David Korten spent many years of his life as part of “the system.” He came from self-described conservative roots and served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.
His new book, and his previous three, counteract all preconceptions of this man, however.
On May 30, Korten, a leading critic of corporate globalization, gave a lecture at the First Baptist Church in Southwest Portland condemning the actions of Wall Street and calling for an economic revolution.
His conscripted and civil work abroad, three degrees from Stanford University (including a doctorate from the business school), his teaching stint at Harvard and his work on USAID projects transformed the man from his original mold to the anti-globalization author he is today.
The lecture introduced his new book, Why Wall Street Can’t Be Fixed and How to Replace it: Agenda For a New Economy—From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, which was released in February in paperback.
The lecture, like the book, focused on the recent collapse of Wall Street and how human beings should tear down the walls of Wall Street and start anew.
Korten, who now lives in Vancouver, Wash., emphasized that people must ration their resources and rely on what he terms a “caring and sharing economy” within their own communities.
The event was sponsored by Real Wealth of Portland, a group of Portlanders brought together through the collective ideal of a caring and sharing economy.
Marcia Meyers, a Real Wealth of Portland member, introduced Korten and explained how to shift to this new type of economy.
“[By] supporting caring and sharing by allocating resources in more human or egalitarian ways,” Meyers said. “People are the real wealth.”
In Korten’s two-hour-long lecture, he covered what he called the corruption of Wall Street, the faults of the institution, the idea that money is a figment of the imagination and that the leaders of Wall Street have used it as a tool against the world.
“[Money] is the most mysterious of all human creations, it does not exist outside of our minds,” says Korten. “Money is so simple that it repels the mind.”
For clarification, Korten explained how the ancestors of modern civilization lived without money and how “Wall Street controls this magic number called money and has the power to deprive anyone person if it … Wall Street creates money out of nothing,” he said.
Korten explained what real wealth is, what God is and how to create a peace economy.
“Real wealth is caring and sharing,” he said.
He went on to say that wealth is people and communities working together for the benefit of human kind.
“We as human beings must contribute to the unfolding of creation,” Korten said.
Korten believes that the recent financial collapse is an “examination to see if we as human species are able to survive.”
“[We] must do away with all indicators of economic priorities,” Korten said. “We are going to have to end war and create a peace economy.”
During a brief intermission the musical styling of Raffi played through the loudspeakers as the crowd was encouraged to stand up and dance to “No Wall too Tall,” Raffi’s new song commemorating the release of Korten’s most recent book.
The song shared a message comparable to that of Korten’s—that people must break the bonds of financial slavery and free themsevles from the tyrant Wall Street.
“Conversation is the most revolutionary act of all time,” he said.
He added that people must “restore money to its proper roll as servant and show that no bank is too big,” he said.
This revolution can only happen through conversation and the sharing of ideas and information, he explained.
“We must create our own reality through creating a new Wall Street from the ground up,” Korten said. “Freedom must come from we the people and our declaration from Wall Street, our brains are wired for community and leadership must come from within community.”
Korten closed his speech with a call for the community to take action.
“We must create opportunities within and without our religious institutions, through thoughtful people, to engage in a process of true spiritual inquiry dedicated to drawing from the whole of human knowledge and experience to deepen our individual collective understanding of ourselves and our place in creation. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”