What is #Enough?
My thinking today has been sparked by an article I read yesterday: Capitalism, the Insecurity Machine: a Conversation with Astra Taylor.
Astra Taylor’s insights are myriad (I am looking forward to hearing her Massey Lectures series on CBC Ideas in November and/or reading the book produced from the lecture series), but her core thesis in this project is that capitalism manufactures insecurity, forcing us to lose focus on collective experiences and solutions and instead focus on individual ones. So, for example, instead of working toward universal healthcare where everyone can be freed from the worry of losing their homes if they face a health crisis, capitalism causes people to think of individual solutions, like having a side-hustle job to earn a little more money to set aside in case of a health emergency. Capitalism works to create feelings of insecurity that can only be addressed by constant consumption. Taylor writes “our endless striving shapes how we feel about ourselves and others -- including what we believe is personally and collectively possible.” She writes about how this insecurity plagues not only those truly in need of material help—those who face existential insecurity, like those for food, housing or basic safety—but even those without those existential worries. Capitalism causes even the wealthiest among us to be plagued by this feeling of insecurity.
She talks about how essential it is to feel secure, especially in times like these, where existential crises exist on so many fronts, from wars to pandemics to climate change. But contrary to attaining personal, individual security, she speaks of our need to pursue security that is “collaborative, communal, rooted in care; that acknowledges our fragility and our vulnerability. We need to recognize that we cannot address insecurity on our own; this is a collective condition and needs a collective solution.”
These ideas dovetail with my own personal obsession with the topic of sufficiency. Taylor says, “One source of capitalism’s power is that whether people have some or a lot, they don’t feel like they have enough.” What is ENOUGH and why can’t we seem to ever feel that we have reached it? What would it take to get people to sign on to a pledge or promise to stop consuming when they have enough? A #ENOUGH movement that would encourage people to list for themselves what enough looks like for them, and then pushes them to share anything beyond that with others. Is this simplistic…or just simple? It is, of course, what effective taxation is supposed to do (and does, in countries with the best ratings for happiness, peace, gender equality…). But we can’t seem to convince people in the United States to vote for that, or that government can be responsible with “their” money. Would it be possible, in a world in which so many are suffering so immensely from the inequalities in our economic system, in which our planet is suffering so existentially, to spark some kind of individual action that is a call to conscience around what is ENOUGH?
While Taylor absolutely gets me thinking most about collective solutions and larger social change, she also brings me back to a personal experience I had recently that gives me insights into who I want to be in the world in terms of pushing back against this constant insecurity. Someone close to me shared a destabilizing anxiety she was having about someone in her life, a person we both know and are close with. She said that she was paralyzed with anxiety that this person was not going to be able to handle a challenge she was facing. Because I have complete confidence in this other person, I expressed to her, with calm and assurance, that this person was going to be able to handle the challenge and come out unscathed. I was able, without minimizing her feelings or dismissing her worries, to express a sincere and full-bodied confidence in our friend, assuring her of our friend’s immense capabilities to take on the challenge. It completely changed her perspective. It calmed her and helped her take a breath. “I don’t think I could have slept at all that night, if you hadn’t said what you did,” she told me. “Your complete confidence gave me confidence and brought me peace.”
That is who I want to be, for my loved ones, my peers, my clients—someone who can calm their anxieties and help them feel that freedom from insecurity, so that they might move forward with a feeling of having enough. Many of us have #Enough. Is there a way to convey optimism, vision and calm confidence in a way that can encourage us to feel it, and act on that feeling of security to share our abundance?
