Aikido Activism

– Changing the world one corporation at a time –

July 2, 2004 aikidosphere@earthlink.net

  1. INTRODUCTION
Imagine applying the resources of powerful “For Profit” corporations to the great needs of today. Imagine more and more small and large corporations – not just niche salad dressing, ice cream, or vegan food companies here or there, but also the largest businesses commanding the greatest market power – reorienting their objectives to promote transparency, the honest study of their social and ecological impacts, accountability, moderation, inclusion and the like. And imagine that doing anything less in a global age will lead to catastrophe.

In a time when news of deceit or abuse by corporate executives is commonplace, such a suggestion appears dreamy. But powerful progressive corporations (and their consequences) are only a dream until they arrive. Systemic problems demand systematic solutions; the solution to systemically unjust exploitation and subversion is systematically inclusive enablement. The need for progressive corporations (not exploitive or subverting, but promoting the opposite) will speed their coming – and with them will come a new reality.

Movement towards the new reality – a more progressive, sustainable status quo – has already begun. This essay reveals the simplicity and power of the new reality, and shows how by going to the root of the problem, Aikido Activism will succeed in redirecting the massive influence of corporations away from regressive, unjust social and harmful ecological exploitations, and toward progressive developments in society and remediation of environmental problems. Lacking the systematic strategy of Aikido Activism, uncountable previous attempts at activism against corporations and their costly behaviors have only had modest, temporary successes.

The components of the solution are already at hand. Society is poised for mobilization against the seemingly insurmountable inertia of errant tradition. It requires but a few who understand the problem who begin pursuit of the solution to catalyze a shift from Tragedy of the Commons to Triumph of the Commons.

2. THE PROBLEM OF ADOLESCENT CAPITALISM

The primitive forces of greed, deception and duplicity lead to a Tragedy of the Commons whenever corporate hegemony is used to unjustly exploit humanity or the environment in the single-minded pursuit of profit – to advance capability and authority while minimizing responsibility . Money power has used communication, education, information and media – as well as money itself – to attain political power by influencing policy and public perception to advance Free Market Fundamentalism and to compromise market fairness in the attempt to effect persistent control. This state of affairs is called Adolescent Capitalism – capitalism that is not yet sustainably mature.

Adolescent Capitalism flies the banner of Free Market Fundamentalism. Free Market Fundamentalist theory is promoted by Adolescent Capitalism to expand its “commons” – its range of influence – to all countries via international treaties. Free Market Fundamentalism aims to cloth greed in “lifting all boats” populism. But all boats are not being lifted. The deceptive banner of Free Market Fundamentalism threatens to expand the influence of corporations from Free-Market-Fundamentalist-oriented national governments to all governments, from Free-Market-Fundamentalist-oriented media to all media, and from Free-Market-Fundamentalist-oriented communities to all communities, thus advancing the grip of Adolescent Capitalism globally – i.e., globally expanding capability and authority while globally minimizing responsibility .

Some go so far as to say that absolute power corrupts absolutely . Globalizing Adolescent Capitalism threatens global society and the global environment with a Tragedy of the Global Commons of unprecedented, cataclysmic proportions – stimulating increased need for opposition, and stimulating increased oppositional activism.

Corporations commonly use deception and concealment to minimize opposition to unjust exploitations of humanity and the environment. Their strategy engenders ignorance to social and ecological issues. When companies use media and advertising to weaken or distort awareness of truth in order to sell soap, cereal, or cigarettes, then those companies and their media partners weaken society’s immune system against deceit. All kinds of problems can come from a weak social immune system: especially the ignorance of potential environmental or social cataclysms.

Corporate executives, earning 10 to 1,000 to 100,000 times as much as a laborer, are paid to maximize profit – often looking out for employees, customers, society at large, or the environment only when those interests align with corporate profit making, which is closely tied to their personal profit making. The system works fairly well for what it was designed to do (although the culture of deceit and unjust exploitations often permeates, including leading executives to deceive and unjustly exploit stockholders).

Unfortunately the objective is wrong. A myopic profit view ignores many important issues and assumes that the greatest power comes from maximizing corporate profit . This is wrong. If by power we mean total national production, then the United States stands as example that it is the diffusion of individual empowerment (via individual liberties) that nets the greatest aggregated power. The maximizing of corporate profit has been a natural – yet unsustainable – temporary by-product. We must ask the question, “To what end is power maximized?”

