In his classic international bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten exposed the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy and helped spark a global resistance movement. Now, he shows that the problem runs deeper than corporate domination—with far greater consequences.
Here, Korten argues that corporate consolidation of power is merely one manifestation of what he calls “Empire”: the organization of society through hierarchy and violence that has largely held sway for the past 5,000 years. Empire has always resulted in misery for the many and fortune for the few, but now it threatens the very future of humanity. Korten points to global terrorism, climate change, and rising poverty as just a few of the signs that the burdens of Empire now exceed what people and planet will bear.
The Great Turning traces the roots of Empire to ancient times and charts the long evolution of its favored instruments of control, from monarchies and bureaucracies to the transnational institutions of the global economy. Korten also tells the parallel story of the attempt to develop a democratic alternative to Empire, beginning in Athens and continuing with the founding of the United States of America. But this remains an unfinished project—Korten documents how elitists with an imperial agenda have consistently sought to undermine the bold and inspiring “American experiment,“ beginning in the earliest days of the republic and continuing to the present day.
Empire is not inevitable, not the natural order of things—we can turn away from it. Korten draws on evidence from sources as varied as evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that “Earth Community”—a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership—is indeed possible. And he details a grassroots strategy for beginning the momentous turning toward a future of as-yet-unrealized human potential. The Great Turning illuminates our current predicament, provides a framework for grasping the potential of this historic moment, and shows us how to take action for the future of our planet, our communities, and ourselves.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The Great Turning sets forth a compelling, devastating, and ultimately profoundly hopeful story that provides a framework for the new, unifying political conversation our nation so desperately needs. A must-read for every person of conscience.”
—Van Jones, Executive Director, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
“What a gift David Korten has given us with this prophetic book! In this well-written and thorough story of the crises of late Modernity, Korten gives us a beautifully reasoned, carefully researched look at why we absolutely have to turn away from imperial power and wealth and, instead, create an Earth Community. This is a must-read for activists, for lovers of contemporary American studies, and for Cultural Creatives.”
—Paul H. Ray, coauthor of The Cultural Creatives
“Employing history, psychology, economics, spirituality, and common sense, Korten not only critiques the dilemma we are in as a species, he also shows us doable and workable ways out of our morass. He has cre- ated a tour de force —a call to compassion as much as a blueprint for survival. This book is a kind of Bible to the 21st century, a revelation of where we might travel if we have the moral imagination and the courage to choose and act wisely.”
—Matthew Fox, educator and theologian, author of Original Blessing and A New Reformation
“If you read only one book on how to address the looming ecological and social crises facing humanity, make it this one! Korten fearlessly grapples with ‘the big picture’ and goes beyond merely diagnosing the problem (which he does with great precision), as he outlines a positive and realistic plan for actually creating a just and sustainable global society.”
—David Cobb, 2004 Green Party United States Presidential Candidate
“Korten has done it again—created a masterpiece of big thinking to help us find our way in this death-or-life historical moment. With fascinating analogies, intriguing stories, and eloquent analysis, Korten engages and emboldens us to believe that we can trust and cultivate the best in our- selves and, despite the lateness of the hour, choose life.”
—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Hope’s Edge and Democracy
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From the Publisher
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The Great Turning
From Empire to Earth Community
By David C. Korten
"We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future.... To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth Community with a common destiny."
--The Earth Charter (2000)
David Korten's classic bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World was one of the first books to articulate the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy. Now, ten years later, Korten shows that the problem runs deeper than corporate domination, and with far greater consequences.
In The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, Korten argues that corporate consolidation of power is merely a contemporary manifestation of what he defines as "Empire"--the organization of society by hierarchies of domination grounded in violent chauvinisms of race, gender, religion, nationality, language, and class. The result has been the same for 5,000 years--fortune for the few and misery for the many. Now, thanks to modern technologies, the way of Empire is increasingly destructive to children, family, community, and nature itself, rapidly leading us all to the brink of worldwide environmental and social collapse.
Korten makes the case that we are a species with the power of choice, and that at this defining moment in history, humanity faces both the opportunity and the imperative to choose our future in a conscious collective manner. A mounting perfect economic storm is fast approaching. A convergence of climate change, the fast approaching peak and decline in oil production, and the financial instability inherent in an unbalanced global trading system will bring an unraveling of the corporate-led global economy and a dramatic restructuring of every aspect of modern life--whether we like it or not.
This unraveling cannot be avoided. We can, however, turn a potentially terminal crisis into an epic opportunity to bring forth a new era of Earth Community grounded in the life-affirming cultural values shared by most all the world's people and eloquently articulated in the Earth Charter.
The Great Turning is an essential resource for those who understand the need for fundamental change. It cuts through the complexity of our time to illuminate a simple, but elegant truth. We humans live by stories. We are held captive to the ways of Empire by a cultural trance of our own creation--indeed, one need look no further than our popular culture and the way it is magnified in TV, movies, and other mass media to see how this paradigm is reflected back upon us all everyday. Changing our future begins with changing our stories in a way that includes our capacities for compassion, cooperation, responsible self-direction, and self-organizing partnership. This is a work already underway, and to succeed, it ultimately will call for the participation of every person on the planet. In The Great Turning, David Korten points the way to the inspiring outcome within our reach.
****
"Here's the book we've been waiting for. We are not doomed to domination and suicidal competition. We can choose another story. This is the `Great Turning.'"
--Joanna Macy, author of Coming Back to Life
"An epic work. Exposes the myths that divide us and frames the stories that can bring us together."
--Danny Glover, activist and actor
"The Great Turning is a work of amazing scope and depth. This is a wise and much needed book that shows we can create cultures where our enormous human capacities for joy, caring, and cooperation are realized."
--Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade
"Employing history, psychology, economics, spirituality, and common sense, Korten not only critiques the dilemma we are in as a species, he also shows us doable and workable ways out of our morass. This book is a kind of Bible to the 21st century, a revelation of where we might travel if we have the moral imagination and the courage to choose and act wisely. Bravo!"
--Matthew Fox, educator and theologian, author of Original Blessing and A New Reformation
"David Korten has produced a masterpiece! Fascinating, compelling, wonderfully readable, and broad reaching in its arc of history and significance, The Great Turning will keep you up nights reading, fill your notebooks with insights, and give you the ammunition to win the water cooler wars."
--Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio talk show host and author of Screwed: The Undeclared War on the Middle Class
"I love this book! David Korten has done it again--created a masterpiece of big thinking to help us find our way in this death-or-life historical moment."
-- Frances Moore Lappé, author of Hope's Edge and Democracy's Edge
"What a gift David Korten has given us with this prophetic book! This is a must-read for activists, for lovers of contemporary American studies, and for Cultural Creatives."
--Paul H. Ray, co-author of The Cultural Creatives
"A must read for everyone who yearns to create a positive human future. The Great Turning is a wise, profound, and practical book filled with fresh insights and is destined to be even more influential than Korten's previous contributions"
-- Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
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December 24, 2007
"The Great Turning" by David Korten provides a well-organized and articulate description of what is wrong with our present, domination-based political and economic system, along with an envisionment of a proposed, alternative world in which things will be organized in a more cooperative and sustainable manner. In so doing, it makes an immense contribution to the vocabulary and literature describing not only our present conundrum, but also the new civilization that we might hope to create in answer to the present one's discontents. Since there are few, if any, authors who have even attempted such an ambitious project, this book is certain to occupy a central place in future discussions regarding the present crisis.
The book's descriptions of what is wrong with the present system of domination are insightful, and its descriptions of the more cooperative world to which we might aspire are visionary. Korten articulates the world view of what he calls "Empire" vs. that of "Earth Community" as first-person narrative "creeds" for each, an approach that has great clarifying power. Illustrating these distillations is an overview of the historical interaction of Empire with Earth Community, showing the recurring features of each through the ages. This reads almost like Howard Zinn's classic "People's History of the United States," only expanded beyond the U.S. to fill the world stage. Note that this is not a comprehensive history of human civilization; it is a view focused specifically upon the two conflicting tendencies that define our present-day life-or-death crisis. There are many other perspectives possible: the development of technology, the evolving view of nature, the vision and role of art, the biological evolution of the species, and so on. Korten chooses his particular focus in order to frame and explain the monumental decision facing us in the present historical moment.
