Life Inc.: How The World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
This book opens with an interesting story, almost a parable. The author was mugged outside his apartment and subsequently used a local discussion board to warn others. Instead of support, he received criticism from local people worried that this sort of posting would reduce property prices. It's not implausible - I have seen this overriding obsession with property prices in different parts of the UK too. The question driving the book is - at what point did we start to worry more about house prices than our neighbours or neighbourhood.The villain, for Rushkoff, is the corporation. In his lopsided but provocative telling of history, the late Middle Ages in Europe were a high point for humanity, with things going downhill after that. The Renaissance gave us a very individualistic mentality, centralised currency and, above all, the corporation, set up to restrict trade and capture value. This is what they are still doing, he argues, with the corporate capture of the internet being a recent case in point. He mentions, but does not dwell on, the recent financial crisis, but this too supports his thesis that corporations are now so big and destructive that they are eroding the very society on which we and they depend.He is deliberately telling history to make a point, and there is a key point he does not acknowledge. The corporations have many flaws, but they have, over the last two hundred years or so, delivered a truly stunning increase in material living standards to a very large group of people. You can argue about the human cost of all this, but it does not make sense to ignore it altogether.In some ways, the most interesting part of the book is the brief section at the end where he sets out some recommendations for action. The answer does not lie in political movements, consumer boycotts or campaigns. By doing this, he argues, we are playing on the "home ground" of the corporations and their brands, and they will always win. He sees the answer instead in new forms of localism - schemes to invest in locally-owned businesses, growing our own food, forms of barter and sharing resources. In the UK we might call this "civic pride". It's an appealing argument, and could have been developed further.The book covers some similar ground to Neil Postman's "Technopoly", although Postman's analysis is much more rigorous and powerful. I do not think it will be a classic, but it is passionate, well-written and provocative. The vision underlying it has real warmth and humanity about it. It is well worth a read. I really enjoyed this book. It looked back to the original corporations hundreds of years ago and followed along to show how over time they have just continued to remove further and further from producing actual value for actual people. It is just abstract value committed to continuing producing more abstract value, with no interest in communities or humans or the environmental impact of its activities. So, very interesting, if grim.The second part of the title "How to take it back" is misleading. After 400 pages or so of talking about how messed up the world is, we get 10 pages of "Uh, go local. Exchange actual things of actual value with people in your community." Which felt like too little too late.
What do You think about Life Inc.: How The World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back (2009)?
While i found some of the historical analysis arguable, this is a hugely interesting and vital book.
—pris
Too depressing, and not enough insight into how things actually work to offset that.
—staffona
Despite some inaccuracies and minor exaggerations, quite a good book.
—MDawg
