Hi Veronika, l always open your posts in anticipation of what new words and wisdom will welcome me. The word mickle caught my attention and l see abundance associated with it. And enough is abundance, so l have realised in my efforts to remove fears around money as l ease into retirement. Love the point you make about exponential growth around economy and the 10th growth ring re what it means in nature. It seems that governments keep a large proportion of people bound by fears surrounding a lack of material wealth and money, ‘parasites’, as you suggest. Thank you, as always. 😊🙏💚
Hi Simone, thank you for picking that up! That anyone in 'wealthy' countries with their 'strong economies' should need to worry about money makes no sense...
And yet it's the fear around money that keeps the 'economy growing', or is used as the driving force, always making promises for a future that never materialises.
The discovery that what economists call 'growth' should more truthfully be called 'parasitic growth' was an eye-opener to me while researching and writing this series. Any so-called 'growth' that is not sustainable and disregards nurturing and protecting the environment and ecosystem (i.e deadly for the host), must be classified as either a canceroid or parasitic. I wonder how many proponents of economic/ financial growth understand this...
Hi Veronika, I can't imagine how any proponents of economic growth would understand it given the point you make. When 'we' stop buying into it with handing over our sovereignty, that system will crash. Hopefully, for the planet and 'us', with abundance. 🙏
that seems to be exactly the crux of the problem. I was inspired to make these points by a young German/Turkish writer (economist and award winning author) who writes mainly in German. But his article on 'growth as metaphor' is available here in English translation too https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/wachstum-nachdenken-ueber-einen-begriff-100.html
The trouble is (according to Utlu and others) that politicians and economists themselves don't seem to be aware that they are using the word growth as a metaphor. They use language like 'without economic growth our country will be dead' and such nonsense, not realising that what they call 'growth' may well kill the planet... The vital link between sustainability and growth, between ecology and economy is not even on the radar...
So I guess it's up to us to stop buying into it, as you say xx
Everyone seems to be enjoying this new word/world you've introduced us to this morning, Veronika!🥰
As I read, I can't help but thinking about the bizarre construct of fiat money, and how utterly unnatural it is to print ink on paper seemingly with no end and, most certainly, with nothing solid (like Midas's gold touch ;) backing it with which to imbue it value. That growth most certainly feels wrong, as though we're walking on quicksand rather than sound ground. It could very well be paralleled with the eternal quest for eternal youth and continual denial of death that absolutely must complete the very natural cycle of life. ❤️
Yep, fiat money - money issued as debt conjured out of thin air, just by tapping a few keys on a computer - and then charging interest on it. One of the biggest scams in history and no government will challenge it. Well, I think JFK attempted to, but 'nough said.
I read this one a bunch, and I love those words! I was on the road yesterday, so I am slow to reach out. Mickle! What a word. I was really surprised to see Author on there. To write is to grow. Not the Midas way for me. I loved this series. Lots to sit with. Yes, to balancing economy with ecology. Makes me wonder how much evolution and left/right hemisphere plays into this as Philip has written. Social media. Counting followers. Counting likes. The growth industry has its hands in many pots. It’s different gold these days. Look at the gold from the past. Fire, iron, bronze, print, combustion. The ages of man. Somehow nature keeps hanging on. Let’s keep this earth host alive! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. The words that you touch do turn to gold. Creating meaning. Thank you Veronika 🙏❤️
Yes! Author!! We are growers... of language magic... (ain't that good to know?!)
Interesting that you mention 'counting followers/likes etc.' I hadn't thought of that, but you are absolutely right.
When starting to publish my writing on substack, I thought that's what it was all about: grow an author's platform. Grow a tribe of subscribers. I think that's what many of us believe, and continue to do, no?
A couple of months into my substack journey, I realised that this was draining me. It wasn't nurturing my writing, and I could feel my creative daimon slipping away, if I continued with that intention. So I did a little ceremony (inspired by some fellow substackers) to reassess my intention, reconnect with the purpose of my writing.
