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The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business
For the better part of a century, the Left has been waging a slow, methodical battle for control of the institutions of Western civilization. During most of that time, "business"-- and American Big Business, in particular -- remained the last redoubt for those who believe in free people, free markets, and the criticality of private property. Over the past two decades, however, that has changed, and the Left has taken its long march to the last remaining non-Leftist institution. Over the course of the past two years or so, a small handful of politicians on the Right -- Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley, to name three -- have begun to sense that something is wrong with American business and have sought to identify the problem and offer solutions to rectify it. While the attention of high-profile politicians to the issue is welcome, to date the solutions they have proposed are inadequate, for a variety of reasons, including a failure to grasp the scope of the problem, failure to understand the mechanisms of corporate governance, and an overreliance on state-imposed, top-down solutions. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and the players involved, both on the aggressive, hardcharging Left and in the nascent conservative resistance. It explains what the Left is doing and how and why the Right must be prepared and willing to fight back to save this critical aspect of American culture from becoming another, more economically powerful version of the "woke" college campus.
196 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 23, 2021
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June 1, 2021
As a progressive who reads conservative books on occasion, I always try to bring an open mind. Stephen Soukup's first book doesn't exactly know what it is: a history, a polemic, or something in between. The ethos of the book can be described by an Andrew Breitbart quote that the author prints: "Politics is downstream from culture." Whatever it is, this is a book about culture.
The history described in this book is well-written. Soukup espouses a resentment for the New Left and the 1960s counterculture, meaning this is a biased history but an in-depth one nevertheless. For Soukup, the New Left began taking over capital markets in this time, and the book's central thesis is that the left is far more active in this than the right. It rests on the argument that the right wants to depoliticize markets, while the left wants to politicize them, with some compelling evidence. But in doing so, Soukup fails to recognize that all actions are — in a sense — political.
The ideology of "viewpoint diversity" has become a rallying cry for Republicans in recent years. Soukup argues against "narrow sex and race diversity" on boards of directors, describing it as not backed by research and generally opposing those fighting for it. This standard means that fighting for diversity becomes a liberal political act. While it's good to see the politics of business (Soukup's citing of Influence Watch is a great nonpartisan source), these broad standards are uncomfortable, especially suggesting a corporation supporting these causes is comparable to a protection racket.
This is a conservative book, if this wasn't already obvious. Soukup describes harsh abortion laws, for example, as ones that result in "nobody getting hurt". Climate change denial is definitely on display at various points, and the actions of the Human Rights Watch to oppose homophobia within corporate America are derided as arbitrary and goalpost-moving. On the other hand, he cannot speak of Black Lives Matter without linking it to "violence, rioting, and looting," and to Antifa. The roots of woke capital, to Soukup, are the same roots as Nazism and linked to "the big lie".
This book comes at a time when conservatives have begun to turn against big business, after years as their staunch allies. While it's not the worst diatribe I've read, the target audience of this book is likely reading it to have their views toward Silicon Valley and other Trump opponents reinforced, and it doesn't contribute a ton to a neutral understanding of business and politics.
The history described in this book is well-written. Soukup espouses a resentment for the New Left and the 1960s counterculture, meaning this is a biased history but an in-depth one nevertheless. For Soukup, the New Left began taking over capital markets in this time, and the book's central thesis is that the left is far more active in this than the right. It rests on the argument that the right wants to depoliticize markets, while the left wants to politicize them, with some compelling evidence. But in doing so, Soukup fails to recognize that all actions are — in a sense — political.
The ideology of "viewpoint diversity" has become a rallying cry for Republicans in recent years. Soukup argues against "narrow sex and race diversity" on boards of directors, describing it as not backed by research and generally opposing those fighting for it. This standard means that fighting for diversity becomes a liberal political act. While it's good to see the politics of business (Soukup's citing of Influence Watch is a great nonpartisan source), these broad standards are uncomfortable, especially suggesting a corporation supporting these causes is comparable to a protection racket.
This is a conservative book, if this wasn't already obvious. Soukup describes harsh abortion laws, for example, as ones that result in "nobody getting hurt". Climate change denial is definitely on display at various points, and the actions of the Human Rights Watch to oppose homophobia within corporate America are derided as arbitrary and goalpost-moving. On the other hand, he cannot speak of Black Lives Matter without linking it to "violence, rioting, and looting," and to Antifa. The roots of woke capital, to Soukup, are the same roots as Nazism and linked to "the big lie".
