Douglas Rushkoff outlines the roots of our current debacle, from the late Middle Ages to today. From the founding of the chartered monopoly to the branding of the self; from the invention of central currency to the privatization of banking; from the birth of the modern, self-interested individual to his exploitation through the false ideal of the single-family home; from the Victorian Great Exhibition to the solipsism of MySpace; the corporation has infiltrated all aspects of our daily lives. Life Inc. exposes why we see our homes as investments rather than places to live, our 401k plans as the ultimate measure of success, and the Internet as just another place to do business.
The ongoing transit of Neptune and Jupiter over the United State’s Moon in Aquarius is creating an opportunity for us to begin to envision, collectively, a new way of sustaining our culture. Rushkoff’s illuminates both how we’ve become disconnected from our world, and how we can reconnect to our towns, to the value we can create, and mostly, to one another — aligning with the Aquarian concept of life as one interconnected web, a sense of connection that eventually opens the individual to the experience of unicity or Oneness.