Lo and behold, we don't mickle that muchly by counting followers!!! 😉 Luring subscribers into my substack-web dropped off the edge of my radar. What nurtures (and therefore grows) my writing is that I nurture my writing. A simple cycle of gift economy going on here.
I reminded myself that what I am writing for is not numbers of fellow writers and readers, but Synchronosophy, Symbiopædia, and the Symbiocene ~ the topics that are closest to my heart and that nurture our whole ecosystem, in which life and creativity can thrive.
This is a long way of saying, YES! Creating meaning 💚🙏 🌱 🪶 🐌
I love this, and I totally agree. I came here to enjoy the platform, and share with kindred spirits. The lure for subscriptions and numbers always taunts. In the end I write because I enjoy it. I write because it feeds me. I write because it grows me. I write because it allows me to live in to the questions that don’t seem to go away. I do like the other writers I’ve been able to connect with here. We aren’t many but the support is helpful with growth as well. Yes to the ecosystem. Thanks for being you. Thanks for being here. 🙏❤️
Once again I am subdued entirely by your knowledge and understanding of words Veronika, these three essays have been completely captivating, as have many of the responses written in reply to all three - all together, quite a long but immensely erudite read, all of which I have loved.
Your use of the word 'mickle', much loved so it appears, I have to mention again; it is a word I haven't heard used since my grandfather, Scottish by birth though he lived most of his life in the south of England, passed to other realms. He would say, in typical Scots fashion, “many a little makes a mickle,” when handing over a small coin for our pockets. We three girls knew he meant to save it, not spend it, needless to say we would invariably spend it anyway!
I first heard the poem Mrs Midas recited in a rather heavy (possibly drunken) Irish drawl, when living in Co Westmeath, thank you so much for the reminder, I just read it in its entirety again! 💚
Thank you so much, Susie, for this lovely comment filled with memories 💚🙏 🌱 🪶 🐌
Mickle... I was familiar with 'muckle puckle' and took that as my lead, not even anticipating the variation mickle. But both make a lot of sense as an accumulation of anything... and given the obvious popularity, maybe we'll see a mickle/muckle revival.
My grandfather would also use the expression 'mickle muckle' and maybe even 'a mickle pickle' though I can't recall to what these two would have referred to.
I love the idea of revival - lets do it Veronika! 🎶
Oh, ho! I have never heard of the Mrs. Midas poem before! What a brilliant work of art. I also very much enjoyed your poem. The story of King Midas feels incredibly perfect for our times. You're reminding me of the wisdom of the (original) fairy tales. Well done, Veronika! xo
Thank you so much, Lani. Mrs. Midas... yes, isn't it wonderful? I am living with a poet who points out such gems to me! (my poem by comparison... 🙏 🤭
Yes, the original fairy tales, I wanted to get them in there, because like myth and metaphor, they are part of the history of putting meaning into language.
“Limiting factors” is a great key point here. And nature is abundant with limiting factors! I suppose humans continue to try to defy them but thankfully the ultimate and limiting factor is death….but now that I think about it, the disease of economic expansion and growth isn’t limited by death since generational power and wealth are built into capitalism and the political system at large.
I'm not sure about "the disease of economic expansion and growth isn’t limited by death"... from my vantage point it appears sometimes as if this economic capitalist system of ours (which feeds as a parasite on the living earth's resources), with its obsession with exponential, infinite (financial) growth is hurtling towards its own extinction.
Great finale to the three-part series on the word 'growth'. It was interesting to see the word 'convalesce' in the list of 'growth' words - I'll remember that next time I'm lying ill in bed with a flu-bug - I'll be in a different type of growth phase. In fact growing strong, recovering from the 'illness' of 21st century western culture, might be quite a longer-term thing.