My main concern regarding this book has to do with its cursory, almost dismissive, treatment of the topic of coercive manipulation of movements by control systems. To all of the complex issues raised by this topic, it has but one response: non-violence. The non-violent approach is described in the book's section on strategy as follows:
"Metaphorically, the strategy might be thought of as a process of 'walking away from the king,' because it centers not on confronting the authority of the king, but on walking away--withdrawing the legitimacy and the life energy on which the king's power depends. Think of it as a conversation with the king along the following lines:
"'You have your game. It's called Empire. It may work for you, but it doesn't work for me. So I'm leaving to join with a few million others for whom the game of Empire isn't working either. We are creating a new game with new rules based on the values and principles of Earth Community. You are welcome to join us as a fellow citizen if you are willing to share your power and wealth and to play by the new rules.'"
Korton states clearly that Earth Community movements "must always adhere to the principles of non-violence...even in the face of violent police and military repression." His arguments for this are that it "underscores Earth Community's moral authority, draws attention to the illegitimacy of Empire, and breaks the cycle of violence." Unfortunately, none of these arguments proves that non-violence will actually work, in all cases, as a strategy for dealing with the coercive tactics used by control hierarchies to suppress Earth Community movements that threaten those systems.
This is no small matter. Non-violence is the only approach the book allows for dealing with the vast arsenal of collective and individual shock tactics at the disposal of Empire, from war to torture to economic disruption. If Korten's movements cannot overcome such coercion, then they cannot succeed. And yet, even though the success or failure of the book's proposed movements hangs upon that question of efficacy, there is no discussion or example of how a non-violent approach could deal with even a single instance of coercion.
It's not that non-violent strategy has no way of dealing with coercion; it does. It deals with it by developing such a strong collective identity that threats and rewards leveled by the control system at individual members have no significant effect on their determination to support the broader movement, even if those members are threatened with death. Because its individual members are committed enough to persevere despite such threatened consequences, the broader movement can continue to withhold its cooperation from the control system, without anyone getting scared off or bought off. Korten is no doubt describing such non-cooperation when he refers to "withdrawing the legitimacy and the life energy on which the king's power depends." The control system, being parasitic, will then, if it is rational, have to yield to the demands of the movement, because it cannot destroy the entire diverse and cooperative community upon which it depends without destroying itself.
I see three problems, however.
1) Not all control systems are rational, and not all control systems have an actual dependency upon the oppressed population.
An irrational or self-destructive system may not acknowledge its own dependence upon the underlying cooperative and diverse society that it exploits, and may therefore have fewer or no limits upon the destruction that it is willing to wreak upon that society in order to control it. Such systems will actively pursue the suicidal path of destroying the cooperative host organism upon which they depend in an attempt to control it, even in the face of a disciplined nonviolent refusal to cooperate.
In this situation, nonviolent movements for justice seem likely to lead to the equality of the grave. As author Naomi Klein has noted in a recent interview, belief in "The Rapture," in which all of the world is destroyed except for a chosen few, is the terminal psychological manifestation of such an elitism unto death. The prevalence of that belief among members of the Bush Administration and its supporters indicates that we may presently be encountering exactly that kind of implacable irrationality.
In other cases, the control system may actually not be critically dependent upon the population under attack. For example, the U.S. Prison Industrial Complex treats poor communities of color as "surplus" people suited only for filling up jails that it runs for a profit. In this situation, non-cooperation on the part of the oppressed has no effect on the oppressor, because the latter does not need the former to do anything other than sit in a cell, a requirement that can be directly and physically enforced, regardless of whether the victim "cooperates."
The successful non-violent movements of Gandhi and King were dealing with control systems which, while brutal, were not irrational or suicidal, and the control systems that they confronted were not able to destroy them with impunity.
2) There are approaches other than non-violence that have worked in some situations, and which have arguably fewer negative consequences than those that would be suffered using a non-violent approach. Korten seems to be rejecting these out of hand.
The book cites only two examples of successful non-violent movements, that of Gandhi and that of Martin Luther King. By contrast, there are quite a number of examples of movements that have moved us closer to Earth Community that were not grounded in non-violent principles. In Korten's own account of the U.S. Revolution, for example, he describes the military resistance of the colonists to British rule in laudatory terms, even though what the colonists did was the exact opposite of "walking away from the king." He sums up the U.S. revolutionary struggle as follows: "In the end, General Washington and his army expelled the British with the help of France, Spain and the Netherlands. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. A rebellious people inspired by a vision of liberty gave birth to a new nation. It was a remarkable contribution to humanity's long journey beyond monarchy and theocracy, but it was only a beginning on the road to real democracy."
Why is violent resistance treated so positively for the U.S. revolution, but ruled out for present movements? It would be interesting to hear Korten's vision of how a non-violent colonial movement might have accomplished these same, or better, results. But the book does not analyze how and why repression works or does not work, the weaknesses that it plays upon, and what kinds of movements, non-violent or otherwise, have been successful in defeating it. Instead, it relies upon a mere reference to non-violent theory, leaving the proof of that theory to unspecified others who have already written on that topic. There is not even a reference to a specific work on how various forms of coercion can be overcome by non-violent methods.
Perhaps the absence of such an analysis is why the book does not list any contemporary examples of repression to match the kinds of historical examples (slavery, violent strikebreaking, etc.) to be found throughout the book. For instance, we do not find analysis of the struggle against the mass warehousing of men of color in an ever-expanding prison industrial complex, the environmental justice movement's struggle against toxic pollution that is concentrated in poor communities of color, movements opposing the repression of immigrants, indigenous peasant movements such as the Zapatistas, or other militant movements fighting oppression against great odds. What we do find is "creative social entrepreneurs" from the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies "linking local independent businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local governments in mature, locally rooted, life-serving economies with the potential to displace the rootless, opportunistic, money-driven, and ultimately suicidal corporate global economy."
Forming local economic networks is both admirable and essential, but the corporate control hierarchy is not going to simply "wither away" in the face of such multiple positive initiatives. And entire sections of the population are under attack right now. If non-violence is the answer, then we need an analysis of why and how it can work in the face of coercive manipulation by the opposing control systems, because those systems will not sit idly by while the ground is taken out from under them.
3) Korten has not discussed how a non-violent movement with the required collective consciousness and willingness to sacrifice is to be built.
When one considers the kinds of brutality that even rational control systems may impose, developing a non-violent movement's tolerance for punishment becomes a very serious matter.
Many of the manipulative methods employed by control hierarchies are specifically intended to stop individuals and movements from ever getting to the state where they assume the kind of collective identity and discipline that are required to carry out non-cooperation in the face of rewards and punishments intended to divert them from that purpose. Therefore, a reference to non-violence as a response to such methods raises the question of how we can create a movement with the sense of collective identity that is required to be able to remain cohesive in the face of such attacks on its members.
If non-violence is to be used, then it is necessary to analyze exactly what is required to make a movement willing and able to sustain the kinds of injuries that are bound to be inflicted in the course of taking a nonviolent approach against a violent adversary. Such injuries were a prominent part of both Gandhi's and King's one-sided nonviolence in their encounters with oppressive control systems.
This last point raises the issue of how the sense of identity of a movement's members is related to its willingness to sustain injury on behalf of a collective interest. Korten describes the present hold of Empire over our society as a "cultural trance," but does not describe the ways in which certain states of mind allow a control system's specific threats and rewards to cause people to sacrifice their true collective interest on behalf of the institutions of Empire, while other states of mind have the opposite effect.
The book elaborates a kind of Maslovian hierarchy of individual identity, but it does not describe the ways, or reasons, that some kinds of identity are susceptible to coercive manipulation, while others are more able to stand up to it. Specifically, the book describes five levels of consciousness: Magical, Imperial, Socialized, Cultural and Spiritual, with Magical consciousness involving propitiation of authority figures (the state of a person serving as a manipulated cog within a control system), Imperial consciousness being the thought process of those performing such manipulation, Socialized consciousness being a state that acknowledges dependency upon (and hence the need to adapt to) a larger group of which one is a member, Cultural consciousness being a state that values and tolerates other cultures for the sake of the diversity that they contribute rather than merely for the direct contributions that they make to one's personal well-being, and Spiritual consciousness being an overall awareness of diversity and cooperation interacting as the essential process creating all Being.
