David Korten lecture

The lecture was good. Quite honestly, it wasn't anything new. He even used the same analogy of the monarch butterfly metamorphosis that Barbara Marx Hubbard used in Conscious Evolution. Speaking of peak oil, climate chaos, and economic meltdown, the bottom line, according to Korten is that we're royally screwed unless we make fundamental changes in our society, like yesterday. He also spoke of millions of people converging and already working to affect positive change, not unlike Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson in The Cultural Creatives. I wondered if he had read that book. I wanted to ask what he thought about Jerry Mander's Manifesto and establishing a level of sufficiency. Instead when Q&A time came, I asked if he thought Barack and Hillary would continue the dominator culture he talks about and whether I should vote for Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader and his answer surprised me.
He said he supported Nader in 2000 but the spoiler effect was real and that he would be voting for the Democratic nominee. I was rather stunned because it seems obvious that Obama will not challenge the corporatocracy that Korten railed against for an hour. He simply said that Obama's invitation to all work together to solve problems was better than Hillary saying vote for me and I'll solve your problems. To be frank, his answer to my question ever so slightly lowered my opinion of him. I wanted to follow up by asking him who was giving Obama $50M in one month, but didn't have the opportunity. Another turn off was him urging us to buy his book, The Great Turning and subscribe to Yes! Magazine.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with everything Korten said (except his political views), but I didn't feel compelled to fork over $20 for his book.

I should also add that hearing him speak made me more convinced that Corvallis Open Forum is a step in the right direction. I wanted to invite everyone in the room, but again, the opportunity did not present itself.