(as an aside, Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Mrs Midas" comes from a great book of poems "The World's Wife" where about 50 forgotten Mrs are given their due. Amongst them is not "Mrs Noah" - so, duly inspired, I did it myself - which you can find here: https://joshuabondpoetry.substack.com/p/mrs-noah)
So much fun to read and learn. I know a twenty-something young man who has always been fascinated by economic expansion, money, etc. playing video games as a kids about “city and wealth building” When I started my small business he wanted to know my plans for “scaling up” and couldn’t grok my intentions to stay small. Culture has inculcated so many into “bigger is better.” This same young man is a philosopher at heart though so there I hope.
well, I do understand the twenty-somethings who want to make money ~ it's the only way they see in this world to have a 'decent life'. Trouble comes when bigger is never big enough, and when the money rolls in, it seems to corrupt many minds... but not always! I know young people who make plenty of money while setting their own limit of enoughness, and with concern and support of initiatives for the environment etc. Yes, there is hope. I think balancing economy with ecology is a good start. Thank you for reading and enjoying! xxx
There ia a handy reckoner for continuous exponential; 'the rule of 70'; 2% per year means a doubling every 35 years. A steady decline of the same order would halve whatever number you have in mind over the same period. For an industrial civilisation these trends have consequences. I mention in my restack that Nature actually 'does sudden' rather well.
NB I restacked also just now Sam Charles Norton's wise post on AI.... another set of arms races to my my mind... not to mention the transhumanists.
thank you Philip! Yes, I just saw your restack and commented there.
What I've been trying to do here is differentiate between the meaning of the word 'growth' in nature, vs in manmade settings, where the term takes on a metaphorical sense while being used as if it was literal (e.g. economic G, financial G)
(increase in numbers is not the same as the phenomenal core process of life itself.)
Yes of course... very valuable to my mind. I take the important point about literalist usage in the modern setting. Thank you. Perhaps this in part helps explain the extraordinary blindness I seem to keep coming across among highly educated and apparently well informed people? McGilchrist and Norton 'get it' and put it down to 'left hemisphere' thinking 'we' are trained into.
Utlu and Heidenreich especially have made some significant noteworthy points about the concept of growth, which I could not (yet) find in the English speaking discussions... so I thought it would be interesting to bring that perspective into the conversation here...
Very glad for your bridge into German language & thought.
Am not concerned so much with 'gray area' of metaphor and concept in 'creative' poetry, rather in the world of AI with pseudo-calculation and quantification. 'Left Hemisphere' thinking (see McGilchrist, ref. by Norton) will quantify trends, associations as causation in pseudo-futures: 'the state of our desire'?
Lots more thinking needed. 'Systems thinking' is not a sufficient work around...? (I am thinking of Nate Hagens and his educational consultative community.)
It is a while back when my work took me into 'Risk'. I agree with Heidenreich that 'risk' like 'growth' is another metaphor/concept gray area. It attracted ludicrous attempts at quantification.
Oh, thank you for making the effort, and so glad that you found it useful. And I'm very glad you found that essay by Heidenreich too!! I had bookmarked it and then lost it...
I often do my research in both languages (sometimes more), since English has become so Americanised, shtumming so many interesting international voices out of these important conversations.
Risk is also a word I have been thinking about, but that will be another wordcast...😉
Hi Veronika, l always open your posts in anticipation of what new words and wisdom will welcome me. The word mickle caught my attention and l see abundance associated with it. And enough is abundance, so l have realised in my efforts to remove fears around money as l ease into retirement. Love the point you make about exponential growth around economy and the 10th growth ring re what it means in nature. It seems that governments keep a large proportion of people bound by fears surrounding a lack of material wealth and money, ‘parasites’, as you suggest. Thank you, as always. 😊🙏💚
Hi Simone, thank you for picking that up! That anyone in 'wealthy' countries with their 'strong economies' should need to worry about money makes no sense...
And yet it's the fear around money that keeps the 'economy growing', or is used as the driving force, always making promises for a future that never materialises.