While these are helpful and meaningful distinctions, they are also descriptions of states of mind, of perspectives, rather than of active engagements in responding to and creating one's reality. Furthermore, they are the states of mind of *individuals*, not of *movements*, and so they lack an explicit collective aspect. That is, they reflect what an individual may personally value, which can include valuing collective entities, but they do not reflect the interactions of those individuals (e.g., as citizens) with their communities, nations, and so on.
How these states of mind are generated and maintained, how they interact with one another, and specifically, how the Imperial mindset is able to manipulate and maintain the Magical mindset, and how Spiritual consciousness might confer some immunity to such manipulation, are not explored in the book. For example, to me it appears that the Magical mindset could be manipulated by applying a credible mortal threat, because its egocentric perspective cannot model (imagine) the world without itself in it, and so a mortal threat undermines that model to such an extent that it cannot function, exposing the individual to the uninterpreted sensory inputs that characterize an infantile state (i.e., a state of terror), which is an immensely vulnerable condition. By contrast, the Spiritual mindset sees the individual as a finite element of a larger universe that will continue on without the individual once she or he is gone. Hence, the presence of a mortal threat does not undermine that mental model, and consequently a spiritually-oriented individual can function much more effectively in the face of a credible threat to its life.
Maslow, in his own hierarchy of mental states, emphasized that progress "upward" through his various states is heavily dependent upon the degree to which the material needs of a person are met, but Korten does not explore or discuss such a relationship between satisfying basic material needs and the ability of people to advance through the hierarchy described in his book. Since economic need is one of the main ways that people are manipulated by control systems, exploring that relationship (of ideology to material sufficiency) is essential to those aspects of strategy that attempt to insulate against such manipulation. This might lead to an approach involving networks of mutual support to ensure that the minimal material needs of all persons involved in a broad-based movement are met out of the movement's collective resources. A simple example of such an approach is the strike fund of a union. These are the kinds of strategic issues that need to be elaborated. Just to refer to non-violence by name does not explicate this content.
Philosophically, Korten's hierarchy of mental states implies an ethical metric in which spiritual motivation is preferable to the self-centered motivations of greed and fear. Starting from the co-related Magical and Imperial levels, which are narrowly focused upon the individual as such, the scope of identity moves outward to the increasingly more inclusive levels of one's own society (Socialized consciousness), other societies with which one's own society (but not necessarily one's self as an individual) has a relationship (Cultural consciousness), to the Spiritual level that encompasses the entirety of Existence.
The more narrowly-focused states are characterized by a lack of integrity that makes them more susceptible to manipulation by an external power (in the case of Magical consciousness), or to unilateral projections of their own power (in the case of Imperial consciousness) to capture needed resources (which undermine self-sufficiency) . The integrity of the person grows as more inclusive levels are reached until, at the Spiritual level, one has identified with the perfect integrity of Existence as a whole, an integrity which cannot be violated because there is nothing outside of Existence as a whole that might violate it, and no way that this singular Existence can be divided into anything other than itself. Ultimately, there is a relationship between such integrity within a community and the ability of an individual member of that community to resist manipulation (i.e., because it cares more about its larger context than about its self as such).
Another issue I have with the book is its preference for illustrative examples and stories at the expense of deeper analytical arguments. The stories are helpful, and are very well developed, but that does not mean that we should let them stand in place of a deeper analysis.
For example, Korten's hierachy of mental states implies an ethical metric valuing Spiritual consciousness more highly than, say, Magical or Imperial consciousness. However, the book does not make an explicit argument regarding *why* one such state is preferable to another. Similarly, it uses parables ("stories"), credos and envisionments to describe the present system and its alternatives, and strongly implies that its envisioned alternative of "Earth Community" is preferable to the present system of "Empire," but once again does not say exactly why this is so. While the desirability of what Korten calls Spiritual consciousness over what he calls Magical consciousness may seem obvious to many readers, we live in an age of moral relativism in which one view is as good as any other, and viewpoints can be changed like clothing to suit one's present needs and circumstances. Having a more fundamental ethical synopsis would help, because if we can answer the question of why certain outcomes are preferable, then we may be able to find the key to motivating people to pursue those outcomes. Stories, by contrast, illustrate "what" states are desired more than they describe "why" they are preferable, or "how" to accomplish them. This allows us to recognize the promised land when we see it, but does not provide a map of how we can travel there, or an argument regarding why it is better. Also, without such a metric, how can we know that we are making progress rather than regressing? Finally, once we are able to define the moral high ground, we may discover that it has pragmatic advantages that we can most effectively access when we have a specific abstract model of what that high ground is.
Korten has done a great job of deconstructing the stories of "Empire," and he seems to think that "Earth Community" advocates now need their own stories (which he has provided) to counterpose to those of the Right. But maybe the reason that the advocates of "Empire" resort to stories is because they have no underlying truths that would be acceptable if stated explicitly. By contrast, Earth Community's underlying truths should be resonant with the majority of people, and hence need not be presented solely as parables.
If I were to try my own hand at crafting such an ethical abstraction, I might describe Earth Community's general principles directly as follows: "Increase diversity and cooperation at every level of the hierarchy of inclusivity (e.g., family, community, nation, international community, biosphere) in which we hold membership, and when conflicts arise between doing this on one level vs. another, favor the more inclusive level (e.g., international community over nation) within which one has both knowledge and influence." Since Being itself is equivalent to diversity (i.e., total homogeneity equals total non-being), to pursue diversity can be shown to be simply a choice of Being over Non-Being, and there are few justifications more fundamental than that. As for cooperation, that is how distinct, diverse, bounded things come about - by the cooperative principle that unites their parts. So, cooperation must be pursued as a corollary to the pursuit of diversity. By contrast, the parasitic Empire's mode of operation reduces diversity by concentrating power in the hands of a few, and replaces cooperation with regimentation. Hence, when reduced to their fundamentals, Empire represents non-being, Earth Community represents Being, and it is not consistent for a living, breathing being to choose non-being, Q.E.D.
Another area that is not elaborated in this book is the transition from economic hierarchy to local economic control and bottom-up diversity and cooperation. This area also overlaps with the issue of how coercion impacts movements for change, because intermediate (e.g., reformist) economic forms must be able to resist such manipulation if they are to survive to become elements of a more lasting and systemic change to our social and economic structure.
Korten does express the concept of locally-rooted communities, but it is more of an urban planning concept (e.g., to save energy) than a means for managing the economy. And he does talk about "economic democracy," but only in terms of local ownership of homes and of businesses, not in terms of a model for cooperative decisionmaking. He talks about a "vibrant community life grounded in mutual trust, shared values and a sense of connection," but says nothing about how such a community will localize its economic and political decisionmaking. He says that "All people have a meaningful and dignified vocation that contributes to the well-being of the larger community," but says nothing about how more rewarding and empowering work, and work that is less so, will be allocated by the community itself among its various members. He says that "Intellectual life and scientific inquiry" will be dedicated to "life-serving technologies that address society's priority needs," but says nothing about how those priorities are to be democratically (and locally) determined.
Korten seems to realize that something is amiss, because at the end of this litany of desired outcomes, he writes: "The first time through, this list may read like a radical utopian fantasy, but only because it constrasts so starkly with our present experience." Actually, what makes this list seem utopian is the lack of a concrete envisionment of, and plan for, how these various desirable outcomes could actually be realized.
In considering the above issues, it is useful to view Korten's work in the light of that of two other authors: Naomi Klein, with her recent breakthrough analysis of economic and psychological coercion, "The Shock Doctrine," and Michael Albert, with the model for decentralized, democratic and cooperative economic decisionmaking presented in his many writings on "Participatory Economics" (also called PARECON). The work of Klein and Albert, in particular, complements "The Great Turning" by going in depth exactly where "The Great Turning" is brief. We need visionaries, and we need realists, and (aside from Vandana Shiva) it seems nearly impossible find them both in the same body, so it is important to hone the views of visionaries like Korten by considering how their proposed movements would respond to the tactics revealed by eye-widening exposes of capitalism's dark side such as those of Klein, and to concrete economic planning models such as those created by Albert, as well as to the daily problems encountered by grass roots activists organizing real movements on the ground. One planned conference that aims to create that kind of synergy is the "Building a New World" international conference [...] scheduled for this coming May.
