The Dalai Lama, who has said, “Deep inside, as far as social economic theory is concerned, I am a Marxist,” spent Thursday morning speaking on two panels at a Washington shrine to free markets and limited government — the American Enterprise Institute.
The focus of the panels, now all watchable on C-Span, was “happiness, free enterprise and human flourishing.” Arthur C. Brooks, the president of the conservative group, shaped the discussion around a broader definition of happiness than the one usually used by economic analysts. In speaking of “moral free enterprise,” he was essentially espousing the full Adam Smith — not just the pin factory analyst, but also the author of “The Theory of Moral Sentiments.” (Business schools too often focus on just one side.)
If you don’t have time to watch, Melinda Henneberger provides a nice summary of the event in the Washington Post.
Here are a few nuggets from other media coverage and my sift of the video (individual snippets have been posted on YouTube):
Panel 1: Moral free enterprise: Economic perspectives in business and politics
The Wall Street Journal summarized an initial discussion of happiness in a free-market economy, including this description of the Dalai Lama’s view of how self interest can benefit society over all:
“We are selfish. It’s very important for our survival,” he said. “But that selfish should be wise-selfish rather than foolish-selfish.”
Compassion and taking care of others are necessary qualities for people to be happy. “The truest form of self-interest is taking care of other people,” he said.
Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund billionaire known for his passion for yoga and meditation, pressed the case for considering broader outcomes in investment decisions:
When we make choices they come not just from what’s going to create a favorable outcome but, as the Dalai Lama said, to make sure we make decisions that do no harm that are consistent with a moral framework. [ See more at Bloomberg Luxury]
Brooks distilled four points that built out of the Dalai Lama’s reactions and ideas:
– Each of us is one in seven billion. Understanding our common humanity is the basis on which we can spread the blessings of all of the things that we do.
– The free enterprise system…is itself a blessing, but it has to be predicated on moral living from each one of us.
– Moral living is a practice, a practice of compassion and a sense of shared humanity.
– The principles and practices of global brotherhood and global sisterhood are in each one of our hands to practice and to teach…in each one of our lines of work, in everything that we do to make a better world.
Panel 2: Unlocking the mind and human happiness
The Dalai Lama spoke about the value of skepticism:
Skepticism. Not easily accepting. Analyze. Analyze and look at various factors. That ought to develop a holistic view. That brings a realistic view. A realistic view then carries realistic action. This can make a little contribution for the well-being of humanity.
Richard Davidson, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist and founder of the school’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, explored how experience and education at an early age can foster vital traits:
“We should think of well-being and flourishing as more of a skill than a characteristic that is fixed within us,” he said. He said brain science shows that pre-school years are a vital stage during which it is possible to “educate the heart in ways that can make a fundamental difference when children develop,” Davidson said. He called for universal pre-school education (attention Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo).
Just to bring things, soberingly, back to the real world, in advance of the Dalai Lama’s visit with President Obama today, criticism from China prompted this reaction from the Obama administration, as reported here by the BBC:
Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said Mr Obama would meet the Dalai Lama “in his capacity as an internationally respected religious and cultural leader”.
“We do not support Tibetan independence,” she said, adding that the U.S. “strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China. We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.”
There’s certainly little sign of moral sentiments in China’s approach to Tibet.