves. Rather than pool our collective wisdom, as in nature’s examples, to choose our best way forward, we have abdicated responsibility for our lives to others only too happy to enslave us. We have frittered away our natural inheritance in favour of a suicidal exploitation of nature’s resources. Our species will evolve to an era of collaboration and collective growth only when we can grow beyond the fears that divide us. We need to recognise that collectively we can become a benevolent dictator for humanity. Just as a parent will guide the development of a child and not lose hope when things go badly, our collective wisdom, if allowed to express itself, will prove itself the benevolent dictator we need for our species to survive.

Hamster Ball

When my children were young they had a hamster they called Hammy; he was our family pet. Hammy lived a restricted life, but a comparatively generous one for a hamster. He had a big cage, regular fresh bedding, several toys, constant food and the obligatory wheel. He climbed into it and set it spinning every evening for exercise. Hammy was a docile, domesticated and, so far as we knew, happy caged animal. One day we found a perspex ball that would allow our hamster to explore a bigger world; Hammy loved it. When we put him in it he took off around the living room floor, hid behind furniture and bumped into things. The children squealed with delight, it was highly entertaining. With hindsight, this terrified animal was using the ball to try to escape. He might not have lasted ten minutes in the urban outdoors but he desperately wanted to try it. Today Hammy’s ball is a metaphor for growth. Instead of scheming his escape plan from within his cage and then promptly failing, the ball gave him the opportunity to experiment in real time. We too can make faster progress learning as we go. Our personal development needs our active engagement. As per David Kolb’s Learning Cycle we need to follow action with emotional experience and cognitive reflection before planning our next activity and engaging with it. We will similarly experience both freedom and terror when we strike out in new directions but even when our plans don’t work out we’ll be very glad we tried and we’ll be richer for the experience. Who knows, there may even be a group of benevolent admirers delighting in our efforts.

Near Life Experience

It now feels commonplace to hear of someone’s Near Death Experience (NDA) telling of great calm, peace and love, of being drawn toward a great light, sometimes meeting old friends or loved ones gone before us, and then in some way being returned to this earthly manifestation to fulfil some mission, some remaining task, from a position of greater awareness. For many this return brings a sense of urgency to their life as though the experience jolted them from their humdrum existence into a higher gear. Perhaps for the first time they know their true role in the world and they set about it with vigour, totally confident in the outcome. From this perspective of true purpose their earlier existence feels less real. We might now think of it as a ‘Near Life Experience’. Now at the start of 2018 it is timely to ask what we need to do to live life to the full. What personal mission is ours to fulfil? What ‘bigger picture’ do we relate to? How can we each make our best contributions to this wonderful experience of life for ourselves, our communities and our planet? Or are we in danger of feeling, on our deathbed, that we had a near life experience?

The Shrimp's Life

Recently I received a magnificent gift – an Ecosphere. This self-contained environment was inspired by NASA, as they researched into how to support life on future space colonies. It truly is a carefully constructed system which can support life for several years. Inside the glass bulb, which contains water, air, beads and an artificial grid on which bacteria grow, there are also two tiny shrimps swimming around. They add a flash of orange to this otherwise black and white world. I thought this gift to be the ultimate in executive toys. Of course busy executives don’t have time to muse on metaphors, but if they did, what similarities might they find between their own lives and that of the shrimp? How many of us live hermetically sealed lives whose not-insubstantial challenge is to find enough food to live for the day? How limited is our outlook beyond the bubble of our immediate environment? Can any of us control the hands that play with our lives? What would happen if someone decided to juggle with our home for sport? What would happen to us if they dropped and burst the bubble of our existence? When I read that the shrimp may live for up to 20% of their natural lives in the Ecosphere, I had a Buddhist moment. I felt guilt at the idea that this tiny being was swimming purely for my curiosity and delight and its forced incarceration would shorten its life. It might indeed be a cause of concern if the situation didn’t reflect the reality of so much of human existence. We live in closed environments, encouraged to fear events over which we have no control and are told what to think. By accepting this we artificially close down our depth of social engagement and restrict our loci of control. Society encourages us to compete for an ever greater share of limited resources so that we can better defend our bubbles rather than cooperate and share the abundance. We are infused with suspicion of our neighbours so that while engaged in petty squabbling we cannot collectively respond to the greater existential threats of global warming or nuclear war. These stresses may indeed shorten our lives. A still sadder thought crossed my mind. How many relationships are as stagnant as an Ecosphere? How many partners feel trapped in a controlled environment? As coaches, what can we do to lift the veils of illusion? What is the safest way to release tensions so that people choose collaboration and advancement rather than competition and retrenchment – or separation?

Job, Career or Vocation?

There is a massive difference between suffering through a nine-to-five job just to make ends meet and working long hours to answer a vocation often with no financial inducement. The career role usually falls somewhere in between, often accompanied by the demands of a growing family. Life is so hectic that the years fly past and, if there is a guiding star, you don’t have time to look up for it. It’s a common enough trap yet we run like lemmings to fall into it. Some weeks ago I was reminded of the Biblical story of the talents given by the vineyard owner to three of his staff as he left on business. To the first he gave five talents and this entrepreneurial soul invested shrewdly so that he made five more. To the second he gave two talents and the servant similarly doubled his money. The vineyard owner was annoyed to find that the third servant had done nothing with his talent so he was dismissed. I started to ponder on the plight of workers in the UK today. Imagine the single Mum, with five children, run ragged every day and wondering which way’s up as she struggles to raise her family. In time these kids reflect Mum’s work ethic and determination and become stars in their community. John and Louise, son and daughter of the town doctor, go up to Oxbridge and dutifully follow in Dad’s footsteps working 80 hour shifts in a London hospital. Snatching some time off at Meribel, they meet the loves of their lives and settle down quickly to repeat the formula for the next generation. They have demanding careers and march unquestioningly to the incessant drum – Chop-chop, busy-busy, work-work, bang-bang. Tim, nice-but-dim, chokes on the quail’s eggs he attacks with his silver spoon. In frustration he takes off to Morocco to live a little and explore the bazaars and Hashish dens. Sadly, he quickly turns to cocaine, fries his brains and wraps Dad’s Bentley round a tree in a fit of pique that ends his piques. So finally all come before the review board; how did they get on? “Well done Mum. Have a well earned rest and don’t worry, we’re not giving you another five. Instead we’ll give five each to your kids and you’ll be revered as Best Gran” “John and Louise, you can stop now, the game’s over. Did you manage to see anything of life?” “Ah Tim, bad luck about the Bentley, but worse about your brain. Coke addictions seldom end well. I tell you what, have another go and see how things work out next time – when you’ve no money and five kids” If you had the gig of coaching these individuals, where would you start? Self-Actualisation looks very different for each of them. If the busy ones had a moment to themselves would they want coaching? Long before they hear an outside voice they must learn to hear their own. Coaching, like Alcoholics Anonymous, isn’t for people who need it; it’s for people who want it. Perhaps our gift is to help people recognise the vocation they have in the very ordinary situations of their everyday lives?