Diffusive individual empowerment will always net to the greatest aggregate power, no matter how power is defined. The mass diffusion of the power of individuals to learn, think and act on their best ideals aggregates to the most empowered aggregate ideals. The central focus on the ideal of economic profit exists because it was a suitable evolution from the social focus on physical power, and due to its simplicity, but it is now failing because the ideals it diffuses are not sustainable and joyful.

The following graph of the profitability of several well-known companies (as measured in $K gross annual profit per employee ) is thought provoking. Why is there such variability in profitability per employee? Because of economic policy and because there can be. And if money is a type of power, what commensurate responsibility is society associating with the most profitable companies?

Profit maximizing strategy often employs profits to rent public policy and public perception away from the public interest – a sad and unsustainable ideal. Working against the public interest is a huge Lilliputian clue that maximizing dollar profit does not in actuality achieve the greatest power!

3. WHERE DOES ADOLESCENT CAPITALISM BUILD OPPOSITION?

When Adolescent Capitalism unjustly exploits a working wage class or the environment, oppositional sentiments tend to arise. When perceptions of a ruling owner class become disconnected from the realities of a working wage class or from the environment, unjust exploitations heighten, and oppositional sentiment may increase to spark changes in policy and practice . Sometimes scientific investigation – usually funded by corporate interests – discovers corporate deceptions, creating scientific opposition. Part of the problem of corporate hegemony and money power is that, by design, each of these forms of opposition is usually weak and lacks comparable money power.

With globalization, corporations are increasingly using distant workers and environments – potentially heightening unjust exploitations. The working class in developed countries finds itself less employed as corporations shop globally to find or create the most favorable terms of employment. Offshoring may create a more potent force of opposition against Adolescent Capitalism – in the form of many replaced developed-country workers .

4. EFFECTIVENESS OF CURRENT OPPOSITION TO ADOLESCENT CAPITALISM?

Current activist opposition to the problem of Adolescent Capitalism and all its manifestations is inhibited by lacking money power. In some cases, opposition has actually been subverted by money power, with the opposition ceasing or merely continuing as a charade. Opposition is inhibited in all the ways that Adolescent Capitalism inhibits it – in communication, education, information, media, influence of policy and public perception. This state of affairs is called Adolescent Activism – not yet substantially able to remedy the unjust exploitations of Adolescent Capitalism.

The traditional model in activism is the forming of a group for political action to lobby for change. But the lobbying voice of corporations has a different tenor to regulators who may later find great remuneration via employment at these same corporations, or who – because of the cost of media relations – may find their very electability comes via donations from corporate circles.

5. AIKIDO ACTIVISM AND THE PROGRESSIVE TRANSFORMATION OF CAPITALISM

Where there is a systemic problem, a systematic solution is called for.

It is easy to focus on all the terrible problems corporations are causing to humanity and the environment, but such one-sided diatribes lead to little progress. Instead, a balanced perspective is needed. Yes, corporate excesses have caused terrible problems in society and the environment, but many corporate activities have led to vast improvements in protecting the environment, peace, and quality of life. Promoting the improvements and curbing the excesses – ending the myopic focus on profit – is what is needed to bring progressive transformation to Adolescent Capitalism.

The following definitions of Aikido and activism help to introduce Aikido Activism – which promises to catalyze such progressive transformation.

Aikido (noun): a Japanese art of self-defense employing locks and holds and utilizing the principle of nonresistance to cause an opponent's own momentum to work against him (Merriam Webster).

Activism (noun): a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue (Merriam Webster).

Aikido Activism (noun): a new form of activism combining corporate reform, financial markets strategies, entrepreneurship, et al. – leveraging Aikido’s principle of beneficent locks and holds in the “For Profit” competitive arena to empower activism and accelerate the shift from a global economic-profit-centric agenda to a more progressive global agenda with economic profit balanced by social and environmental profit, achieved through corporate transparency, responsibility, accountability and moderation of profiteering.

