Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back
Jun 2009 · Sold by Random House
4.2star
5 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
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About this ebook
Now includes “The Life Inc. Guide to Reclaiming the Value You Create”
In Life Inc, award-winning writer Douglas Rushkoff traces how corporations went from being convenient legal fictions to being the dominant fact of contemporary life. The resulting ideology, corporatism, has infiltrated all aspects of civics, commerce, and culture—from the founding of the first chartered monopoly to the branding of the self, from the invention of central currency to the privatization of banking, from the Victorian Great Exhibition to the solipsism of Facebook. Life Inc explains why we see our homes as investments rather than places to live, our 401(k) plans as the ultimate measure of success, and the Internet as just another place to do business. Most important, Rushkoff illuminates both how we’ve become disconnected from our world and how we can reconnect to our towns, to the value we can create, and, mostly, to one another. As the speculative economy collapses under its own weight, Life Inc shows us how to build a real and human-scaled society to take its place.
In Life Inc, award-winning writer Douglas Rushkoff traces how corporations went from being convenient legal fictions to being the dominant fact of contemporary life. The resulting ideology, corporatism, has infiltrated all aspects of civics, commerce, and culture—from the founding of the first chartered monopoly to the branding of the self, from the invention of central currency to the privatization of banking, from the Victorian Great Exhibition to the solipsism of Facebook. Life Inc explains why we see our homes as investments rather than places to live, our 401(k) plans as the ultimate measure of success, and the Internet as just another place to do business. Most important, Rushkoff illuminates both how we’ve become disconnected from our world and how we can reconnect to our towns, to the value we can create, and, mostly, to one another. As the speculative economy collapses under its own weight, Life Inc shows us how to build a real and human-scaled society to take its place.
Ratings and reviews
4.2
5 reviews
A Google user
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August 7, 2011
The book does a very good job of how and why we are less people and more agents of others who do not know us and do not really care about us. Governments protect corporations and corporations protect government and we (the remaining 99.8%) are simply the fodder necessary for it to all work. The book is well written and the audiobook is a pleasure to listen to. Rushkoff also shows how it is not neccessary or desirable to campaign against corporations. About 95% of the book is about how the situation arose and evidence that it is not good for people actually doing the work and creating the value that others need and want. Very little of the book is about the remedy. Most of the remedy revolves around 1) local 2) be a person and engage people 3)alternate currency that is local.
The book is anti-capitalistic but is not communistic. It is very much opposed to monopolies or big big actors and players be they corporations or nationalized state industry. All of those arrangements are simply not conducive to humans living meaningful and productive lives.
A Google user
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April 20, 2010
Great read. An eye opener that gives our history to show how we have come to this point. From then it gives light on "plan B's".
A Google user
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June 13, 2016
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Douglas Rushkoff is a widely known media critic and documentarian. He has written ten books, and his documentaries include Frontline’s award-winning “The Merchants of Cool” and “The Persuaders.” He teaches media studies at the New School, hosts The Media Squat on radio station WFMU, and serves on the board of directors of the Media Ecology Association, the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and the National Association for Media Literacy Education. He has won the Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology and was the first winner of the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.
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