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Imagine: An Inquiry into Spirituality, Political Economics, and Personal Autonomy in a Modern World
A lifetime travelogue of self-discovery set in Texas, India, and New York covering spirituality, political economics, science, and law. A first hand account of issues more often approached through the protective guise of a fictionalized protagonist or mystical shaman.
Utilizing his experiences from youthful middle-class republicanism to New York investment banker, with side excursions to the Louisiana oil fields and India’s Hippie Trail, the author explores issues both proper and proscribed. He seeks to understand the underlying beliefs that form the communal spirit which he refers to as the Ethos.
The Ethos is defined by a finite number of Foundational Questions and Concepts. Foremost is whether human Essence precedes human existence, whether humans are born with a Personal Soul or accumulate their Essence through experience. He identifies three Axial Ages, periods during which commonly accepted ideologies are no longer sufficient to meet people’s needs, and discusses how the current Axial Age is characterized by Convenient Delusionism
While he acknowledges that answers to most Foundational Questions are unknowable, societies are defined by the Concepts they create to avoid facing these Questions. He believes that the Ethos is neither magical nor mystical, it does not provide purpose or design. Nor is it inherently balanced or benevolent. We live our lives in a whirlpool believing we are under the control of an overwhelming force driving humanity’s universal spirit, unaware that the spirit is of our own making.
Autonomy is the capacity to act independently based on a rational assessment of available information. Rationality is the ability to discern the effect of a cause. When ideologies define the effect based on their desired outcome, intellectual autonomy is lost. With due respect to John Lennon, simply imagining a better world is no longer sufficient. This is a call to confront Convenient Delusionism by standing up against prejudice, inequity, and misinformation.
Utilizing his experiences from youthful middle-class republicanism to New York investment banker, with side excursions to the Louisiana oil fields and India’s Hippie Trail, the author explores issues both proper and proscribed. He seeks to understand the underlying beliefs that form the communal spirit which he refers to as the Ethos.
The Ethos is defined by a finite number of Foundational Questions and Concepts. Foremost is whether human Essence precedes human existence, whether humans are born with a Personal Soul or accumulate their Essence through experience. He identifies three Axial Ages, periods during which commonly accepted ideologies are no longer sufficient to meet people’s needs, and discusses how the current Axial Age is characterized by Convenient Delusionism
While he acknowledges that answers to most Foundational Questions are unknowable, societies are defined by the Concepts they create to avoid facing these Questions. He believes that the Ethos is neither magical nor mystical, it does not provide purpose or design. Nor is it inherently balanced or benevolent. We live our lives in a whirlpool believing we are under the control of an overwhelming force driving humanity’s universal spirit, unaware that the spirit is of our own making.
Autonomy is the capacity to act independently based on a rational assessment of available information. Rationality is the ability to discern the effect of a cause. When ideologies define the effect based on their desired outcome, intellectual autonomy is lost. With due respect to John Lennon, simply imagining a better world is no longer sufficient. This is a call to confront Convenient Delusionism by standing up against prejudice, inequity, and misinformation.
550 pages, Paperback
Published January 18, 2023
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About the author
Ken Elmgren
3 books1 followerKen Elmgren’s family moved from Chicago to Houston in 1959. His father sold steel tubing to the growing Texas oil field; his mother became the head of the local women’s republican club. He spent his formative years working in home construction, surfing the Gulf Coast, and traveling to surf destinations in California, Mexico and Hawaii. He has a BA in Political Science, MA in Economics, and a JD all from the University of Texas in Austin.
In between university degrees he spent close to a year working as a roughneck in the Louisiana oil field and another travelling overland from Europe through southern and east Asia. He taught Economics at the University of Texas and both Structured and Institutional Finance at Southern Methodist University’s Law School. He spent 10 years as an investment banker in New York where he was a founding member of the asset securitization team at Standard & Poor’s and a key member of Citibank’s securitization team.
He moved back to Texas in the mid-90s to establish Bank of America’s securitization group in Dallas and then worked as a generalist investment banker closing both debt and equity transactions in a wide array of industries, including the sale of a popular Mexican restaurant where he had worked as a busboy while in graduate school. He established the corporate governance department at Dimensional Fund Advisors, a multi-billion-dollar mutual fund and was the Chief Financial Officer at Cheap Caribbean.com, an online travel agency, where he oversaw its acquisition by a large private equity fund, following which he re-architected the merchant credit card operations for a $5 billion revenue New York City based online travel agency.
He has travelled extensively and continues to do so, believes that if you do the right thing, you will be successful, that success is defined by having done the right thing, and that knowing the right thing is easier than we admit, but doing the right thing is more difficult than it should be.
In between university degrees he spent close to a year working as a roughneck in the Louisiana oil field and another travelling overland from Europe through southern and east Asia. He taught Economics at the University of Texas and both Structured and Institutional Finance at Southern Methodist University’s Law School. He spent 10 years as an investment banker in New York where he was a founding member of the asset securitization team at Standard & Poor’s and a key member of Citibank’s securitization team.
He moved back to Texas in the mid-90s to establish Bank of America’s securitization group in Dallas and then worked as a generalist investment banker closing both debt and equity transactions in a wide array of industries, including the sale of a popular Mexican restaurant where he had worked as a busboy while in graduate school. He established the corporate governance department at Dimensional Fund Advisors, a multi-billion-dollar mutual fund and was the Chief Financial Officer at Cheap Caribbean.com, an online travel agency, where he oversaw its acquisition by a large private equity fund, following which he re-architected the merchant credit card operations for a $5 billion revenue New York City based online travel agency.
He has travelled extensively and continues to do so, believes that if you do the right thing, you will be successful, that success is defined by having done the right thing, and that knowing the right thing is easier than we admit, but doing the right thing is more difficult than it should be.
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