The discovery that what economists call 'growth' should more truthfully be called 'parasitic growth' was an eye-opener to me while researching and writing this series. Any so-called 'growth' that is not sustainable and disregards nurturing and protecting the environment and ecosystem (i.e deadly for the host), must be classified as either a canceroid or parasitic. I wonder how many proponents of economic/ financial growth understand this...
I like how you put this: "enough is abundance"
Hi Veronika, I can't imagine how any proponents of economic growth would understand it given the point you make. When 'we' stop buying into it with handing over our sovereignty, that system will crash. Hopefully, for the planet and 'us', with abundance. 🙏
that seems to be exactly the crux of the problem. I was inspired to make these points by a young German/Turkish writer (economist and award winning author) who writes mainly in German. But his article on 'growth as metaphor' is available here in English translation too https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/wachstum-nachdenken-ueber-einen-begriff-100.html
The trouble is (according to Utlu and others) that politicians and economists themselves don't seem to be aware that they are using the word growth as a metaphor. They use language like 'without economic growth our country will be dead' and such nonsense, not realising that what they call 'growth' may well kill the planet... The vital link between sustainability and growth, between ecology and economy is not even on the radar...
So I guess it's up to us to stop buying into it, as you say xx
Thanks for the link Veronika 🙏
I love this piece so much!! So MICKLE!!
Everyone seems to be enjoying this new word/world you've introduced us to this morning, Veronika!🥰
As I read, I can't help but thinking about the bizarre construct of fiat money, and how utterly unnatural it is to print ink on paper seemingly with no end and, most certainly, with nothing solid (like Midas's gold touch ;) backing it with which to imbue it value. That growth most certainly feels wrong, as though we're walking on quicksand rather than sound ground. It could very well be paralleled with the eternal quest for eternal youth and continual denial of death that absolutely must complete the very natural cycle of life. ❤️
"THAT growth most certainly feels wrong, as though we're walking on quicksand."
How perfectly put, Jacqueline.
Yeah, mickle! Isn't that a great word. Time to bring it back to life...
Yep, fiat money - money issued as debt conjured out of thin air, just by tapping a few keys on a computer - and then charging interest on it. One of the biggest scams in history and no government will challenge it. Well, I think JFK attempted to, but 'nough said.
I read this one a bunch, and I love those words! I was on the road yesterday, so I am slow to reach out. Mickle! What a word. I was really surprised to see Author on there. To write is to grow. Not the Midas way for me. I loved this series. Lots to sit with. Yes, to balancing economy with ecology. Makes me wonder how much evolution and left/right hemisphere plays into this as Philip has written. Social media. Counting followers. Counting likes. The growth industry has its hands in many pots. It’s different gold these days. Look at the gold from the past. Fire, iron, bronze, print, combustion. The ages of man. Somehow nature keeps hanging on. Let’s keep this earth host alive! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. The words that you touch do turn to gold. Creating meaning. Thank you Veronika 🙏❤️
Yes! Author!! We are growers... of language magic... (ain't that good to know?!)
Interesting that you mention 'counting followers/likes etc.' I hadn't thought of that, but you are absolutely right.
When starting to publish my writing on substack, I thought that's what it was all about: grow an author's platform. Grow a tribe of subscribers. I think that's what many of us believe, and continue to do, no?
A couple of months into my substack journey, I realised that this was draining me. It wasn't nurturing my writing, and I could feel my creative daimon slipping away, if I continued with that intention. So I did a little ceremony (inspired by some fellow substackers) to reassess my intention, reconnect with the purpose of my writing.
Lo and behold, we don't mickle that muchly by counting followers!!! 😉 Luring subscribers into my substack-web dropped off the edge of my radar. What nurtures (and therefore grows) my writing is that I nurture my writing. A simple cycle of gift economy going on here.
I reminded myself that what I am writing for is not numbers of fellow writers and readers, but Synchronosophy, Symbiopædia, and the Symbiocene ~ the topics that are closest to my heart and that nurture our whole ecosystem, in which life and creativity can thrive.
