Great article. I’m still amazed at how quickly big corporations in the US adopted the woke agenda. Why did that happen so fast? What do they think is the key advantage of wokeism when it has the potential to destabilize society to the detriment of big business?
This is probably only a small part of the answer – but I suspect some of the top decision makers are influenced by what seems best for them as individuals. Who’s sometimes the biggest threat to the top execs in any org? The ambitious cis het males one rank below. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an ideology that slows the rise of such challengers… The giga chad – the biggest beneficiary of extreme wokery.
Implementation of ESG frameworks is the big reason that woke has infected the whole of the corporate world. ESG is like a credit score, for a company. Just like you couldn’t get a mortgage if your credit score was low, if they don’t have good ESG scores the business can’t easily raise capital, they will be locked out of the big capital markets. ESG scoring is very opaque and thus is used to bully companies into participating in the woke and green agendas, but giving low scores to firms that don’t demonstrate their fealty.
So the globalist orgs such as WEF and their operatives in big finance (example Larry Fink at Blackrock; also on the WEF board) are forcing this stuff onto the market. It’s effectively a mafia style “I see you have a nice company there… be a shame if it got locked out of the markets…” thing.
Wokeism is defined by its hatred of straight white men, particularly those who have not caved in to its propaganda. It is similar to the racism of anti-Semitism, but broadly applied to its targets and those who openly resist it.
Brendan O'Leary
1 year ago
One thing I have long admired about the USA is the persistence of small private firms making specialist and innovative mechanical and engineering products and services. The “analogue economy” as the author puts it. Often in “middle America”.
Or world still rests on the shoulders of this analogue “stuff”, although it seems less visible to us.
This economy also survives in Germany but, outside USA, it’s disappearing in the Anglosphere. As an inhabitant of this analogue economy, I can only observe that policy and regulation trumpeted as cracking down on Big Business always ends up having a disproportionately large effect on small to medium business.
“Complexity of regulation is a subsidy from small business to big business” ,(to quote myself), eventually stifling diversity and innovation.
Yes, the US is no longer the land of small or medium-sized businesses. It’s becoming increasingly monopolistic.
Paul Smithson
1 year ago
It is hard to blame the elites when it seems the majority of the common people (if you believe the polls and election results) seem to be less concerned about the ‘common people’ and more concerned about voting in a self righteous, virtue signalling way so that they can be seen as nice people on social media and get lots of thumbs ups.
Hopefully, more and more people are starting to realise that irrespective of skin colour, gender preferences or sexual choices, we are all common people, unless we are part of the elite.
All for one and one for all and stuff the elites I say 🙂
I don’t understand why or how reshoring manufacturing, building of homes, more skills education and better access to healthcare can be viewed as thoroughly depressing?
I agree with you, but even if we all came together in this manner, who would we vote for?
This movement would have to produce it’s own leaders, and build it’s own institutions, because the parties and institutions we have now are all ‘captured’ by the same elitist ideologies :/
Last edited 1 year ago by JJ Barnett
Adam Bartlett
1 year ago
An excellent, insightful and sadly realistic article. What’s especially sad is the scarcity of an influential elite faction that genuinely wants what’s best for the common people, rather than being liable to make pro working/middle class concessions only when it helps then get one over their opposition. We used to have many such elite – a great many of our former monarchs, PMs, presidents & near presidents – Lord Pitt, Attlee, super Mac & George McGovern being the first out of several hundred that spring to mind. I think these days the selfish elite are better at recognising exceptional altruistic talent early, and not letting them get past 1st base in their political careers.
I don’t think so – though I don’t know them that well, and I may have too much Keynesian bias to appreciate those types. I’d agree the Donald seems to care more about common folk than most elite – but also seem to have too much ego to be truly for the people.
Dustshoe Richinrut
1 year ago
Who WILL win this new capitalist civil war, then? Answer: “Hopefully neither side, at least not too decisively.”
Well, what was wrong with the “near-peaceful coexistence” times that had apparently characterised the market “until recently”. That sounds like Germany and Japan pretty much, still, even in the smart phone age. But did not the near-peaceful coexistence times also occur in the 1980s, a decade that saw an increasingly confident West and the crumbling of Communism? Were there capitalist systems in opposition to each other, also, in the 1980s? If the capitalist market, or battleground, is more clearly defined in the technology age now, then if neither opponent will win too decisively, because it is the new healthy competition that dares not speak its name, does that mean a return to the “near-peaceful coexistence” times? Of old? Of recently?
Perhaps the traditional manufacturers, the Trump-friendly and the like, need to win a bit more decisively, a lot more decisively in fact, than these big-boy Brahmin types: if Americans are going to be happy and confident again. (I think Americans are currently, if not seriously glum, certainly much more prone to glumness than ever before. It is marked by the pop culture: there is no cheerful Back To The Future-type culture coming out of America AT ALL, these days. Hasn’t been for a while).
