The human species faces an apparent
paradox. We have embraced economic growth as our primary indicator of
human progress. Yet as economic output and consumption grow the number of
people forced into lives of dehumanizing deprivation increases and the
quality of life of all but the wealthiest among us declines.
The reason is as simple as it is
disturbing. Sometime toward the end of the Twentieth Century the human
species passed over a critical threshold in its relationship to our home
planet. Humanity's collective demand on the regenerative capacity of
Earth’s ecosystem grew to exceed the limit of what can be sustained. The
more the economy grows the greater the demand, the more rapid the
depletion of the living systems that are the source of all real wealth,
and the more intense the unequal competition between rich and poor for
what remains — a competition the poor invariably lose.
Travelers on a living spaceship, humans
continue to live like cowboys on an open frontier — living out an old
story in a new era. In deep denial and captive to the imperatives of
global corporations and financial markets that value money more than life,
those who hold positions of institutional power remain resolutely
committed to policies that enrich themselves, but impoverish people,
community, and planet. To create a world that works for all, public policy
must give priority not to aggregate growth, but to using the resources of
planet and society equitably and sustainably to provide healthy,
fulfilling lives for all people and other living beings. It means
reorganizing economic life to produce more of the things that people need
— like food, shelter, clothing,
education, and health care — and less of the costly things we do not
— like military hardware, pollution,
traffic jams, and crime.
Hope for the human future rests,
therefore, not with institutions of power, but with the millions of
individuals all around the world who are awakening, as if from a deep
trance, to the reality of our collective crisis. Acting out of love,
compassion, and a deep sense of responsibility to people and planet, they
are rejecting the disempowering mantra that there is no alternative to a
dysfunctional status quo, putting their bodies on the line to stall the
forces of corporate globalization, and living a new story into being. They
see the human future as a matter of choice, not destiny, and seek a world
that works for every person and the whole of life.
Historically rooted in the struggle for economic justice
for all people, the People-Centered Development Forum (PCDForum) is
dedicated to nurturing this awakening and the alliance building that
follows. It works in cooperation with civil society groups around the
world to articulate and tell a story
for our time that exposes the causes of our collective crisis and
points to the possibility of creating a post-corporate,
post-capitalist world of living democracies, mindful market economies,
and authentic cultures. It reaches out to a global constituency through
its books, articles, and
public presentations.
The PCDForum's new lead publication,
The Great
Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, by
Dr.
David C. Korten, PCDForum founder and president, makes the argument
that the contemporary consolidation of corporate 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 and offers a new framework to understand our current
predicament, grasp the potential of this historical moment, and take
action for the future of our planet, our communities, and ourselves.
Groups across the United States and Canada are organizing Earth
Community Dialogues based on the frameworks of The Great Turning.
Information and supporting details are available at:
www.thegreatturning.net.
You will also find Great Turning resources at
YES! magazine.
Previous Forum publications include When
Corporations Rule the World, which addresses the nature
and consequences of corporate globalization and exposes the inherently
anti-democratic and anti-market nature of the public traded, limited
liability corporation. The Post-Corporate
World: Life After Capitalism, presents a framework
for democratic, market-based alternatives that embody principles derived
from the study of healthy living systems. The Forum's Living
Economies Program is framing and documenting strategies for replacing
the culture and institutions of a global suicide economy with the
culture and institutions of a planetary system of living economies
through a process of succession and displacement.
The Forum works in
close partnership with
the Positive Futures Network, publishers of YES!
A Journal of Positive Futures
, which is dedicated to enhancing awareness and facilitating
alliance building in the cause of transforming a world dedicated to the
love of money to a world dedicated to the love of life. As the PCDForum itself offers no
public membership, those who wish to be
personally involved are urged to contact the Positive Futures Network
and subscribe to YES!