In "The Shock Doctrine," Klein analyzes and explores the coercive methods employed by dominator hierarchies to enforce their top-down control. These could be used as starting points for an exploration of how the positive solutions developed in "The Great Turning" can be made resistant to the coercive attacks so aptly delineated in Klein's book. In "The Great Turning," the elitist bias of economist Milton Friedman's writing is analyzed and rejected, but since Friedman's writings do not acknowledge the coercion that has been routinely and necessarily employed to implement his economic program, an analysis of the writings per se will also not encounter that topic (which may be why it is not discussed in "The Great Turning"). That is why it is essential that "The Shock Doctrine" be read along with the Korten analysis, because the Klein book is focused upon exactly that issue.
While Naomi Klein's work has provided an essential additional piece of the puzzle, for each coercive method that it documents, it raises a parallel, unanswered question regarding how to resist such techniques. There are two related aspects to such questions: 1) how to evolve from the present hierarchical systems to the new systems that will replace them without the intermediate, transitional systems being shattered and divided by coercion, and 2) how to prevent the resurgence of hierarchy once a more cooperative system has been put into place. Korten's answer of "nonviolence" at least does not entirely ignore this question, but as noted above, more detail as to how and why this approach would work is required.
Although nonviolence may not be sufficient to prevail in all circumstances, the willingness of individuals and groups to face coercive harm narrowly focused upon them rather than yield to manipulation by betraying the broader community (which is also required for nonviolence) is still an essential part of any resistance (nonviolent or otherwise) to the coercive methods of dominator hierarchies. If a movement's goals are to replace dominator hierarchies with a cooperative, bottom-up system, then that kind of broadening of identity can be accompanied by a movement's active protection of its communities and individuals, without any fundamental contradiction arising between such a movement's methods and its goals.
In his work on PARECON, Michael Albert has answered some of the questions just cited regarding how to build robust movements in the face of repression. If Empire is defined as a top-down, hierarchical system, then it seems to me that its alternative will be a bottom-up system that emphasizes cooperative relationships between independent entities, each of which has its own unique, self-determined integrity and character, and that is the kind of system that Albert describes.
Regarding the question of how to keep diverse and cooperative alternatives from getting dragged back to a hierarchical mode, Michael Albert has pointed out that in the Argentine factory takeovers (which, perhaps not coincidentally, have been documented in Naomi Klein's film, "The Take"), despite the democratic decisionmaking implemented by workers restarting the idled Argentine factories themselves, pre-existing hierarchical relationships were preserved in the stratified work complexes, in which certain persons had more access to operational information, and more ability and time to launch initiatives, which ultimately discouraged the participation of others who had less enabling assignments. So, part of the problem of protecting new, more democratic and localized control over decisionmaking may be the difficulty of detecting and eliminating such vestigial elements of hierarchy (e.g., through the balanced job complexes proposed by Albert's Participatory Economics, or Parecon, approach). This involves an analysis of how the modality of hierarchical control has grown like a fungus into the flesh of our present economy and society, with an eye to rooting it out and replacing it with bottom-up, cooperative systems that are respectful of their individual members. This is the kind of detailed analysis that we need to make the vision of "The Great Turning" a reality.
Despite its omissions, "The Great Turning" provides important abstract views of the two defining tendencies of our present crisis. In so doing, it brings to the table one important piece of an overall solution to that challenge. However, its lack of transitional and structural detail, and its sparse practical treatment of the issue of coercive manipulation by control hierarchies, make it necessary to add perspectives from other sources to attain a more complete picture of how "The Great Turning" might actually occur.
The book's descriptions of what is wrong with the present system of domination are insightful, and its descriptions of the more cooperative world to which we might aspire are visionary. Korten articulates the world view of what he calls "Empire" vs. that of "Earth Community" as first-person narrative "creeds" for each, an approach that has great clarifying power. Illustrating these distillations is an overview of the historical interaction of Empire with Earth Community, showing the recurring features of each through the ages. This reads almost like Howard Zinn's classic "People's History of the United States," only expanded beyond the U.S. to fill the world stage. Note that this is not a comprehensive history of human civilization; it is a view focused specifically upon the two conflicting tendencies that define our present-day life-or-death crisis. There are many other perspectives possible: the development of technology, the evolving view of nature, the vision and role of art, the biological evolution of the species, and so on. Korten chooses his particular focus in order to frame and explain the monumental decision facing us in the present historical moment.
My main concern regarding this book has to do with its cursory, almost dismissive, treatment of the topic of coercive manipulation of movements by control systems. To all of the complex issues raised by this topic, it has but one response: non-violence. The non-violent approach is described in the book's section on strategy as follows:
"Metaphorically, the strategy might be thought of as a process of 'walking away from the king,' because it centers not on confronting the authority of the king, but on walking away--withdrawing the legitimacy and the life energy on which the king's power depends. Think of it as a conversation with the king along the following lines:
"'You have your game. It's called Empire. It may work for you, but it doesn't work for me. So I'm leaving to join with a few million others for whom the game of Empire isn't working either. We are creating a new game with new rules based on the values and principles of Earth Community. You are welcome to join us as a fellow citizen if you are willing to share your power and wealth and to play by the new rules.'"
Korton states clearly that Earth Community movements "must always adhere to the principles of non-violence...even in the face of violent police and military repression." His arguments for this are that it "underscores Earth Community's moral authority, draws attention to the illegitimacy of Empire, and breaks the cycle of violence." Unfortunately, none of these arguments proves that non-violence will actually work, in all cases, as a strategy for dealing with the coercive tactics used by control hierarchies to suppress Earth Community movements that threaten those systems.
This is no small matter. Non-violence is the only approach the book allows for dealing with the vast arsenal of collective and individual shock tactics at the disposal of Empire, from war to torture to economic disruption. If Korten's movements cannot overcome such coercion, then they cannot succeed. And yet, even though the success or failure of the book's proposed movements hangs upon that question of efficacy, there is no discussion or example of how a non-violent approach could deal with even a single instance of coercion.
It's not that non-violent strategy has no way of dealing with coercion; it does. It deals with it by developing such a strong collective identity that threats and rewards leveled by the control system at individual members have no significant effect on their determination to support the broader movement, even if those members are threatened with death. Because its individual members are committed enough to persevere despite such threatened consequences, the broader movement can continue to withhold its cooperation from the control system, without anyone getting scared off or bought off. Korten is no doubt describing such non-cooperation when he refers to "withdrawing the legitimacy and the life energy on which the king's power depends." The control system, being parasitic, will then, if it is rational, have to yield to the demands of the movement, because it cannot destroy the entire diverse and cooperative community upon which it depends without destroying itself.
I see three problems, however.
1) Not all control systems are rational, and not all control systems have an actual dependency upon the oppressed population.
An irrational or self-destructive system may not acknowledge its own dependence upon the underlying cooperative and diverse society that it exploits, and may therefore have fewer or no limits upon the destruction that it is willing to wreak upon that society in order to control it. Such systems will actively pursue the suicidal path of destroying the cooperative host organism upon which they depend in an attempt to control it, even in the face of a disciplined nonviolent refusal to cooperate.
In this situation, nonviolent movements for justice seem likely to lead to the equality of the grave. As author Naomi Klein has noted in a recent interview, belief in "The Rapture," in which all of the world is destroyed except for a chosen few, is the terminal psychological manifestation of such an elitism unto death. The prevalence of that belief among members of the Bush Administration and its supporters indicates that we may presently be encountering exactly that kind of implacable irrationality.
In other cases, the control system may actually not be critically dependent upon the population under attack. For example, the U.S. Prison Industrial Complex treats poor communities of color as "surplus" people suited only for filling up jails that it runs for a profit. In this situation, non-cooperation on the part of the oppressed has no effect on the oppressor, because the latter does not need the former to do anything other than sit in a cell, a requirement that can be directly and physically enforced, regardless of whether the victim "cooperates."
The successful non-violent movements of Gandhi and King were dealing with control systems which, while brutal, were not irrational or suicidal, and the control systems that they confronted were not able to destroy them with impunity.
2) There are approaches other than non-violence that have worked in some situations, and which have arguably fewer negative consequences than those that would be suffered using a non-violent approach. Korten seems to be rejecting these out of hand.
