Conscious Globalism: What's Wrong with the World and How to Fix It

By David Schwerin

Conscious Globalism explores today's economic, political, and social conflicts and offers timely, pragmatic solutions. Schwerin probes deeply and finds that an erroneous view of reality - with its... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0976518937
• ISBN13: 9780976518938
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Digital Junction Pr
• Length: 271 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Righteous, Not as Deep As Some, Great Overview

This book is a logical follow-on to the author's earlier book, Conscious Capitalism: Principles for Prosperity, a book that is doing very very well in Chinese translations. Early on he points out that we need to achieve a global change in consciousness, and I am reminded of Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential as well as Steve MacIntosh's Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution. Everything I am reading is converging, and it is not because of what I am choosing as much as it is about what there is to choose from--this is a tsunami. The author observes that the Internet is both a people unifier, allowing for information sharing across all traditional barriers and boundaries, and it is also a source of competitive information, something I take to mean that smaller players are now competitive with larger players because of their increased access to information. The author points out that "the rules" were made of, by, and for those with wealth, and that our challenge today is to find investment capital with a conscience. I think that is happening as Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution and Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World combine with Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and The Philosophy of Sustainable Design thinking. Further on he talks about how respecting the environment encourages innovation and reduces waste, but I am struck by the absence of references to any of the greats in this entire line of reflection. The author follows the spiritual principles adopted by Phi Beta Iota, the Honour Society for Public Intelligence, and focuses constantly on moving us all, one individual at a time, from "Me" to "Us." He is spot on in his calling for a new metrics, praising the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) but not mentioned as I would have expected the more constructive definition of Gross Positive Product (GPD) that does not count prisons and hospitals and other remediation endeavors that emerge from bad ill- informed and ideologically motivated policy. The author displays a surprising degree of naiveté in speculating that capitalists of today's sort (predatory immoral) actually want a free press and a free flow of information, and he disappoints further in seeming to ignore completely all the negative costs of immoral capitalism that ignores two of the three bottom lines. He touches on corruption as the single biggest killer of economies, and then goes on to extol the virtues of honesty, fairness, and transparency. I am much taken with his brief discussion of the ills of any government that promotes loyalty over merit. He also observes that government bookkeeping cannot be trusted and that protectionism and subsidies have hurt everyone--this as the Obama Administration is still trying to foist an idiotic, ill-conceived, ideologically-driven health plan on the public, which

A Must Read

After reading David Schwerin's book, "Conscious Globalism: What's wrong with the world and how to fix it," I found myself feeling hopeful about the world and its future. David's examination of complex economic, financial, and business issues is not only comprehensive but also comprehensible. He lays the foundation for understanding in an articulate, readable manner, so that readers without extensive background knowledge can easily follow his analyses. Perhaps what makes this book so relevant is that it describes solutions that do not depend on a radical departure from current models but are grounded in the capitalist system. It does not discard profit and self-interest as motives, but rather leads the reader to more accurate understandings of these principles. Citing examples, David shows how adopting practices that align with real self-interest can increase profitability in corporations that enact good employment and sound environmental policies. He also shows how individual investors can make a difference through socially responsible investing. By consciously choosing companies whose policies and practices reflect their values, investors do not necessarily have to sacrifice profit-they may, in fact, even do better. This wonderful book offers new ways to view previously held beliefs and realistically encourages all that is best in us.

Everyone's fate is inextricably tied to the well-being of all humanity.

Conscious Globalism: What's wrong with the world and how to fix it is, according to its author David A. Schwerin, not a book about globalization but rather an exposé of today's tension-laden conflicts using as the setting the globalization drama. With globalization we are witnessing a re-organization of society around a distinct economic model-unrestrained capitalism. Moreover, as the author mentions, "it can be viewed as the world-wide integration of economic, political and social activities, and information." Economic integration may be a natural and inevitable process that may lead to a higher standard of living and quality of life throughout the world. However, it is imperative that we are watchful of uncontrolled capitalism that produces counterproductive behaviors that are very often rampant in today's global marketplace. In order to avoid costly errors, it is crucial to be able to distinguish these shortcomings, while analyzing many of the erroneous beliefs that motivate such conduct, and it is vital that we subsequently correct them. Conscious Globalism is an engaging and informative read that invites readers to think deeply and seriously about the topics Schwerin zeros in on. One finds everything from the what, why, who and where of globalization, to the challenges, flaws and consequences and the possibilities. Although the topic itself may be enormous, the author has done an amazing job of putting many issues into perspective. A great deal of ink is devoted to evaluating how our actions are dictated by three multifaceted components of our personalities, Me (self-centered), Them (other-directed) and Us (common-good-oriented.) This Me behavior is very often in evidence with the heartless actions of corporations and individuals that are propelled by behavior having a negative impact, and which contribute very little to the democratic process. Many of these companies and the individuals, who run them, unfortunately change their ethical outlook when placed inside a corporate structure whose first aim is obedience and profit. Decisions are based on self-interest and ill conceived plans, leading very often to terrible results. Rather than adopting a trustful and co-operative environment, these individuals will adopt the "me first" attitude. This was very much in evidence with the Enron and World Com debacles; however, as Schwerin points out, the offensive behavior of a few executives is not evidence of a fatal flaw in capitalism. The free market economy did not collapse nor has it been replaced by another economic model. Other examples of the Me behavior can be seen in the dim-witted actions of the various politicians and world leaders, as well as others in authority. Unfortunately, the Me behavior is often followed by the THEM rationalization when events don't turn out as planned. Schwerin succinctly describes it as a romanticized image of ourselves that we portray to the world in an attempt to gain acceptance and/or avoid respo

A World View

Here is a book that tackles topics that might be deemed incompatible: human behavior, economics, environmental concerns and globalization. Schwerin brilliantly combines these disparate elements into an engrossing, deeply researched volume that convincingly portrays the need for an approach that provides individual fulfillment while protecting the environment, the human spirit, and international relations. The breadth of the coverage is summarized in the subtitle: "What's wrong with the world and how to fix it." The cost of short-term thinking and immediate gratification is exposed while methodology for "fixing the world" is explored. Surprisingly, most of the recommendations appear reasonable in an era in which the inhabitants of our world seem so confused.