Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow, by Jim Hightower, with Susan DeMarco, 2008. John Wiley & Sons, $25.95 hardcover.
Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, by Hazel Henderson, with Simran Sethi; forward by Hunter Lovins, 2006. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., $30.00 paperback.
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Introduction
"There are ninety thousand people in this world who do not think, for every one who does, and these people hate the thinkers like poison….
"You see, Maria, this world is run by 'practical' people: that is to say, by people who do not know how to think, have never had any education in thinking, and who do not wish to have it. They get on far better with lies, tub thumping, swindling, vote catching, murdering, and the rest of practical politics. So, when a person who can think does come along, to tell them what they are doing wrong, or how to put it right, they have to invent some way of slinging mud at him for fear of losing their power and being forced to do the right thing. So they always screech out with one accord that the advice of this thinker is 'visionary,' 'unpractical,' or 'all right in theory.' Then, when they have discredited his piece of truth by the trick of words … they are safe to carry on with the wars and miseries which are the results of practical politics."
-- from Mistress Masham's Repose, by T. H. White, 1946.
T.H. White, best known for his Arthurian fantasy, The Once and Future King, wrote a far greater masterpiece in Mistress Masham's Repose1, a latter-day sequel to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. As both social satire and swashbuckling adventure, Mistress Masham recasts Swift's caustic wit in 20th Century terms, pitting the social wisdom and self-sufficient "Oeconomy" of a secret Lilliput-in-Exile against the all-pervading greed of modern civilization.
Given the population explosion and its concomitant dumbing-down since T.H.White wrote his magnificent tale, the ratio of thinkers to non-thinkers is likely fewer now than one in a million. Jim Hightower and Hazel Henderson definitely fall into the thinker side of the equation. In their books, both have sought out kindred mavericks in our midst, those who have successfully broken away from corporate rule and consumer frenzy - and not only lived to tell the tale, but by all accounts also had a hell of a good time. Both books offer fun and informative reading in the form of lively stories about individuals and companies, and both provide ample resources for further reading and activism.
Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow
by Jim Hightower, with Susan DeMarco, 2008. John Wiley & Sons, $25.95 hardcover.
by Carol Van Strum
"She wanted to know about the food of the People: about the way they lived, their enemies and dangers, and about all the other things which her guide insisted on calling Oeconomy."
From Mistress Masham's Repose, by T.H. White
"Words matter," Jim Hightower proclaims at the outset of Part One, "Business." From its broad meaning of any purposeful activity, he traces the corruption of the word business to its current narrow construction of activity solely to generate profit.
"By defining business in the narrowest terms of global corporate interests, we sublimate all else to their bottom line, leaving only incidental room for the multiple goals of our community." Business as usual today scarcely gives lip service to the meaningful business of life, Hightower says – such as time for family and friends; personal satisfaction of workers; encouragement of creativity; promotion of discourse; welcoming of dissent; building of strong, local relationships; good stewardship; to say nothing of fun, laughter, the pursuit of happiness, a sense of shared purpose and belonging, the need to be respected and valued, and that truly retro concept, the common good.
The question of course is whether a business can give equal measure to such incalculable goals and still succeed in the cutthroat world of Profits-R-Us. "The knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss alternatives out of hand as being small stuff, un-American, nonglobal, unworkable," Hightower says. "But try telling that to the millions of Americans who're making smaller-scale, independent businesses work for them, their communities, and people around the world."
Part One visits examples such as the phenomenally successful Peace Coffee, which "defines fairness to growers, workers, and the environment as integral to its success," and Organic Valley – "a social experiment masquerading as a business" – the cooperative of dairy farmers that rejected Wal-Mart, kept its own soul, and succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. There's Muhammad Yunus, "banker to the poor," whose Grameen Bank created the idea of micro-lending that has raised incomes, empowered women, and improved educational levels throughout Bangladesh2. There's Charlie Alfero, who almost single-handedly created a socially responsible health care system that transformed the entire economy of a rural, played-out mining county in the wilds of New Mexico. Even more colorfully, there are the Madison, Wisconsin cab drivers and San Francisco strippers who bought out their bosses to run things their own way – successfully.