The book cites only two examples of successful non-violent movements, that of Gandhi and that of Martin Luther King. By contrast, there are quite a number of examples of movements that have moved us closer to Earth Community that were not grounded in non-violent principles. In Korten's own account of the U.S. Revolution, for example, he describes the military resistance of the colonists to British rule in laudatory terms, even though what the colonists did was the exact opposite of "walking away from the king." He sums up the U.S. revolutionary struggle as follows: "In the end, General Washington and his army expelled the British with the help of France, Spain and the Netherlands. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. A rebellious people inspired by a vision of liberty gave birth to a new nation. It was a remarkable contribution to humanity's long journey beyond monarchy and theocracy, but it was only a beginning on the road to real democracy."
Why is violent resistance treated so positively for the U.S. revolution, but ruled out for present movements? It would be interesting to hear Korten's vision of how a non-violent colonial movement might have accomplished these same, or better, results. But the book does not analyze how and why repression works or does not work, the weaknesses that it plays upon, and what kinds of movements, non-violent or otherwise, have been successful in defeating it. Instead, it relies upon a mere reference to non-violent theory, leaving the proof of that theory to unspecified others who have already written on that topic. There is not even a reference to a specific work on how various forms of coercion can be overcome by non-violent methods.
Perhaps the absence of such an analysis is why the book does not list any contemporary examples of repression to match the kinds of historical examples (slavery, violent strikebreaking, etc.) to be found throughout the book. For instance, we do not find analysis of the struggle against the mass warehousing of men of color in an ever-expanding prison industrial complex, the environmental justice movement's struggle against toxic pollution that is concentrated in poor communities of color, movements opposing the repression of immigrants, indigenous peasant movements such as the Zapatistas, or other militant movements fighting oppression against great odds. What we do find is "creative social entrepreneurs" from the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies "linking local independent businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local governments in mature, locally rooted, life-serving economies with the potential to displace the rootless, opportunistic, money-driven, and ultimately suicidal corporate global economy."
Forming local economic networks is both admirable and essential, but the corporate control hierarchy is not going to simply "wither away" in the face of such multiple positive initiatives. And entire sections of the population are under attack right now. If non-violence is the answer, then we need an analysis of why and how it can work in the face of coercive manipulation by the opposing control systems, because those systems will not sit idly by while the ground is taken out from under them.
3) Korten has not discussed how a non-violent movement with the required collective consciousness and willingness to sacrifice is to be built.
When one considers the kinds of brutality that even rational control systems may impose, developing a non-violent movement's tolerance for punishment becomes a very serious matter.
Many of the manipulative methods employed by control hierarchies are specifically intended to stop individuals and movements from ever getting to the state where they assume the kind of collective identity and discipline that are required to carry out non-cooperation in the face of rewards and punishments intended to divert them from that purpose. Therefore, a reference to non-violence as a response to such methods raises the question of how we can create a movement with the sense of collective identity that is required to be able to remain cohesive in the face of such attacks on its members.
If non-violence is to be used, then it is necessary to analyze exactly what is required to make a movement willing and able to sustain the kinds of injuries that are bound to be inflicted in the course of taking a nonviolent approach against a violent adversary. Such injuries were a prominent part of both Gandhi's and King's one-sided nonviolence in their encounters with oppressive control systems.
This last point raises the issue of how the sense of identity of a movement's members is related to its willingness to sustain injury on behalf of a collective interest. Korten describes the present hold of Empire over our society as a "cultural trance," but does not describe the ways in which certain states of mind allow a control system's specific threats and rewards to cause people to sacrifice their true collective interest on behalf of the institutions of Empire, while other states of mind have the opposite effect.
The book elaborates a kind of Maslovian hierarchy of individual identity, but it does not describe the ways, or reasons, that some kinds of identity are susceptible to coercive manipulation, while others are more able to stand up to it. Specifically, the book describes five levels of consciousness: Magical, Imperial, Socialized, Cultural and Spiritual, with Magical consciousness involving propitiation of authority figures (the state of a person serving as a manipulated cog within a control system), Imperial consciousness being the thought process of those performing such manipulation, Socialized consciousness being a state that acknowledges dependency upon (and hence the need to adapt to) a larger group of which one is a member, Cultural consciousness being a state that values and tolerates other cultures for the sake of the diversity that they contribute rather than merely for the direct contributions that they make to one's personal well-being, and Spiritual consciousness being an overall awareness of diversity and cooperation interacting as the essential process creating all Being.
While these are helpful and meaningful distinctions, they are also descriptions of states of mind, of perspectives, rather than of active engagements in responding to and creating one's reality. Furthermore, they are the states of mind of *individuals*, not of *movements*, and so they lack an explicit collective aspect. That is, they reflect what an individual may personally value, which can include valuing collective entities, but they do not reflect the interactions of those individuals (e.g., as citizens) with their communities, nations, and so on.
How these states of mind are generated and maintained, how they interact with one another, and specifically, how the Imperial mindset is able to manipulate and maintain the Magical mindset, and how Spiritual consciousness might confer some immunity to such manipulation, are not explored in the book. For example, to me it appears that the Magical mindset could be manipulated by applying a credible mortal threat, because its egocentric perspective cannot model (imagine) the world without itself in it, and so a mortal threat undermines that model to such an extent that it cannot function, exposing the individual to the uninterpreted sensory inputs that characterize an infantile state (i.e., a state of terror), which is an immensely vulnerable condition. By contrast, the Spiritual mindset sees the individual as a finite element of a larger universe that will continue on without the individual once she or he is gone. Hence, the presence of a mortal threat does not undermine that mental model, and consequently a spiritually-oriented individual can function much more effectively in the face of a credible threat to its life.
Maslow, in his own hierarchy of mental states, emphasized that progress "upward" through his various states is heavily dependent upon the degree to which the material needs of a person are met, but Korten does not explore or discuss such a relationship between satisfying basic material needs and the ability of people to advance through the hierarchy described in his book. Since economic need is one of the main ways that people are manipulated by control systems, exploring that relationship (of ideology to material sufficiency) is essential to those aspects of strategy that attempt to insulate against such manipulation. This might lead to an approach involving networks of mutual support to ensure that the minimal material needs of all persons involved in a broad-based movement are met out of the movement's collective resources. A simple example of such an approach is the strike fund of a union. These are the kinds of strategic issues that need to be elaborated. Just to refer to non-violence by name does not explicate this content.
Philosophically, Korten's hierarchy of mental states implies an ethical metric in which spiritual motivation is preferable to the self-centered motivations of greed and fear. Starting from the co-related Magical and Imperial levels, which are narrowly focused upon the individual as such, the scope of identity moves outward to the increasingly more inclusive levels of one's own society (Socialized consciousness), other societies with which one's own society (but not necessarily one's self as an individual) has a relationship (Cultural consciousness), to the Spiritual level that encompasses the entirety of Existence.
The more narrowly-focused states are characterized by a lack of integrity that makes them more susceptible to manipulation by an external power (in the case of Magical consciousness), or to unilateral projections of their own power (in the case of Imperial consciousness) to capture needed resources (which undermine self-sufficiency) . The integrity of the person grows as more inclusive levels are reached until, at the Spiritual level, one has identified with the perfect integrity of Existence as a whole, an integrity which cannot be violated because there is nothing outside of Existence as a whole that might violate it, and no way that this singular Existence can be divided into anything other than itself. Ultimately, there is a relationship between such integrity within a community and the ability of an individual member of that community to resist manipulation (i.e., because it cares more about its larger context than about its self as such).
Another issue I have with the book is its preference for illustrative examples and stories at the expense of deeper analytical arguments. The stories are helpful, and are very well developed, but that does not mean that we should let them stand in place of a deeper analysis.
