Friends,
David Korten has a new book coming out in May. Based on the
description, below, that I got off his website, I'm very
eager to read it - wish I could get an early copy somehow.
It is clear from his table of contents that our thinking
goes on parallel tracks. I wrote him about this, observing
that there is a path out there, and it seems only one: it's
a matter of discovering it, not inventing it. I was
impressed with his response:
So true. It is about discovering what in someways has always
been right there in front of us, but remains obfuscated by
the false stories by which we have come to live
From the end of the TOC:
Part V: Birthing Earth Community
19. Leading from Below
20. Building Consensus
21. Liberating Creative Potential
22. Change the Story, Change the Future
Grassroots-based harmonization: an idea whose time has come?
rkm
http://cyberjournal.org
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http://davidkorten.com/Books/greatturning.htm
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"
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. With fascinating analogies,
intriguing stories and eloquent analysis, Korten draws in
the reader. He then emboldens us to believe that we can
trust and cultivate the best in the best in ourselves and,
despite the lateness of the hour, choose life.
- Frances Moore Lappé, author "Hope's Edge and Democracy's Edge"
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-with far greater
consequences.
In The Great Turning, Korten argues that corporate
consolidation of power is merely a contemporary
manifestation of what he calls "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.
Increasingly destructive of children, family, community, and
nature, the way of Empire is leading to environmental and
social collapse.
The Great Turning makes the case that we humans are a
choicemaking species that at this defining moment faces both
the opportunity and the imperative to choose our future as a
conscious collective act. We can no longer deny the need nor
delay our response. A mounting perfect economic storm is
fast approaching. A convergence of climate change, peak oil,
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.
We cannot avoid the unraveling. 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 this need and are prepared to engage what Thomas
Berry calls the Great Work. 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 maintained
by stories that deny the higher possibilities of our human
nature-including our capacities for compassion, cooperation,
responsible self-direction, and self-organizing partnership.
Changing our future begins with changing our stories. A work
already underway, it ultimately calls out for the
participation of every person on the planet. The Great
Turning points the way to the inspiring outcome within our
reach.
________________________________
Table of Contents
Prologue: In Search of the Possible
Part I: Choosing Our Future
1. The Choice
2. The Possibility
3. The Imperative
4. The Opportunity
Part II: Sorrows of Empire
5. When God Was a Woman
6. Ancient Empire
7. Modern Empire
8. Athenian Experiment
Part III: America, The Unfinished Project
9. Inauspicious Beginning
10. People Power Rebellion
11. Empire's Victory
12. Struggle for Justice
13. Wake Up Call
14. Prisons of the Mind
Part IV: The Great Turning
15. Beyond Strict Father Vs Aging Clock
16. Creation's Epic Journey
17. Joys of Earth Community
18. Stories for a New Era
http://davidkorten.com/Books/greatturning.htm
Part V: Birthing Earth Community
19. Leading from Below
20. Building Consensus
21. Liberating Creative Potential
22. Change the Story, Change the Future
________________________________
Earth Community Dialogues
There is a rapidly growing awareness that the era of cheap
oil is ending, climate change is real and deadly, and the
relentless corporate drive to export jobs and technological
capacity in the pursuit of quick profits is a path to
national suicide.
By the day, more people are realizing that business as usual
is over and that the politicians in control in Washington,
DC are too busy lining their own pockets to notice. If
leadership is to be found, it must come from people working
together from the bottom-up to reclaim and rebuild family
and community life and restore environmental health.
The possibilities for such leadership are far greater than
the nation's bitter political divisions might suggest.
Eighty-three percent of Americans believe that as a country
we are focused on the wrong priorities. Substantial
majorities of both conservatives and liberals want to see
greater priority given to children, family, community, and a
healthy environment. In short a substantial majority of
Americans feel out of step with the way things are going and
embrace the foundational values of Earth Community.
We are captive to self-limiting stories that deny the
possibility of any alternative to humanity's current
suicidal path. To change course, we must step forward to
break the silence, end the isolation, and change the stories
that frame the national political discourse. Our collective
behavior will change as our collective stories change. No
matter how small the individual voice, it can contribute to
changing the national conversation, and thus our politics
and our direction,.
Groups and individuals across the country are taking the
initiative to engage conversations of growing scope to
address the imperative and opportunity now before us. These
conversations take many forms and go by many names. They
share in common, however, an underlying commitment to
turning an impending crisis into an opportunity to create a
world that affirms the deeper values most humans share. Each
contributes to a growing Earth Community Dialogue and a
redirection of humanity's course.
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