Ebook: Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism

Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism chronicles the rise of a new vocabulary in the twenty-first century. From Silicon Valley to the White House, from kindergarten to college, and from the factory floor to the church pulpit, we are all called to be innovators and entrepreneurs, to be curators of an ever-expanding roster of competencies, and to become resilientandflexiblein the face of the insults and injuries we confront at work. In the midst of increasing inequality, these keywords teach us to thrive by applying the lessons of a competitivemarketplaceto every sphere of life. What’s more, by celebrating the values of grit, creativity, and passionat school and at work, they assure us that economic success is nothing less than a moral virtue.

Organized alphabetically as a lexicon,Keywords explores the history and common usage of major terms in the everyday language of capitalism. Because the words in this book have successfully infiltrated everyday life in the English-speaking world, their meanings often seem self-evident, even benign. Who could be againstempowerment, after all?Keywordsuncovers the unexpected histories of words likeinnovation, which was once synonymous with “false prophecy” before it became the prevailing faith of Silicon Valley. Other words, like best practicesandhuman capital, are relatively new coinages that promise us a kind of freedom within amarketplaceextending its reach across the public sector and into our private lives. The new language of capitalism burnishes hierarchy, competition, and exploitation asleadership,collaboration, andsharing, modeling for us the habits of the economically successful person: be visionary, be self-reliant, and never, ever stop working.