Humans are a very recent arrival in the long line of history. Capable of the most sublime achievements we struggle to work out how best to organise ourselves and live well together.
In all what Darwin calls ‘the entangled bank’ of plants, mammals, birds and insects we alone have been granted the freedom to choose our condition. That freedom brings in the words of Ortega y Gasset ‘the inescapable beauty and burden of the human predicament’.
Living together is inevitably a compromise of differences between interests and values. Even between ideas of truth itself. Fail to find the compromise and the default position is conflict and war.
Ashok teaches the way of compromise. Listen instead of speaking, pay attention to what the heart is saying, not just the voice, love diversity, celebrate differences, respect history, make future generations a primary duty of care. He says these instincts represent both our true selves and our greatest self-interest.
Luckily each of us has unlimited capacity for co-operation and mutual enhancement. It's why we joined society in the first place. Unfortunately the institutions we have created to govern our economic and political well-being have developed a life of their own.
Democracy is designed to curb power and allow for recall when power is abused. But political parties are failing the litmus test of community, national and global well-being. Their raison d’etre is competition between themselves for self-interest. Market economies in their turn are precisely designed to discover advantage and compete for profits. Competition is the dominant value which governs individual and institutional behaviours.
Ashok learns the lesson of this disconnect the hard way when the military leaders and the masters of the financial universe combine to reject compromise and summarily hang his closest followers.
As the world collapses into nuclear war, military leadership and climate convulsion Ashok continues to search for the will and the way to celebrate the creativity of common purpose in diversity.
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.