In this episode I will ponder about my worries and concerns about how wisdom is viewed these days and how the concept of abundance is experienced by people in the modern world. 

I am still trying to unpack this myself, and I would like to get to the bottom of it.

Wisdom and abundance - Two seemingly very different subjects. I feel they are interlinked though and I wonder how.

Who is seen as wise these days in our modern secular world? Who do people ‘follow’? Who do people chose for advice in spiritual, life and healing matters? How does the race for attention impact the depth and authenticity of the wisdom we encounter especially in social media platforms and the paths of engagement like ‘educational’ courses or communities we find online? Does this not foster egocentric or megalomaniac notion of people’s importance when most ancient spiritual traditions place great emphasis on the how not let the ego rule and on humility?

To me, in the modern secular western world the sharing and proclamation of knowledge appears to be vastly influenced by the structure of our economic system, namely capitalism, or maybe we could say that the ecosystem of our economic system has seeped into our experience and sources of wisdom to form the basic structure of knowledge exchange. Where wisdom or knowledge become a product or commodity and the marketplace dictates who is being listened to, promoted, consulted and rewarded. 

All of these developments and structures seem to be standing in stark contrast of how most established spiritual traditions describe and practice the exchange of knowledge and the conduct of wisdom keepers.

Hard to find our way through the jungle of offerings these days. Is it actually still possible for people brought up within these structures that are so pervasive to discern authentic sources of knowledge or ‘real’ wisdom out of all the marketplace shoutings with echoes of recycled insights, amalgamated systems, false gurus?

And furthermore, the allure of limitless prosperity is a strong force but I believe we need to question the existence of this notion as a concept that comes from a deep seated profusion of a capitalistic endless growth mentality into all our thinking and feeling and spiritual pursuits.

I feel we need to critically examine how far capitalistic economic structures have infiltrated and are informing our experience of ourselves, our relationships, philosophical concepts and understanding of the world.

People, ideas, links and podcast mentioned in this episode are:

Bayo Akomolafe https://www.bayoakomolafe.net

Much love, Stephx

Music by 12Volt, thanks to my friend Sascha Usison.