Since the publication of our book, there has been plenty that follows this dismal trajectory. THe response to Hurricane Katrina symbolized all of it. The aggressive indifference of leaders and agencies to the crisis and suffering of so many individuals was surely some kind of turning point, at least in the American psyche. The message was, “You’re all alone. You’re on your own.” And so we are. That message has been amplified in the moveable feast of private equity. Executives who should be trying to fix their companies by reconnecting with their real constituencies of consumers and employees, are instead cashing in on their failures with private equity deals that yield big fees and bonuses for those on the inside, while carving out and flipping assets. I don’t think consumers or employees figure anywhere on the “to do” lists in these deals. In general, big business shows no signs of plugging into the pain they have created and reinventing the way they realize value. The mainstream business press has devolved to the level of People Magazine. They write about executives like movie stars– a fauning audience for the bread and ciircus spectacle of corporate life. Why worry about how an outdated business model alienates people, destroys value, and limits wealth creation when you can read Jack and Suzy’s advice on how to be a winner! But if you are a dialectical thinker, you won’t get too depressed. The reason is, your mind is already scanning in the opposite direction. Things over there are a little less clear, but they are bubbling and building and moving fast…snap, crackle, POP. Alot of this stuff is recognizeable, but some of it doesn’t even have a name yet. Or new names are emerging daily. In this direction we see iPod and social networking and three million people tuning into a YouTube video to learn how to play the guitar. There are tens of millions of people reaching out to help each other with every thing from health advice to product vetting. The message here is, “We may be alone, but we are alone together.”

The constructive solutions for the next episode of capitalism that we have written about and are experimenting with will come from this new kind of space in which we are alone together. It’s more powerful and exciting than anything in the last fifty years of economic history. All the critical components–new people, new technology–are coming together here. We’ll be writing about it and hope you will too. Send us examples. Tell us what you see.