Portraits of Global Citizens

A series of essays by SGI President Ikeda in which he reflects on his encounters with various world figures


Hazel Henderson -- A Message of Hope 

Dr. Henderson meeting with Mr. Ikeda in Tokyo, October 2000

Dr. Hazel Henderson describes her wide-ranging activities--she is an environmentalist, an author and an economist--as those of a "futurist." She also insists that her ideal is to be a whole human being. Only humans envisage a better, more valuable future and make efforts toward its realization. To believe in the future is to believe in humanity. A futurist is engaged in the scholarship of hope.

Traditional economics assumes that people are essentially selfish, that our actions are motivated solely by the urge to maximize profit. But, Dr. Henderson questions, what about all the things people do without any thought of gain, the acts of "caring and sharing" that she has witnessed time and again? Traditional economics focuses only on competitive activities in which currency is exchanged. But what about spontaneous acts of collaboration and cooperation, the work of volunteers and citizens groups, for example, that enhance the quality of life for people? What about the gifts of nature itself? Shouldn't these also be accorded value? Such questions have pushed Dr. Henderson toward a radical rethinking of economic theory, one aspect of which she calls the "love economy"--all those things people do, not in quest of profit, but simply out of love. The United Nations has estimated the value of such unpaid labor at US $16 trillion annually--11 trillion by women, 5 trillion by men. 

It was concern for the future that inspired an "ordinary housewife" (her own words) to engage in the intensive self-study of economics that has enabled her to successfully challenge the views of Nobel laureates. 

Living in New York City in the 1960s, Hazel founded Citizens for Clean Air because, as she says: "We were anxious that our children have the best future possible. Thinking back, I realize that's what gave us the strength to endure numerous persecutions and keep pushing ahead." 

It all started when she noticed that her daughter was coming home stained with soot. She herself was suffering from a persistent cough. She started talking to the other mothers at the neighborhood park as they watched their children playing. Starting with the simple question, "Don't you think the air here is bad?" she engaged the mothers in discussions that eventually led to the formation of Citizens for Clean Air. 

Dr. Henderson began using the time during her daughter's afternoon naps to write letters to city officials. Eventually, she received a reply from the mayor stating that what she thought was pollution was probably just mist rolling in from the sea. Not discouraged, she investigated further and found the city actually kept measurements of soot particles in the city's air on a daily basis. 

She and her group, which now had about 10 members, started urging the TV networks to include air pollution data in the daily weather forecasts. Using a natural understanding of human nature, she wrote to all the major TV networks, enclosing photocopies of encouraging letters she had received from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. A few weeks later, she was surprised to receive a phone call from the vice-president of one of the major New York television stations. A month later, the New York Air Pollution Index was on the air. Three months later, all TV stations, most radio stations and local newspapers were covering the New York Air Pollution Index. 

Encouraged by this success--the outcome of the courage that refused to give up--Dr. Henderson started taking on new challenges, one after another. 

Born in England in 1933, Dr. Henderson never received formal university training in economics. At age 16 she began working at a local women's clothing shop and later in a hotel. There she learned that all people have potential, that even sales clerks--such as herself--have great untapped capacity. 

When Hazel was 25, she moved to the United States and worked selling airline tickets. She married, and it was the simple desire to have her daughter breathe clean air that inspired her tireless efforts that continue to this day. 

When we first met, she described the early years of effort waged largely alone. The response of politicians and experts to her appeals for cleaner air was always the same: It costs too much money; we can't do it. Lurking behind such responses she often sensed contempt: What does a housewife like you know about the way the world really works?

Shaking hands with US President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing of the Clean Air Act in 1967

But she wasn't put off. If economic theories require that we destroy the environment and make people suffer, there must be something wrong with the theories. She began thinking about the kind of economics that would be focused on people's happiness. Her approach is simple; it could be called naive, but that is her strength. Feeling the need to arm herself with knowledge, she began an extensive program of self-study in economics and other fields. When she found an author whose ideas inspired her, she would send off a letter; in this way she developed personal mentoring relationships with many leading thinkers. 

As her research efforts progressed, she came to question more and more of the core assumptions of modern economics. How meaningful, for example, are statistics that include in the measure of economic growth activities that pollute the environment or harm people's health, while ignoring the related costs? 

Economics, she soon concluded, despite the complex and seemingly precise mathematical formulas in which it is expressed, is not a neutral, value-free science at all. She found that economics focuses on justifying the gains of the winners and silencing the losers. It is really politics in disguise. Her ideas horrified traditional economists. She was publicly insulted and dismissed. On one television program, an economist sitting next to her said, "She is a nice lady, but she doesn't know a thing about economics." She responded to such criticism by studying even harder. 

Her expertise and unique and forward-looking proposals eventually gained recognition. From 1974 to 1980 she served on the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment Advisory Council. She has advised more than 30 governments on their economic policies. Her columns are carried in some 400 newspapers in 27 countries worldwide. She has helped promote the concept and practice of ethical investing, and developed an index which measures the quality of life much more effectively than the narrow scales which only consider so-called economic growth. 

As we move into an economy that is less about the "hardware" of factories and machines and more about the "software" of systems and services, Dr. Henderson expects that the special talents of women as harmonizers and communicators will come more into play. 

"Women," she says, "know how much time, love and effort goes into raising a child. When war arises, all that is reduced to nothing . . . this is why women's active participation in conflict resolution is of great importance." Having observed debates between high-level Israeli and Palestinian women, she states with confidence: "If those women had been empowered and fully represented in negotiations, there would have been a peace settlement decades ago."

When Dr. Henderson and I met, we spoke about the concept of human revolution. In the years after Japan's defeat, my mentor, Josei Toda, brought a message of hope to people who had borne the brunt of war and its aftermath. It was his assertion that a profound change in the life of a single individual could change the direction of an entire society. Dr. Henderson concurred with this: "We have the power to alter our destiny. This is very much my own view. This is what my work for the last 30 years has been all about."

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