This weekend James Vena posted a discussion on his LinkedIn group International Trade and Internet. He was refering to an article in Wall Street Journal on May 16th and announced the possibility of an important financial dip in Q3 of this year, a dip deeper that before.

The post did not come as a surprise to me nor the fact that shortages of raw materials would eventually bring the global speculative economies to a hold. In fact it was very simple to reach that conclusion. You simply have to apply the arithmatic that Dr Bartlett shows in his famous lecture posted on YouTube. If China has a steady anual economic growth of 9% and this extrapolates to a simmilar growth of consumption of raw materials, and doubling time of the exponential consumption is about 7 years of all these figures line up.

China’s growth started when western worlds had already dramatically and irresponsibly consumed their way through the Earth’s resources. Back in the early 70’s the Club of Rome already raised a flag to warn us that we could not continue our consumption rate as the Earth’s resources were limited.

Our global economies based on structural debt demanded growth and more growth to counter the evaporation of capital through interest. The consumer society was expanded world wide until the limits of today. We have reached the end of the line of the unsustainable global approach.

I myself announced that the big crash would occur somewhere before 2015. I still took one doubling time as a margin to fool myself in the hope to have time to contribute still with an alternative, Global Shift, that would be strong enough to become a global promise at the time the obsolete system collapsed. But the doubling time is indeed too far fetched and optimistic.

I never took the trouble to actually calculated the remaining Earth resources and plot them along the line of growing usage. Common sense learns us that the end of that line is nearby. How near has various variables, s.a. the growing pricing, the innovative push to reduce dependency, the reuse of materials that are already in circulation, the consumer reduction effect of crises, etc. But these would only delay the crash with months not with years or longer.

All the huge capital injections of governments were oriented to maintain the old system of consumption and allow for growth to continue without any consideration of its consequences on material consumption and its finite nature. Money is now made on speculation on shortages, keeping survival away and accessible only to the highest bidder. The power game of politicians may have postponed potential war situations but they were acting over the back of the global population without using their power to introduce a parallel system of sustainable progress. They are especially to be blamed for that. They have played the global game for the wealth of just a few and blocked out of individual greed and self interests the evolution of a new human organization based on true values but not money.

Money prevailed, not as a means for the large masses but as a goal for the greedy, supported by policy makers, politicians and executives of multinationals. Soon all the money they accumulated will be worth absolutely nothing, not even to buy a bread. Because to buy a bread someone will have to harvest the wheat, grind it, mix and bake the flour. Soon bread will be more valuable than all euros and dollars together. The true rich people are those who have grown used to be humbly self sufficient in food production, housing and clean drinking water. Back to universal basics will surely become the global issue in the next few months and years. China teaches us but are we willing to learn?

In my daily activities I find my self in a happy situation of meeting many people who all wish to contribute to a better world. What strikes me is that all are very much attached to particular elements of the old world that they try to change. This is not at all strange because this old world is still very dominantly present in our daily routines. One of the toughest issues that people need to learn to cope with is the art of letting go.

The very process starts with the development of personal awareness that things need to change and that this change comes about by taking personal responsibility. This insight has an origin that nearly always has to do with some kind of personal chaos that arises after some traumatic experiences. The reason that gave rise to this situation of chaos can be very diverse. I have seen people come in chaos after a marriage break up, the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, a burn-out situation, etc. etc. The emotional or financial sense of security that may have been present before the chaos has disappeared getting people to find themselves without any stable foothold to stand on.

The pain of insecurity, lack of balance and personal chaos illuminates the mind and sole to find new opportunities, a sense of purpose and renewed drive to progress.  In this process one confronts experiences of the past with idealism how things should be. If in the past moral complexities were not taken in consideration these now come intensified into the picture.

The process of letting go is as complex as the one to restructures one’s life an commitment to fullfilment. Memories are still very vivid around those elements that provided securities in the past and which one is temped to revive when one searches new securities. The past is gone for ever and living back what once was is only creating a mental dependence that blocks the potential of the future to present itself in its widest diversity.

Another issue that requires letting go is the pain that is felt in the past when things happened that caused suffering. One is tempted to avoid or condition new actions in fear for pain to happen again. People tend to enter new relationships as if they were the cause of ancient wounds instead of giving them the change to develop. Letting go is fundamental to give the past a position were it belongs and offer the future the opportunity to start from scratch. The future cannot be blamed for the past and the past may not block personal organization after enlightenment. Letting go is a way of getting peace with whatever happened and addressing the future with strength and self confidence.

The last thing that condition people in their evolution to true wealth is the mental attachment to material possessions. When a person gets into a situation of personal chaos this often goes together with the loss of material means. Even when insight and enlightenment comes one still tends to refer to all those things that one once had. When communicating in such way it is tempting for the listener to judge the person for what he or she has lost. It is a serious issue to let go also of possessions that have been lost. They cannot be recovered by longing to them and they lack importance. The real importance resides in the process of enlightenment that one undergoes and that feeds the sole to a richer personal identity. They relativety of possessions becomes clear only when one lets go an concentrates on what one is, not on what one has or used to have.

After the complex process of letting go securities, pains and possessions of the past one feels the exiting freedom of limitless existence. This is important to grow in a new role without the limitation of mental, physical, emotional or spiritual dependence. When one has let go one does not expect anything from anyone anymore, does not wait for anyone anymore and only relies on one’s personal existence, self esteem and confidence. One encounters then true leadership over personal existence that provides the strong sense of human equality that is needed for powerful human interaction in a sustainable way.

The art of letting go is the same as giving yourself room and freedom to expand on all levels of human complexity and organize yourself without expectations, limitations or influences from outside. Letting go you get hold of …yourself.