Life Incorporated
In June I'll be releasing a new book and short film, Life Incorporated: How we traded meaning for markets, society for self-interest, and citizenship for customer service. They both look at the way human beings and corporations traded places, and how we came to accept corporatism as our dominant value system.
What I conclude is that our society didn't just end up this way. This landscape was cultivated over time. We are living on a playing field sloped towards corporate interests. Every day, we negotiate the slope to the best of our ability. Still, many of us fail to measure up to the people we'd like to be, and succumb to the tilt of the landscape. We buy from Wal-Mart and supermarket instead of the local druggist and farmer who they put out of business. We save to send our kids to private school instead of investing our time to make the public ones better. We spend our money insulating ourselves from the crime in our neighborhoods instead of our energy reducing the poverty and resentment feeding it. When things are tough, it’s every man for himself.
And the more decisions we make in this way, the more we contribute to the very conditions leading to this awfully sloped landscape. All things being equal, we’d rather be doing things differently.
But all things are not equal. Our choices are being made under painstakingly manufactured duress. We think this is just the way things are. But it’s not.
My book chronicles the way we got here, who wanted it this way, and why no one remembers what happened - from the renaissance era of corporate charters, centralized currency, and colonial expansion through industrial age experiments with fascism, right up to the inventions of public relations, self-interest, target marketing, and behavioral finance. Finally, I look at alternatives to corporatism - the kinds of bottom-up, local, and human-scaled efforts at meeting our shared needs that take place beyond the reach of centralized authorities, corporate monopolies, or interest-charging central banks. In many cases, these interactions transcend commerce altogether.
Until the book comes out and hopefully long after, I'm hosting a set of conversations at http://www.corporatized.net (or just go to rushkoff.com and click on Forums). I'm hoping it can be a place we can both deconstruct corporatized society and share our experiences of alternative strategies. I'll also be teaching a course on corporatism through the MaybeLogicAcademy.
With any luck, I'll be allowed to contribute to (or interfere with) the goings on at BoingBoing again next summer when the book is out and I'm on the road trying to pitch these ideas to the world at large.
In any case, it's been an honor and a pleasure to engage as a writer with BoingBoing - a publication and community I've been reading, admiring, and (to the best of my ability) emulating for over nineteen years. You are the shit.
Douglas Rushkoff was a guest blogger.
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It's a shame to see you go - definitely some of the best stuff I've seen on boingboing since I started reading years ago!
♥
I second what #1 said and I'll keep an eye out for what you have to say. :)...
... even though, because of you, I now will have to live with the image of John Derek prying his penis from Charlton Heston cold dead hands...
thanks, it's been fun.
I'm sorry to see you go.
And you're right. Corporate rights are made easier and easier for us to subscribe to, and it scares the crap out of me. Hate to be a complete and total dork, but did you ever play Shadowrun or any of the eighties cyberpunk games? (NOT the most recent version of Shadowrun, which is a freaking abomination.)
I sometimes wonder if we're going to stop being regionally divided and become divided by brand and company allegiance, because the individual lacks the resources to be autonomous.
The problem is cost and convenience. I shop at smaller shops when I can, but there are often times when my budget is very limited and the local chain grocery store is both cheaper and open longer. I try to plan so that will happen minimally.
Here is the the scary part. When I talk like you do in your above post, I imagine myself nostalgically evoking a long lost small town America. But my neighbors imagine me as a crazy anarchist radical...
Thanks for bloggin'.
Your concept of "extra-corporate" activism made an impression on me: the idea that we can't work against corporations; we have to work without them, outside them. As you suggest here, in practical terms our government, society, and lives are literally sustained by corporations, so pointing out how bad they are can only accomplish so much.
We won't be free to actually do anything serious about bad corporations until we've built alternatives: ways to enrich our lives while simultaneously excluding them. Let's get to work!
Bon voyage, dude. It's been very nice reading your stuff. You make some very insightful observations. Now, if you want to become a real radical Jew, become a Christian. That would be an experience I would love to read about :)
mr. rushkoff, been a pleasure havin u! always have i enjoyed your writing. are you doing the "2012" seminar in Sarasota later this month with pinchbeck etc..? if so, perhaps i'll see you there. peace.
MarkFrei @ 6- We have a little memory problem as a nation, I think. I have a lot of conversations in which people seem unable to remember Bill Clinton's presidency, a time before the intertubes and computerized everything, the Gulf War, a time when advertising was a whole lot less intrusive (because we didn't yet have the technology to be constantly reached out and touched) and before cell phones.
Actually, looking at that list, I'm feeling pretty old now. :
And a little radical for remembering.
I should say before cell phones were everywhere. It used to be a big deal to have one.
Yes, agreed all around, sorry to see you go. You added great content with consistency.
To BB editors: Any chance of adding to the guest Boinger program, with an opportunity to let everyday readers take a crack at it for a week? I am the last person who would qualify, my writing is horrible, but I think it would be a great way to increase/build upon interaction with your visitors. I think many of us would have a lot to offer. Sort of like Crowdfire for the blog itself...As long as I don't have to view the blog through a cell phone screen held in front of me all night...
The vetting process, admittedly would be arduous, but the benefits to all of us might just be worth it. HockeyMomBulldogsNeedNotApply. But we all love a trainwreck, eh?
I've enjoyed reading your posts and your blog has been added to my reader.
I'm happy that I've been "introduced" to you.
With this, BoingBoing will have a hard time finding another guest blogger that keeps this high standard! I hope they will invite someone who writes about something related to BB but that isn't often featured!
Nice work, Douglas! Looking forward to (I hope) seeing you again on BoingBoing. Good luck on the book launch.
Hey Yeah!
Adios Senor Rushkoff.
Gracias for the sage counsel , very enlightening words.
I've got you bookmarked, and will keep an extra eye/ear out just for you.
Thanks again
MARLEY9 @13, Interesting idea about a place for the community to blog. My first reaction would be to suggest, as I usually do, that anyone who wants to blog should create a blog. And of course, then participate in the conversation by submitting their links to us (and other blogs) through the form and accepting submissions from their readers too. But maybe there's a way to create a public BB blog. Definitely good food for thought! Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Rushkoff, your posts were very interesting and thought provoking... good stuff!
And to the rest of the Mutant Overlords: keep the guest bloggers coming!
Rushkoff!
So sorry to see you go, this has been some of the best boingboinging in years.
All of this autonomous stuff you're talking about is really right up my alley and has been for a long time now and I'm really trying my hardest to work for it.
I hope we can meet some day!
Thank you for your wonderful posts. I have read with great enthusiasm your views on current events and the structure of our society.
Although I do not agree for 100% with everything you wrote, without a doubt you achieved for 100% what every thinker should try to accomplish: inspire people to think for themselves and not to take certain 'truths' for granted.
I read on your blog that currently you are active at the university of Utrecht. Do you also give lectures there and if so are they open for the public?
Thanks for all the excellent blogging! Yours is the best stuff I've seen on BB in years.
#5: If you haven't yet, go find a copy of Jennifer Government by Max Barry. It brings your notion of "branded people" to disturbing life.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
I hope to see you return to boingboing, and I look forward to getting your new book - sounds interesting.
All good stuff.