This book comes at a time when conservatives have begun to turn against big business, after years as their staunch allies. While it's not the worst diatribe I've read, the target audience of this book is likely reading it to have their views toward Silicon Valley and other Trump opponents reinforced, and it doesn't contribute a ton to a neutral understanding of business and politics.
April 27, 2021
The term "woke capitalism" has been thrown around enough over the last year or so that one could be excused for believing the The Dictatorship of Woke Capital to be a polemic against large corporations poking their nose into political business. At least, I hope someone who believed that can be excused, because that was my expectation going into the book. In reality, however, author Stephen Soukup has written not a partisan screed, but a broad survey of the ideas and processes that have led to the politicization of American business by wealthy ideologues, especially those in the financial markets, and the consequences for the economy and the rest of society.
Soukup spends the first half the book detailing the rise of Progressive and Marxist ideology in American society, the first resulting in the rise of credentialed experts who bestowed upon themselves the authority to guide society irrespective of, and often, contradictory to, the wishes of the benighted masses. These ideas made their way through American institutions, notably government and education, eventually merging with post-World War II Marxism which, following the failure of the proletarian revolution to materialize as Marx predicted, turned its attention on changing the culture so as to overcome the proles' "false consciousness." This false consciousness, these new culturally-oriented Marxists believed, made the citizenry unduly passive in the face of systems they should (thought the Marxists) want to overthrow, and so changing the culture that inculcated contentment became the goal of the hard left.
This project, buoyed by 1960s radicals in search of a cause, was such a success that, by the turn of the 21st century, only business remained as an unpoliticized institution of American life. But that, too, was changing. Thanks to the inroads of leftist ideas into business schools, the idea that businesses existed primarily to act as stewards of their shareholders' money, within particular social and legal structures, gave ground to the new concept of "stakeholder value," which posits that a wide range of customer, social, environmental, and political concerns should be considered in a company's decision-making process. This is not, Soukup notes, an altogether untrue idea, though the manner in which it has been implemented has resulted in particular political values being pursued with shareholders' money and without regard to the actual interests of anyone but the wealthiest members of society.
This is particularly the case because ideological leftists now have almost unfettered control of all of the big financial corporations and regulatory agencies, a power they use to force companies to change their policies and advocate for social programs that have no clear connection to their actual business. Why, for instance, would a southern manufacturer of carbonated sugar water bother to weigh in on changes to a state's voting policies, particularly when its opinions betray a near-total lack of awareness of what those policies are? Perhaps such instances, which have become increasingly common, reflect not the dearest priorities of the companies involved, but those of activist investors who have used their financial power to make the companies they are invested in vehicles for their own ideological interests.
That their political interests happen to dovetail nicely with these same activists' economic gains is likely not a coincidence. When, for instance, large investment houses begin to mandate environmental policies that put American companies at a competitive disadvantage to their Chinese counterparts, while being invested in those Chinese counterparts, one begins to suspect more than mere altruism as a guiding motivation.
The same goes for the biggest non-financial industry woke corporations (Apple, Disney, and Amazon, by Soukup's accounting). That Apple and Disney have banked heavily on China's emerging market for their own future growth (and their executives' future bonus packages) would seem to explain their tendency to mercilessly combat the opponents of their alleged socially-just initiatives at home while ignoring, and indeed benefiting from, the more clearly unjust behavior of the Chinese government. The pursuit of "social justice" at home, it turns out, is just the secularized version of purchasing indulgences for the sins that these companies affirm and participate in overseas.
The solution to the politicization of American business, Soukup thinks, is not politicization in a different direction, but its depoliticization, a process that would make room for a multiplicity of viewpoints, which he believes to be an essential part of true diversity (which it obviously is), and ultimately of social peace. While Soukup is right to argue for this non-political posture of business, he leaves aside the question of whether or not the products and services of American business are themselves responsible for the politicization of society as a whole. Perhaps Apple is fundamentally changing American society not merely by dint of its activism, but by the actual products it sells, which have atomized individuals, and brought on atomization's attendant pathologies, more quickly and to a greater degree than even the most pessimistic traditionalist would have previously thought. Perhaps, too, there is something inherently perverse in modern finance that fosters an environment of cynical political activism.
