Korten [MBA & PhD, Stanford Graduate School of Business] was for twenty-five years a development officer for American agencies in the third world, and demonstrates intimate knowledge of the structure, history, and practice of international capitalism--particularly in its nobler intentions. His focus in this book, however, is the worldview of ordinary people which brings them to accept the inevitability of exploitation and distant, unaccountable ownership-- and how that worldview seems to be changing. Korten here should properly be compared not to academic theorists, but to generalist thinkers such as Rousseau and Thoreau who write from an intuitive feeling about life, sharpened by observations about the larger society and a strong knowledge of the history of thought.
KortenÕs central assertion is that people's economic thought has always been based on their feelings and theories about how Nature works. He argues that our acceptance of the current economy rests on everyone's willingness to believe that natural life is fundamentally a dog-eat-dog competition, as implied by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes and the 19th century promoters of "social Darwinism." The scientific assumption that life evolves, through ruthless competition, towards a positive victory for the "more evolved" species also underlies Karl Marx's theory of the "inevitable" dictatorship of the proletariat.
As readers may know, 20th century biologists have considerably revised their hypotheses about life's evolution and interrelation. While the model of "winner-take-all" evolution may be true for two wolves fighting for the leadership of a pack, it does not at all apply to life's larger processes. Biologists now describe how species evolve more or less cooperatively to fill available niches amongst other life forms. ÒWinner-take-allÓ competitions for scarce resources usually lead to imbalance and catastrophe. The planet we love is a place where all the species of an ecosystem, from bacteria on up, have evolved to benefit most from the independence and interdependence of all the others, in a situation of innovation, dynamic balance, and observance of borders.
KortenÕs hope is that biologyÕs recent findings about healthy ecosystems might clarify our visions of a healthy economy and its present corporate Òdisease.Ó How else to describe a predatory pseudo-lifeform which starves natural innovation and resistance (as by monopolizing markets and buying politicians), extracts life materials from its host (such as clean water, expertise, and time) for strictly monetary ends, while externalizing its wastes and costs (the Òdownsized,Ó the permanent underclass, dead land, pollution) to the public?
Korten fills out the book with stories of people who are trying to promote Òlife valuesÓ in the economy, and suggestions for more coherent and coordinated personal action. He traces the history of Òcorporate rightsÓ in America and the legal fiction that corporations are ÒpersonsÓ under the law; and he illustrates a few images of how a post-corporate market economy might work-- just as food for thought, never as a totalizing utopic vision. Some of these ideas can be found elsewhere, but rarely are they presented in such a coherent and open-ended way. Korten has cross-pollinated impressionistic and critical arguments to carry the weight of his experience, broad curiosity, and disinterested good faith.