The Economy of Love vs. The Economy of Fear

It's Sunday morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The mercury is hovering somewhere around 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the sun is shining brilliantly. As I was doing my meditation, I was struck by the underlying fear that seems to permeate everything in the media these days. This is not a new condition in the world, but because of our technology we are connected 24/7 to the fear mongers and the harbingers of doom. There are many brave voices also that speak about hope and a new era approaching. But so often they are the softer voices with much less media coverage. Even Oprah, whom I admire greatly, highlights fear on her shows at times.

The biggest fear that seems to consume most of the media and most of the population, is the fear around the financial situation, because the great economies (translate - the rich countries) of the world seem to be going broke. Why they are going broke is based on fear, corruption, and greed. What if there really is a simple answer to how we can transform the economic crisis? What if all we have to do is to stop being afraid? What if the answer is within each and every one of us, and not dependent on any looming institution?

Greed and corruption can only exist where fear is present. When people - not corporations, but people, for every institution on Earth is run by people - are afraid they will lose what they have, they tend to close their fists around what they do have and then invest most of their time and energy on keeping what they have and finding ways to get more.

The fear that we will die if we don't have enough is omnipresent as long as fear is the most prevalent emotion. But there are people who live quite simply and comfortably in the midst of this fear-storm. Who are they? Are they the very rich? Though that would seem to be the case, it isn't necessarily so for all the wealthy, because many of the wealthiest are the very people who created the corruption and the destruction of the economy. And they did it, and do it, because they fear losing what they have - money and power. So, their fear has led to greed and corruption. But what about the rest of the human population? Are we just poor simple pawns in the hands of the multi-national coporations, which are led by powerful greedy people? I don't think so.

I think we are all powerful beings who have individual power and collective power that can, and I truly believe will, transform this greedy culture into a culture of abundance for all. But we won't do it by trying to help restore the "halcyon days of the 80s and 90s," because that was not a true abundant culture. That was a greed and corruption based culture, where the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. One sixth of the world's population, that is one billion people, live on less that $1 a day, and another billion live on less than $2 a day.

The transformation will come, and is coming, as one by one we stop listening to the fear mongers and become the harbingers of a new way. A way based on love and abundance for all. And to do this we must stop feeling like we are helpless victims of the powers of greed and corruption, and tune into the magnificent truth of the universe. And that truth is that Love is the power that overcomes fear, and thus greed and corruption, and that as each of us, one person and one moment at a time, steps out of fear and slips into the great stream of Love that powers the entire universe, we are free to be abundant. We are all free to live in the flow of love and joy and true prosperity. It is a choice. Yes, a hard choice to make when fear is the loudest voice in the crowd, and the illusion is that you will lose everything.

And yes, it is always possible that you may lose everything, but if you own your own soul, if you stop thinking that you have no power over the evil beast and go instead on the quest for your own magnificent hero within your soul, you will not be the victim of the beast any longer. You will be the hero of your life and have all that you need.
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And here's a little thought. What if you didn't give a damn if you were in debt? What if that fear didn't consume so much of your energy?
More on that next time.
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In the meantime, remember that there is always someone in the world who has less than you have. Reach out and give one of those people a hand and feel the love that surges between you both. That is where the power is - in the surges of love, not the cringes of fear.