The Global Suicide Economy

I recently attended a keynote speech by David Korten, in which he mentioned the term "global suicide economy". He was referring to the consolidation of power by corporations and their "empires" of domination and competition, and mentioned that the number of billionaires has doubled in three years (Forbes). Some of the people in the room were visibly uncomfortable with the corporate-bashing and the capitalist-is-bad part of the speech (though I didn't think he was very far off base), and yet he said some very positive things:

Deep change always starts with conversation.

It's a time for big ideas and bold agendas.

Private property is a great idea. I believe everybody ought to have some.

There is such a disparity in our world between the haves and the have-nots, and increasing the number of jobs or factories or products is not going to increase the quality of life for most people. It may purchase another vacation home in Aspen for the CEO or Board member, though.

I just bought his book "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community", and I'll post a review here when I'm done. He's also written "When Corporations Rule the World", and "The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism" as well as founding the Positive Futures Network and "YES!" journal. He's not a fringe-element reactionary, he has a Ph.D. from Stanford and served on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

We know that our wasteful ways and resource-sucking consumption can't last forever, yet our "cultural story" says that the expert is always right and trustworthy and infallible, and our experts are trying to grow our way out of this deep hole that we are in, through greenwashing and technology addiction. I don't think anything is to be gained by confrontation with the powers that be or big money, but I do think that the answer can be found in cooperation and community.

One last quote:

The hour is now. The future is in our hands!