John Cobb on David Korten
An Appreciation of David Korten's
Change the Story, Change the Future
4/12/2018
An Appreciation of David Korten
by John Cobb
From the title on, the book is rich, convincing, and on target. Many people are doing many good things to affect change. The title correctly tells us that much of this can be coopted into contexts that make their “good things” contribute to the ultimate evil of human self-destruction. We need to change the thought and understanding that provide this context for policy formation and action.
The title also correctly tells us that people actually shape their lives less according to formulated ideas and beliefs than in narratives. This latter point was once quite clear to Western intellectuals. They were deeply influenced by the Bible. Unlike the other major wisdom traditions, the Bible is overwhelmingly a book of narratives organized into a single overarching narrative. Even when secularization marginalized the Bible, historians undertook to replace its often mythical narrative with one that moderns could believe.
But now the universities are purging themselves of the remnants of even indirect biblical influence. The historical approach to subject matter is disappearing even in history departments, and these are being marginalized. But failing to attend to stories does not end their regime. The implicit story with which socialization into the university leaves you is of human beings shedding superstitions and speculations and settling for facts and scientific theories. Values and stories are part of what is shed. Indeed, any interest in whether life is meaningful is part of the superstition and speculation from which the truly “modern” man claims freedom.
Korten long ago liberated himself from university orthodoxy and opened himself to what is actually occurring in the world. There, including in the university, he finds the dominant story to be one that encourages the human species to speed its way to self-destruction. Indeed, what is now largely in control is the most powerful form of the story than must be changed. Fortunately, In the part of this world that is free from university orthodoxy, Korten also finds much that important contributions to formulation of the new story that we need, and much interest and support. The hope for changing the story is not mere fantasy.
I find myself in overwhelming agreement. Korten appreciates the importance of worldview, spiritual formation, economics, and politics. He has keen insights in all these directions. And he formulates ideas that I express in pedestrian and tedious ways in powerful and memorable images. He envisions “development as a pool of money, spreading across the Asian countryside, consuming life wherever it touched.” (p. 11) “Viewed through the cultural lens of mainstream economics, the Earth looks like a dead rock populated by mindless money-seeking robots.” Of course, such images can be called “exaggerated” and “unfair,” but they communicate profound truths in life-changing ways. I am deeply grateful – and a bit jealous.
Korten does not make his technically philosophical ideas explicit. However, we in the process community who consider explicit metaphysical change to be important, claim him as a co-worker, and we have found close collaboration easy and smooth. Stories are about events. For us, events are the deepest reality of the actual world. Every event is itself a microcosmic process and many of them are organized into larger events that call for expression in stories.
In reacting against the dead world of the economist, Korten stresses that we find ourselves in a living world. Whiteheadians emphasize, with Thomas Berry, that the world is not a society of objects but a community of subjects. What is intended by Korten and by process thinkers is virtually the same.
Korten draws out the implications with great relevance and directness. Life should be about life, not about money. We are reminded of Jesus’ statement that one cannot serve both God and money. It may take process folk a bit longer to get there, but the process community certainly agrees. We are proud to claim Korten’s vision and his book as expressing our convictions as well as his.
That we can do so is important for us. We have never produced a book that had a chance of being a best seller. It is unlikely that we ever will. Korten’s book does have a chance. Its style is excellent. Many thoughtful people in the world outside academia are raising the questions to which this book provides answers – the right answers – in a way they can appreciate. As a member of the Club of Rome, Korten is visible in wide reaches of society. Let us do all we can to spread the word. This word has great saving potential.
-- John B. Cobb, Jr.
The title also correctly tells us that people actually shape their lives less according to formulated ideas and beliefs than in narratives. This latter point was once quite clear to Western intellectuals. They were deeply influenced by the Bible. Unlike the other major wisdom traditions, the Bible is overwhelmingly a book of narratives organized into a single overarching narrative. Even when secularization marginalized the Bible, historians undertook to replace its often mythical narrative with one that moderns could believe.
But now the universities are purging themselves of the remnants of even indirect biblical influence. The historical approach to subject matter is disappearing even in history departments, and these are being marginalized. But failing to attend to stories does not end their regime. The implicit story with which socialization into the university leaves you is of human beings shedding superstitions and speculations and settling for facts and scientific theories. Values and stories are part of what is shed. Indeed, any interest in whether life is meaningful is part of the superstition and speculation from which the truly “modern” man claims freedom.
Korten long ago liberated himself from university orthodoxy and opened himself to what is actually occurring in the world. There, including in the university, he finds the dominant story to be one that encourages the human species to speed its way to self-destruction. Indeed, what is now largely in control is the most powerful form of the story than must be changed. Fortunately, In the part of this world that is free from university orthodoxy, Korten also finds much that important contributions to formulation of the new story that we need, and much interest and support. The hope for changing the story is not mere fantasy.
I find myself in overwhelming agreement. Korten appreciates the importance of worldview, spiritual formation, economics, and politics. He has keen insights in all these directions. And he formulates ideas that I express in pedestrian and tedious ways in powerful and memorable images. He envisions “development as a pool of money, spreading across the Asian countryside, consuming life wherever it touched.” (p. 11) “Viewed through the cultural lens of mainstream economics, the Earth looks like a dead rock populated by mindless money-seeking robots.” Of course, such images can be called “exaggerated” and “unfair,” but they communicate profound truths in life-changing ways. I am deeply grateful – and a bit jealous.
Korten does not make his technically philosophical ideas explicit. However, we in the process community who consider explicit metaphysical change to be important, claim him as a co-worker, and we have found close collaboration easy and smooth. Stories are about events. For us, events are the deepest reality of the actual world. Every event is itself a microcosmic process and many of them are organized into larger events that call for expression in stories.
In reacting against the dead world of the economist, Korten stresses that we find ourselves in a living world. Whiteheadians emphasize, with Thomas Berry, that the world is not a society of objects but a community of subjects. What is intended by Korten and by process thinkers is virtually the same.
Korten draws out the implications with great relevance and directness. Life should be about life, not about money. We are reminded of Jesus’ statement that one cannot serve both God and money. It may take process folk a bit longer to get there, but the process community certainly agrees. We are proud to claim Korten’s vision and his book as expressing our convictions as well as his.
That we can do so is important for us. We have never produced a book that had a chance of being a best seller. It is unlikely that we ever will. Korten’s book does have a chance. Its style is excellent. Many thoughtful people in the world outside academia are raising the questions to which this book provides answers – the right answers – in a way they can appreciate. As a member of the Club of Rome, Korten is visible in wide reaches of society. Let us do all we can to spread the word. This word has great saving potential.
-- John B. Cobb, Jr.
More from David Korten
From Mechanism to Organism God as Universal Spirit Manifest throughout Creation |
Table of Contents of Change the Story, Change the Future The Living Universe and the Dream in the Heart |