For example, Korten's hierachy of mental states implies an ethical metric valuing Spiritual consciousness more highly than, say, Magical or Imperial consciousness. However, the book does not make an explicit argument regarding *why* one such state is preferable to another. Similarly, it uses parables ("stories"), credos and envisionments to describe the present system and its alternatives, and strongly implies that its envisioned alternative of "Earth Community" is preferable to the present system of "Empire," but once again does not say exactly why this is so. While the desirability of what Korten calls Spiritual consciousness over what he calls Magical consciousness may seem obvious to many readers, we live in an age of moral relativism in which one view is as good as any other, and viewpoints can be changed like clothing to suit one's present needs and circumstances. Having a more fundamental ethical synopsis would help, because if we can answer the question of why certain outcomes are preferable, then we may be able to find the key to motivating people to pursue those outcomes. Stories, by contrast, illustrate "what" states are desired more than they describe "why" they are preferable, or "how" to accomplish them. This allows us to recognize the promised land when we see it, but does not provide a map of how we can travel there, or an argument regarding why it is better. Also, without such a metric, how can we know that we are making progress rather than regressing? Finally, once we are able to define the moral high ground, we may discover that it has pragmatic advantages that we can most effectively access when we have a specific abstract model of what that high ground is.
Korten has done a great job of deconstructing the stories of "Empire," and he seems to think that "Earth Community" advocates now need their own stories (which he has provided) to counterpose to those of the Right. But maybe the reason that the advocates of "Empire" resort to stories is because they have no underlying truths that would be acceptable if stated explicitly. By contrast, Earth Community's underlying truths should be resonant with the majority of people, and hence need not be presented solely as parables.
If I were to try my own hand at crafting such an ethical abstraction, I might describe Earth Community's general principles directly as follows: "Increase diversity and cooperation at every level of the hierarchy of inclusivity (e.g., family, community, nation, international community, biosphere) in which we hold membership, and when conflicts arise between doing this on one level vs. another, favor the more inclusive level (e.g., international community over nation) within which one has both knowledge and influence." Since Being itself is equivalent to diversity (i.e., total homogeneity equals total non-being), to pursue diversity can be shown to be simply a choice of Being over Non-Being, and there are few justifications more fundamental than that. As for cooperation, that is how distinct, diverse, bounded things come about - by the cooperative principle that unites their parts. So, cooperation must be pursued as a corollary to the pursuit of diversity. By contrast, the parasitic Empire's mode of operation reduces diversity by concentrating power in the hands of a few, and replaces cooperation with regimentation. Hence, when reduced to their fundamentals, Empire represents non-being, Earth Community represents Being, and it is not consistent for a living, breathing being to choose non-being, Q.E.D.
Another area that is not elaborated in this book is the transition from economic hierarchy to local economic control and bottom-up diversity and cooperation. This area also overlaps with the issue of how coercion impacts movements for change, because intermediate (e.g., reformist) economic forms must be able to resist such manipulation if they are to survive to become elements of a more lasting and systemic change to our social and economic structure.
Korten does express the concept of locally-rooted communities, but it is more of an urban planning concept (e.g., to save energy) than a means for managing the economy. And he does talk about "economic democracy," but only in terms of local ownership of homes and of businesses, not in terms of a model for cooperative decisionmaking. He talks about a "vibrant community life grounded in mutual trust, shared values and a sense of connection," but says nothing about how such a community will localize its economic and political decisionmaking. He says that "All people have a meaningful and dignified vocation that contributes to the well-being of the larger community," but says nothing about how more rewarding and empowering work, and work that is less so, will be allocated by the community itself among its various members. He says that "Intellectual life and scientific inquiry" will be dedicated to "life-serving technologies that address society's priority needs," but says nothing about how those priorities are to be democratically (and locally) determined.
Korten seems to realize that something is amiss, because at the end of this litany of desired outcomes, he writes: "The first time through, this list may read like a radical utopian fantasy, but only because it constrasts so starkly with our present experience." Actually, what makes this list seem utopian is the lack of a concrete envisionment of, and plan for, how these various desirable outcomes could actually be realized.
In considering the above issues, it is useful to view Korten's work in the light of that of two other authors: Naomi Klein, with her recent breakthrough analysis of economic and psychological coercion, "The Shock Doctrine," and Michael Albert, with the model for decentralized, democratic and cooperative economic decisionmaking presented in his many writings on "Participatory Economics" (also called PARECON). The work of Klein and Albert, in particular, complements "The Great Turning" by going in depth exactly where "The Great Turning" is brief. We need visionaries, and we need realists, and (aside from Vandana Shiva) it seems nearly impossible find them both in the same body, so it is important to hone the views of visionaries like Korten by considering how their proposed movements would respond to the tactics revealed by eye-widening exposes of capitalism's dark side such as those of Klein, and to concrete economic planning models such as those created by Albert, as well as to the daily problems encountered by grass roots activists organizing real movements on the ground. One planned conference that aims to create that kind of synergy is the "Building a New World" international conference [...] scheduled for this coming May.
In "The Shock Doctrine," Klein analyzes and explores the coercive methods employed by dominator hierarchies to enforce their top-down control. These could be used as starting points for an exploration of how the positive solutions developed in "The Great Turning" can be made resistant to the coercive attacks so aptly delineated in Klein's book. In "The Great Turning," the elitist bias of economist Milton Friedman's writing is analyzed and rejected, but since Friedman's writings do not acknowledge the coercion that has been routinely and necessarily employed to implement his economic program, an analysis of the writings per se will also not encounter that topic (which may be why it is not discussed in "The Great Turning"). That is why it is essential that "The Shock Doctrine" be read along with the Korten analysis, because the Klein book is focused upon exactly that issue.
While Naomi Klein's work has provided an essential additional piece of the puzzle, for each coercive method that it documents, it raises a parallel, unanswered question regarding how to resist such techniques. There are two related aspects to such questions: 1) how to evolve from the present hierarchical systems to the new systems that will replace them without the intermediate, transitional systems being shattered and divided by coercion, and 2) how to prevent the resurgence of hierarchy once a more cooperative system has been put into place. Korten's answer of "nonviolence" at least does not entirely ignore this question, but as noted above, more detail as to how and why this approach would work is required.
Although nonviolence may not be sufficient to prevail in all circumstances, the willingness of individuals and groups to face coercive harm narrowly focused upon them rather than yield to manipulation by betraying the broader community (which is also required for nonviolence) is still an essential part of any resistance (nonviolent or otherwise) to the coercive methods of dominator hierarchies. If a movement's goals are to replace dominator hierarchies with a cooperative, bottom-up system, then that kind of broadening of identity can be accompanied by a movement's active protection of its communities and individuals, without any fundamental contradiction arising between such a movement's methods and its goals.
In his work on PARECON, Michael Albert has answered some of the questions just cited regarding how to build robust movements in the face of repression. If Empire is defined as a top-down, hierarchical system, then it seems to me that its alternative will be a bottom-up system that emphasizes cooperative relationships between independent entities, each of which has its own unique, self-determined integrity and character, and that is the kind of system that Albert describes.
Regarding the question of how to keep diverse and cooperative alternatives from getting dragged back to a hierarchical mode, Michael Albert has pointed out that in the Argentine factory takeovers (which, perhaps not coincidentally, have been documented in Naomi Klein's film, "The Take"), despite the democratic decisionmaking implemented by workers restarting the idled Argentine factories themselves, pre-existing hierarchical relationships were preserved in the stratified work complexes, in which certain persons had more access to operational information, and more ability and time to launch initiatives, which ultimately discouraged the participation of others who had less enabling assignments. So, part of the problem of protecting new, more democratic and localized control over decisionmaking may be the difficulty of detecting and eliminating such vestigial elements of hierarchy (e.g., through the balanced job complexes proposed by Albert's Participatory Economics, or Parecon, approach). This involves an analysis of how the modality of hierarchical control has grown like a fungus into the flesh of our present economy and society, with an eye to rooting it out and replacing it with bottom-up, cooperative systems that are respectful of their individual members. This is the kind of detailed analysis that we need to make the vision of "The Great Turning" a reality.
Despite its omissions, "The Great Turning" provides important abstract views of the two defining tendencies of our present crisis. In so doing, it brings to the table one important piece of an overall solution to that challenge. However, its lack of transitional and structural detail, and its sparse practical treatment of the issue of coercive manipulation by control hierarchies, make it necessary to add perspectives from other sources to attain a more complete picture of how "The Great Turning" might actually occur.
