People laugh at dreamers. And once the laughter dies down everyone makes an uncomfortable exit. Some feeling pity, others piteous. You see, dreams don’t pay the bills – so popular wisdom says.
But what if they indeed do? What if we got it all backwards and it wasn’t hard headed practicality that made money go round? What if money actually was something that you had to dream up before you ‘earned’ it?
What am I talking about? I am talking about cause and effect. Let’s take a broad look at history. Why is it that the times most nations / civilizations have really enjoyed booming growth are the times most remembered for grand schemes that swept everyone along in a giddy (at times violent) rush? We reached for the moon and the stars and the 60’s rocked! The Europeans chased every mechanical invention they could dream up and spread empires across the globe – the wealth of England, Germany, and some other states was envied everywhere. The Italians rediscovered the universe and explored the world of technique in everything and everywhere. The Renaissance is still seen as one of the more exuberant ages of humankind – as well as one of the richest! Yes – even as recently as a half a decade ago there were some that dreamt that in the Internet finally lay the keys to breaking down all the emaciated barriers of vested powers regardless of land, corporation or community – and wealth flowed like a moth to a candle! And the Greeks and the Romans believed that all the world should be Greek or Roman – at any cost – and we are still digging up the wealth they left behind. Not to speak of the Egyptians, Babylonians or Etruscans……
No – I am not condoning colonialism and neither am I turning a blind eye to the social ills that came along with Industrial Revolution. I am not being naïve and ignoring the facts of the Cold War or the many other sufferings that attended many of these great eras. But I am questioning our conventional idea of cause and effect. What if without the dreams all economy is simply a crablike shuffle idiotically trying to catch the tide as it sloshes back and forth aimlessly across the sand. Yes, the ROIs are all neatly lined up and every incremental dollar fully justified by the cost saved (or occasionally some value produced). Yes, every business is on sound profitable footing and the EPS exactly on analyst expectations (neither more nor less, God forbid!). And of course stellar executive earnings only go to show that chasing dreams is a fools enterprise. It tends to spread the wealth amongst all and sundry. So little comes back in an orderly fashion – such a waste!
Yet – in our dreamless society we live on an ever growing mountain of debt and struggle mightily for our daily dose of Prozac. Not knowing whether it was the Serotonin that caused the depression or the depression that made the Serotonin change for a purpose.
Which is the cause? Did the dreams lead us to wealth? Or do we have to medicate the dreams so we could stop getting distracted from the business of creating wealth?
