Daily Connect: Deepak's #GreedyBastards Dylan Ratigan & Arianna Huffington at abc home

by Patrick Groneman

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“'Greedy Bastard' is not an identity, it is a behavior that is exhibited by all human beings everyday of their lives.." -- Dylan Ratigan

I was lucky to attend this milestone conversation between Deepak Chopra, Dylan Ratigan and Arianna Huffington as a part of deepak homebase at abchome last night:

Watch live streaming video from deepakhomebase at livestream.com
The trio presented an array of insights into the failings of our current political, economic and social systems, and offered several methods for transforming greed into compassion and connection.

Underlying the entire conversation was a poll that asked both livestream viewers and audience members the following: "Do you support a constitutional ban on corporate funding of political campaigns?” At the end of the evening, the tally was symbolically 99% for, and 1% against.

Huffington, a long time advocate of progressive policies and social entrepreneurship championed systematic change, but also emphasized personal health, meditation, healthy eating and cultivating strong interpersonal relationships as a crucial component to systematic change.

“We can’t wait for a constitutional amendment, we can change how we are living right now,” she said.

Ratigan shared a few insights from his new book Greedy Bastards, which highlights three main components of corruption of our system. Lack of visibility (or systematic transparency), misalignment of interestests, and lack of choice.

At one point Chopra asked “You’re not referring to capitalists as greedy bastards, right?”

And Ratigan Responds: “Greedy bastard is not an identity, it is a behavior that is exhibited by all human beings everyday of their lives...”

The whole conversation was a great contemplatation on greed, and the interdependence between personal and instituational expressions of it.

How to work with it? Deepak offers: “We all need to cultivate both ruthlessness and compassion...”

The whole series is great, check out more at deepakhomebase.org