January 11, 2007
Korten writes like a man on fire with care. He has spent decades trying to empower local communities around the world as they face enormous challenges. And this has always involved trying to influence top-down, overly centralized organizations -- to serve their clients more than they serve their managers. That experience gives Korten a global view from the grassroots up. It also gives him a potent mixture of practical insight, real compassion, and sheer moral fury. Now, instead of tinkering with pyramid-shaped organizations to make them somewhat more effective, he tries challenging the whole set of assumptions behind our traditional order. He takes his best shot at a better, more compelling story of how we are changing and what we are putting behind us.
Like most big picture painters, Korten pulls together history, politics, science and spirituality. And in each of these fields he shows himself passionately insightful. I think the price of the book is worthwhile just for the myth-recasting reality-check on U.S. history. Many scholars, consultants, or religious leaders try to paint the big new picture. But Korten's particular experience gives him a pragmatism and universalism that is rarely seen. His vision of transition from an imperial-style system to a real earth community compliments Riane Eisler's vision, of change from cultures of domination to partnership. And his presentation could hardly be more clear or forceful.
-author of The Gardens of Their Dreams
Like most big picture painters, Korten pulls together history, politics, science and spirituality. And in each of these fields he shows himself passionately insightful. I think the price of the book is worthwhile just for the myth-recasting reality-check on U.S. history. Many scholars, consultants, or religious leaders try to paint the big new picture. But Korten's particular experience gives him a pragmatism and universalism that is rarely seen. His vision of transition from an imperial-style system to a real earth community compliments Riane Eisler's vision, of change from cultures of domination to partnership. And his presentation could hardly be more clear or forceful.
-author of The Gardens of Their Dreams
January 18, 2007
In The Great Turning David Korten's basic optimism comes through, even as he weaves together the usual litany of post-modern ills, (such as climate change, resource depletion, and the failure of corporate capitalism), with the history of empire from the early chiefdoms to Mesopotamia and Egypt through Rome, Western Europe, and finally, the United States. In this recitation it is the synthesis that is remarkable more than the litany of ills and the history per se, both of which are familiar to educated people.
Korten's thesis is that at one time there was a matristic Earth Community, and that this primordial state was overtaken by what he names Empire in the generic form. This turning away from our most ancient ancestor's more ecologically sound lifeway has puzzled others before Korten. In Jared Diamond's 1987 essay The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race the precursor to Empire is explored in some depth. I have recently been wondering if the seed of the current global meltdown of the 20th and 21st centuries was somehow endemic to the human species. Korten's story of Empire goes far in filling this particular intellectual void.
Korten's analysis of the current situation is extremely cogent. He describes the `divide and conquer' tactics of the right wing corptocracy, which has been somewhat successful in turning a beleaguered middle class against the usual suspects, gays, people of color, and even Jews, when the true source of their economic and social distress are the plutocratic policies of the far right global capitalists that are the current rulers of Empire. These policies are represented as being democratic, but they are actually the antithesis of democracy. Korten rightly points out that ordinary Americans, whether they label themselves liberal or conservative, have the same basic desire for strong communities, healthy families and a clean environment. It is in the basic goodness of ordinary people that we may find hope for the necessary cultural transformation.
Korten is at his best when he moves into the possibility of global solutions to these ills.
In order for humankind to survive it must move out of the adolescence of Empire on a species level, and into the maturity of a new Earth Community. This change must take place on a cultural level before it takes place on an economic level and on an economic level before it occurs on a political level. The Great Turning requires all three. The true democracy involved in creating global civil society is one piece of the puzzle we must solve for the sake of the world. Reading Korten it seems possible.
Korten's thesis is that at one time there was a matristic Earth Community, and that this primordial state was overtaken by what he names Empire in the generic form. This turning away from our most ancient ancestor's more ecologically sound lifeway has puzzled others before Korten. In Jared Diamond's 1987 essay The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race the precursor to Empire is explored in some depth. I have recently been wondering if the seed of the current global meltdown of the 20th and 21st centuries was somehow endemic to the human species. Korten's story of Empire goes far in filling this particular intellectual void.
Korten's analysis of the current situation is extremely cogent. He describes the `divide and conquer' tactics of the right wing corptocracy, which has been somewhat successful in turning a beleaguered middle class against the usual suspects, gays, people of color, and even Jews, when the true source of their economic and social distress are the plutocratic policies of the far right global capitalists that are the current rulers of Empire. These policies are represented as being democratic, but they are actually the antithesis of democracy. Korten rightly points out that ordinary Americans, whether they label themselves liberal or conservative, have the same basic desire for strong communities, healthy families and a clean environment. It is in the basic goodness of ordinary people that we may find hope for the necessary cultural transformation.
Korten is at his best when he moves into the possibility of global solutions to these ills.
In order for humankind to survive it must move out of the adolescence of Empire on a species level, and into the maturity of a new Earth Community. This change must take place on a cultural level before it takes place on an economic level and on an economic level before it occurs on a political level. The Great Turning requires all three. The true democracy involved in creating global civil society is one piece of the puzzle we must solve for the sake of the world. Reading Korten it seems possible.
December 10, 2011
David Korten's book, The Great Turning, describes the history of our country in a way that makes perfect sense in understanding what is transpiring right now. It shows how we do not live in a democracy, but, rather, a plutocracy. And the founding fathers set it up that way. Only a few, including Thomas Jefferson, actually wanted it to be a democracy. And Jefferson wrote the beautiful words in the Declaration of Independence that make it sound like a democratic country. The others had in mind that there would be a ruling class of wealthy, elite men, hence the plutocracy we ended up with.
In my mind, the Occupy Wall Street movement is the people pushing back at "Empire" and trying to actually turn the U.S into the democracy we finally realize we don't have.
I strongly recommend this book. It is easy reading, but profound.
In my mind, the Occupy Wall Street movement is the people pushing back at "Empire" and trying to actually turn the U.S into the democracy we finally realize we don't have.
I strongly recommend this book. It is easy reading, but profound.
December 2, 2006
David C. Korten has done a wonderful job of exposing the five thousand year history of Empire building and social hierarchy around the world and it`s tragic trail of greed and control driven tyranny, but with special attention to the history of it in the U.S. and up to it's current form- corporate control and manipulation of society decimating sustainable economics, the environment- and ultimately, the health of our nation and the world.
Korten relates that the U.S. Constitution was a remarkable accomplishment for it's time and along with evolving amendments to include all citizens of it's benefits, on paper at least, it appeared as a grand experiment in democracy.
As Korten succinctly points out, however, every advancement in democracy and fairness has been fought against by corporate giants and the rich for selfish monopoly of the assets of our nation leaving us with a huge disparity in wealth between the relatively small numbers of elite rich in proportion to the larger numbers of middle class on down to the very poor. That there is a class structure at all is a sad commentary on equality, fairness, and our democracy.
Korten proffers that the Great Turning will gain momentum when we embrace the notion that "...a proper market economy operates with rules, borders, and equitable local ownership under the public oversight of democratically accountable governments." (p 15)
The Great Turning embraces the tenants of the Earth Charter in recognizing that this world is finite, resources are limited and need to be used in a sustainable/regenerative way with equal distribution for a healthy and harmonious existence for all of the world's citizens.
"Creating a mature society, however, requires leadership by people of a mature consciousness." (p 48). And this is the essence of the message Korten is disseminating, I believe. His Great Turning and Yes!Magazine websites have an abundance of info and resources on taking action and organizing local groups for dialogue on the Great Turning.
The Great Turning is a remarkable achievement and a monument to sustainable human conduct and relation with all other life forms and the environment that supports us all.
Korten relates that the U.S. Constitution was a remarkable accomplishment for it's time and along with evolving amendments to include all citizens of it's benefits, on paper at least, it appeared as a grand experiment in democracy.
As Korten succinctly points out, however, every advancement in democracy and fairness has been fought against by corporate giants and the rich for selfish monopoly of the assets of our nation leaving us with a huge disparity in wealth between the relatively small numbers of elite rich in proportion to the larger numbers of middle class on down to the very poor. That there is a class structure at all is a sad commentary on equality, fairness, and our democracy.
Korten proffers that the Great Turning will gain momentum when we embrace the notion that "...a proper market economy operates with rules, borders, and equitable local ownership under the public oversight of democratically accountable governments." (p 15)
The Great Turning embraces the tenants of the Earth Charter in recognizing that this world is finite, resources are limited and need to be used in a sustainable/regenerative way with equal distribution for a healthy and harmonious existence for all of the world's citizens.
