I am reading "The Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck, MD, and found an interesting connection to concepts I have been thinking about over the past few years with regards to political economy:
"The problem of separateness in close relationships has bedeviled mankind through the ages. However, it has received more attention from a political standpoint than from a marital one. Pure communism, for instance, expresses a philosophy not unlike that of the aforementioned couples–namely, that the purpose and function of the individual is to serve the relationship, the group, the collective, the society. Only the destiny of the state is considered; the destiny of the individual is believed to be of no consequence. Pure capitalism, on the other hand, espouses the destiny of the individual even when it is at the expense of the relationship, the group, the collective, the society. Widows and orphans may starve, but this should not prevent the individual entrepreneur from enjoying all the fruits of his or her individual initiative. It should be obvious to any discerning mind that neither of these pure solutions to the problem of separateness within relationships will be successful. The individual’s health depends upon the health of its individuals."
He then compares this concept to an analogy of a base camp for mountain climbing. "If one wants to climb mountains one must have a good base camp, a place where there are shelter and provisions, where one may receive nurture and rest before one ventures forth again to seek another summit. Successful mountain climbers know that they must spend at least as much time, if not more, in tending to their base camp as they actually do in climbing mountains, for their survival is dependent upon their seeing to it that their base camp is sturdily constructed and well stocked."
In this book, he is dealing more with the marriage aspect of this analogy, however, reading this left me to ponder about it’s implications for a healthy society, one in which the individual is allowed to climb the proverbial mountain, but how he cannot do so indefinitely selfishly...he must take time to nurture/care for/invest in those around him to provide a stable "base camp" (Pgs 166-167, Peck.)
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