These are questions that Soukup does not seek to answer, though his desire to depoliticize business would at least allow them to be explored. The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, then, is a valiant contribution to the fight against activist investors and businesses. Further, it provides great clarity into how we got here, even if it offers no clear escape from the morass.
Soukup spends the first half the book detailing the rise of Progressive and Marxist ideology in American society, the first resulting in the rise of credentialed experts who bestowed upon themselves the authority to guide society irrespective of, and often, contradictory to, the wishes of the benighted masses. These ideas made their way through American institutions, notably government and education, eventually merging with post-World War II Marxism which, following the failure of the proletarian revolution to materialize as Marx predicted, turned its attention on changing the culture so as to overcome the proles' "false consciousness." This false consciousness, these new culturally-oriented Marxists believed, made the citizenry unduly passive in the face of systems they should (thought the Marxists) want to overthrow, and so changing the culture that inculcated contentment became the goal of the hard left.
This project, buoyed by 1960s radicals in search of a cause, was such a success that, by the turn of the 21st century, only business remained as an unpoliticized institution of American life. But that, too, was changing. Thanks to the inroads of leftist ideas into business schools, the idea that businesses existed primarily to act as stewards of their shareholders' money, within particular social and legal structures, gave ground to the new concept of "stakeholder value," which posits that a wide range of customer, social, environmental, and political concerns should be considered in a company's decision-making process. This is not, Soukup notes, an altogether untrue idea, though the manner in which it has been implemented has resulted in particular political values being pursued with shareholders' money and without regard to the actual interests of anyone but the wealthiest members of society.
This is particularly the case because ideological leftists now have almost unfettered control of all of the big financial corporations and regulatory agencies, a power they use to force companies to change their policies and advocate for social programs that have no clear connection to their actual business. Why, for instance, would a southern manufacturer of carbonated sugar water bother to weigh in on changes to a state's voting policies, particularly when its opinions betray a near-total lack of awareness of what those policies are? Perhaps such instances, which have become increasingly common, reflect not the dearest priorities of the companies involved, but those of activist investors who have used their financial power to make the companies they are invested in vehicles for their own ideological interests.
That their political interests happen to dovetail nicely with these same activists' economic gains is likely not a coincidence. When, for instance, large investment houses begin to mandate environmental policies that put American companies at a competitive disadvantage to their Chinese counterparts, while being invested in those Chinese counterparts, one begins to suspect more than mere altruism as a guiding motivation.
The same goes for the biggest non-financial industry woke corporations (Apple, Disney, and Amazon, by Soukup's accounting). That Apple and Disney have banked heavily on China's emerging market for their own future growth (and their executives' future bonus packages) would seem to explain their tendency to mercilessly combat the opponents of their alleged socially-just initiatives at home while ignoring, and indeed benefiting from, the more clearly unjust behavior of the Chinese government. The pursuit of "social justice" at home, it turns out, is just the secularized version of purchasing indulgences for the sins that these companies affirm and participate in overseas.
The solution to the politicization of American business, Soukup thinks, is not politicization in a different direction, but its depoliticization, a process that would make room for a multiplicity of viewpoints, which he believes to be an essential part of true diversity (which it obviously is), and ultimately of social peace. While Soukup is right to argue for this non-political posture of business, he leaves aside the question of whether or not the products and services of American business are themselves responsible for the politicization of society as a whole. Perhaps Apple is fundamentally changing American society not merely by dint of its activism, but by the actual products it sells, which have atomized individuals, and brought on atomization's attendant pathologies, more quickly and to a greater degree than even the most pessimistic traditionalist would have previously thought. Perhaps, too, there is something inherently perverse in modern finance that fosters an environment of cynical political activism.
These are questions that Soukup does not seek to answer, though his desire to depoliticize business would at least allow them to be explored. The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, then, is a valiant contribution to the fight against activist investors and businesses. Further, it provides great clarity into how we got here, even if it offers no clear escape from the morass.
May 7, 2021
A timely book; I enjoyed The Dictatorship of Woke Capital.
Author Stephen R. Soukup is the senior commentator, vice president, and publisher of The Political Forum, an independent research provider that delivers research and consulting services to the institutional investment community. He is also the director of The Political Forum Institute, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating and preserving community, and a fellow in culture and economy at the Culture of Life Foundation.
Stephen R. Soukup:
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital tells the story of how the neo-Marxist ideology of Critical Theory managed to gain traction over the last few decades, picking up steam as it went. From its humble beginnings, it has recently hit a tipping point. Indeed it is difficult today to find an organization where its tentacles have not spread...