“To put it simply, a capitalist civil war isn’t necessarily all bad news.” Yet … “it’s not an ideal situation; in fact, it’s thoroughly depressing.” As you say, “the middle and working classes rely on political competition between the elites TO SURVIVE (my capitals), as it forces them to make concessions to those below.”
Are times so desperate in the smart phone age that the language is thus so? In Germany and Japan do they talk so? Instead of “survive”, what about “thrive”? Is today so gloomy that the word thrive is verboten? In America? I suppose Google’s thriving. Their glum levels must be low, then.
Ye Gods America! No more excuses for trotting out the unromantic life! America really is now as unromantic as it seems. As unromantic as it seems!!!! The land of romance has gone to the dogs. And apparently they’re lovin’ it.
Last edited 1 year ago by Dustshoe Richinrut
Ian Stewart
1 year ago
Wasn’t Brexit our little plebeian civil war? I say little because all we were doing was ending a trade agreement. But it was in fact huge because the ‘Brahmin’ elite planned to use the EU to manage everything in the U.K. , without any democratic mandate. And most of the merchant elite didn’t want it either.
I was so bleedin’ proud of the British electorate voting for Brexit as the elites pummelled their senses with horror stories.
Last edited 1 year ago by Ian Stewart
Andrew Langridge
1 year ago
Extremely confused article, which fails to analyse precisely why most companies, not least manufacturers, now appear to have ‘progressive values’. In this age of lightning-fast information flows, it is hard-nose business sense not to upset a section of your customer base by, for example, polluting local environments, selling products that are bad for their health, or having a discriminatory recruitment policy that prevents hiring the best people. The democratisation of information has led to a re-calibration of business practise and a welcome shift of power towards the consumer and employee.
This shift has got very little to do with left/right voting preference, which is largely controlled by attitudes to financial redistribution.
Woke policies allow companies to do all those things you mentioned while appearing sincere. That’s the value.
Apple manufactures in China which pollutes horribly and uses slave labor, thier products are horrible for the planet and mental health of thier users, and they discriminate in thier hiring policies openly. But they have a rainbow flag in thier headquarters so it’s all ok.
That is why companies have gone woke. For the same reasons the wife abuser and serial cheater wears a cross and shows up in the pews every Sunday.
Great article. I’m still amazed at how quickly big corporations in the US adopted the woke agenda. Why did that happen so fast? What do they think is the key advantage of wokeism when it has the potential to destabilize society to the detriment of big business?
This is probably only a small part of the answer – but I suspect some of the top decision makers are influenced by what seems best for them as individuals. Who’s sometimes the biggest threat to the top execs in any org? The ambitious cis het males one rank below. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an ideology that slows the rise of such challengers… The giga chad – the biggest beneficiary of extreme wokery.
Implementation of ESG frameworks is the big reason that woke has infected the whole of the corporate world. ESG is like a credit score, for a company. Just like you couldn’t get a mortgage if your credit score was low, if they don’t have good ESG scores the business can’t easily raise capital, they will be locked out of the big capital markets. ESG scoring is very opaque and thus is used to bully companies into participating in the woke and green agendas, but giving low scores to firms that don’t demonstrate their fealty.
So the globalist orgs such as WEF and their operatives in big finance (example Larry Fink at Blackrock; also on the WEF board) are forcing this stuff onto the market. It’s effectively a mafia style “I see you have a nice company there… be a shame if it got locked out of the markets…” thing.
The Mafia analogy is spot on.
Much of the compliance regimes we have to deal with is simply legalised corruption.
Wokeism is defined by its hatred of straight white men, particularly those who have not caved in to its propaganda. It is similar to the racism of anti-Semitism, but broadly applied to its targets and those who openly resist it.
One thing I have long admired about the USA is the persistence of small private firms making specialist and innovative mechanical and engineering products and services. The “analogue economy” as the author puts it. Often in “middle America”.
Or world still rests on the shoulders of this analogue “stuff”, although it seems less visible to us.
This economy also survives in Germany but, outside USA, it’s disappearing in the Anglosphere. As an inhabitant of this analogue economy, I can only observe that policy and regulation trumpeted as cracking down on Big Business always ends up having a disproportionately large effect on small to medium business.
“Complexity of regulation is a subsidy from small business to big business” ,(to quote myself), eventually stifling diversity and innovation.
Yes, the US is no longer the land of small or medium-sized businesses. It’s becoming increasingly monopolistic.
It is hard to blame the elites when it seems the majority of the common people (if you believe the polls and election results) seem to be less concerned about the ‘common people’ and more concerned about voting in a self righteous, virtue signalling way so that they can be seen as nice people on social media and get lots of thumbs ups.
