“‘There’s not enough love to give to everybody, so I’d better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me.’ This is a scarcity mentality. The tragedy is what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.”
—Henri J. M. Nouwen, “Temptation to Hoard” in Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), p. 100.
Nouwen is first describing our life as a zero-sum mentality. In such a world we can do well or win or succeed only if someone else loses; so we are not going to share, because there is only so much food, love, land to go around. There is one pie. If someone takes a slice, it leaves less for the rest of us. One person’s gain is another’s loss. This theory describes situations in which the total of wins and losses adds up to zero; and thus one party benefits at the direct expense of the other. There is only so much, and not enough for all. Some must lose for others to gain. It is a competitive/scarcity worldview that almost always leads to a fear-based society.
On the other hand, the opposite of the scarcity mentality is a positive-sum situation or abundance mentality, which occurs when the total of gains and losses is greater than zero. A positive-sum plan is possible when resources are seen as abundant and an approach is formulated to satisfy the desires and needs of all concerned. One example would be when two parties both gain financially by participating in a contest, no matter who wins or loses. Positive-sum outcomes occur in instances of distributive bargaining, in which different interests are negotiated so that everyone’s needs are met. With an abundancy mentality, there is enough for all.
How we view our neighbors and ourselves and the world is totally different in these two views. A zero-sum life style is isolated and lonely, with our own self-interest guiding us. A positive-sum life sees abundance, gives away food, love, knowledge to those in need; and as Nouwen reminds us, “there are many leftovers.”
Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand, found in all four Gospels, is a story of a positive-sum experience.
My experience is that I am living in fear—in a zero-sum-life-style mentality—when I am competing with others for the love or attention or support of some entity or person. There is peace in my life when I live knowing there is enough love or support or attention for all.
Joanna . joannaseibert.com