From the beginning of the United States the prevailing ethic was not to accommodate but to dominate. Indians were called "merciless savages" in the Declaration of Independence. They would be wiped out in great numbers and their culture destroyed. Nature was seen as wild and warranted conquest. Patterns of overconsumption and environmental degradation continue today. The U.S. has a huge war-making capacity which is linked to its rapacious appetite for resources inconveniently located in other countries. With less than 5% of world's population, the U.S. uses about 30% of the planet's resources. That equation is a prescription for conflict and disaster. Will we turn from empire to earth community and secure a sane and stable future or will we destroy our host like a cancer metastasizing?

David Korten was an insider in the development establishment for about thirty years. He worked for the Ford Foundation and USAID. Having severed his ties to the past, today he is president of the People-Centered Development Forum and board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes Yes! magazine. He is the author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism. His latest book is The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.