This book is in Evanston Friends library.

A review of: “Right Relationship” By Peter Brown

written by Hal Mead

Moving from Wrong to Right Relationship

A pursuit of wrong relationship is the prevailing trend of our times. The signs are now well known: climate change, over population, loss of top soil and freshwater, increasing rates of species extinction, deforestation, toxic chemicals, persistent human poverty, unstable world financial system.

Right relationship – One that promotes the common good, rather than only the interests of individuals or a particular class of people. Political commonwealth -wealth is seen as something to be allocated equitably, to be shared in common.

What is A Whole Earth Economy for?

The purpose of the economy is to preserve & enhance the integrity, resilience, and beauty of life.

Cooperation in mutually beneficial economic dealings is the ethical root of society. The key elements of this kind of cooperation are respect and reciprocity -respect for other people and for the environment.

How does It Work?

Life’s task is to grow in compassion and in a way of living that is helpful to all life, and to the earth systems on which life depends.- the consequences of failing to live in this sacred manner will diminish our own life value and the well-being of the whole earth community.

Trusteeship of earth’s commons

Many laws that limit individual freedom are readily accepted (for example, criminalizing murder or requiring one to stop at red lights), this authority will surely have to expand into new and challenging areas if human society is to work toward living within ecological limits. Laws regulating the number of children people can have would likely face serious resistance, yet that kind of regulatory limit maybe needed to stay within the earth’s ecological limits by reducing population.

Essential to this is a shift from an egocentric – I, me, mine, values perspective, to one of collaborative engagement in pursuit of the common good.