Melding the best of “For Profit” corporations with the best of “Not for Profit” activism, if unconventional, can certainly be seen to overcome the problems faced by traditional activism discussed in the last section. Corporations are traditionally known for their discipline and money power, while “Not For Profits” are traditionally known for their progressivism and weakness in money power. Both discipline and progressivism are needed to achieve progressive power .

From which side will the gap first be bridged? Is it easier for the pragmatic, disciplined, monied corporate warrior to adopt a progressive approach? Or is it easier for the idealistic, money-lacking progressive to adopt a corporate warrior approach? This abstraction is an oversimplification, but a useful oversimplification, because it shows how reform may come from either side – including from within corporations themselves or through the entrepreneurial development of Noble Corporations (or Aikido Activist corporation) by social entrepreneurs.

Aikido Activism will use the full power and weight of corporations and governments to achieve transformative progress for the very center and essence of corporate and government culture and behavior.

Understanding progress and power is important. It is often heard that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1834-1902), but this statement is obviously incorrect . The greater the abuse of power, the more inclined are people to rebel against it. So no abusive power is absolute, certainly no power that corrupts absolutely – as amply evidenced by countless historical uprisings against unjust exploitations.

An Aikido Activist corporation would shun unjust exploitations, but when competitors employ unjust exploitations in a competition being judged by Wall Street analysts and investors on the basis of bottom-line financial profit alone, perhaps the only way an Aikido Activist corporation can surmount unjustly exploitive competitors is by employing another type of Aikido Activist hold against them in order to preclude losing market share and disappearing into irrelevance.

Although corporate power is far from absolute, adolescent corporate hegemony in policy and media presents great inertia to inhibit progressive activism. Yet corporations have established free markets, and it is the free market that presents the greatest opportunity to practice Aikido Activism.

A progressive salad dressing company here or a progressive ice cream company there is insufficient to redirect the momentum of adolescent corporate hegemony. Aikido Activism must become established at (and around) leading corporations within each industry – those corporations defining business practices by their own behavior – in order to generate widespread transformation.

In this way Aikido Activism will develop a superior form of power – progressive power or collective empowerment whose objective is individual empowerment, while promoting the understanding that progressive power is superior to so-called absolute power and its absolute corrupting influence. Eventually, Adolescent Capitalism’s excesses will be moderated and replaced by a superior form of capitalism: Individual Empowerment Capitalism .

Individual Empowerment Capitalism depends on a reasoned meaning of power and empowerment. Giving everyone a shovel may empower a lot of digging. Giving everyone a seed may empower the planting of a more beautiful environment. But giving everyone free will and understanding through promoting education and communication is the best way to help each of us learn when to use shovel or seed. It is possible that the current trend of thinking – that bigger houses and more toys is empowering – will again shift to economy cars and efficient living; but regardless, the trappings of power tends to be an education in itself, so when a new meme of power arises, the popularity of its trappings will propagate as they always have.

In a Free Market, Aikido Activism would easily succeed on the basis of its superiority. As in Aikido, Aikido Activism can still surmount competitors even in markets less free, so long as the Aikido Activist activity understands the nature of a competitor’s power and refocuses that power in progressive directions.

Advanced thinking regarding sustainable capitalism has introduced Natural Capitalism , Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), Triple Bottom Line accounting (TBL – looking at the three bottom lines of economics, sociology and environment), Factor Four or Factor Ten goals (efficiency improvement goals for material and energy consumption), Frank Dixon’s Total Corporate Responsibility (TCR), etc. Each of these represent measures and methods that will only be effective at bringing unaccountable business practices into conformity when the halls of power are truly opened to progress, not just adorned with a progressive façade . Aikido Activism may hold the best chance of opening the halls of power to such progress.

The problems presented by Adolescent Capitalism to humanity and the environment – its unjust exploitations – quickly reached global proportions. In addition to playing a key role in transforming corporate behavior, Aikido Activism can be key in promoting the further requisite global remedies of globally inclusive communications and dialogue – the prerequisites for global democracy and sustainable, joyful, global living.

Applying Aikido Activism to traditional activities of activism is one important subcategory of Aikido Activism – e.g., promoting educational, humanitarian and environmental technologies and processes. But applying Aikido Activism to ALL commercial activities is equally important.

