DAVID WILK 

“Reconsidering Business”                                            

         Business is essentially a system of human exchange, which is why it is so important.  How a society interacts, defines, and at the same time reflects its values.  If we believe that business is about exploitation and achieving the best for ourselves at the expense of everyone and every thing around us (the essential definition of capitalism) we are subscribing to a belief system that has no future, no meaning, no core of values that would set us apart from the worst in human behavior.

         My own interest, quite honestly, is in revolutionizing the way we look at business, working to create community and restore a sense of human scale to human institutions.  This is in many ways based in a belief in Jeffersonian Democracy, but it also reflects my understanding of what a positive human culture should be.  I have never understood how any religion could endorse an economic system that at its base intends to diminish others for the aggrandizement of self.  There is no benefit to a system that is built purely on greed, on the taking of resources for oneself at the expense of others.

        For those who feel this is sentimental and romantic, I’d argue that it’s quite the opposite.  Survival of the individual depends on survival of the group, of the individual and the group’s environment, and of the richness of the natural world.  There could be nothing more rational than this.  I want to breathe clean air, eat healthy food, and live a long life.  So do we all.  So what is more important than preserving and enhancing our cultural and natural systems so they can provide us all with these basic necessities for fulfilling lives?

       There are many issues I want to address here.  But they all are based on the essential belief that human beings must move toward seeing themselves as cooperative entities, in mutually rewarding relationships with their fellow human beings and all living beings, animal and vegetable alike, as well as the material world which we all inhabit, and rely on for our ability to even imagine ourselves beyond the physical realm and into the realm of mind and spirit.  No matter, never mind, as the poet Gary Snyder once said quite eloquently.

David Wilk   7.14.08

David Wilk has been in the book publishing business for three decades as a writer, editor, and publishing executive. Most recently, he serves as President of Book Trix, a web marketing company for publishers and authors. A social change agent, David founded the Small Press Action Fund and most recently, a water issues advocacy organization called Turn to Tap.