Former BB guestblogger Richard Metzger interviews author and BB pal Doug Rushkoff, in this five-part video on YouTube. They cover a lot of territory in this conversation — and if you dug Richard's posts here on the blog, you'll dig what they cover here.
Much of this is terrain explored in Rushkoff's new book, Life Incorporated: How the World Became a Corporation and How To Take It Back.
Here's a blurb from the book introduction:
Unquestionably but seemingly inexplicably, we have come to live in a world where the market has insinuated itself into every area of our lives. From erection to conception, school admission to finding a spouse, there are products and professionals to fill in where family and community have failed us. Commercials entreat us to think and care for ourselves, but to do so by choosing a corporation through which to exercise all this autonomy.
Sometimes it feels as if there's just not enough air in the room. People who used to know better now condemn Wikipedia for refusing to accept ads on their site – as if there were no justifiable reason to do anything if not for the money. At a moment's notice, any dinner party can turn into a stock promotion, a "networking" event, or an impromptu consult – "let me pick your brain." Brands strive be cults, while religions strive to become brands.
Corporatism tells the story of how we got here, how this value system now perpetuates itself and, most importantly, how we can reconnect with the real and get ourselves out of this mess. The book reveals how the propaganda state attempted in 1930's Europe finally did reach fruition here in the United States, just as early 20th Century American industrialists always hoped. Transcending conspiracies, politics, and even blame, the book argues that while the preconditions for corporatism were established as long as ago as the renaissance, it could not be fully realized until even its most ardent supporters had, themselves, been removed from the total equation.
Richard Metzger's DANGEROUS MINDS: Doug Rushkoff interview (video). Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 (YouTube)
