We’re not ruled by dictators — we’re managed by Profit Extraction
But history shows us another archetype is possible: Generative Stewardship.
My passion is helping individuals and teams discover new levels of success while staying balanced in five key aspects of life: mental, physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual. I call this balance peace of mind.
What I’ve come to see is that our collective systems — political, economic, even cultural — either help foster this balance or steadily undermine it. And often the difference comes down to which archetype is at play.
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Two Archetypes Shaping Our World
Profit Extraction
Profit Extraction is the pattern where governance and institutions become mechanisms for siphoning wealth upward to concentrated interests. It hides behind the language of efficiency, reform, or crisis management. It can appear technocratic, even neutral, but its goal is singular: maximize extraction. When resisted, it doesn’t hesitate to use coercion — layoffs, austerity, program cuts, even military force — to clear obstacles.
It’s not about ideology or even leadership charisma. It’s about turning governance into a revenue model.
Generative Stewardship
Generative Stewardship is its counterpoint. Here, leaders act as caretakers of resources — human, ecological, cultural, and economic. Instead of draining value, they generate renewal. They create more than they consume.
Generative leaders think in terms of balance, interdependence, and long-term flourishing. They measure success not by short-term profits but by whether communities, ecosystems, and future generations are healthier because of today’s choices.
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Why the “Dictator” Lens Distracts Us
Many today see strongman political figures and quickly reach for the familiar 20th-century comparison: the dictator. We assume their primary goal is domination, ideology, or brute control. But this is misleading.
Today’s leaders operating in the Profit Extraction archetype are not dictators in the old sense — they are CEOs. Their playbook is not about building totalitarian states; it’s about maximizing financial leverage, contracts, and capital flows with as little resistance as possible.
To these leaders, it really is “just business.” And when we focus only on their authoritarian style, we miss what’s really happening: a profit grab in plain sight.
This shortcut matters because it shows how long we’ve allowed the extractor model to run unchecked, embedding itself so deeply into our democracy that we barely notice anymore.
We’re no longer shocked by this mindset. We are now living in Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is Good” era from the movie Wall Street — only most of us don’t even realize it. it. In that same speech, Gekko says greed isn’t just what saves failing corporations — it’s the answer for “that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”
I call it Gekkonomics: insatiable, never-ending greed that has become normalized.
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Peace of Mind as Balance in Motion
Peace of mind isn’t the absence of conflict; it’s balance in motion.
That balance is made up of five interdependent aspects: mental, physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual.
This framework, rooted in the ancient Chinese 5-element system, teaches that life is sustained through a dance of generating and overcoming forces. Nothing stands alone — each element interacts with the others, strengthening and restraining in turn.
It’s the same with us:
If the emotional aspect is distressed, it drains the physical and mental.
If the energetic is depleted, it weakens the spiritual.
If the mental is overactive, it can suppress the emotional.
Each area is interdependent, and when one falls out of balance, the whole system feels it.
Peace of mind arises when these five aspects are in flow, supporting and checking one another — not perfectly, but dynamically, the way a healthy ecosystem self-corrects.
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Archetypes in Contrast
Here the difference becomes clear:
Profit Extraction takes as much as possible from people and the planet’s resources, with little regard for long-term balance. The cycle is broken, and the system is left depleted. People who devote their lives to climbing the mountain of profit extraction rarely encounter these deeper balances — and it is unusual that they discover peace of mind at the summit.
Generative Stewardship, by contrast, begins with the awareness that we are connected to our planet and to one another. With this awareness, leaders honor natural limits and design systems that keep the five elements in balance. Generative Stewardship doesn’t just avoid collapse; it creates the conditions for thriving.
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A Tale of Two Abolitions
History gives us vivid examples of how these archetypes play out.
In Britain, William Wilberforce and his allies embodied Generative Stewardship. For over 15 years, they persisted with moral clarity, political patience, and peaceful strategy until the slave trade was abolished in 1807. It wasn’t easy — Wilberforce nearly collapsed under the weight of the fight — but he returned to balance, restored by faith, friendship, and vision. The British abolition was not without conflict, but it was achieved largely through nonviolent persistence.
