Life After Capitalism

[Dover]

Time For New Models That Reflect Our Changing Values:

Global capitalism is not democratic and it systematically violates every principle of a market economy. Which sets up an interesting juxtaposition because it points to the possibility that there really is an alternative.<1>

Living capital, which has the special capacity to continuously regenerate itself, is ultimately the source of all real wealth. To destroy it for money, a simple number with no intrinsic value, is an act of collective insanity -- which makes capitalism a mental, as well as a physical pathology.<2>

To create a world in which life can flourish and prosper we must replace the values and institutions of capitalism with values and institutions that honor life, serve life's needs, and restore money to its proper role as servant. I believe we are in fact being called to take a step to a new level of species consciousness and function.<3>

--David C. Korten, Life After Capitalism,
from a presentation in Canada, 11/98

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/seeingPCW.html

________________________________________________________________



The Zen of Global Transformation


the story of a quest
by Nasrudin O’Shah

Copyright © 2002 by Quay Largo Productions
All rights reserved

First Edition
First printing, August 2002
200 numbered and signed copies
Available from: http://QuayLargo.com/Transformation/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The quest

The needed change will come from people with changed minds, not from people with new programs.
—Daniel Quinn, The Story of B

Seeker: How can I find the path?
Teacher: Learn to walk, and the path will find you.

.......................~*~..........................

For some time now I have been on a quest. This is a quest that many others are on as well, millions of them. We are all seeking answers to the same questions: What can we do to save the world from disaster? How can people learn to live in harmony with one another and with nature? How can we free ourselves from oppressive governments and institutions?

Those of us on the quest have tried many things. We have studied, written, debated, and protested. We have formed movements and political parties, published books, and we have occasionally achieved victories. But in the end, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that the tide of history continues toward global disaster, and rushes always faster.

Like many other seekers, from time to time, I felt that I had found "the solution". In some sense I don’t think those solutions were wrong, and many of the other solutions I’ve seen would probably work as well—if only enough people would agree on one of them!

Agreement, it seems, is the Holy Grail of change. If only that mysterious Grail could be found we would have the power to do what now seems impossible. But how do we move toward agreement? What is the path? Debate doesn’t seem to work—it seems to lead only to more debate. Public education doesn’t seem to work—there are too many teachers with too many conflicting messages. The obvious paths to agreement seem to lead nowhere useful. And yet agreement, in some sense, must happen before anything else can.

Sometimes, when a long search proves fruitless, you must stop and do nothing. You must empty your mind, stop trying, and wait for some kind of inspiration. If you do this, then sometimes an answer appears that is surprisingly simple, one which has been right under your nose all the while. Suddenly you can see what you have been seeking.

..snip..

There is only one place in our societies where competition is not King, and that place is at the top of the hierarchies. Those with real power and money have learned that it makes more sense to run things for mutual benefit than to vie for marginal advantage among equal adversaries. Oil companies do better by parceling out marketing territories (or merging) than they would by competing on price. The richest nations no longer struggle against one another, but have learned to collaborate in the exploitation of the weaker countries.

Although competition rules the game for the smaller fish, the biggest corporations find more leverage in gaming the rules. Change the regulations, pump in some government subsidies or contracts, arrange for a troublesome third-world leader to be ousted by a coup, and so on. And if you look at the boards of the biggest corporations, you keep running across the same names over and over again. And many of those you will recognize as past or present players in high government circles.

If you look the top, where the hierarchies meet, you find an elite community—a community where common interests are recognized and mutual benefit is achieved through collaboration. Globalization brings this community out into the open. No longer do they need to hide in the shadows, pulling the strings of their lobbying networks and beholden politicians. Now they have a place (the WTO) where only they are invited and where they can write the rules however they want.

While the elites act as a community, the rest of are divided by competition and by our beliefs. Not only do elites have the power, but they also have the collective self-awareness to maintain that power as circumstances change. We not only lack power, but we—the people—do not have community and thus self-aware action on our part has no meaning. We cannot do anything because we do not exist as a self-aware entity that can act and respond..cont'd

http://www.quaylargo.com/Productions/ZenTrans.html...