By Douglas Rushkoff
By restoring our connections to real people, places, and values, we’ll be less likely to depend on the symbols and brands that have come to substitute for human relationships. As more of our daily life becomes dictated by the rules of a social ecology instead of those of a market economy, we will find it less necessary to resort to the behavior of corporations whenever things get rough. We might be more likely to know the names of our neighbors, and value them for more than the effect of their landscaping on our block’s real-estate prices.
By Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian
What if there were a better way of living? A way that was more environmentally sound, more economical, more conducive to the building of community, and didn’t require huge monetary investments? What if this new method of existence was already visible, and people were already participating in it, in places we had never thought to look?