10 Ideas That Are Changing the World We Live, Work and Play In (Part 2)

Ego Transcendence: Perhaps the biggest world-changing idea on the planet today.

For more than 3,000 years, values rooted in the masculine soul dominated the civilized world. Polio vaccine discoverer Jonas Salk, who called those values ego values, took note of this in a paper he wrote shortly before his death in 1995.

Ego values, which fuel the competitive spirit in men, have been a driving force behind humankind’s cultural and technological progress over the millennia. However, said Salk, the future of humankind now depends more on cooperation than on competition. The time has come in the name of human survival, he said, for a cultural shift toward being values.

                                   

Ego Values   Dominant for 3,000 years; masculine	Being   Values   Beyond materialism; quality over   quantity; feminine or androgynous
Intellect	Intuition
Reason	Feeling
Objective	Subjective
Morality	Reality
Differences	Differentiation
Competition	Cooperation
Power	Influence
Win-Lose	Win-Win

In essence, Salk was calling for a massive surge of ego transcendence. On an individual basis, ego transcendence is the mark of those existing in an advanced state of psychological maturity. In fact, one of the items on Carl Jung’s Seven Tasks of Aging whose accomplishment leads to a regret-free, peaceful and joyous old age was “letting go of the ego.”

Because people in the second half of life are now the adult majority among the developed world’s one billion people, Salk’s hoped for surge of ego transcendence is underway. Notwithstanding armed conflicts around the world that flow from the muscular expression of ego values, there is very clearly a global movement that is weakening the influence of materialistic self-centeredness that defined advanced cultures of the 20^th century.

Paul Hawkins writes about the global cultural shift toward others-centeredness in his recent book Blessed Unrest. In the business world the idea of ego transcendence is being embraced on an ever broadening front under the notion of the Three P’s – Profit, People and Planet.

It’s curious that Time magazine, in drawing up its list of “10 ideas that are changing the world” missed altogether what is perhaps the strongest idea of all – looking for and finding personal life satisfaction by rising above the ego and joining with fellow beings to promote higher life quality for everyone on the planet.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2006) Mohammad Yunus, 69, is a towering example of that others-centered aspiration. For a truly inspiring insight into the mind and heart of this Bangladeshian economics professor, please visit a video presentation of the Charlie Rose segment in which Mr. Rose interviewed Dr. Yunus.

Dr. Yunus believes that fully half of the world’s population of abjectly poor people (less than $1 a day in income) can be eliminated by 2015 – just seven years away, anf that not too long after that abject poverty – like small pox – can be totally eradicated from the earth.

The ranks of those who agree with Dr. Yunus is growing. Twenty years ago he would have been seen as a crank. But now, the success of his microlending program which already has lifted millions of families above abject poverty, has turned him from eccentric crank into a sage of uncommon wisdom.

And Dr.Yunus’s efforts are just one example of how a planet-wide surge of ego transcendence is transforming the human experience, and indeed, possibly us all from apocalyptic disasters.

Next: A sampling of the marketing implications of ego transcendence in the consumer population..

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Roo]

Have you got a reference for Salk's essay?

Thanks!

Just reading, and really enjoying, FoE.

:0)

[David Wolfe]

Dear Roo -- The Salk chart can be accessed in his 1972 book, "Survival of the Wisest" which can be gotten from used book sellers via Amazon.com for as little as $2.00 or so plus shipping. Thanks for your comment on FoE.

David

[Roo]

Thank you David.

I found lots of references to "Survival of the Wisest", but you mentioned a 1995 essay.

Really enjoyed FoE - very thought provoking!

Thanks,

Roo

[joared]

Yes, Rose's interview was quite interesting. Every instance I've heard microlending discussed serves to reinforce my perception of how much more effective this is than some of the programs dispensing massive high $$ numbers of our tax dollars our government uses.