Polanyi and Pinball
There is an old arcade game, Pinball, in which the player stands at the machine and shoots a ball into the playing field which is filled with barriers, obstacle forces, and point giving opportunities. The idea is to keep the ball in play as long as possible while scoring the highest points achievable. This crude metaphor kept coming to mind while reading Karl Polanyi’s, The Great Transformation. His historical account of the development and idealism of the self-regulating market with the economic and political playing fields seemed eerily familiar to pinball. The tensions between democracy and capitalism, the market systems and counter-movements, the political repression and protective legislation resemble the ball being batted around at the will of the player who is out for personal gain. Rather than the markets being a tool for society’s advance they become the player and through commodification, humans become the ball. Polanyi described these concepts in 1944 and now seventy-five years later we have further evidence to consider through recessions, and the recent credit crises of just a decade ago, not to mention mounting legislation and regulations.
Polanyi is considered by some a “forgotten thinker” whose basic ideas argue that “the autonomous, self-regulating market is neither natural nor central to society.”[1] Polanyi’s ideas are set at odds with Adam Smith’s as he sees the ordering principles of society as reciprocity, redistribution, and householding rather than Smith’s “truck, barter, and exchange.”[2] Polanyi leans into humanizing principles rather than mechanistic thinking. He shows grave concern for every move of political and economic gain at the expense of the most vulnerable of society and shows that the trickle-down effect is rarely realized. It was his description of the commodification of humans, land and money that most caught my attention. It sounded very much like the influence of the industrial revolution upon organizations and leadership and technology upon virtual reality and artificial intelligence by dehumanizing people, making land currency, and money god. Polanyi shows that the hoped for utopia of a self-regulating market is impossible to achieve as the tensions between personal gain and societal well-being are at direct odds with one another.
Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science, says, “I believe we have been kept apart by three primary Western cultural beliefs: individualism, competition, and a mechanistic world view…Our concept of organization is moving away from mechanistic creations that flourished in the age of bureaucracy. We now speak in earnest of more fluid, organic structures, of boundaryless and seamless organizations…We discard mechanistic practices, and learn from the behavior of living systems.”[3] Humanizing humanity, protecting and giving the land back to its organic self, and seeing money as a resource for the good of all rather than a master over some, these are the ideas thinkers like Polanyi, Wheatley and others seems to be advocating. Their warning signals are similar to those being sounded by current thought leaders like Andy Crouch regarding becoming “tech-wise” families in this digital age. Crouch states, “Increasingly sophisticated algorithms are created helping apps manage the number of nudges received so you never get tired of responding to them.”[4]
Commodifying dehumanization comes in various forms from economics and politics to organizational structures and practices, to even the smartphone in our pockets. We are not the pinball to be battered around by the very systems we create, rather human beings are created in the image of God to live in, care for and subdue the God-created worlds made for us to thrive. May we listen to history and pay attention to lessons learned and do our part to be the player, not the pinball.
[1] Walter J. Kendall, III, “The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time.” (The Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law: Socio-Political Perspectives 2, no. 4, 2015), 847.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2006), Kindle Loc. 2436.
[4] Andy Crouch, The Tech-Wise Family (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2017), 34.
About the Author
Tammy Dunahoo
Tammy is a lover of God, her husband, children and grandchildren. She is the V.P. of U.S. Operations/General Supervisor of The Foursquare Church.7 responses to “Polanyi and Pinball”
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Thank you once again for the challenging and thoughtful work you put into your post. I loved this last line the most, “Commodifying dehumanization comes in various forms from economics and politics to organizational structures and practices, to even the smartphone in our pockets”. I immediately thought of the internet campuses / digital campuses we have of our churches and how it feeds into this commodification/consumer-driven culture. Particularly for younger pastors, we treat social media not as an add on but the main platform to “reach more people”. Most of the comments range from, I can’t wait to come and visit and be a part of your church or you are my digital pastor! We are building big audiences, counting the stats, and not caring for the people as good shepherds.
So true, Mario. Digby said it best, “We are celebrating the proceeds without counting the cost.” Those of us who have been around a little while tend to remember history and we have lived this scene before. No consumer method or gadget will ever fill the hunger in the human soul that only true relationship (seeing, touching, caring, giving grace) will do. I see the younger generation of pastors saying and doing the same thing we did 40 years ago just with different lights and sound :). Richard Rohr has been posting this week about the difference between believing in Jesus (right doctrine) and actually following Jesus (right practice). Getting people into the church building or watching online tends to create people who may believe right, but doesn’t necessarily make them devoted followers. Such an important conversation!
Excellent post Tammy. So much to ponder and such a unique message to preach when so many congregants work in “the market.” My best hunch is that this is another one of those opportunities for us to “be in the world but not of it” as faithfully as possible.
Great post Tammy. I feel for our young people because they are being hurt the most by what is going on in our economy. Unfortunately, they will have to undo some of the damage done. All we can do is pray for the future.
Thank you for this, Tammy. I’ve been praying for you and your family. Your writing is excellent. The idea of smartphone technology adding to dehumanization is spot on. I hadn’t thought of it in those terms but I sense it deeply. Thanks for the wisdom…
Thanks, Tammy, interesting read. Polanyi and other radical economists tend to underscore the essential human problem as being, convention. Once we normalise a way of thinking, it takes seismic events to shake us out of our way of being. Unfortunately, conventions develop more quickly these days, but one fixed, they are hard to shake. The church ain’t much different either. Rather than being people possessed with the Spirit of the Creator, we tend to fight creativity at almost every point. The Greek word metanoia, which we translate as repent, more appropriately means, ‘to change one’s mind’. It may result in moral transformation, but its really the ongoing shift in thinking and seeing that alters our behaviour in the world. We all to easily become conventional secular Christians, rather happy with the status quo. How so we leaders lift the lid of conventionality, so the Spirit can breathe?
Thank you Tammy for reminding as about the Pinball game i once played sometimes back. The metaphor truly describes our current life generation today. The way you connected with life application as Polanyi describes is amazning. I like your finishing that we listen to our history, pay attention what we have learned and play our part in prayers and not pinball.