Posts By This Author

It's How You Play the Game

by David Batstone 02-01-2004
Personal integrity, it seems, has become an endangered species.

Thou Shalt Not Download?

by David Batstone 01-01-2004

Who are the real pirates in the music economy?

What to Do About Spam?

by David Batstone 11-01-2003

Technology does not uproot the themes of trust and betrayal in our human drama.

Toward a Revolutionary Kindness

by David Batstone 09-01-2003

An interview with The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick.

Say Goodbye to the U.N.?

by David Batstone 09-01-2003
We cannot give up the U.N., despite its inadequacies.

What's Eating You?

by David Batstone 07-01-2003

Gluttony takes a toll on the interior life.

Change, One Call at a Time

by David Batstone 05-01-2003

Working Assets colors outside the lines.

Saving the Corporate Soul

by David Batstone 03-01-2003

"Think about how much of our lives we spend at work," the executive of a New York publishing house said wistfully to me.

Values that Succeed

by David Batstone 03-01-2003

Eight principles for life in an honest, value-centered, competitive organization.

A Tale of Two Countries

by David Batstone 03-01-2003

I began 2003 in Cuba. It's a good practice to launch a new year with fresh insights. Cuba did not disappoint. It was my first visit to the island nation.

Shaking Up the Drug Industry

by David Batstone 01-01-2003

Zachary Bentley says he's no Ralph Nader.

Lean and Downright Mean

by David Batstone 11-01-2002

'Lean and mean' is the shapely figure to which companies are called to conform these days. It's worrisome that the mantra implies a clever business strategy.

The Corporate Bermuda Triangle

by David Batstone 09-01-2002

Utopia: All It's Not Cracked Up To Be

by David Batstone 07-01-2002
I'm suspicious of any language rooted in utopia rather than that of lived relations.

Have you ever noticed how much of our political language relies on binary logic? "Binary what?" you say—think the North and South Pole.

Here's an axiom that's half a binary pair: Before making an appeal for political action, describe a moment when the problem did not exist, at least in the form or to the degree it does now. Creating this mental space will then enable people to make progress by looking backward, effectively re-creating a past social order.

Alternative to axiom one: Promise freedom and justice in a world that is yet to come. Although here and now life is alienated, the future will break into history and transform what we have here into an entirely new place.

Both these axioms of political language have their theological counterpart, of course. Since there is no place outside the Garden of Eden that is free from the traps of history, release from bondage can only truly occur in the realm of the ideal.

In the Judeo-Christian West, "time" was destined to become our holy grail. Redemption can be found in time past (the Garden) or time future (heaven), both of which are bound by eternity. Time so conceived has no organic link to place. The forthcoming (future) and the antecedent (past) are not contingent on the horizon of the present.

You Are What You Owe

by David Batstone 05-01-2002

Want some free financial consultation? It won't take more than a few seconds, I promise.

Poor Enron

by David Batstone 03-01-2002

The once mighty energy trader has become everyone's favorite whipping boy. Unjustly so, I say.

Stem Cell Politics

by David Batstone 01-01-2002

It’s a scary thing to find yourself in bed with Orrin Hatch.

A Platform for a Movement

by David Batstone 11-01-2001
We can't sacrifice our deepest convictions for the sake of a false unity.

Lost (and Found) in Space

by David Batstone 09-01-2001
Millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito's joy ride was sheer hubris; talk about placing yourself at the center of the universe!

Why Kids Hate Sports

by David Batstone 07-01-2001

Parental aggression at youth sports events has become commonplace.