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David Korten

David Korten Books

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“Entranced by promises of a material paradise of limitless luxury, humanity has too long ignored the mismatch between the imperatives of our existence as living beings on a finite planet and the imperatives of the institutions of money that chart our path to the future. Created to build colonial empires in service to kings, global corporations are ill suited to the task of building just, sustainable, and compassionate civil societies that nurture sufficiency, partnership, and respect for the whole of life.”

LongWholeHumanityExistencePathBuildingPlanetsMaterialsKingsPromiseTasksInstitutionsEnvironmentalIllLuxuryCorporationsParadiseEmpiresCompassionateSustainabilityPartnershipNurtureIgnoredFiniteLimitlessImperativesCivil SocietySufficiencyMismatch
Author:David Korten
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“When the institutions of money rule the world, it is perhaps inevitable that the interests of money will take precedence over the interests of people. What we are experiencing might best be described as a case of money colonizing life. To accept this absurd distortion of human institutions and purpose should be considered nothing less than an act of collective, suicidal insanity.”

PeopleWorldShouldHumansMightPurposeInterestMoneyAcceptingCasesAcceptanceInstitutionsAbsurdInevitableInsanityCollectivesSuicidalDistortionPrecedence
Author:David Korten
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“The proper goal of an economic democracy agenda is to replace the global suicide economy ruled by rapacious and unaccountable global corporations with a planetary system of local living economies comprised of human-scale enterprise rooted in the communities they serve and locally owned by the people whose wellbeing depends on them.”

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

WorldLifeNeedsBelieveFactsValuesI BelieveInspiringLevelsMoneyConsciousnessStepsRolesHonorCreatingCapitalismFunctionInstitutionsSpeciesServantReplacedFlourishingNext LevelRestoringProsperingSystemic ChangeService And Sacrifice
Author:David Korten
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“To achieve true sustainability, we must reduce our "garbage index" - that which we permanently throw away into the environment that will not be naturally recycled for reuse - to near zero. Productive activities must be organized as closed systems. Minerals and other nonbiodegradable resources, once taken from the ground, must become a part of society's permanent capital stock and be recycled in perpetuity. Organic materials may be disposed into the natural ecosystems, but only in ways that assure that they are absorbed back into the natural production system.”

WayMayNaturalTakenEnvironmentAchieveMaterialsActivityResourcesProductionsPermanentOrganizedProductiveZeroSustainabilityGarbageEcosystemsRecyclingMineralsRecycledReuse
Author:David Korten
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“Our defining gift as humans is our power to choose, including our power to choose our collective future. It is a gift that comes with a corresponding moral responsibility to use that power in ways that work to the benefit of all people and the whole of life.”

PeopleWayHumansWholeUseResponsibilityMoralBenefitsIncludingCollectivesDefiningCorrespondingMoral Responsibility
Book:Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
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“There was a time in the United States when most of our financial institutions were local. Which essentially meant that local communities were able to create their own credit, or their own money, in response to their own needs. We still depended on banks, but it was a much more democratic process.”

NeedsStillsStatesAbleProcessCommunityUnitedUnited StatesInstitutionsDemocraticResponseFinancialCreditLocalsDemocratic ProcessFinancial InstitutionsLocal Community
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“An active propaganda machinery controlled bv the world's largest corporations constantly reassures us that consumerism is the path to happiness, governmental restraint of market excess is the cause our distress, and economic globalization is both a historical inevitability and a boon to the human species.”

WorldHumansCausesGrowthPathEconomicHistoricalSpeciesActiveCorporationsPropagandaControlledExcessConsumptionConsumerismDistressRestraintGlobalizationMachineryInevitabilityHuman SpeciesBoonEconomic Globalization
Author:David Korten
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