December 31st 2019 we first heard about a strange virus killing people in a faraway place called Wuhan. The news barely registered a footnote in the end of year festivities and the showboating around Brexit. Things moved fast. By March 21st we were in lockdown. Whole sectors of the economy ground to a halt.
Almost overnight covid did two things. It stopped the hands on the clock of growth, consumption, competition and pollution- a clock previously considered unstoppable. And it focused a new lens on inequality. Alongside the medics, the cleaners and the porters who couldn’t stay at home, the pursuit of bigger bonuses, gratification and entitlement suddenly looked tawdry.
Was this the bump into reality which would start a new story about our purpose and how we best organise ourselves more fairly in society? Unfortunately not. The inequality of climate change is stark for Pakistan, Bangladesh and low lying islands and floodplains. The inequality of war is stark in Ukraine and the Sudan. The inequality of income got visibly starker when Musk was granted a reward package equal to 25,000 years of work by someone on an average income in a developed economy. The pay of lesser mortals running companies in 1965 was 21 times that of an average worker. By 2023 it was 290 times.
Ashok saw these inequalities creating the conditions for social unrest and the mass migration of peoples. Believing in the power of conversation he convened a Conference of the Parties in the desert where the masters of the Financial Universe and Military Leaders could search with the rest of humanity for a more common purpose and a more common wealth. Intellectually they could understand that gross inequality breeds alienation, low productivity and violence. But their hearts and the souls resisted and the predatory instinct triumphed. The alternative voices were silenced by simply hanging them from the fig tree under which they camped.
The ‘way’ did not become clear until the pain of the world falling apart imposed its own solution, as mindlessly as covid had. Even now mitigation and escape are favoured over prevention and cure. Companies like Vast prepare to launch the first commercial space station to put humans in orbit to multiply and prosper beyond the confines of earth. A space as large as two double-decker buses big enough for 12 people is targeted for 2032. The ballot for places will definitely not be equal.
Who we are
Where to buy
Epiphanies
Leslie is an economist who challenges economics’ dominance in public life. His work includes social autobiographies, Little Books of the Common Good and other essays. Find out more about Leslie, our illustrator, Jennifer, and how Ashok came to be.
Find out more on how to purchase a copy of the book. All author royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.
Ashok sows the seeds for personal and community transformations. Read about individuals and communities’ we think have taken on the transformative spirit of Ashok.
Who we are
Leslie is an economist who challenges economics’ dominance in public life. His work includes social autobiographies, Little Books of the Common Good and other essays. Find out more about Leslie, our illustrator, Jennifer, and how Ashok came to be.
Where to buy
Find out more on how to purchase a copy of the book. All author royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.
Epiphanies
Ashok sows the seeds for personal and community transformations. Read about individuals and communities’ we think have taken on the transformative spirit of Ashok.