If for example Aikido Activism were to avoid the area of exploring, refining and distributing fossil fuels, permitting the continuation of the single-minded economic profit approach in that activity would mean the continued subversion of major environmental and sustainability issues. One possibility for Aikido Activism is always the laboratory – if powerful cost savings or efficiency producing innovations (e.g., in the refinement or application of petroleum) can be channeled into campaigns of Aikido Activism (and not “sold out” to Big Oil).

And if for example Aikido Activism were to avoid the area of military technology, then that activity might promote (continue to promote?) conflict-engendering international policy, which is likely found complicit with the goal of economic imperialism and the deadly ambition of entrenching the myopic profit motive globally. Progressive arms and security innovators should employ Aikido Activism to build large businesses (even acquiring weapon making firms) whose profits are then turned to counter traditional, destabilizing, pro-conflict policies.

The cycle of deceit in power structures being leveraged for private profit, further power, then achieving even greater capability of deceit – is the enemy of healthy civil societies. A culture of truth and integrity is required for peace. In order to reach greater peace in global society we need greater truth and integrity in culture and in power structures. Education and truthfulness are the best friends of a healthy, civil global society. Placing interest and investment in the advancement of education and truthfulness promotes global integrity (global sustainability). Consequently, some of the greatest investment vehicles towards sustainability are global democratic communication tools and technology like the Internet – especially if the business model itself is based on Aikido Activism.

The articulation of the idea of Aikido Activism – as the perennial standard for social evolution against outworn/regressive tradition – appears to be so new that envisioning the many possible current avenues for it will surely take further thinking, discussion, and experimentation. Forward thinking social entrepreneurs should employ a part of their profits to expand the understanding and practice of Aikido Activism, to increase awareness on all fronts, especially fostering the development of Aikido Entrepreneurs and Aikido Venture Capital (i.e., the funding of Aikido Activism-based entrepreneurial projects).

We should remember that “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come” (Victor Hugo); so bringing about substantial change in global society can start with just a very focused few sufficiently aware of the problem and solution – who begin pursuing the solution. Pursuing Aikido Activism can redirect the future from Tragedy in the Global Commons to Triumph in the Global Commons. 6. THE SPECIAL CASE OF DEMOCRATIC MEDIA AIKIDO ACTIVISM Industries that are reliant on intellectual property – e.g., biotechnology and communications technology – are perhaps the most auspicious industries for the introduction of campaigns of Aikido Activism due to the Aikido-like enablement of intellectual property protections. Interest is growing by a number of parties in the area of activism through the commercial development of democratic media tools and technologies , but applying Aikido Activism to these activities can make them doubly effective.

Media concentration among a few large corporations (Big Media) is a byproduct of Adolescent Capitalism that is a key component of the engine advancing Adolescent Capitalism. Aikido Activism must engage the engine of media concentration to redirect it. The serendipity of the Internet’s unlikely birth has led to the greatest ever transformation in media democratization – expanding media access, enabling more groups to coordinate, inform, and learn – but broadcast media has not yet been democratized (perhaps one of the first opportunities for democratic media Aikido Activism). As David P. Reed insightfully points out, the value of Group Forming Networks such as the Internet rises with the number of different groups supported – presaging an end to the current status quo of concentrated Big Media.

Intellectual property – common in communications and media technologies – is promoted by many forward-thinking countries (including in the U.S. Constitution to “promote the progress of science and useful arts”), and in the case of patent law is structured generally to permit innovators who file patents the legal protection of using the court system to block others from using their patented innovation. This provides a potential barrier to competition that can be quite useful to associate greater value to a particular business, which power can be used to maximize dollar profit or, alternatively, to effect and sustain a campaign of Aikido Activism – via a progressive Corporation with a Heart (or Noble Corporation) promoting industry without ignoring responsibility and accountability.

Communications technology and policy is closely related to social policy. If Aikido Activism can gain a substantial position of power in the global communications industry, then its Noble Communications Corporations could promote inclusive communications policy such as global universal service, which would substantially advance the cause of global sustainability by advancing global dialogue and global democracy. 7. CONCLUSION The current state of Adolescent Capitalism has done a great amount of good, but has also propagated many excesses and abuses. Our goal should be a better, more balanced, understanding of not only where capitalism is going and must go (Individual Empowerment Capitalism) but also how it will get there.

