The difference points to the fact that such reform is, above all, a spiritual endeavor. Thomas Greco has devoted decades to this quest and is one of its foremost visionaries. In an Epilogue he writes: “We will either learn to put aside sectarian differences, to recognize all life as one life, to cooperate in sharing earth’s bounty, and yield control to a higher power—or we will find ourselves embroiled in ever-more destructive conflicts that will leave the planet in ruins and avail only the meanest form of existence for the few, if any, who survive.”

It’s a vision we can all strive to embrace.

• 
  
  Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's
  not the only thing on your mind.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of
  one-dimensional and boring? What else can we talk about?

• 
  
  We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some
  better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute?
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh,
  sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe.

• We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.
  
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it
  something interesting for a change.

• 
  
  We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are
  creating it.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the
  door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel!

• 
  
  However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online
  perceive companies as little more than quaint legal fictions that
  are actively preventing these conversations from intersecting.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies.

• 
  
  There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One
  with the market.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost
  invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete
  notions of command and control.

• 
  
  Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect
  for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.

• 
  
  Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about
  human concerns.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  The community of discourse is the market.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will
  die.

• 
  
  People in networked markets have figured out that they get far
  better information and support from one another than from
  vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to
  commoditized products.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than
  companies do about their own products. And whether the news is
  good or bad, they tell everyone.

• 
  
  In both internetworked markets and among
  intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each
  other in a powerful new way.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of
  social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

Online Markets...

Networked markets are beginning to
self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally
served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better
informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from
most business organizations.

...People of
Earth