These words, issued recently on the pages of TruthOut.org, gave such delight to my eyes:

Only last year, The New York Times referred to Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" as "one of the most influential business books ever written," and portrayed Galt, the novel's iconic hero, as a role model for corporate CEOs in their dogged pursuit of self-interest. No wonder, then, the gnashing of teeth in executive suites when Ayn Rand's most famous devotee, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, admitted that enlightened greed had failed.

Years ago, when sitting in a dark theater entranced by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, I nearly gasped out loud when his character John Nash had the critical epiphany of his career -- that Adam Smith economics was in need of a revision.

If you've seen the film, you may remember the scene where he's scribbling away on various formulas as his classmates shoot pool. In walks a radiant blond surrounded by her only slightly less attractive friends.

In typical fashion, the men zero in on the most attractive woman in the group and immediately begin issuing alpha monkey, er, male sounds of lust and bravado. This here, Nash sees, is the perfect example, a poetic reduction of Adam Smith economics -- that the most prosperous form of capitalism is one in which all compete for their own selfish interests, only indirectly creating wealth for the collective.

Nash sees instantly the parallel between the blustering bravado of chasing the most attractive woman and the, well, blustering bravado of the marketplace. But what if, instead of competing for the most attractive singular female (and all losing) the men instead band together and go for her girlfriends? Set aside their urge to compete and cooperate to get what they all want and thereby succeed at the true objective -- getting a girl.

Of course, as its played out in the film, his friends ignore him and prove his point -- they all go for the hot blond, which annoys her and her friends and no one gets a date.

This may have been an entirely made up scenario, after all film must dramatize in order to illustrate a point. Watching this scene surely was dramatic enough for me. (I'd certainly seen it played out a dozen times amongst my friends.) But what nearly made me shout out in that dark theater was the implication for economics.

Because as long as I could remember, I intuited the same conclusion -- that our current system was flawed and outdated, not to mention increasingly causing the destruction of the biosphere. But its also not as PROFITABLE. There must be something of a higher order; its something I've known in my bones as long as I can remember.

As I walked out of the theater that night, buzzing at the prospect that there was a mathematical model that proved this long-held intuition, I scanned my brain for its source. Was I just inhaling the fragrance of a future zeitgeist? Or had these ideas been planted in my subconscious somewhere along the way?

One quote in particular rushed forth from the back of my mind:

"The best of men are those that earn a living from their calling and spend upon themselves and their kindred for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds."¹

This passage was something I'd read as a young man with profound yearning for I found in it the hope of a struggling artist glimpsing the possibility of the true self -- that we each have a unique talent to bring to the world and can actually earn a living doing it. What, make money for making art?! Preposterous!

Now 10 years into a rewarding career blending my inner artist and geek, its become obvious that this really was always possible and just took a little bit of time for all of the pieces to fit into place. Trying to test out this theory that everyone has a unique calling I often wondered, "well, but if everyone just makes art all day, who will do the ______?" As time went by, I met enough people passionate about things that dulled my senses into numb oblivion (accounting, dentistry, manufacturing, etc) I realized that it had to be true... there really are enough unique passions to balance out and fashion a robust society. 

I would love to spend quite a bit more time digressing on how human societies instill fear and anxiety in their children, convincing them to choose "safe paths" instead of following their hearts, but would rather now unpack the last part of that quote -- the idea that our incomes are to be spent both on ourselves and taking care of others.

Those simple words contain a gem of an idea that John Nash mathematically proved around 60-70 years after they were written -- that if we act in our own self-interest (calling) while striving to strike a balance with the rewards (spending on ourselves and our kindred) we could reach a new economic equilibrium on a societal scale -- imagine millions following their true passions, being financially rewarded by them and then returning that income back into the system, knowing that the motivation is the love of Creation itself and that sharing is as much a reward as initially receiving compensation for what we already love to do.

I have no idea who first said "what would you do if money didn't matter?", I just know thats the essence of following a calling. The reward is in the doing and the money is just the energetic result of all of that passionate action. The more I've meditated on that quote, the more I've come to realize how important it is to keep the energy flowing again (by spending on myself and kindred) and that the two processes are intertwined.

Imagine a society where this kind of spiritual economics is the norm. Instead of legions pursuing questionable tasks to accumulate zeros in so many bank accounts, we'd have passionate individuals eagerly contributing their hearts and souls for the love of the work, ready to share the fruits of their labor with everyone around them.

This to me is a new form of capitalism. I may not see it fully birthed in my lifetime, but its good to know that the illusion of "enlightened greed" is finally being exposed for its failings. Russel Crowe, er, John Nash was right -- Adam Smith's philosophies are in need of massive revision, and these ideas of the balance of self-interest and sharing just may be more his more profitable successor. 

1. From the Hidden Words by Baha'u'llah, Prophet-Founder of the Baha'i Faith.