More times than not, entrenched power must be engaged via the very mechanisms originally employed to achieve or retain that power in order to reform its unjustly exploitive elements. By definition, Aikido Activism employs traditional power mechanisms to engage Adolescent Capitalism. Aikido Activism will be found complementing “Not For Profit” activism – augmenting it to enable the timely transformation of Adolescent Capitalism.

The goal is not merely sustainability. Sustainability is critical but sustainable joyful living is the real goal – turning Dr. Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons into a Triumph of the Commons.

As the world evolves from brute force, to economic persuasion, to conscientious reason – progressively advancing the focus of society and law – Triumph of the Commons will antiquate Adolescent Capitalism, spurred to great excess by Free Market Fundamentalism, flourishing unopposed in a predominantly “Not for Aikido” (i.e., “Not For Profit”) activist culture. A new and potent mode of community consciousness – the mobilization of free independent thought via the Internet – will inspire and be inspired by Aikido Activism, which centers responsibility and empowers individuals by advancing the Noble Corporation in the new age of Individual Empowerment Capitalism.

8. GET INVOLVED This essay is presented to the broadest possible active audience by leveraging online discussion groups, email lists, and the like – aiming to leverage the Internet’s access to many minds and bodies not only for discussion and criticism, but also to accelerate collaboration on Aikido Activism campaigns. These campaigns require ideas, investors, collaborators and supporters who understand and wish to advance the new model. I am seeking and identifying parties interested in the pursuit of Aikido Activism in order to catalyze consensual introductions between investors, projects, entrepreneurs and other co-participants. Please contact aikidosphere@earthlink.net to indicate your interest.

APPENDIX I

Lists of the forums where various versions of this essay have been posted.

(Post Date) Forum/URL

(March 30, 2004) Doug Henwood’s LBO-Talk http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040329/007090.html http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040329/007178.html

(March 30, 2004) Tribe.net (Aikido Activism and Utopian Research & Design) http://tinyurl.com/29kpp and http://tinyurl.com/2pfng and http://tinyurl.com/2sakl and (May 12, 2004) http://tinyurl.com/38gtl

(March 30, 2004) International Network of Engaged Buddhists (No Online Forum)/ http://www.sulak-sivaraksa.org/network22.php

(March 31, 2004) Solar PV (PhotoVoltaic) Forum of the United Nations Development Programme - Global Environment Facility http://roo.undp.org/gef/solarpv/forum/viewmessages.cfm?Forum=19&Topic=59

(March 31, 2004) Crisinfo - Communication Rights in the Information Society (associated with World Summit on the Information Society) http://quantum.liquidweb.com/pipermail/crisinfo_comunica.org/2004-March/date.html http://quantum.liquidweb.com/pipermail/crisusa_comunica.org/2004-March/000066.html

(March 31, 2004) LaborNet Forums (see Labor.newsline) http://webboard.mediate.com/~labornet/

(March 31, 2004) TakingITGlobal http://www.takingitglobal.org/discuss/showthread.html?threadid=6703

(April 5, 2004) and (May 12, 2004) Sociologists Without Borders Discussion Forum http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.com/cgi-bin/guestbook.cgi

(April 6, 2004) Progressive Economists’ Network http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/pen-l/2004II/msg00176.html

(May 12, 2004) http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/pen-l/2004II/msg01156.html

(April 8, 2004) Marxism Discussion List http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2004-April/006365.html

(May 12, 2004) http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2004-May/008161.html

(May 12, 2004) Idealist.org http://tinyurl.com/3gswu

(May 13, 2004) Kabissa African Civil Society Discussion Board http://www.kabissa.org/members/bb/viewtopic.php?t=403

(May 13, 2004) Environlink Forum http://www.envirolink.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=438

(May 13, 2004) The Irish Bank message board http://www.theirishbank.com/BulletinBoard.asp

(May 17, 2004) National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NDD) Forum http://www.thataway.org/discussions/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8

(May 18, 2004) Yahoo Groups: anti-capitalism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-capitalism/message/7504

(May 18, 2004) Yahoo Groups: international-pupil-and-studentaction http://groups.yahoo.com/group/international-pupil-and-studentactions/message/1471

(May 18, 2004) Yahoo Groups: iydf_hq (International Youth Development Forum on Yahoo Groups) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iydf_hq/message/85

