| Free Market Missionaries: The Corporate Manipulation of Community Values Contributor(s): Beder, Sharon (Author) |
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ISBN: 1844073343 ISBN-13: 9781844073344 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2006 Annotation: In this tightly researched and incendiary book, "communications rottweiler" Sharon Beder exposes how our community values have been sacrificed by economic and political power brokers--today??'s free market missionaries--on the altar of free market economics. Beder shows how throughout the twentieth century business associations and coalitions coordinated mass propaganda campaigns that combined public relations techniques developed in twentieth century America with revitalized free market ideology originating in eighteenth century Europe. The aim was to persuade people that it was in their interests to eschew their own power as workers and citizens, and forego their democratic power to restrain and regulate business activity. These campaigns were augmented during the 1970s and ???80s by the more sophisticated efforts of corporate funded think tanks to promote free enterprise and business-friendly policies. Today??'s free market missionaries seek to change individual and institutional values using bolder strategies such as the expansion of share ownership and the manipulation of wider public concerns. In the end the outcome is the same, the triumph of business values over community values and the manipulation of democracy. This book is an intellectual call-to-arms and the choice is clear: fight back or be converted to the ideology of the corporate free market missionaries. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Business Ethics |
| Dewey: 659 |
| LCCN: 2005032451 |
| Physical Information: 1.06" H x 6.38" W x 9.46" (1.23 lbs) 272 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In her recent book Suiting Themselves, bestselling author Sharon Beder exposed how the global corporate elite have brazenly rewritten the rules of the global economy to line their pockets. In this new book she trains her sights on the insidious underbelly of this global trend to show how they have also orchestrated a mass propaganda campaign to manipulate community values and convince us that their interest - co-opting and controlling all of us in the name of the free market - is in our interest. During the 20th century, business associations coordinated mass propaganda campaigns combining 20th century American PR methods with revitalized free market ideology from 18th century Europe. The aim was to persuade people to eschew their own power as workers and citizens, and forego their democratic power to restrain and regulate business activity. Sophisticated corporate-funded think tanks augmented these campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting free enterprise and business-friendly policies. Thesefree market missionaries now seek to change individual and institutional values through bolder strategies such as expanding share ownership and manipulating wider public concerns. In each case the goal is the same: the triumph of business values over community values. Beder's is an intellectual call to arms: challenge the ideology of the free market missionaries or be converted to it. |