In Boise, Idaho January 19, I attended David Korten's talk describing the concepts and ideas presented in his recent book titled, "The Great Turning : From Empire to Earth Community."I had a chance to talk to Korten briefly and acknowledged that Social Networking and new Internet and communication technologies can help citizens coordinate options for better personal and community choices in the future as people learn how to use tools like Wikis, for example.
It was an eloquent speech accompanied by a very good multimedia slide show with powerful graphic images and charts. A link to a You Tube video produced at the 2006 Green Festival in San Francisco is here.
Advocating a powerful message that "We are the ones we've been waiting for"... Korten believes humans have higher capacities for "compassion, cooperation, responsible self-direction and self-organizing partnerships" than we have been practicing for the past 5000 years. He blames the contemporary manifestation of "Empire" for being "increasingly destructive of children, family, community, and nature, and is leading to environmental and social collapse."
As I have been writing in this Blog, I am certain that Social networking tools will aid people in their efforts to "turn" society in more positive directions. To this end David Korten and his associates produce "Yes Magazine" A Journal of Positive Futures, which is also available as a web site with "Online Only Features." The magazine contains success stories from around the world, a section on What's New, upcoming events and suggested readings. They also promote "The Earth Charter Initiative" and "Earth Community Dialogues."
As an added note I found An interesting critique of Korten's books, including "The Great Turning," in "The Radical Middle Newsletter" Mark Satin, Editor. The August 1, 2006 article is titled, "What can we learn from the antiglobalists?"
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