Companies that used to focus on selling soft drinks, clothing, and other products and services have now made a foray into the political arena and taken a strong pro-leftist advocacy stance.
Soukup tells the reader of the origins of this ideology. Critical Theory had its beginnings at The Frankfurt School in Germany. Herbert Marcuse was one of the early proponents of this new branch of thought. From there, it made its way to schools in the west. The American communist activist Angela Davis was a student of Marcuse's.
This neo-Marxist ideology started off in academia, before moving on to the business world.
The book has a great intro, where Soukup talks about the changing modern left, the Enlightenment, and a post-Christian Western society.
Soukup's writing style is very matter-of-fact, and no-frills. He writes in a clear, concise manner here.
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital also talks about activist investors, and hedge funds that play an important and disconcerting role in the politicization of capital markets. BlackRock, State Street, and Bridgewater Associates are named and covered here by Soukup.
Leftist thought was also imported to the business world by a number of uber-wealthy leftist figures central to markets. Soukup discusses Michael Bloomberg, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Marc Benioff here, among others. The owners of large media empires; they have propagated the proliferation of leftist thought in the business world.
Soukup takes a shot at Apple and Tim Cook here, too; accusing them of blatant hypocrisy, as roughly 60% of the cobalt used in their batteries comes from the Congo, a place rife with human rights violations. Soukup also mentions the large incidence of suicides and generally terrible conditions at Apple’s Foxconn iPhone factory in Longhua, China.
Soukup also calls out the hypocrisy of Bob Iger and Disney. He mentions that Disney threatened to boycott the film-making state after a 2016 “religious liberty” bill passed by the Georgia legislature. Meanwhile, in 2015, Disney famously scrubbed its minority actors from their Chinese Star Wars movie promo posters:
Despite how many of these virtue-signaling leftist executives want to portray themselves as champions of the downtrodden and supporters of human rights, Soukup says they paradoxically have deep interests and close ties to the Communist Party of China (CCP), which is one of the worst human-rights violators on the planet today:
In the latter part of the book, Soukup also talks about Jeff Bezos and The Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital was a very good short read. And although most of what was covered here was not new to me, anyone who has not closely been following "the culture war" will likely find the contents covered here super informative.
5 stars.
Author Stephen R. Soukup is the senior commentator, vice president, and publisher of The Political Forum, an independent research provider that delivers research and consulting services to the institutional investment community. He is also the director of The Political Forum Institute, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating and preserving community, and a fellow in culture and economy at the Culture of Life Foundation.
Stephen R. Soukup:
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital tells the story of how the neo-Marxist ideology of Critical Theory managed to gain traction over the last few decades, picking up steam as it went. From its humble beginnings, it has recently hit a tipping point. Indeed it is difficult today to find an organization where its tentacles have not spread...
Companies that used to focus on selling soft drinks, clothing, and other products and services have now made a foray into the political arena and taken a strong pro-leftist advocacy stance.
Soukup tells the reader of the origins of this ideology. Critical Theory had its beginnings at The Frankfurt School in Germany. Herbert Marcuse was one of the early proponents of this new branch of thought. From there, it made its way to schools in the west. The American communist activist Angela Davis was a student of Marcuse's.
This neo-Marxist ideology started off in academia, before moving on to the business world.
"The thing that Marcuse provided the New Left was intellectual legitimacy. Rather than a bunch of bored kids running around, screwing everything in sight, experimenting with drugs, and trying desperately to avoid serving their country in war, Marcuse made the movement “respectable.” Why, the media would gush, the New Left is not just a bunch of self-absorbed, spoiled children trying to tear down the structures of society in pursuit of their own libidinal and hedonistic pleasure. They’re serious and intelligent people, with serious and intelligent ideas, and serious and intelligent complaints, led by the most serious and most intelligent man around. Dismiss them if you want, but you’d be much better off to “stop, hey, what’s that sound; everybody look what’s goin’ down...”
The book has a great intro, where Soukup talks about the changing modern left, the Enlightenment, and a post-Christian Western society.
Soukup's writing style is very matter-of-fact, and no-frills. He writes in a clear, concise manner here.
"In the West, the failure of the Left to deliver on its promised Utopia exacerbated a crisis of belief and elevated the epistemological skepticism of Nietzsche to new heights. In response to socialism’s disappointments, the Left abandoned reason, abandoned “reality,” and, in the end, rejected the Enlightenment itself in favor of relativism.
