Only One Book

One of my students asked me to recommend a book for her to read. She did not put any caveats on the request. Fiction, non-fiction, philosophical, inspirational, spiritual, whatever - the choice was wide open for me to make. It seemed like a pretty simple request at the time and I told her I would come up with a recommendation in a day or two. I wanted to put some thought into my choice. Fast forward two days. I found myself completely locked in this task, unable to settle on a recommendation. What started out as a simple request turned into a mammoth responsibility for me. Only one book? But there are so many great books out there. What the heck was she asking of me? Was she looking for something to entertain her or was she looking for something that was going to feed her soul? I need more information. Who can make such a choice without more information? After struggling with this decision for almost a week, I was finally able to ground myself and remember the spirit of her request. She had no agenda, she had no specific need. She only wanted MY request.

So I retooled my perspective and centered myself. If I could only recommend a single book for a person to read, and that book was going to be representative as the one book of all the books I have read, the book would have to be a book that meant something to me beyond just entertaining me. The book would have to have reached me at a visceral level and it would have changed me or my perspective forever.

My new perspective narrowed my focus considerably. Everything that Thich Nhat Hanh has ever written instantly fell into that category. Scratch that. Everyone knows what I think of the man, of course she has already considered his work. I've recommended his work thousands of times in the past, why would I diminish this opportunity by just going to my go to guy yet again? I needed to go further. At this point I was really getting into this task. I was learning a lot about myself, my values, and my influences.

I finally arrived at a single book. A book that opened my eyes to the plight of the world and forced me to actively participate in society's reformation or completely accept the injustice that is now so obvious. It is s book I wrote a blog about in 2008. If you think capitalism is related to democracy, this book will change your perspective forever. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the world. The senseless begins to make sense when you understand the motive behind some of the biggest social/moral decisions ever made. Money.

The world needs more activists. Reading a book like The Shock Doctrine will force your hand. Become part of the solution or participate in perpetuating the problem.

“Extreme violence has a way of preventing us from seeing the interests it serves.” - Naomi Klein (b. 1970)

Disaster Capitalism

I’ve been reading Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’ and I have to say that my inaccurate take on recent world history has been skewed by the popular press and my predisposition to blindly trust the western governments to protect human rights. The book has been a real eye opener on a lot of things for me, the least not being the current state of affairs with the economy and why we find ourselves at the precipice on which we now stand.

Over the past quarter century the west’s support for the freedom fighters in Latin America, South Africa, Poland, and the Eastern Bloc has been solely based upon our greed. Open market capitalism has been forced upon these countries at the cost of democracy and personal freedom. While our rich got richer, their poor got poorer.

I am not sure our current economic woes are even solvable with the way we have structured the workings of our economy. How can a stock market stabilize when corporations are only interested in taking care of their shareholders in the short term as opposed to taking care of their company in the long term? Our whole system not only supports but encourages speculative investors over long term investors. Did we not learn from South Africa’s stock market crisis after apartheid that speculative investing destabilizes an economy?

So once again I find myself encouraged by initiatives like the Ultimate Black Belt Test. With current global crisis’ caused by over-consumption and greed, how much more pertinent can we make the martial arts when we include activism, environmental awareness, sustainable living, and empathy training as our core values. I’m definitely proud to be a member of UBBT Team 6.

“If the firms that employ an increasing majority of the population are driven solely to satisfy the owner's greed at the expense of working conditions, of the stability of the community, and of the health of the environment, chances are that the quality of our lives will be worse than it is now.”
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b. 1934)