(May 18, 2004) Tribe.net (Progressives, IndyVoter, Enlightened Artist/Writers, SF Urban Alliance for Sustainability, the post-hippie movement) http://tinyurl.com/ypu6v and (May 18, 2004) http://tinyurl.com/246zvZ and (May 18, 2004) http://tinyurl.com/yurle and (May 18, 2004) http://tinyurl.com/2ksdu and (May 18, 2004) http://tinyurl.com/2kbgc

(May 18, 2004) Radical Middle Multilogue http://www.radicalmiddle.com/logue_frm.htm

(May 18, 2004) Media Venture Collective’s Media Burn BLOG http://tinyurl.com/2dfwv

(May 19, 2004) Yahoo Groups: diogenesthecynic http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diogenesthecynic/message/1923

(May 19, 2004) Yahoo Groups: PNGSA http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PNGSA/message/1235

(May 19, 2004) Tribe.net (Social Software Intellectuals) http://tinyurl.com/2lzj7

(May 24, 2004) Care2.com (Aikido Activism group) http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aikidoactivism

(May 27, 2004) Yahoo Groups: social_enterprise http://groups.yahoo.com/group/social_enterprise/message/43

(May 28, 2004) National Association of Grant Writing Professionals Discussion Forum http://www.nsgwp.org/forums/Grant_Writing_Discussion/index.html

(May 28, 2004) SocialEdge http://skoll.socialedge.org/?13@34.RWpyaKYmbA6.6978@.3c3f2aa9/16

(May 28, 2004) Social Venture Europe’s Open Space http://tinyurl.com/2wfu4 and http://tinyurl.com/2byqb (or go to http://www.svneurope.com/ and choose “Clipboard”, then “Open Space” for a nicer view – Aikido Activism is posted at more than one location in the discussions)

(June 4, 2004) PlaNetwork http://tinyurl.com/ypvb7

(June 5, 2004) Global Ideas Bank http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=4015

(July 25, 2004) Omidyar Network http://www.omidyar.net/group/community-general/news/8/

APPENDIX II

HISTORICAL WISDOMS SUPPORTING ELEMENTS OF AIKIDO ACTIVISM THESIS

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” – George Washington

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” – British politician & philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied incorporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” – Thomas Jefferson. ca.1812

“The question is not what goal is envisaged for the time being by this or that member of the proletariat, or even by the proletariat as a whole. The question is what is the proletariat and what course of action will it be forced historically to take in conformity with its own nature.” – Karl Marx

“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast mount of treasure and blood.... It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.” “With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.” – Abraham Lincoln, first quote is from a letter to William F. Elkins, Nov 21, 1864.

“Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.” “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” “Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.” – French poet and novelist Victor Hugo (1802-1885).

“What is the central problem of social relations? It is the question of power… But our task is not to learn where to place power; it is how to develop power. We frequently hear nowadays of ‘transferring power as the panacea for all our ills…’ Genuine power can only be grown, it will slip from every arbitrary hand that grasps it; for genuine power is not coercive control, but coactive control. Coercive power is the curse of the universe; coactive power, the enrichment and advancement of every human soul.” – Mary Parker Follett, 1924

“Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.” – George Bernard Shaw

“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is {also} bad economics.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

“The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.” – Edward Dowling, Editor and Priest, Chicago Daily News, 28 Jul. 1941

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” Seven sins: “1) Wealth without work. 2) Pleasure without conscience. 3) Knowledge without character. 4) Commerce without morality. 5) Science without humanity. 6) Worship without sacrifice. 7) Politics without principle.” – Indian leader and peace activist Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948)

“The outcome of the world, the gate of the future, the entry into the super-human - these are not thrown open to a few of the privileged nor to one chosen people to the exclusion of all others. They will open only to an advance of all together.” “To create is to unify.” “The day is not distant when humanity will realize that it is faced with a choice between suicide and adoration.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)

“For me, the critical determinant of human evolution is the realm of human values; and that is a matter of education and choice. ” – Inventor of vaccine for polio, Jonas Salk.

“In the material realm, it is money that makes the world go 'round. Yet, very few people understand money what it is, where it comes from, how it is created and allocated, and how it determines the outcomes of so many other aspects of our lives. Yet such an understanding is crucial to transcending the current global mega-crisis. The dysfunctions that are inherent in the present systems of money, banking, and finance are at the root of so much violent conflict, economic inequity, and ecological destruction.” – Thomas H. Greco, Jr.

“Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” – Albert Einstein

“Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of two forms, force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.” “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” “True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.” - British mathematician-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

“The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood as a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek competition are making a grave mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst sin a human being can commit. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.” – The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei (1883-1969)

“There is in America today, a confusion of minds, so tragic and misleading, that our whole thought and philosophy is distorted. At the very time that economics, that is the study of work and income, is of foremost importance to our well-being, economics as economics is not being studied in our schools. Either in the elementary schools, nor in colleges are students learning about the philosophy of money and exchange, production and trade, wealth and savings. Our university students are pouring into chemistry and physics, and deserting history and sociology. Why? Because to us, the basic problem is how large an income we can get—how much money we can control. What careers for our children will ensure them the most wealth? The object of our ambition is rising to higher and higher income brackets. And what we see as progress is escaping from manual labor—the white-collar jobs—thence to employing others to work for us.” – leading African-American activist-sociologist Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) in speech of February 23, 1953.

“I have seen the enemy, and it is us.” – Cartoonist Walter Crawford (Walt) Kelly, Jr (1913-1973) via his comic strip character, Pogo

“There is no energy crisis, food crisis or environmental crisis. There is only a crisis of ignorance.” “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” “When individuals join in a cooperative venture, the power generated far exceeds what they could have accomplished acting individually.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

“The servant leader is servant first.... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.... This conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.” –Robert K. Greenleaf (1904-1990)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Sociologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

“The new pluralism {a public sector of government, a private sector of business, and a social sector} has a new problem: how to maintain the performance capacity of the new institutions and yet maintain the cohesion of society. This makes doubly important the emergence of a strong and functioning social sector. It is an additional reason why the social sector will increasingly be crucial to the performance, if not to the cohesion, of the knowledge society.” – Peter F. Drucker

“Today's world requires us to accept the oneness of humanity. In the past, isolated communities could afford to think of one another as fundamentally separate. Some could even exist in total isolation. But nowadays, whatever happens in one region eventually affects many other areas. Within the context of our new interdependence, self-interest clearly lies in considering the interest of others.” – Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso

“Laissez Faire Economics is the theory that if each acts like a vulture, all will end as doves.” – Unknown

“Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course . . . that may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. ” “A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.” – Warning to Humanity document (1992), signed by over 1,600 of the world's senior scientists, including a majority of the living Nobel laureates in the sciences.

“The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but form the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed” – 2001 statement from 100 Nobel laureates. “Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static “snapshots.” It is a set of general principles — distilled over the course of the twentieth century, spanning fields as diverse as the physical and social sciences, engineering, and management.... During the last thirty years, these tools have been applied to understand a wide range of corporate, urban, regional, economic, political, ecological, and even psychological systems. And systems thinking is a sensibility — for the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character.” “Personal mastery teaches us to choose. Choosing is a courageous act: picking the results and actions which you will make into your destiny.” – Peter M. Senge “{We should advance} The role of the corporation: extending the traditional role of the corporation, especially the global corporation, to be more commensurate with its impact. If national governments are weakening in an era of growing globalization, will global corporations become more exposed? How do global corporations act responsibly in situations where the rule of law is deteriorating and economic power effectively supersedes political power? What can be learned from efforts such as The UN's Global Compact about the feasibility and impact of initial moves in this direction? How can global corporations better understand what determines their "license to operate" and their "license to grow"? How can they use their visibility to be a more positive force in a complex world?” – a goal and reasoning from the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), itself established to continue the work begun at MIT’s Center for Organizational Learning (1991-1997), both founded by Peter M. Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization and co-author of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (with Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers) http://www.presence.net/

“The capital markets can create social change much more quickly than legislation or litigation because that profit incentive is in place. ” – Social entrepreneur Thomas Van Dyck, Chairman of As You Sow, Founder of Progressive Asset Management and also of the Social Equity Investment Group of US Bancorp Piper Jaffrey

“I had the incredibly naďve assumption that educational institutions could be in the vanguard. In fact, they have the reverse function.” “Activists will need to do what corporate strategists have mastered: exploit the tensions of our federal system by creating crises of jurisdiction and authority between local, state and federal government.” – Ward Morehouse

