In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration quickly moved forward with a policy of establishing order and defending U.S. interests through sheer military power. According to author David Korten, this foreign policy represented the latest chapter in an empirical system that has defined the structure of human societies for 5,000 years. But now, more than ever, the policy of dumping massive amounts of resources into the military and letting unaccountable corporations dictate the world’s economic growth is leading humankind down a flawed and self-destructive path. 

“It’s part of a much deeper human pattern of organizing societies by dominator hierarchy, with a few people on the top and most people on the bottom,” Korten said. “That very dynamic pits nations, people, families, communities into an essentially unavoidable competition for who’s going to be on the top and who’s going to be on the bottom.” 

Korten has long been considered one of the foremost figures leading the resistance against corporate globalization. His internationally best-selling 2001 book, “When Corporations Rule the World,” is required reading in many university courses. Korten’s most recent book, “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,” dug even deeper into the historical roots of humankind’s self-defeating societal structure. The author will discuss his research at Portsmouth’s South Church on Tuesday, June 3.

Korten, who grew up in a conservative town in Washington State, devoted his early career to ending poverty by establishing business management schools in poor countries, working in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He earned M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and later taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business. He worked as a project specialist with the Ford Foundation in the Philippines and worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Indonesia. He also served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

It was in his capacity as a world traveler and promoter of capitalism that Korten began to recognize the folly of U.S. development policies.

“The official policies that were being promoted around the world were increasing poverty, pushing more and more people into deep misery,” he said. “They were trashing the environment and they were destroying the social fabric of once very strong cultures with strong families and communities.”

In the late 1980s, Korten decided to break from “the establishment,” a term he uses to describe the formal institutions that shape education, economic policy and global financial markets. He began working exclusively with civil society organizations, writing books and articles that have energized global opposition to corporate rule.

To date, Korten has authored or edited more than a dozen books. He is a member of the Social Ventures Network and a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. He is also co-founder and chairman of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes “YES! A Journal of Positive Futures.” He is founder and president of the People-Centered Development Forum and contributed to the International Forum on Globalization’s 2002 report on Alternatives to Economic Globalization.

Today, the human crisis that Korten has predicted for years seems more imminent than ever. With global climate change causing more frequent severe weather events, oil prices skyrocketing and the war in Iraq dragging on, he feels the entire species is in peril. At the root of the problem is an unregulated free market that has no rules, he said.

“If you take away the rules, the market simply responds to the needs of the most wealthy,” Korten said. International corporations, he added, are permitted to mine resources beyond sustainability, dump waste into the environment and push labor wages to levels of bare subsistence. “So, if you have a market without rules, you have a market that ultimately becomes both socially and environmentally self-destructive.” 

Korten described global economic policy as a process by which rich people expropriate the resources of poor people and convert them into disposable goods and services in order to make money for the rich. “Our whole economic system is basically designed to increase inequality,” he said.

Korten envisions a future model of society that places greater emphasis on meaningful human relationships and less emphasis on material wealth.

“What gives people real satisfaction is not the amount of stuff that they consume, it’s the strength and quality of their human relationships,” he said. “What most people really want, what they really value, is healthy, happy children, strong families, strong communities and a healthy, vibrant, natural environment, which are exactly the things that we need to focus on to get ourselves through this mess.”

Central to achieving this vision is recognizing that individuals rely on strong and healthy communities in order to survive. This means improving relationships not only with local communities, but with the larger community of Earth’s environment, Korten said. Instead of competing for wealth, humans should focus on living cooperatively with each other and the environment, he said.

“If you look beyond the competitive aspects that are emphasized in the Darwinian theories, you find that, at a deeper level, life is an exquisitely cooperative activity,” Korten said. “Our very existence, our very life depends on our human community.”
Traditionally, corporate economic analysis has extended back, at most, 400 years, Korten said. But the hierarchical model of separating the wealthy elite from the poor masses has prevailed for thousands of years, he said. And, if we are to reverse the trends that have put the human species in peril, we must enact swift and dramatic changes to that system.

Korten admits that the thought of radically altering a model of society that has existed for 5,000 years in a short period of time is daunting. But he is hopeful that it can be done, largely because eliminating that system is nothing short of imperative. “Our very survival as a species depends on moving beyond it,” he said.

The communication developments that have emerged over the last couple of decades also give Korten hope that people can quickly spread awareness about the need for dramatic change. Already, he said, people around the world have begun to recognize the destructive nature of corporations, which he describes as “pernicious, pathological institutional forms.”
“(Corporations) absolutely lack any capacity for conscience as an institution and are basically incapable of addressing any interests other than their own very short-term financial interests,” Korten said.

Korten stressed that he supports a properly regulated market and private property rights. But, just like any other aspect of society, there must be rules to regulate both, he said. By diverting money away from the military and ending war as an instrument of national policy, he said, the United States could redirect enormous resources into the environment, healthcare, education and local economies.

With awareness about the impacts of crises like global warming spreading exponentially, people are more primed than ever to challenge the prevailing system, Korten said. He pointed to the recent prime mortgage meltdown as evidence that corporations are not as almighty as they appear.

“The corporations are not going to go away easily and quietly, but they’re, in many ways, very fragile institutions,” Korten said. “Disruption to the system can undermine their power very quickly.”

Korten’s upcoming event in Portsmouth is a collaboration between RiverRun Bookstore, South Church Minds Alive!, the Green Sanctuary Program and the Piscataqua Sustainability Initiative. Korten will offer a presentation before opening the floor to a question and answer session.

David Korten’s presentation begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3, at South Church, 292 State St., Portsmouth, 603-436-4762.