This is a long way of saying, YES! Creating meaning 💚🙏 🌱 🪶 🐌
I love this, and I totally agree. I came here to enjoy the platform, and share with kindred spirits. The lure for subscriptions and numbers always taunts. In the end I write because I enjoy it. I write because it feeds me. I write because it grows me. I write because it allows me to live in to the questions that don’t seem to go away. I do like the other writers I’ve been able to connect with here. We aren’t many but the support is helpful with growth as well. Yes to the ecosystem. Thanks for being you. Thanks for being here. 🙏❤️
Yes exactly the writing grows us as we grow our writing. Such a blessing and a gift. Likewise Jamie 🙏❤️
Fortunately we can be rich and have little money. We can be blissfully happy with little or no fanfare.
So true! Will the wealthy and powerful ever learn that happiness doesn't grow in bank accounts or on the stock market?
Once again I am subdued entirely by your knowledge and understanding of words Veronika, these three essays have been completely captivating, as have many of the responses written in reply to all three - all together, quite a long but immensely erudite read, all of which I have loved.
Your use of the word 'mickle', much loved so it appears, I have to mention again; it is a word I haven't heard used since my grandfather, Scottish by birth though he lived most of his life in the south of England, passed to other realms. He would say, in typical Scots fashion, “many a little makes a mickle,” when handing over a small coin for our pockets. We three girls knew he meant to save it, not spend it, needless to say we would invariably spend it anyway!
I first heard the poem Mrs Midas recited in a rather heavy (possibly drunken) Irish drawl, when living in Co Westmeath, thank you so much for the reminder, I just read it in its entirety again! 💚
Thank you so much, Susie, for this lovely comment filled with memories 💚🙏 🌱 🪶 🐌
Mickle... I was familiar with 'muckle puckle' and took that as my lead, not even anticipating the variation mickle. But both make a lot of sense as an accumulation of anything... and given the obvious popularity, maybe we'll see a mickle/muckle revival.
Yes, Mrs Midas is a treasure. xx
My grandfather would also use the expression 'mickle muckle' and maybe even 'a mickle pickle' though I can't recall to what these two would have referred to.
I love the idea of revival - lets do it Veronika! 🎶
we are doing it 🧚🏽 ✨
Oh, ho! I have never heard of the Mrs. Midas poem before! What a brilliant work of art. I also very much enjoyed your poem. The story of King Midas feels incredibly perfect for our times. You're reminding me of the wisdom of the (original) fairy tales. Well done, Veronika! xo
Thank you so much, Lani. Mrs. Midas... yes, isn't it wonderful? I am living with a poet who points out such gems to me! (my poem by comparison... 🙏 🤭
Yes, the original fairy tales, I wanted to get them in there, because like myth and metaphor, they are part of the history of putting meaning into language.
Mmmm. I like that ‘they are part of the history of putting meaning into language’… ✨
“Limiting factors” is a great key point here. And nature is abundant with limiting factors! I suppose humans continue to try to defy them but thankfully the ultimate and limiting factor is death….but now that I think about it, the disease of economic expansion and growth isn’t limited by death since generational power and wealth are built into capitalism and the political system at large.
Thank you so much Kimberly!
I'm not sure about "the disease of economic expansion and growth isn’t limited by death"... from my vantage point it appears sometimes as if this economic capitalist system of ours (which feeds as a parasite on the living earth's resources), with its obsession with exponential, infinite (financial) growth is hurtling towards its own extinction.
May it be so!!! 🙏
As always, I am fascinated by your brain. You never cease to amaze...
thank you Tim! I'm amazing myself all the time 😎 🙏 😅
Great finale to the three-part series on the word 'growth'. It was interesting to see the word 'convalesce' in the list of 'growth' words - I'll remember that next time I'm lying ill in bed with a flu-bug - I'll be in a different type of growth phase. In fact growing strong, recovering from the 'illness' of 21st century western culture, might be quite a longer-term thing.