Hopefully, more and more people are starting to realise that irrespective of skin colour, gender preferences or sexual choices, we are all common people, unless we are part of the elite.
All for one and one for all and stuff the elites I say 🙂
I don’t understand why or how reshoring manufacturing, building of homes, more skills education and better access to healthcare can be viewed as thoroughly depressing?
I agree with you, but even if we all came together in this manner, who would we vote for?
This movement would have to produce it’s own leaders, and build it’s own institutions, because the parties and institutions we have now are all ‘captured’ by the same elitist ideologies :/
An excellent, insightful and sadly realistic article. What’s especially sad is the scarcity of an influential elite faction that genuinely wants what’s best for the common people, rather than being liable to make pro working/middle class concessions only when it helps then get one over their opposition. We used to have many such elite – a great many of our former monarchs, PMs, presidents & near presidents – Lord Pitt, Attlee, super Mac & George McGovern being the first out of several hundred that spring to mind. I think these days the selfish elite are better at recognising exceptional altruistic talent early, and not letting them get past 1st base in their political careers.
You don’t consider Mr Musk or Peter Thiel as potential candidates? Or even the dreaded Ginger Man? And, if he wasn’t so ancient, Warren Buffet?
I don’t think so – though I don’t know them that well, and I may have too much Keynesian bias to appreciate those types. I’d agree the Donald seems to care more about common folk than most elite – but also seem to have too much ego to be truly for the people.
Who WILL win this new capitalist civil war, then? Answer: “Hopefully neither side, at least not too decisively.”
Well, what was wrong with the “near-peaceful coexistence” times that had apparently characterised the market “until recently”. That sounds like Germany and Japan pretty much, still, even in the smart phone age. But did not the near-peaceful coexistence times also occur in the 1980s, a decade that saw an increasingly confident West and the crumbling of Communism? Were there capitalist systems in opposition to each other, also, in the 1980s? If the capitalist market, or battleground, is more clearly defined in the technology age now, then if neither opponent will win too decisively, because it is the new healthy competition that dares not speak its name, does that mean a return to the “near-peaceful coexistence” times? Of old? Of recently?
Perhaps the traditional manufacturers, the Trump-friendly and the like, need to win a bit more decisively, a lot more decisively in fact, than these big-boy Brahmin types: if Americans are going to be happy and confident again. (I think Americans are currently, if not seriously glum, certainly much more prone to glumness than ever before. It is marked by the pop culture: there is no cheerful Back To The Future-type culture coming out of America AT ALL, these days. Hasn’t been for a while).
“To put it simply, a capitalist civil war isn’t necessarily all bad news.” Yet … “it’s not an ideal situation; in fact, it’s thoroughly depressing.” As you say, “the middle and working classes rely on political competition between the elites TO SURVIVE (my capitals), as it forces them to make concessions to those below.”
Are times so desperate in the smart phone age that the language is thus so? In Germany and Japan do they talk so? Instead of “survive”, what about “thrive”? Is today so gloomy that the word thrive is verboten? In America? I suppose Google’s thriving. Their glum levels must be low, then.
Ye Gods America! No more excuses for trotting out the unromantic life! America really is now as unromantic as it seems. As unromantic as it seems!!!! The land of romance has gone to the dogs. And apparently they’re lovin’ it.
Wasn’t Brexit our little plebeian civil war? I say little because all we were doing was ending a trade agreement. But it was in fact huge because the ‘Brahmin’ elite planned to use the EU to manage everything in the U.K. , without any democratic mandate. And most of the merchant elite didn’t want it either.
I was so bleedin’ proud of the British electorate voting for Brexit as the elites pummelled their senses with horror stories.
Extremely confused article, which fails to analyse precisely why most companies, not least manufacturers, now appear to have ‘progressive values’. In this age of lightning-fast information flows, it is hard-nose business sense not to upset a section of your customer base by, for example, polluting local environments, selling products that are bad for their health, or having a discriminatory recruitment policy that prevents hiring the best people. The democratisation of information has led to a re-calibration of business practise and a welcome shift of power towards the consumer and employee.
This shift has got very little to do with left/right voting preference, which is largely controlled by attitudes to financial redistribution.
Woke policies allow companies to do all those things you mentioned while appearing sincere. That’s the value.
Apple manufactures in China which pollutes horribly and uses slave labor, thier products are horrible for the planet and mental health of thier users, and they discriminate in thier hiring policies openly. But they have a rainbow flag in thier headquarters so it’s all ok.
That is why companies have gone woke. For the same reasons the wife abuser and serial cheater wears a cross and shows up in the pews every Sunday.
I think you’re right. Helpful answer.