The silence from US business in this disruptive era has deep roots

what you can do to call out cowardice

Americans, and Westerners in general, have been conditioned by 40+ years of Reagan-Thatcher doctrine on capitalism and its relationship with government. Most eras’ business leaders, the “captains of industry” place their actions in a larger frame of reference, this current Trumpist era is characterized by an apparent disregard for this, until you analyze it further.

Major business interests have thrived in moments of crisis and today’s business leaders should reflect on past actions: the Monroe Doctrine is first and foremost a project to expand economically throughout the continent, the very word “banana republic” stems from United Fruit’s humongous influence in the countries where it owned the crop, the 1953 assassination of Iran’s PM Mossadegh had very little to do aside from his will to nationalize US and UK oil interests. American business has partnered with the US government in good times and bad, in good deeds and more nefarious ones. September 1973 Chile saw a confluence of opportunistic anticommunism and good old economic imperialism to propel the US-led and US-financed coup which had Pinochet depose and assassinate a democratically elected President Allende. Naomi Klein’s 2007 gut punch The Shock Doctrine needs to be re-read, widely, both by government watchers and business leaders who aspire to genuinely build a better future. 

Fast forward to 2015-2020: the US economy is torn between world leading FAANG - Facebook, Apple Amazon Netflix Google and its uneven path since the 2008 Great Recession as millions remain underemployed and cash poor. The FAANG are made up of business leaders uneasy with their power: Facebook is led by an autocratic Zuckerberg who playacts the philanthropic billionaire as his foundation’s achievements seem few, Apple’s murky relationship with its China-based assembly partners and its public statements on the topic sound tone deaf at best, the quality of Amazon’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak in its ranks remains to be properly assessed, Netflix trotted out performative Black Lives Matter pronouncements, and Google’s “don’t no evil” mantra rings especially hollow, so much so that it was removed. 

Business leaders today are silent, by cowardice or inadequacy for many and driven by nefarious intent for others.

Look back to another era of American reset, the 1970s-80s, and business leaders such as Lee Iacocca and Jack Welch were very often invited to broadcast society-wide ideas. They would NOT have stood in silence when Trump tried to strong arm himself, and Oracle, into the Tik Tok mess.

When else has a US President dictated, banana republic-style, how and who should be the shareholders of a private business ? 

When else has a US President maintained a “shit list” of major US companies he publicly calls to harm ? 

Why is US business silent in the face of this egregious and unacceptable modus operandi ? 

Why are they gambling with the American brand, which makes up the majority of what they sell to the world ?

The 21st century so far has been the stage for the deathly battle underway between the “carbon barons” eg Koch Industries vs the “next economy” eg Silicon Valley and Big Tech. The Kochs have the upper hand as they’re more than happy to spend billions in lobbying and political donations for decades (400M$ just for the 2018 midterms) to push their libertarian anti-government ideology. The Kochs’ business plan is simple: gain access to all federal lands in the Western US to strip mine them, hook, line and sinker.

Silicon Valley/Big Tech has a deficit of leadership, willing to take strong public stances beyond their own (very) narrow interests. The sole SV leader with worldwide name recognition and a positive future forward agenda remains Bill Gates. His successors within Big Tech are either much less well rounded than he is or need to work on their public personas. Elon Musk’s boldness needs to be balanced by the total government support behind SpaceX. It’s easy to be a libertarian when the taxpayers subsidize 100% of your bottom line. One who should be given more space (he actually bought 2 leading magazines so he could do this on his own) is Marc Benioff. His Davos speeches often go beyond tech speak and he has the potential to be this generation’s key business leader. On the nefarious side sit Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg. Both are monopolists with warped views of society and much more should be done to denounce their destructive practices. If John Rockefeller could be reined in in 1907, what’s stopping today’s political leaders from doing the same to Thiel and Zuckerberg ?

What I’m doing to confront silence and cowardice

I don’t believe in staying silent in the face of abject evil or negative intent, this publication is one of the ways I’m working towards accelerating the velocity of ideas. I’ve called out Zuckerberg since 2016 for his cavalier ways, I’ve regularly wondered why the Murdoch family’s profit-driven destabilization of democracy hasn’t led more progressive leaders to shun them and more. I need your help in shifting the debate in North American leadership circles towards more accountability of its members. As a good friend (and subscriber #1) wrote me “silence is evil”. 

What YOU can do to call out cowardly business leaders

It’s therefore up to you to help call out the cowards among us. The reaction to Coinbase’s CEO’s letter shunning politics is interesting and should create a playbook for enlightened leaders to call out silence. Congressman David Cicilline is among the most consistent and knowledgeable in DC as to how to rein in Big Tech. His chairmanship of the antitrust subcommittee in tech is building up to a crescendo. Ciciline could use help from progressive thinkers in the tech industry to bolster his work and make sure that Congress does indeed regulate Big Tech. Chris Sacca, Nick Hanauer et al, he needs you !