This journey is captured in the film Amazing Grace (2006) — a powerful story of what happens when imbalance takes hold, and how renewal and balance can be found again. In our AMP session with this film, we explore both the cost of imbalance and the possibility of returning to peace of mind through generative choices.
These resonance statements are just a sample of what arises in the session:
Let Go Statements
My fight against injustice is killing me, but I can’t stop until these injustices forever cease.
I allow my own despair to make me ill and it eventually kills me.
My passion blinds me to my own limits and I exhaust myself.
I struggle with imbalance — I sacrifice my health for my cause.
I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders and it breaks me.
Allow Statements
I can work to solve systematic injustices without joining these energies, allowing me to maintain my peace of mind and health.
My persistence feeds my passion and I can keep at it with balance and peace in my mind and heart.
I let compassion and vision guide me, not exhaustion.
I discover renewal through faith, friendship, and community — they restore my balance.
I transform hearts and minds by living in alignment — creating a world where balance is possible for all.
In the United States, slavery was so deeply fused with Profit Extraction that the system refused to yield. The cotton economy, land grabs, and political power all depended on extraction. When challenged, the system resorted to brute force. The result was the Civil War — over 600,000 lives lost — and even after emancipation, extraction rebranded itself in sharecropping, Jim Crow, and systemic inequities. In many ways, we are still fighting that war today, still unraveling the resonance of extraction.
This contrast shows us: peace and balance come when leaders embody stewardship, while violence and division erupt when extraction is entrenched and defended at all costs.
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Why Now Matters
It’s easy to feel that systems rooted in Profit Extraction are too entrenched to change. They’ve been with us for centuries. But I believe we’re at a turning point.
This isn’t the time for pitchforks or torches. We don’t have to burn it all down to find a better way. Our collective focus is far more powerful than our anger.
That’s why we created the Alignment Movie Process. Watching movies together, with intention, helps us shift the resonance of these old patterns without force, without violence. Story bypasses defenses and touches something deeper — and in that shared recognition, the old resonance begins to dissolve.
The work of shifting away from Profit Extraction and toward Generative Stewardship isn’t about one person, one leader, or even one movement. It’s about each of us becoming lighthouses. When we light up, we illuminate the way for others. And when we shine together, we beam clarity toward what’s next for humanity.
This isn’t THE way — it’s simply one possible path toward balance and evolution in how we live together. But it’s a path I’ve devoted the past 19 years of my life to, because I believe balanced living can get us closer to peace of mind — for ourselves, and for the world.
I always say: it’s hard to be human, especially in these times. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Together, by shifting resonance peacefully and consciously, we can discover new ways to live, lead, and thrive.
Try This AMP Session Yourself: The Intention Session
If you’d like to experience the healing resonance of this Amazing Grace AMP session, here’s a simple practice before watching the film:
Step 1 — Say these out loud
I allow the changes in my timing and only integrate what I’m ready to.
I have faith that I’ll receive the benefits I desire.
I’m patient with myself as I make my changes.
I let go of feeling I’m too busy to take the time for this.
I let go of needing to understand how AMP works, allowing myself to receive the full benefits in my own timing.
Step 2 — Three modalities
Nod your head “yes.”
Drink water.
Take several slow, rhythmic breaths through your nose.
Then simply watch Amazing Grace all the way through. Don’t force insights. Just notice what stirs. Trust that the resonance will do its work.
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An Invitation to Reflect
As you read this, pause for a moment and ask yourself:
How are you feeling in these times?
Mentally, physically, emotionally, energetically, spiritually — where do you feel drained, and where do you feel renewed?
Can you see the Profit Extractor model operating around you?
In politics, in workplaces, in institutions — where do you see systems extracting rather than generating?
What would balance feel like?
Imagine living under Generative Stewardship — leaders and institutions that regenerate instead of drain. How would your body feel? Your emotions? Your sense of purpose?
These questions aren’t about partisanship or ideology. They’re about resonance. Seeing the pattern clearly is the first step to shifting it — in ourselves and in our world.
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✨ Peace of mind isn’t just a personal achievement. It’s the natural outcome of living in systems that generate balance rather than extract it.
This post echoes themes I first explored in my book, It’s Just Commerce. If you’d like to go deeper, you can find it here on Amazon.