John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Reflections: Confessions in NY Times

Dear Friends,

Since posting yesterday, I wanted to also share a little more from my personal reflections related to the New York Times article.

For nearly a year and a half, I've been chiding the NY Times and other mainstream press for not mentioning Confessions of an Economic Hit Man -- or the subjects it addresses --anywhere except in their bestseller lists. I'm happy to say that I can't do this any longer after yesterday's Sunday paper, where the NY Times ran a major article about my book on the front page of its Business Section.

Judging from the email, most people are pleased with this article -- as am I. I think the writer, who followed me around Chicago for much of one day, did an excellent and well-balanced job. He addressed valid questions about the NSA, but instead of dwelling on them, focused instead on the important global issues -- the ones that will impact future generations.

This is one more indication that the US public is becoming more aware. We are shaking ourselves awake. This creates an incredible opportunity to funnel energy into productive ways to create change.

We are, as I've said many times, poised at the edge of a profound transition.  Now is the time to inspire others -- and take action.

Please Do Take Action

Blessings,

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins Collection at the Global Dialogue Center

Confessions of Economic Hit Man with new material in paperback

Confessions in the Mainstream

Dear Friends,      

Again, I continue to owe all of you a big debt of gratitude for helping me share the message of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. As many of you know, if you have read the book and listened to my message, this is a personal calling for me. One seeded in conviction to make the world a better place for my daughter ---for all our children and our grandchildren. I never planned on the success of this book. However, I did hope that its message would be one that would help to awaken people and in some way contribute to a fundamental change in consciousness, because this is truly what will change the world as we know it today. After over 18 months of traveling and working, along with many of you, to spread the word person-to-person across the world, the mainstreaming of its message is truly happening in ways that many of us couldn't see a year ago. I thank you.

A BIG MILESTONES THIS WEEK THAT YOU HELPED TO CREATE
Landon Thomas Jr. covered my talk at Transitions Bookplace earlier this month. It is a New Age bookstore in Chicago. Thomas then wrote a lengthy piece in the New York Times today called "Confessing to the Converted."  He did a thorough job higlighting some of the most provocative points in the book and linking it to events, past and present.

This week also brought another opportunity to tell the story on DEMOCRACY NOW.

Confessions in paperback is now this week #5 on the NY Times Bestseller list also. I've also received word that we also made these lists:

#5: LA Times
#6: San Francisco Chronicle
#99: USA Today
#10: Washington Post
#3: Powells

Independent stores by region:

#7 NEBA -- New England Booksellers Association
#4 MPBA -- Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association
#4 PNBA -- Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#8 Heartland Independent
#6 SCBA -- Southern California Booksellers Association
#4 NCIBA -- Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#3 NAIBA -- New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association

I share these as symbols of progress that have come from the work of many individuals who helped make this possible, because they listened and connected the message to their experiences and long-held questions and passed it along to others.

As the NY Times article attests, there are growing crowds that have been meeting me on the road. This is very different than last year. With all the surrounding happenings we have witnessed, few are questioning the truthfulness of my account. Again, I am most grateful to all of you for helping me in the distance to spread the word and to find ways in your own span of influence to begin change through your own actions.

We can change the world together! It is our responsibility to do it. Let me know what you are doing. I would like to hear more.

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins Collection at the Global Dialogue Center

Confessions of Economic Hit Man with new material in paperback

Dear Friends,      

Again, I continue to owe all of you a big debt of gratitude for helping me share the message of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. As many of you know, if you have read the book and listened to my message, this is a personal calling for me. One seeded in conviction to make the world a better place for my daughter ---for all our children and our grandchildren. I never planned on the success of this book. However, I did hope that its message would be one that would help to awaken people and in some way contribute to a fundamental change in consciousness, because this is truly what will change the world as we know it today. After over 18 months of traveling and working, along with many of you, to spread the word person-to-person across the world, the mainstreaming of its message is truly happening in ways that many of us couldn't see a year ago. I thank you.

A BIG MILESTONES THIS WEEK THAT YOU HELPED TO CREATE
Landon Thomas Jr. covered my talk at Transitions Bookplace earlier this month. It is a New Age bookstore in Chicago. Thomas then wrote a lengthy piece in the New York Times today called "Confessing to the Converted."  He did a thorough job higlighting some of the most provocative points in the book and linking it to events, past and present.

This week also brought another opportunity to tell the story on DEMOCRACY NOW.

Confessions in paperback is now this week #5 on the NY Times Bestseller list also. I've also received word that we also made these lists:

#5: LA Times
#6: San Francisco Chronicle
#99: USA Today
#10: Washington Post
#3: Powells

Independent stores by region:

#7 NEBA -- New England Booksellers Association
#4 MPBA -- Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association
#4 PNBA -- Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#8 Heartland Independent
#6 SCBA -- Southern California Booksellers Association
#4 NCIBA -- Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#3 NAIBA -- New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association

I share these as symbols of progress that have come from the work of many individuals who helped make this possible, because they listened and connected the message to their experiences and long-held questions and passed it along to others.