"Together we can do it yourself" is the theme of Part Two: Politics. "Remember this," Hightower urges, "if you're not involved in politics, others are. That means you're leaving basic decisions about your life to them. Things like war, pollution, health care, taxes, pensions, education…." The original meaning of the Greek word idiots, he notes, referred to those who refused to take part in public decisions, "which is to say, politics." Pessimism and idiocy are not on the agenda of this whirlwind tour, from the lively parties of the Oregon Bus Project to the nationwide Wellstone Action camps, the formidable successes of ACORN organizing, and the "Politics of Fun" at Bob Fest, a daylong "county fair of politics and fun" outside Madison, Wisconsin.
Personal, economic, and political meet in Part Three: Life. Here the authors call on all of us to reject the corporate stranglehold on our food, transportation, energy, beliefs, and future. Here, too, Hightower finds ground for optimism, particularly in the growing alliance among scientists, environmental groups, labor, and evangelical Christians to fight global climate change and environmental destruction. Breaking free from "the suffocating repression of the status quo" will never be easy, but it can be fun – and never, ever dull.
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Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
by Hazel Henderson, with Simran Sethi; forward by Hunter Lovins, 2006. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., $30.00 paperback.
by Carol Van Strum
"As we all know, I am a failure in the world. I do not rule people, nor deceive them for the sake of power, nor try to swindle their livelihood into my own possession…. Although this is not a fashionable way of going on, nor even a successful one, it is a thing which I believe in – that people must not tyrannize…."
From Mistress Masham's Repose, by T.H. White, 1946
Hazel Henderson, a pioneer of green economy dismissed as "visionary" by mainstream business and media thirty years ago, is now hailed as a guru of "triple bottom line accounting" for business and investment: i.e., measuring the success of a business according to its impacts equally on people, planet, and profit, instead of on profit alone. A revolutionary and much-maligned concept initially, the growth of triple bottom line business practice – and its unexpected profitability – went unheralded until global climate change and peak oil made the concept not only fashionable, but successful as well.
Based on her public television series of the same name, Ethical Markets compiles profiles of the individuals and companies featured on the show. It is remarkable how many there are. As far back as 1981, Henderson urged a systemic shift to sustainable manufacturing processes and the inevitable transition to renewable energy sources, but few heeded her warnings. Below the radar of mass media and policy makers, however, those who did heed her advice became the vanguard of a new sustainable capitalism.
Henderson groups the changes toward a green economy into three main sectors:
- The lifestyles of health and sustainability sector (including renewable energy and resource industries, recycling, barter, and second-hand auction businesses; alternative and preventive health care, wellness, and fitness providers; and producers of clean food and organic agriculture;
- The socially responsible investing sector – "the fastest growing segment of U.S. capital markets," representing some $2.3 trillion invested in publicly listed companies;
- The corporate social responsibility sector, growing by leaps and bounds: "In a 2005 poll of CEOs, by the World Economic Forum and KPMG, 70 percent said that 'good corporate citizenship' was vital to profitability."
"The word is out that economics, never a science, has always been politics in disguise…," Henderson writes. "As with politics all real money is local, created by people to facilitate exchange and transactions, which are based on trust. Events of the past twenty years have necessarily recast the story of how this useful invention, money, grew into abstract national fiat currencies backed only by the promises of rulers and central bankers." Information technology and deregulation, she says, have created a "monstrous global casino where $1.5 trillion worth of fiat currencies slosh around the planet daily via mouse clicks on electronic exchanges – 90 percent in purely speculative trading."
That monstrous global casino, together with the runaway juggernauts of climate change, dwindling fossil fuel sources, overpopulation and overconsumption, have now pushed both planet and population over the tipping point. Our only hope lies in a rapid and total overhaul of the very concept of economy, reviving its original meaning of household management. Henderson seeks and finds those who are engaged in just such an effort, inventing new ways of measuring "success, wealth, progress, productivity, efficiency… helping steer humanity to a brighter future." Her interviews with socially responsible investors and managers of mutual funds, pensions, church and university endowments explore initiatives in corporate social responsibility and investing – for example, the more than 3,000 companies who have signed onto the United Nations Global Compact, agreeing to follow ten principles of good corporate citizenship.
The interviews and profiles explore the many different paths various individuals and companies have taken to the same place. As Henderson says, "We began to see the evolution of capitalism itself. More ethical markets are now necessary in the twenty-first century information age – now morphing into that new age of truth as global public opinion becomes the world's newest superpower."
1 Reissued 2004 by New York Review; still available in both hardcover and paperback.
2 For more and delightful reading about micro-lending, see Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus, 1999,2003. Available in paperback from PublicAffairs/Perseus Books Group.
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