Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance [Paperback]

Ellen Schwartz (Author), Suzanne Stoddard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1999

Never before have so many people felt the American Dream crashing down around them. The corporate framework -- which values competition and the bottom line above all else -- keeps people running after an elusive goal and impinges on their personal lives. The authors show how our advertising-driven culture causes material desires to grow with no corresponding increase in personal time or energy to pursue them. These artificially amped-up needs cause a pressure-cooker lifestyle that threatens health and happiness. This book teaches how to find balance by simplifying, paring down on material possessions, and reevaluating corporate careers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance speaks to the 21st century challenge each of us faces to make a difference and bring our deepest values into the world through personal action. It is a blueprint to move us beyond distractions to a life of joy, meaning, and fulfillment." -- Michael and Justine Toms, coauthors of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do

"Taking Back Our Lives is a powerful examination of the forces we all face in a society pulling us away from our authentic, deeper selves. It offers refreshing solutions that speak to the heart and uplift our spirits." -- Scott and Shannon Peck, coauthors of Liberating Your Magnificence: 25 Keys to Loving

and Healing Yourself

"Taking Back Our Lives is a very courageous book by two highly qualified women who dare to speak their truth about a reality the media avoids--the corporate consumer culture eroding our democracy--and then show us practical alternatives that start right at home. A timely imperative for survival. Read it and act now!" -- Elisabet Sahtouris, author of A Walk Through Time and Biology Revisioned

"This wonderfully subversive book bespeaks a profound, yet simple truth: in a world of corporate rule, joyous, mindful living is the ultimate revolutionary act. Deeply inspiring and eminently practical. A must-read for everyone who cares." -- David C. Korten, author of The Post-Corporate World and board chair, The Positive Futures Network, Publishers of YES!

From the Inside Flap

Never before have so many people felt the American Dream crashing down around their shoulders. The bottom-line profit mentality is bottoming out our lives and the planet.

Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance presents alternatives to being victimized by a pressure-cooker lifestyle and buffeted by the winds of global change. It draws the connections between our lives and the culture, the economy, and the vast forces moving us closer to the edge.

At once deeply moving, outrageous, encouraging, compelling, and inspiring, Taking Back Our Lives seamlessly blends unrelenting candor with the comfort of real-life stories of hope-and ultimately shows us that choice is the most important tool we have for renewing our world and our selves.

Taking Back Our Lives includes 75 action steps that you can take in the short or long term to bring your personal life into balance while working more powerfully in the outer world.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576750787
• ISBN-13: 978-1576750780
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,664,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Wake-Up Call, February 20, 2000

By 

Carol Grey (Concord, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance (Paperback)

This easy to read book is for anyone who yearns to live a fuller more creative life and is wondering why they can't seem to be able to make any headway. It presents well documented, sometimes shocking, information you will never hear or read about in the media, interspersed with personal, relevent stories. It educates us as to how we are being manipulated by the media and by large transnational corporations and how this manipulation is affecting every area of our lives, from the emotional health of our children to the physical health of our bodies.

But the book doesn't leave you hanging, feeling helpless and depressed. It is filled with easy suggestions that we, as individuals, can do to turn back the tide and take back control. This book was a real eye-opener and I highly reommend it!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay overview, but inadequate and simplistic, October 19, 2005

By 

J. Grattan "Ideas can move the world" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance (Paperback)

Both of the authors are in the non-profit sector and focus on children issues, especially low-income. That is perhaps their starting point in recognizing the huge impact that corporations have on our society especially in areas of the media and entertainment, education, and the fragility and inadequacy of jobs. The book is a two-parter. In the first part, they give an overview that clearly shows that corporations are elephants stomping all over our society and molding it to their tastes; secondly, the authors urge people to somehow bypass this domination and recapture their lives.

Corporate domination is a result of resources that far exceed those of individual citizens, which have given corporations the ability to control the political process and system and sway the legal system. They control the various media, dishing out trivialities for news in lieu of thoughtful analysis and presenting nonsensical and violent entertainment, while bombarding the public with advertising that subtly creates artificial needs for dubious products. The corporate propaganda concerning family values has to be squared with the globalization movement secured through so-called trade agreements that are having devastating consequences for workers and families, as well as environmental impacts.

The authors are concerned with the passivity that people show towards this corporate onslaught. We watch their nonsense; we buy their image enhancing products; we vote for pro-corporate political candidates; we allow the corporate agenda to penetrate our schools; we shop at Wal-Mart despite its community killing effects, etc.

The authors' suggestions for countering corporate domination and taking back lives are really rather limited. They propose taking the initiative to turn off the TV, take on a development task, cut back on consumption, do volunteer work, find meaningful employment, shop locally, etc. They never say to whom their message is directed. It does seem simplistic and utterly unrealistic for most people, who are forced to conform to the status quo. There are tens of millions of so-called cultural creatives who already resist the corporate message but with little overall impact on corporate power.

The authors wrote in the late 1990s during an economic boom, where more seemed possible even though inequality was undergoing a huge upsurge. In late 2005, their message seems even more out-of-touch. The corporate agenda has an even greater lock on American society, if that is possible, in the Bush era. Oil companies have the ability to influence foreign policy and manipulate oil markets for outrageous profits at the expense of American families. The cynical manipulation of the religious right to gain voting power for the business right continues unabated. At this point, there are no countervailing forces in American society to corporate domination. Unions have been destroyed. There is no democratic (small "d") party. There is no means to even get a democratic message out. But there will have to be a democratic upsurge to counter corporate power. Political action must be taken because that is the basis of corporate power. Most legislation of the last twenty-five years needs to be rescinded and reissued with the needs of the public in mind. Developing one's self and volunteering may be admirable, but it is also mostly irrelevant against corporate power.

Yes, there are cracks in corporate power. Some can find those cracks - most cannot. They simply do not have the means or resources. These authors obviously do. One had $60,000 to run for Congress. In volume II they need to be advocating a real program for countering corporate power and recapturing our society for people, not monolithic entities with no soul.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Effort!, April 19, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance (Paperback)

In the pages of their new book, Ellen Schwartz and Suzanne Stoddard relate this quote from Paul Hawken's, The Ecology of Commerce: "There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world." While Hawken was talking specifically about the physical Earth, Schwartz and Stoddard are not so limited in their condemnation. Business is destroying the world and everything in it: democracy, living wages, healthcare, the nutritional value of food and even our sanity. We'll put it simply: If you agree with that mindset, you'll love this book. If you have any doubts that corporations constitute an evil empire, you won't. Nevertheless, we [...] recommend that dedicated professionals read this double-barreled critique of the corporate world, just to know how the other side sees you.