As the NY Times article attests, there are growing crowds that have been meeting me on the road. This is very different than last year. With all the surrounding happenings we have witnessed, few are questioning the truthfulness of my account. Again, I am most grateful to all of you for helping me in the distance to spread the word and to find ways in your own span of influence to begin change through your own actions.

We can change the world together! It is our responsibility to do it. Let me know what you are doing. I would like to hear more.

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins Collection at the Global Dialogue Center

Confessions of Economic Hit Man with new material in paperback

The American Level of Awareness

Dear Friends,

Another frequent question I am asked is how would you characterize the American level of awareness? In a recent podcast, I had a chance to share my perspective. Here is an excerpt:

How would you characterize the American level of awareness?

It’s abysmal. That’s what we need to change. That’s why I wrote the book. When I wrote this book ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’ I knew I was sticking my head in a noose in a way and I am not suicidal or self-destructive, so I only did it with the feeling that we can change this. I am very optimistic, but the way we got to change this current situation is by more people becoming aware. What I hear a lot is Americans are so busy just trying to struggle for survival. I don’t really think we are struggling to survive, there is a very, very poor segment of our country that is struggling to survive and I don’t mean to speak of that lightly at all. But for so many Americans, we are living pretty comfortable lives.

Ask yourself, what did most Americans do this last Saturday and/or Sunday: An awful lot of them watched football and spent tremendous amounts of energy. Think of the energy and money spent on just these things.

It’s taking us away of what’s really happening in the world. We are very comfortable doing with our lives and we need to change our perspective. We need to think about our children and our grandchildren. And if we think about them, we know we have a tremendous amount of work to do. I am struck by what an amazingly selfish, self centered generation mine is. Anybody that is an adult at this point in time is so oriented towards the next widget, the next meal, the next restaurant we are going to, the next quarterly report, the price of stock today; very, very short term things. No other culture in history that I am aware of has looked at things this way.

It’s one of the great teachings of indigenous culture where they are very, very careful to preserve resources for their children and their children’s children. We are just no looking at the world that way and we need to, we need to become fully conscious. I think that is the single most important thing today. ---and I really believe it can happen. When we understood that it was unfair for women not to have the right to vote, it took a while, but eventually women got the right to vote. When we understood that it was unfair for blacks to ride on the back of a bus, we changed it. When we understood that it was crazy to have eagles going extinct in this country, and rivers burning because of pollution, we changed.

People can change things. Consciousness changes things. A whole new mindset dissolved the Soviet Union and it actually has changed China from a very poor isolated backward country into something very different today. I am not saying that all these things are good, but I am saying that changes of consciousness  change the world. And we in the United States are in a position of great power and great influence and we have amazing resources at our disposal if we can just change that consciousness and be focused more on the future. For our children and our children’s children and to realize that your child and mine, whether they are living in the United States or wherever they are living, cannot have a great future unless the children of the poorest countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America also have a good future.

How would you characterize our awareness?
I welcome hearing your thoughts.

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins Collection at the Global Dialogue Center

Confessions of Economic Hit Man with new material in paperback

Filled with HOPE

Dear Friends,

I'm learning so much from people across the country as I continue traveling. Again, I thank you for helping to spread the word. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man moved up to #6 on the NY Times Bestseller List for Paperback Nonfiction and is now similarly ranked on a dozen other bestseller lists. This means people are getting a chance to hear its message and my greatest hope is that this will lead to each person realizing that this is a time for changing our consciousness and a time of HOPE. Together we can make a better world for our children and grandchildren.

The other day, I received a message that came in from a radio talk show where I talked about Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It inspired me to know that people are seeing the possibilities:

MESSAGE FROM A LISTENER:
"I was listening to the first hour of your show today and heard you announce that the author of the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" would be on, in the second hour.  Unfortunately I was just able to catch the last few minutes of the second hour of the show.  I was confused because when I tuned in I heard this wonderful intelligent man saying everything about corporatism that I believe, and saying his ideas that I agree will improve the world, and I thought you had changed guests, I thought, "Oh, I guess the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man was replaced with another interviewee". I couldn't imagine, having heard about that book, that someone who had been an economic hit man would sound so completely loving, liberal and radical, in a good sense of the word radical. I was so surprised and so thrilled when I heard at the end that indeed the man I'd just been listening to was the author of that book. The fact that he can believe what he does today after doing what he did in the past speaks to personal transformation.  But it was what he was saying that truly transfixed me and filled me with hope.  I haven't heard many people say they think we can truly change corporatism, and he sounded so hopeful that we consumers can use our power over their livelihood, and change the world, literally.  I have my own list of products and companies that I boycott, but I have wondered what effect I'm having, and I want to join bigger efforts.  I will buy his book, thank you so much for the interview."

I'm traveling to Chicago this week, then on to Florida and New Jersey. Hope to meet some of you.

Often people want to know what they can do. In my book, I offer a number of ideas and also shared some specific thoughts for change in my recent podcast at the Global Dialogue Center community.

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins Collection at the Global Dialogue Center

Confessions of Economic Hit Man with new material in paperback