“The great challenge for the next several decades will be to advance understanding of social systems in the same way that the past century has advanced understanding of the physical world.” – Jay W. Forrester, 1991

“The average American home has more media gathering technology than a state of the art newsroom did ten years ago...The only place left for our civilisation to expand – our only real frontier – is the ether itself: the media. As a result power today has little to do with how much property a person owns or commands; it is instead determined by how many minutes of prime time television or pages of newspaper attention she can access or occupy. The ever expanding media has become a true region – a place as real and seemingly as open as the globe was five hundred years ago. The new sphere is called the datasphere.” – Douglas Rushkoff

“Part of the reason the world is in such bad shape to begin with is because environmentalists with high visibilities who are in a position to educate the masses about the true costs of running environmentally degrading economies fail to talk about it in ways that make sense to the biggest societal influence today; Wall Street.” “There's a famous money manager on Wall Street named Peter Lynch who says that investors spend too much time getting technical in analysing their investments. He basically says if you like shopping at Home Depot, invest in Home Depot. The same can really be said to activists: if you think Coke sucks, sell Coke short.” “There’s no such thing as bad companies, just conflicted ones that haven't had their social irresponsibility monetised yet.” “Use the power of Wall Street to destroy bad companies quickly. It's cheap, fast, and effective.” “Karma Capitalism is all about - redistributing wealth away from socially and environmentally irresponsible corporations and into the hands of the people who oppose them.” – Max Keiser

“Rupert Murdock is polluting a global commons, which is the infosphere, with oil slicks of misinformation, just as badly as Exxon is polluting the planet. Truth has never traded at a lower value than it does today.” – Stacy Herbert

“If capitalism is the meat and potatoes of globalisation, then imperialism must surely be its gravy. Or possibly its broccoli.” – Irish Rock Star Bono

“Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity” – Lawrence Lessig (actually part of the title his book: Free Culture, How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity)

“I realized that my moral scruples would make no difference to the real world, given the conditions of effective or near-perfect competition that prevail in financial markets; if I abstained somebody else would take my place. In deciding which stocks or currencies to buy or sell, I was guided by only one consideration: to maximize my profits by weighing the risks against the rewards. My decisions related to events that had social consequences: When I bought shares in Lockheed and Northrop after managements were indicted for bribery I helped to sustain the price of the stock. When I sold sterling short in 1992, the Bank of England was on the other side of my transactions and I was taking money out of the pockets of British taxpayers. But if I had tried to take the social consequences into account, it would have thrown off my risk/reward calculations and my chances of being successful would have been reduced. Fortunately I did not need to bother about the social consequences because they would have occurred anyway: Financial markets have a sufficiently large number of participants so that no single participant can have an appreciable effect on the outcome. Bringing my social conscience into the decision-making process would not make any difference in the real world. Britain would have devalued anyway. If I were not single-minded in the pursuit of profit, it would affect only my own results…” “...I blessed the luck that led me to the financial markets and allowed me not to dirty my hands. The fact remains that anonymous market participants are largely exempt from moral choices as long as they play by the rules. In this sense, financial markets are not immoral; they are amoral.” – George Soros

“The world will benefit when economy supports well-being.” – Robert Rubinstein

“Globalisation is a phenomenon which, in terms of its scale and consequences, is unprecedented in the history of the world. It has fundamentally altered the situation of mankind. The model of American consumerism has been extended to the whole of the planet. For a minority, the changes mean success, good fortune, wealth, the realisation of all their long-term hopes and the satisfaction of all their immediate desires. For everyone else, the vast majority of mankind, the changes mean the collapse of families, the loss of jobs, the destruction of an established, secure and peaceful way of life, the devaluing of stable values, loss of authentic identity, and the undermining of the environment, health and life. In short, a global crisis.” – Hoj-Ahmed Noukhaev

“Personally, I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions of society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control.” – Noam Chomsky

“Corporate scandals of recent years have clearly shown that the plethora of laws of the past century have not eliminated the less savory side of human behavior. Rules cannot substitute for character. ” – US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan April 17, 2004

“Now is the time for thinking people to think. ” – Maya Angelou

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