The source of what we value is non-material

We have mistaken the material forms as the source of what we want and the focus of our wants. We were born into a culture which was focused on what is available to our basic sensory capacities. Our society focused on the material is a result of classical and modern science which dealt with what could be measured.

In early Greek philosophy, science was a matter of thinking - not measure - and saw that the source of everything was non-material. Eastern philosophies recognise the non-material as the source of everything. Contemporary science has also come to see that everything material has non-material sources, energy-information at its base and is constantly in flux.

Our corporations have not made the leap to this way of thinking but maintain a focus stuck in the material world. The non-material lives in disrepute between scorn (as mystical) and the rather dismissive term "soft" issues. We live for what we can measure and fail to see the source of that universe. Even when we approach the so-called soft issues, we use methods of logic, measure and approach designed for a physical, material universe.

Try this: Examine your success in the marketplace and list the main elements which provide that success. Divide the list into material and non-material. Now look at which elements get most of the attention, energy, focus, measurement.

Now look at the material list and see what is the source of each item. At some earlier or more distant time, didn't their creation depend on non-material phenomena such as knowledge, intelligence, human energy, co-ordinated action, teamwork, communication, organization, commitment, intention, distinguishing, etc., etc., etc.?

Do you expect your future success to come from the material stuff you currently control - capital, property, plant, equipment, tools, patterns and recipes, etc.? Or is your future success going to come from the non-material generation and application of energy and information?

We have mis-identified the source of success and are now working very hard trying to succeed by focusing on the wrong things. We are organised for the material and not the non-material and apply mechanistic thinking to emergent (non-mechanistic) phenomena. No wonder we are working so hard for so little.