Life Inc.

How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How We Can Take It Back

De: Douglas Rushkoff

Narrado por: Douglas Rushkoff

This didn’t just happen.

In Life Inc., award-winning writer, documentary filmmaker, and scholar Douglas Rushkoff traces how corporations went from being convenient legal fictions to being the dominant fact of contemporary life. Indeed, as Rushkoff shows, most Americans have so willingly adopted the values of corporations that they’re no longer even aware of it.

This fascinating journey, from the late Middle Ages to today, reveals the roots of our debacle. 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 birth of the modern, self-interested individual to his exploitation through the false ideal of the single-family home; from the Victorian Great Exhibition to the solipsism of MySpace–the corporation has infiltrated all aspects of our daily lives. Life Inc. exposes 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 of all, Life Inc. shows how the current financial crisis is actually an opportunity to reverse this six-hundred-year-old trend and to begin to create, invest, and transact directly rather than outsource all this activity to institutions that exist solely for their own sakes.

Corporatism didn’t evolve naturally. The landscape on which we are living–the operating system on which we are now running our social software–was invented by people, sold to us as a better way of life, supported by myths, and ultimately allowed to develop into a self-sustaining reality. It is a map that has replaced the territory.

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.©2009 Douglas Rushkoff; (P)2009 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Read this book if you want to understand how the current economic meltdown started 400 years ago, how so much of what you consider to be a natural evolution of daily life was carefully designed to profit a few, and how corporatism has so colonized every part of life that most of us don't even recognize how our lives and fortunes are channeled and manipulated by it. I love that Rushkoff isn't afraid to think big—very big."—Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs

“Ever get the feeling that you're trapped on a hamster wheel of predatory "Corporatism"? An unwitting participant in a system that you didn't sign up for in the first place? What happens when the operating system of this corporate Moloch runs amok? Life Inc is a hopeful, timely call to arms to wrest control of our lives, our sanity and our children's futures back from the corporate agenda. Douglas Rushkoff's best book yet.”—Richard Metzger, author and TV host

“Hand wringing over the state of the global economy? Think again. Douglas Rushkoff explains why this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remember what matters, and to rethink our economic system so it reinforces our human values. A profound and important call to action.”— Tim O'Reilly, Founder & CEO of O'Reilly Media

"This is a provocative and controversial look at the dark side of corporatist effects on our economy. Douglas Rushkoff explores the various ways, some you may never have considered, that innovation and commerce can be stunted by corporations. Whether or not you agree, you will find this book challenges some of our basic assumptions about how our economy works."—Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe

“There are few more important subjects in the West today than the corporatization of public and personal space and few writers as well-suited to the subject as the always insightful and provocative Doug Rushkoff. A terrific contribution to an urgent debate.”—Naomi Wolf, author of Give Me Liberty

Challenging assumptions

Douglas Rushkoff has written a wonderfully challenging work about how our everyday lives are affected by the foundational reality of corporations and corporatism. Some will dismiss it as the ravings of a elitist liberal whatever. It is instead the considered reflections of a human being trying to understand the bizarre results of a very undemocratic economic theory.

Accessible Indictment of the Lost American Dream

Other reviewers who accuse Rushkoff of whining and calling everything fascist/nazi are disingenuous or haven't read beyond the first chapter. The author acknowledges the perils of a fascist diagnosis of America, and only makes the connection once, and he's no whiner. In fact, he admirably proposes plausible positive action to take to change the situation, and the situation is dire, as the author outlines in a brief history of the development of the corporation from the colonial era to the present. I agree with other reviewers who find him too pessimistic about the internet. In this part of the book, Rushkoff seems to too strongly delineate between profit and human meaning/value, unable to see how the internet might be both. But in general, this book is excellent, critiquing the commodification of human values and the loss of community in ways similar to academic critical theorists, but in a much more accessible way. Loved it.

I should've taken the blue pill

What did you love best about Life Inc.?

Here I thought I was living my mundane existence, a productive member of early 21st century society and then, just like that, it becomes apparent I've been something of an acquiescent lab rat in an enormous and complex version of the Skinner Box. I just want you to know Doug, I'm writing this at work when I should be working. Each journey starts with a turn of the wheel.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Douglas Rushkoff delivers the entire narrative of his book without sounding above it all. I feels like it did when my 3rd grade teacher Mrs Queen wrote in the margins of my report card that I wasn't working to my potential. Judgmental but enthusiastic about the possibilities.

I very much appreciated this book

This is such a great book.

I appreciate the author's passionate point of view that corporatism has come to dominate our modern lives. It is slightly depressing...okay...VERY depressing. But the book is wonderfully written, thought provoking, and inspires change (even if just in my own little life).

I like that the author was the narrator, he adds a lot of zest in the telling of the saga of corporatism.

I highly recommend this!

Some Redeeming Qualities

I started listening to this book and thought at first he was an extreme liberal. Then I realized he is not. He is not Conservative either. He is challenging many of the basic assumptions in the world. This is the interesting part of this book. While I don't agree with much of what he says, I did find it fascinating to listen to. He touches on so many different topics. The book is very broad. The author does have this intense fear of authority. While Conservatives would prefer business to control, and Liberals would like the Government to control, Rushkoff doesn't want anything or anybody to have control. His perfect world is the small communities of the middle ages or Brooklyn in the 40s. I think the book is definitely worth listening to. It also presents some interesting information regarding how some companies do business.