Digital Disruption

The latest chapter of the global recession and financial meltdown to be revealed is the Bernie Madoff saga.  It demonstrates the ultimate corruption and deception that has taken hold within our world.  Personal gain at the indiscriminate expense of others, whether they be global corporations, wealthy individuals or charitable institutions.

We have been seduced by the “American Dream” for the past 20+ years, borrowed money we couldn’t afford, bought things we didn’t need and speculated wantonly in the pursuit of more and more. Avarice and stupidity at their respective best. Humanity at it’s collective worst.

So, we are at a crossroads.

My brother-in-law once described the choice we face as follows:  “Can’t keep propping up a dead dog .. At some point you bury it and buy a puppy and raise it differently.”

Are we ready to bury this dead dog? Or will we simply continue to prop it up via additional loans to the Big Three, the banks, over-leveraged credit card holders, … the list continues. At what cost?

Looking a little more deeply, this crossroads and choice is a fundamentally spiritual one.

Some see this as simply the symptoms of another speculative bubble. “The market will correct itself.” The US taxpayer will pay for all of this greed and nothing needs to change. We’ll return to times of plenty once we’ve ridden out this current storm.

I believe we are being given a huge opportunity to change the game. To abandon the dominance of our selfish nature and to embrace a new world where giving back and caring for others is the path to our redemption. We have the opportunity to temper the destructive nature within ourselves where personal gain triumphs over everything else. We are being given the change to balance it with empathy, concern and care for others.

In the past there have been a select few who embraced this choice: Wealthy individuals, like Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, plus many who were scammed by Bernie Madoff, who embraced philanthropy.

Andrew Carnegie said it best when he wrote, “This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider the surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community – the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to adminster, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.”

The quantum opportunity we have before us is to democratize this “giving” mindset beyond a select few. We have the tools to enable this change literally at our fingertips.  Technology and the Internet has provided a platform that connects all 6 billion of us on this planet like never before.  Let’s use it to serve others and thereby serve ourselves. Let’s elevate this world together via the enormous power our collective connectivity affords us.

I wrote about one powerful example of this a few weeks ago where a collective group of 336 people came together via Twitter and collected $10,000 in 48 hours to build a school in Tanzania.

The path of redemption is: survival (focused on the self) => servant (focused on others) => success => significance.

Imagine a world where we successfully leverage our social connectivity to contribute significantly to the upliftment of others less fortunate. That’s a powerful idea. An idea who’s time has come.  Now all we need to do is make the right choice.

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