"Creating a mature society, however, requires leadership by people of a mature consciousness." (p 48). And this is the essence of the message Korten is disseminating, I believe. His Great Turning and Yes!Magazine websites have an abundance of info and resources on taking action and organizing local groups for dialogue on the Great Turning.
The Great Turning is a remarkable achievement and a monument to sustainable human conduct and relation with all other life forms and the environment that supports us all.
October 16, 2006
In The Great Turning, From Empire to Earth Community, author David Korten hits on the rarely discussed conflict facing Humankind in the 21st Century, the struggle between the forces of materialism and the forces of spirituality. Although David does not define it as such, he expresses it in his excellent analysis of the Five Orders of Human Consciousness.
These Five Orders move from a Culture of Empire to a Culture of Earth Community, beginning with Magical Consciousness and Imperial Consciousness and advancing to Socialized Consciousness and Cultural Consciousness and to the highest Fifth Order, Spiritual Consciousness. Korten holds that whatever stage of human consciousness dominates the 21st Century, it will ultimately determine whether we survive as a species or not.
Author David Korten is a former Harvard Business School professor and later a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer with an expertice in community economic development. After working in Third World Countries for 25 years, David now writes to continue his work with a penetrating critique of global corporate capitalism and he offers alternatives that are respectful of local control, sustainable and realistic. Seeking just economic development has been David Korten's life's passion.
David is not known as a spiritual writer, but his writing has always had a powerful underlying spiritual message as he understands that radical social change is not possible without the transformational power of spirituality. This is the unique perspective in the writing of the economist and social critic David Korten.
To David Korten, the real issue at hand is not that the world is in need of radical social change, but by what method are we to bring about such much needed radical social change.
David Korten is a powerful prophetic writer who induces in the the reader a hunger for a more just, sustainable and compassionate world. After reading David Korten's The Great Turning, it is hard not to become a social activist for an Earth Community of genuine participatory democracy, justice and peace.
In summary, David Korten is a relatively unknown author when compared to the world renowned social critics Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington. I would love to see them meet in a debate on PBS television. I think David would shockingly slay the theories of the Goliaths of Empire and elevate the spiritual and social consciousness of the viewer.
What about it David, can you make this happen?
These Five Orders move from a Culture of Empire to a Culture of Earth Community, beginning with Magical Consciousness and Imperial Consciousness and advancing to Socialized Consciousness and Cultural Consciousness and to the highest Fifth Order, Spiritual Consciousness. Korten holds that whatever stage of human consciousness dominates the 21st Century, it will ultimately determine whether we survive as a species or not.
Author David Korten is a former Harvard Business School professor and later a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer with an expertice in community economic development. After working in Third World Countries for 25 years, David now writes to continue his work with a penetrating critique of global corporate capitalism and he offers alternatives that are respectful of local control, sustainable and realistic. Seeking just economic development has been David Korten's life's passion.
David is not known as a spiritual writer, but his writing has always had a powerful underlying spiritual message as he understands that radical social change is not possible without the transformational power of spirituality. This is the unique perspective in the writing of the economist and social critic David Korten.
To David Korten, the real issue at hand is not that the world is in need of radical social change, but by what method are we to bring about such much needed radical social change.
David Korten is a powerful prophetic writer who induces in the the reader a hunger for a more just, sustainable and compassionate world. After reading David Korten's The Great Turning, it is hard not to become a social activist for an Earth Community of genuine participatory democracy, justice and peace.
In summary, David Korten is a relatively unknown author when compared to the world renowned social critics Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington. I would love to see them meet in a debate on PBS television. I think David would shockingly slay the theories of the Goliaths of Empire and elevate the spiritual and social consciousness of the viewer.
What about it David, can you make this happen?
May 19, 2019
This book is inspiring and informative and a much needed ray of sunshine in difficult times.
May 2, 2011
I thought this book was very informative and enjoyed reading it. I hope Mr. Korten is right about the potential of establishing an Earth Community. His experiences have led him to believe this is feasible and for the sake of us all, a turning in a new direction is an absolute.
Still, I witness the lower behavioral classifications at play daily, which gives me doubt about the species abilities to achieve his vision. This, like other books from this author have always illuminated different aspects of life for me, and I find this man insightful, articulate and willing to address issues that I wish the rest of the country were willing to contemplate. Given the realities such contemplation is sorely needed.
Still, I witness the lower behavioral classifications at play daily, which gives me doubt about the species abilities to achieve his vision. This, like other books from this author have always illuminated different aspects of life for me, and I find this man insightful, articulate and willing to address issues that I wish the rest of the country were willing to contemplate. Given the realities such contemplation is sorely needed.
January 15, 2012
This is the most awesome book I've read in years!! It is so reassuring to know that there is a transformative revolution going on around thls Planet and that every country on this Planet is involved!! I'm telling everyone I know all about the actual events described in this book - that people around the globe are waking up, and are talking with their neigbors in their towns, villages, country, about living together in peace, harmony and cooperation!!!! These people came together in a world conference in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, numbering 18,000, in order to talk with other people from around the globe about networking their ideas of living together in PEACE, HARMONY and COOPERATION!!! AWESOME!
June 11, 2006
Drawing from a multiplicity of disciplines, The Great Turning identifies the consequences of empire and outlines a course for future corrective action. Korten leverages the work of numerous progressive thinkers and activists pulling their individual contributions together to guide the reader to his main thesis: a call for Earth Community. The well footnoted text leaves the reader with many opportunities to explore in depth the topics introduced from the fields of economics, history, psychology, theology, systems theory, biology, sociology and political science.
Recognizing the turbulence of the times we live in as an opportunity, rather than a harbinger of certain disaster, Korten underscores the importance of the choice before American society: Will this be the time of the Great Unraveling or the Great Turning? The Great Turning's emphasis on choice itself is a refreshing reminder, "The capacity to anticipate and choose our future is a defining characteristic of the human species. (p.26)"
Peeling back the layers of Empire's distortions and its socio-political trappings is the target of the first three sections of the book. The remaining two sections explore the realm beyond Empire: building Earth Community. Korten takes the position that developing parallel structures at the local level, in anticipation of the collapse of Empire, is the most effective way to rid ourselves of 5000 years of dominator culture.
Numerous relocalization efforts across the United States are presented as evidence of a grassroots Earth Community movement already underway. A complementary Great Turning website (thegreatturning.net) highlights local community initiatives as well as provides discussion guides for the book -- and The Great Turning will undoubtedly inspire discussion. It is an ambitious book and at times falls short of delivering on the solutions for the nascent movement it puts forward, but Korten makes clear that The Great Turning is an unfinished story, and asks the reader to contribute to its narrative.
The strength of the book is in its breadth and Korten's ability to connect the dots between diverse elements within our culture. Ultimately, The Great Turning is a call to action, alerting the reader to the necessity of participating in the birth of a life affirming plan for the benefit of our children and the future of the planet.
Recognizing the turbulence of the times we live in as an opportunity, rather than a harbinger of certain disaster, Korten underscores the importance of the choice before American society: Will this be the time of the Great Unraveling or the Great Turning? The Great Turning's emphasis on choice itself is a refreshing reminder, "The capacity to anticipate and choose our future is a defining characteristic of the human species. (p.26)"
Peeling back the layers of Empire's distortions and its socio-political trappings is the target of the first three sections of the book. The remaining two sections explore the realm beyond Empire: building Earth Community. Korten takes the position that developing parallel structures at the local level, in anticipation of the collapse of Empire, is the most effective way to rid ourselves of 5000 years of dominator culture.
Numerous relocalization efforts across the United States are presented as evidence of a grassroots Earth Community movement already underway. A complementary Great Turning website (thegreatturning.net) highlights local community initiatives as well as provides discussion guides for the book -- and The Great Turning will undoubtedly inspire discussion. It is an ambitious book and at times falls short of delivering on the solutions for the nascent movement it puts forward, but Korten makes clear that The Great Turning is an unfinished story, and asks the reader to contribute to its narrative.
The strength of the book is in its breadth and Korten's ability to connect the dots between diverse elements within our culture. Ultimately, The Great Turning is a call to action, alerting the reader to the necessity of participating in the birth of a life affirming plan for the benefit of our children and the future of the planet.
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