Comment

Comment by David Eggleton on November 30, 2011 at 8:26pm

You and Raffi agreed this is a video worth posting at Occupy Cafe.  I love it!

Comment by Robert Riversong on November 30, 2011 at 7:28pm

Charles Eisenstein is one of the truly important visionaries alive today. I highly recommend his two books: The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics. My only complaint about Charles is that he sometimes veers a bit too close to naivete. His use of the word "love" is one such example - a word which is also used far too often here and within the #OWS movement.

There is probably no word in the English language more commonly used and more universally misunderstood as "love". It can refer to anything from sexual lust to spiritual longing, from friendly affection to interpersonal attraction to lifelong committed attachment. And it can mean self-love (narcissism) or attachment to an object, a philosophy, an ideology or a goal, mission or institution. It can also be simply a biological survival instinct, like hunger or thirst, initiated by neurotransmitters such as pheromones, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin.

He also, however, uses the terms "connection", "community", "intimacy" and "meaning". I would urge us to use similar words which better communicate to a wider audience precisely what we intend.