REVIEW OF HEATHER MENZIES, WHOSE BRAVE NEW WORLD?
THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY AND THE NEW ECONOMY (BETWEEN THE LINES, 1996). Kenneth Westhues Catholic New Times, 22 September 1996; on the web by permission, August 2003 This book complements two analyses of contemporary capitalism reviewed earlier this year in CNT. In Globalization and the Decline of Social Reform, Gary Teeple sets forth the basic logic of capitalist development, explaining why the welfare state was constructed during the first two-thirds of this century, and why it is now in process of dismantling. In When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten concentrates on the key players in the global marketplace, showing how transnational corporations undermine democracy, reduce diversity, and leave people with no place. Heather Menzies describes the same globalized capitalist system as Teeple and Korten do, but in a different aspect. Her focus is on the infrastructure of computerized communication on which the system utterly depends. The information highway, she argues, “isn’t s
