From phantom wealth to real wealth

Anyone who's aware of what's behind the current financial ‘meltdown’, as explained for instance in Chris Martenson's Crash Course, knows that all the government bailouts and ‘stimulus packages’ can only make it worse in the long run, by trying to preserve the status quo (i.e. the bad habits which got our society into this mess in the first place). So what can be done to actually improve the situation? This blog is all about what we can do at the local level, but eventually even national governments will have to get with the program, if they're going to survive at all. David Korten's new book, Agenda for a New Economy, explains how the U.S. and other governments could actually do something useful to turn the situation around. Back in January i posted about the release of Korten's book, with a link to the excerpt on the Yes Magazine website. Now that i've read the whole thing, i think it's a welcome addition to our resource library, especially as a follow-up to Korten's earlier book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (2006). Korten frames the crucial economic conflict of our time in terms of phantom wealth vs. real wealth, symbolized by Wall Street and Main Street respectively. Wall Street represents the most extreme and toxic development of ‘Empire’, the organized crime syndicate of predatory greed which has dominated civilization for five thousand years. Both of Korten's books bring a global perspective to the transition which is now under way. In another post i mentioned the Transition Culture website. I should have also given a link to The Transition Handbook, by Rob Hopkins, which shows how the move ‘from oil dependency to local resilience’ can be accomplished by rebuilding local community. Hopkins is among the leaders of this kind of transition as it's unfolding in the UK. Heather and Paul at Loonsong have copies of this book for the use of those active in making the transition here on Manitoulin. This book offers a handle on the localization movement which is complementary – and necessary – to the shift ‘from phantom wealth to real wealth’ of which David Korten writes.