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RVML Resource Center 2002-2007 Calendar Archives 17 November 2006, Friday |
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Special Free Lecture: "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" by David C. Korten
Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Unitarian Center, 47 4th Street at C Street, Ashland
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Special Free Lecture: "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community"By David C. Korten, Author of: "When Corporations Rule the World"
Location: Unitarian Center, 47 4th Street at C Street, Ashland
FREE ADMISSION- Donations appreciated, everyone welcome
Presentation Description:
(One-hour PowerPoint presentation followed by Q&A and book signing)
"We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future.... To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth Community with a common destiny." -The Earth Charter (2000)
David Korten's classic bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World was one of the first books to articulate the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy. Now, ten years later, Korten shows that the problem runs deeper than corporate domination, and with far greater consequences.
In The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, Korten argues that corporate consolidation of power is merely a contemporary manifestation of what he defines as "Empire"- the organization of society by hierarchies of domination grounded in violent chauvinisms of race, gender, religion, nationality, language, and class. The result has been the same for 5,000 years-fortune for the few and misery for the many. Now, thanks to modern technologies, the way of Empire is increasingly destructive to children, family, community, and nature itself, rapidly leading us all to the brink of worldwide environmental and social collapse.
Korten makes the case that we are a species with the power of choice, and that at this defining moment in history, humanity faces both the opportunity and the imperative to choose our future in a conscious collective manner. A mounting perfect economic storm is fast approaching. A convergence of climate change, the fast approaching peak and decline in oil production, and the financial instability inherent in an unbalanced global trading system will bring an unraveling of the corporate-led global economy and a dramatic restructuring of every aspect of modern life-whether we like it or not.
This unraveling cannot be avoided. We can, however, turn a potentially terminal crisis into an epic opportunity to bring forth a new era of Earth Community grounded in the life-affirming cultural values shared by most all the world's people and eloquently articulated in the Earth Charter.
The Great Turning is an essential resource for those who understand the need for fundamental change. It cuts through the complexity of our time to illuminate a simple, but elegant truth. We humans live by stories. We are held captive to the ways of Empire by a cultural trance of our own creation-indeed, one need look no further than our popular culture and the way it is magnified in TV, movies, and other mass media to see how this paradigm is reflected back upon us all everyday. Changing our future begins with changing our stories in a way that includes our capacities for compassion, cooperation, responsible self-direction, and self-organizing partnership. This is a work already underway, and to succeed, it ultimately will call for the participation of every person on the planet. In The Great Turning, David Korten points the way to the inspiring outcome within our reach.
"David Korten has produced a masterpiece! Fascinating, compelling, wonderfully readable, and broad reaching in its arc of history and significance, The Great Turning will keep you up nights reading, fill your notebooks with insights, and give you the ammunition to win the water cooler wars."
-Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio talk show host and author of What Would Jefferson Do?
Presenter's Biography:
Dr. David C. Korten is the author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. His previous books include the international best-seller When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism. His is also a major contributor to the International Forum on Globalization report on Alternatives to Economic Globalization. Korten is co-founder and board chair of the board of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes YES! A Journal of Positive Futures; and is founder and president of the People-Centered Development Forum; a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE); a rounding associate of the International Forum on Globalization; and is a member of the Social Ventures Network and the Club of Rome.
Dr. Korten holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford Business School, has thirty years experience as a development professional in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and has served as a Harvard Business School professor, a captain in the US Air Force, a Ford Foundation Project Specialist, and a regional advisor to the US Agency for International Development. He is known internationally through his writing and lectures as a leading critic of corporate globalization and visionary proponent of a planetary system of local living economies based on the organizing principles of healthy eco-systems and properly regulated market economies.
Presented by:
Ashland Peace House http://www.peacehouse.net
Bloomsbury Books
Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library & Event Center http://www.rvml.org
Sentient Times Magazine http://www.sentienttimes.com
Soul Fire Communitas
Thrive
Unity in Ashland http://www.unityinashland.org
More for information (541) 535-2462 e-mail: bkindman@mind.net
Website: http://www.davidkorten.org
SEE ALSO: "Finding Our Way in Turbulent Times- Five Topics for a Transformed World" by Sharif Abdullah at SOU Saturday, Nov. 18 7:00pm http://www.rvml.org/calendar/wc11182006.htm
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RENT RVML's PRESENTATION FACILITIES: The 1,000 square-foot (15'x65') presentation area is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible with full audio-visual capabilities available.
Eighty folding chairs can be arranged in different configurations for meetings, presentations, video screenings or other events. $15.00 per hour. Includes free e-mail and web-calendar advertising. Other publicity and production services available.
More information: http://www.rvml.org/contact.shtml
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 Licensed To: RVML |
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