{"id":11541,"date":"2018-12-18T05:08:52","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T04:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=11541"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:43:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:43:33","slug":"spiritual-lessons-of-the-economic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/spiritual-lessons-of-the-economic-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual lessons of the economic crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Italian Psychosynthesis Magazine, issue 18, 2012. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nDear Readers, we present you with an article that we think could have been written today and not eighty years ago. It is about a different economic crisis to the current one but the principles that govern it are similar and shadows and lights are the same. It is up to you to draw the necessary considerations\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
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By Roberto Assagioli<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

A school of political economy that was in vogue in the last century had created the myth of the “homo aeconomicus”, an imaginary being who would act motivated solely by his or her own financial gain, and on this basis it had built more or less ingenious theories and formulated supposed laws.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The great historical events that took place in the twentieth century have demonstrated the futility of those abstract constructions, and little to no validity of those “laws”.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It couldn’t be otherwise. The \u201cHomo aeconomicus\u201d does not exist but man, the complex and multifaceted man in which the various aspects and elements, the various needs, tendencies, desires, passions and aspirations constantly act and react upon each other, and all contribute, in different, hardly calculable and predictable ways, to determine his or her conduct in all fields, including the economic one. And in turn the individual and collective economic conditions have not only tangible and practical effects, but affect the whole human being, influence his or her ideas and feelings, pose problems, require choices, and cause emotional, moral and spiritual crises.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This fact was fully recognized by the (Italian) Prime Minister, who worded it in one of those incisive phrases which were peculiar to him, in his speech to the people of Naples on 25 October. He said: “The world crisis is not only economic, but it is now, above all, spiritual and moral.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We believe that an examination, though brief, of these interferences and relationships between the economic and the psychological and spiritual aspects of the crisis that troubles the world now, could make us better understand what is happening and in which all of us are actively or passively involved in various ways and measures. And this greater understanding will allow us to glimpse the many spiritual lessons that the crisis can teach and will point us the way to solve it and to prevent new ones.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n