Scan barcode
A review by socraticgadfly
Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back by Douglas Rushkoff
5.0
I may rank books, on average, a bit on the higher side than some others, but trust me — if you're politically progressive like I am, this book deserves it indeed.
Rushkoff has a great paean for truly being ourselves without buying into corporate-driven cults of "individuality." With the rise of social media, this message is more true and more necessary than ever. Rushkoff notes that most "branding" into which we are sucked is driven by corporations.
Corporatism goes beyond that, though. It goes to government-corporation interlocks, which shouldn't be surprising to true progressives.
When we not only have holding companies controlling holding companies, as in the run-up to the Depression, but we have outsourcing companies outsourcing some of their own outsourcing, we should look carefully at the corporate "patriotism" of buying from American-owned companies, too, Rushkoff says. (And, yes, in the wake of Mitt Romney, you read that exactly right — companies that specialize in outsourcing jobs to places like China outsource some of their own outsourcing!)
That said, Rushkoff did have some new information for me on the way money systems are controlled in our modern world, vs. parallel local and long-distance money supplies that existed centuries ago. Related to that, he invites us to rethink just how good the High Middle Ages, i.e., the trecento and quattrocento, were, and to think about what we might learn from them.
The "solution" isn't unplugging. The solution is, whether in cyberspace or meatspace, to examine the messages we're being given and why, and act accordingly.
And, part of is carefully examining just how deep those corporate messages run. To illustrate that, Rushkoff starts the book with scenes from a wealth seminar he attended, where people were supposedly being given "the secret" of how to get rich on repossessed houses, etc. The tragedy of tragedies was that many of the attendees had recently lost their own homes, often on subprime mortages, but were still suckers for the same marketing that had hooked them before.
Rushkoff has a great paean for truly being ourselves without buying into corporate-driven cults of "individuality." With the rise of social media, this message is more true and more necessary than ever. Rushkoff notes that most "branding" into which we are sucked is driven by corporations.
Corporatism goes beyond that, though. It goes to government-corporation interlocks, which shouldn't be surprising to true progressives.
When we not only have holding companies controlling holding companies, as in the run-up to the Depression, but we have outsourcing companies outsourcing some of their own outsourcing, we should look carefully at the corporate "patriotism" of buying from American-owned companies, too, Rushkoff says. (And, yes, in the wake of Mitt Romney, you read that exactly right — companies that specialize in outsourcing jobs to places like China outsource some of their own outsourcing!)
That said, Rushkoff did have some new information for me on the way money systems are controlled in our modern world, vs. parallel local and long-distance money supplies that existed centuries ago. Related to that, he invites us to rethink just how good the High Middle Ages, i.e., the trecento and quattrocento, were, and to think about what we might learn from them.
The "solution" isn't unplugging. The solution is, whether in cyberspace or meatspace, to examine the messages we're being given and why, and act accordingly.
And, part of is carefully examining just how deep those corporate messages run. To illustrate that, Rushkoff starts the book with scenes from a wealth seminar he attended, where people were supposedly being given "the secret" of how to get rich on repossessed houses, etc. The tragedy of tragedies was that many of the attendees had recently lost their own homes, often on subprime mortages, but were still suckers for the same marketing that had hooked them before.