Lilipoh: The Spirit of Life

The Great Turning
By David C. Korten
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006
Reviewed by Louise Frazier
 
David Korten calls us to develop a new social paradigm based on a worldview of the human being as potentially good, as opposed to that of the human being as more apt to become evil. The latter has been espoused for 5,000 years by successions of "Empire builders” who have seen them­selves, through "divine right," as necessarily providing leadership to a fallen humanity. One could equate this period with the 5,000-year dark age of Kali Yuga recognized in spiritual circles, especially from the East, as having ended in 1899.
 
Thus, it is apparent that the dominating forces of Empire have outlived their time but continue to devise schemes to stay in power—largely for their own material gain. Meanwhile the majority of humanity is manipulated through fear and falsity to stay in line, receiving little if any of the wealth they create with their labor. Korten would have us turn away from Empire builders with their paternalistic, greedy, dominating leadership and proceed to create an Earth Community that would serve the public good. He contends that a substantial majority has already achieved a socialized consciousness and is capable of transcending individual self-interest in favor of cooperative efforts to embrace the higher potentials of our nature.
 
Korten defines five orders of human consciousness, ranging from childhood to mature adult, and shows that the power-seekers function in the second order of childhood where they live in their own little world, play up to the powerful and exploit the oppressed, seeing truth as whatever serves their purpose. Wealth is a sign to them of God's favor, and poverty, justified disfavor. He sees adults maturing from a socialized, to a cultural, and on to a spiritual consciousness, to become co-creators in a complex, evolving, and integral world where, averse to a competitive drive for dominating power, they become leaders in social movements that challenge Empire.
 
Realizing that all wealth comes from the earth, a developing global civil society now seeks to have everyone benefit from this wealth—not just the few. The abject poverty of millions in the world is not acceptable. Each individual should be recognized as capable of contributing to progress while enjoying the fruits of labor in service to the Earth Community. For Korten, our Founding Fathers found themselves as servants taking their lead from the will of the people, who were vocal in their concerns for their own sense of independence—unlike the U.S. government today, where dominance rules.

People who are familiar with Rudolf Steiner's threefold social order—in which the economy depends on nature; all work is service to the community; the individual is valued and entitled to right livelihood based on need—will see a relationship to Korten's call for a great turning of people from all walks of life, cultures and religions working together towards Earth Community.