Michael Kruse: Must Everything Change? (review series)

In a series stretching back to March 11, 2008 Michael Kruse on his Kruse Kronicle blog has been doing an extensive review of Brian McLaren’s book Everything Must Change. I want to tell you a bit about the content of the series but first consider the stats:

• Michael has been posting almost daily for more than a month.
• I dumped his series into MS Word and it was more than ninety pages long (35,000 words!)
• These are not off-the-cuff rants but researched, linked, full of graphs. Phew.

I have found this series to be very educational although at times a little too detailed for an ignoramus like myself. Michael is a clear and prolific writer (with a few typos here and there to show you that he’s moving fast.).

If you would like an entry point into this series, I would recommend starting here: MEC: Recap of My Concerns. Michael gives a summary of his deconstruction of McLaren’s rather sloppy Al-Goresque interpretation of world economics and progress.

I’ve grown interested in this topic recently because I’m beginning to realize that underlying much of our strategizing in the development community are economic assumptions about supply/demand and Marxism/Capitalism. And I’m becoming increasingly convinced that most of us are good Capitalists until we reach foreign soil where we suddenly become closet Commies.

Another book I’ve been reading on this topic is: The Agony of Affluence by William W. Wells.

I wish to thank Kruse for his in-depth review. His work is having a positive impact on my efforts here in Mozambique.

If anyone else has recommended books on “doing development” I’d be interested to hear about them.