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The Sun interviews David Korten September 2007

"Living Wealth"
YES! Fall 2007

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In Loving Memory
Donella H. Meadows (1941-2001)
The Global Citizen

THE PCDF
LIVING ECONOMIES PROGRAM

Walking away from Empire
Living Community into being

People the world over are awakening to the reality that a global suicide economy is unraveling the social fabric of human civilization and depleting the life support system of the planet. If there is to be a human future, humanity must make a conscious collective choice to live into being the culture and institutions of a planetary system life-serving living economies. 

Millions have taken to the streets in mass demonstrations protesting corporate globalization and the destructive policies of its handmaidens, including the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Less visible are the far greater numbers of people who are walking away from the suicide economy and the Era of Empire to actively, consciously engage the task of living into being the living economies of an emerging new Era of Community. The PCDF Living Economies Program supports this process by helping participants frame issues and strategies. See Living Economies Program History. Several ideas are central to this work. 

1. Transformational Change: The culture and institutions of living economies are virtually mirror opposites of the culture and institutions of the suicide economy. Far more than a course correction, the changes ahead involve a deep cultural and institutional transformation.

2. A Succession Strategy:  Reform strategies seek incremental changes in the culture and institutions of the suicide economy. A succession strategy centers on living into being the web of mutually supportive living relationships of a new economy comprised of living fair-profit and nonprofit living enterprises that will ultimately displace and succeed the pathological institutions of the suicide economy. 

3. Institutional Pathology: Most of the dysfunctions of the suicide economy can be traced to the pathological institutional characteristics of publicly traded corporations  — specifically size, absentee ownership, and special limited liability protections. Healthy social function depends on eliminating such pathological institutions in favor of economies comprised of locally-based, human-scale, community oriented, fair-profit/nonprofit living enterprises. 

4. Awakening Consciousness: The potential for transformational change of such magnitude and consequence arises from an evolutionary awakening of a new cultural and planetary consciousness of the powerful role played by culture in shaping human perceptions and behavior. The awakened consciousness is able to see the profound and troubling truth that humanity is being held back from the realization of new levels of human potential by the persistence of cultural myths that lead to dangerously distorted interpretations of physical and social reality. 

The conceptual centerpiece of the PCDF Living Economies Program is a web essay by David C. Korten titled Living Economies for a Living Planet devoted to articulating language and conceptual frameworks to guide action toward the living into being of a planetary system of living economies. It is a work in progress subject to continued revision, updating, and expansion. Those who wish to engage in a deeper exploration of the foundation ideas and arguments will find useful resources in supporting essays and critical commentary from a variety of participating colleagues. The Local Alliance for Local Living Economies is a national organization advancing the development of local living economies in the United States and Canada.

As it may be necessary to reconfigure the directory structure of the PCDF website as the work evolves, it is suggested that you bookmark the PCDF URL <www.pcdf.org> and follow links from there rather than bookmarking individual pages. 

Updated March 27, 2002