Wanted: Philosophers, Writers, Thinkers

Are we in danger of losing sight of the forest for all the trees? The long-term view is that the global economy has entered a lengthy period of painful adjustment, but we, the human actors in the economy, have yet to fully grasp what this means: a profound change in the way our society works. This is not about right or wrong, socialism versus capitalism, optimist versus pessimist. This is about the intellectual foundations that underpin society and the economy - both of which are forms of human activity based on a common understanding of and agreement on goals, and on the path to take to achieve these goals.

Both are up for renewal, need a rethink - and the new definitions should not be left to the cable talk shows or businesspeople, the World Economic Forum, and economists, no matter how many Nobel prizes they may have won collectively. It is time we recognize not just that an inordinate desire for wealth and riches, a poverty of ideas and ideals, have brought the world to the brink of collapse and will levy a hefty price on us all, but mainly on the poorest of this world. We must also recognize that those who led us down this path - the proponents of efficient markets, small government, the dominance of profit as society's leitmotiv, the peddlers of false slogans backed by seemingly unshakeable historical trends (such as: there has never been a nationwide decline in U.S. house prices) - are snake oil doctors at worst, fallible humans at best and that no one has any claim to superior wisdom or special insights (not even Warren Buffett, as he would be the first to admit).

Now is the time for the philosophers, the writers, the thinkers rather than the pontificators to step to the fore, to remind us that the pursuit of happiness means more than three cars and a luxury condo in Miami, that future generations have an inalienable right to an inhabitable world, that upholding human rights must trump business interests. Those are the gauges by which we must measure the success of the trillions of dollars that the U.S. alone will spend to right the economy and return the financial system to health. If we end up where we were before the crisis (unaffordable education, lack of healthcare for many, wretched public transportation, and more generally, an "every man for himself" attitude), the money will have been spent for naught.

It was the recognition by 52% of U.S. voters that going backward was not an option that carried Barack Obama to the presidency - now he must keep the country (and more importantly, a Congress cocooned in a palace of smoke and mirrors) on this path. The success of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package will only be partly determined by the number of jobs saved or created, the statistics that measure the state of the economy - even if these will garner all the attention. It will be determined mainly by the progress made toward a new understanding of what binds society as a whole. The gauntlet has been thrown down; it is ours to pick up and meet the challenge.