(as an aside, Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Mrs Midas" comes from a great book of poems "The World's Wife" where about 50 forgotten Mrs are given their due. Amongst them is not "Mrs Noah" - so, duly inspired, I did it myself - which you can find here: https://joshuabondpoetry.substack.com/p/mrs-noah)
You did! And it's an incredible poem too xx
So much fun to read and learn. I know a twenty-something young man who has always been fascinated by economic expansion, money, etc. playing video games as a kids about “city and wealth building” When I started my small business he wanted to know my plans for “scaling up” and couldn’t grok my intentions to stay small. Culture has inculcated so many into “bigger is better.” This same young man is a philosopher at heart though so there I hope.
well, I do understand the twenty-somethings who want to make money ~ it's the only way they see in this world to have a 'decent life'. Trouble comes when bigger is never big enough, and when the money rolls in, it seems to corrupt many minds... but not always! I know young people who make plenty of money while setting their own limit of enoughness, and with concern and support of initiatives for the environment etc. Yes, there is hope. I think balancing economy with ecology is a good start. Thank you for reading and enjoying! xxx
'Phew!' That and Mrs Midas. What a read.👍😊
There ia a handy reckoner for continuous exponential; 'the rule of 70'; 2% per year means a doubling every 35 years. A steady decline of the same order would halve whatever number you have in mind over the same period. For an industrial civilisation these trends have consequences. I mention in my restack that Nature actually 'does sudden' rather well.
NB I restacked also just now Sam Charles Norton's wise post on AI.... another set of arms races to my my mind... not to mention the transhumanists.
thank you Philip! Yes, I just saw your restack and commented there.
What I've been trying to do here is differentiate between the meaning of the word 'growth' in nature, vs in manmade settings, where the term takes on a metaphorical sense while being used as if it was literal (e.g. economic G, financial G)
(increase in numbers is not the same as the phenomenal core process of life itself.)
Thanks for the link to Norton's AI post too!
Yes of course... very valuable to my mind. I take the important point about literalist usage in the modern setting. Thank you. Perhaps this in part helps explain the extraordinary blindness I seem to keep coming across among highly educated and apparently well informed people? McGilchrist and Norton 'get it' and put it down to 'left hemisphere' thinking 'we' are trained into.
I was inspired to follow the thread of 'growth as metaphor' by Deniz Utlu (German/Turkish economist and award winning author of several books) you can read his article in English translation here https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/wachstum-nachdenken-ueber-einen-begriff-100.html
and Felix Heidenreich (German political scientist and philosopher) https://www.felixheidenreich.com/
Utlu and Heidenreich especially have made some significant noteworthy points about the concept of growth, which I could not (yet) find in the English speaking discussions... so I thought it would be interesting to bring that perspective into the conversation here...
Good essay by Utl (I found I needed google for English). Have kept a Word doc.
I read key essay by Heidenreich here: 'in the land of Goethe's botany'😊.
https://www.goethe.de/prj/geg/en/thm/gg1/25045392.html
Very glad for your bridge into German language & thought.
Am not concerned so much with 'gray area' of metaphor and concept in 'creative' poetry, rather in the world of AI with pseudo-calculation and quantification. 'Left Hemisphere' thinking (see McGilchrist, ref. by Norton) will quantify trends, associations as causation in pseudo-futures: 'the state of our desire'?
Lots more thinking needed. 'Systems thinking' is not a sufficient work around...? (I am thinking of Nate Hagens and his educational consultative community.)
It is a while back when my work took me into 'Risk'. I agree with Heidenreich that 'risk' like 'growth' is another metaphor/concept gray area. It attracted ludicrous attempts at quantification.
Oh, thank you for making the effort, and so glad that you found it useful. And I'm very glad you found that essay by Heidenreich too!! I had bookmarked it and then lost it...
I often do my research in both languages (sometimes more), since English has become so Americanised, shtumming so many interesting international voices out of these important conversations.
Risk is also a word I have been thinking about, but that will be another wordcast...😉
In Midas’ mess muck
by greed-generated growth
melts Gaia’s green gold