Join us for a conversation with author Douglas Rushkoff. We’ll talk about his latest book, Life, Inc.: How the World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back.
WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 1, 6 pm Pacific time (which is the same as Second Life Time).
WHERE: The lovely Seaside Theater, World2Worlds Island in Second Life, or watch the live video on the Web.
"Life, Inc.," and author Douglas Rushkoff
Life, Inc. looks at how corporatism and consumerism have turned us from human beings into producing-consuming machines. In our conversation with the author, we’ll talk about how we got here, and what we should do about it.
Rushkoff is hardly the first guy to point out that we’ve gotten focused on consuming rather than creating, watching TV rather than connecting with our neighbors, and we’ve come to rely on big business to do for us what we used to do for ourselves, or for each other. But Rushkoff makes it all seem fresh, illustrating his points with research and anecdotes.
We’ll talk to Rushkoff about those things, and also about what we should do to take back our society and lives. Don’t worry, you won’t have to wear hemp clothing and live in a yurt.
Rushkoff has written 10 books on the media, technology and culture. Previous books include Get Back In The Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, Open Source Democracy, the graphic novel Club Zero-G, and Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism. His book Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace, published in 1994, looked at the cyberpunk digital counterculture of the period. He teaches at the New School University, serves as technology columnist for The Daily Beast, and lectures around the world. Catch his program, the Media Squat, on the radio at WFMU or available as a podcast.
Join us for a fascinating conversation with one of the best minds of the Internet.
I know what consumerism is, generally. But how does he define/describe corporateism?
Also, is the author pic flopped? the t-shirt appears to have a reversed copyright symbol. could just be a symbol I’ve not seen before, tho.
Hi Julie,
Without going to his latest book “Life inc,” let me try his definition. Corporatism is not just the corporate value system that seeks to extract as much value from the earth’s resources, it’s employees and consumers delivering profits to shareholders and/or engaging in speculative investment. It is also the way we have begun to live. Instead of making value for ourselves and eachother we make it for corporations and buy what we need from them. Among the many figures and metaphors for Corporatism used by Doug is an example from colonial times in america. We produced cotton here, but were not permitted to dye, spin or weave the material. The cotton was sent to england who then sold it back to us as a finished product plus tax….
Get the book. It’s great!
-mason
In “Life Inc” Rushkoff traces the beginnings of the corporation and corporatism back to the Middle Ages pacts between the emerging bourgeoisie who had money and the rulers who had soldiers but no money. A good read and valuable insights. I’m looking forward to attending Sunday night.
Thanks, mason and DeliaLake. Whenever I see ‘ism’ tacked onto a word my automatic skeptic kicks in. Interesting connections in history. I’ll check it out with an open mind.
JGB