All of this constituted a death blow for the Left as it had existed. The Left was, after all, specifically and incontrovertibly a product of the Enlightenment. In fact, its sole purpose was to advance the so-called “Enlightenment Project,” which turned into a three century–long attempt to construct a reason-based moral system to replace the Judeo-Christian framework.
This project, however, was doomed from the beginning by its refusal to recognize the premise upon which the Christian moral system was based: that man is flawed and neither reason nor science could fix him. Man could not—and cannot—be perfected. His “Millennium,” which is to say his “paradise,” is otherworldly. It is beyond that which he, with his imperfect nature, is able to create on Earth..."
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital also talks about activist investors, and hedge funds that play an important and disconcerting role in the politicization of capital markets. BlackRock, State Street, and Bridgewater Associates are named and covered here by Soukup.
Leftist thought was also imported to the business world by a number of uber-wealthy leftist figures central to markets. Soukup discusses Michael Bloomberg, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Marc Benioff here, among others. The owners of large media empires; they have propagated the proliferation of leftist thought in the business world.
Soukup takes a shot at Apple and Tim Cook here, too; accusing them of blatant hypocrisy, as roughly 60% of the cobalt used in their batteries comes from the Congo, a place rife with human rights violations. Soukup also mentions the large incidence of suicides and generally terrible conditions at Apple’s Foxconn iPhone factory in Longhua, China.
Soukup also calls out the hypocrisy of Bob Iger and Disney. He mentions that Disney threatened to boycott the film-making state after a 2016 “religious liberty” bill passed by the Georgia legislature. Meanwhile, in 2015, Disney famously scrubbed its minority actors from their Chinese Star Wars movie promo posters:
"The first signs of trouble at the House of Mouse emerged in late 2015, when 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' was set to open in China, and observers noticed something strange about the movie posters created specifically for the Chinese market: John Boyega—who is African American—was featured prominently on the regular poster but was minimized on the Chinese version. And all the other minority actors were removed from the Chinese poster altogether..."Soukup continues on about Iger and the state of Georgia:
"The elected representatives of the people of Georgia again grew a little too big for their britches and again threatened to enact a law Bob Iger did not like, this time one that banned abortions after six weeks, which is when a fetal heartbeat can generally be heard. Iger again joined the planned boycott of Georgia, saying that he didn’t think it would be “practical” for Disney to continue to shoot in Georgia if the state enacted the bill.4 Disney had made the highest-grossing film of 2019— Avengers: Endgame—and the two highest-grossing films of 2018— Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther—in Georgia, so Iger’s threats were not idle. He promised serious economic consequences for the people of Georgia, and at least mild economic consequences for Disney shareholders, if the people of Georgia defied his demands. Nevertheless, the bill was passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Brian Kemp. The law is currently in legal limbo, however, awaiting a final court decision on its constitutionality.
There is some profound irony here, given that Mr. Iger does not seem to have any problems doing business in France, the home of Disneyland Paris, despite the fact that France forbids abortions after twelve weeks. A twelveweek ban in the United States—i.e., a ban after the first trimester—would, in practice and in politics, be virtually the same as the Georgia law. And yet that didn’t stop Bob Iger from embarking on a $2.5 billion renovation and expansion of his Paris theme park in early 2018..."
Despite how many of these virtue-signaling leftist executives want to portray themselves as champions of the downtrodden and supporters of human rights, Soukup says they paradoxically have deep interests and close ties to the Communist Party of China (CCP), which is one of the worst human-rights violators on the planet today:
"...In essence, then, when faced with American political issues that are unlikely to result in anyone, anywhere getting hurt, much less dying, Bob Iger is a full-throated political activist. When faced with the violence and lawlessness of his business partners in Beijing, however, the CEO of Disney is much more reticent to speak, insisting that the whole matter is “complicated.”
It’s really not all that complicated, of course. It’s only complicated if you’ve bet everything on China and can’t afford to lose. In that case, principles and “corporate social responsibility” tend to take a back seat to other, less admirable values.
One should have guessed, in other words, that Bob Iger would follow Tim Cook into the moral morass of the People’s Republic of China..."
In the latter part of the book, Soukup also talks about Jeff Bezos and The Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital was a very good short read. And although most of what was covered here was not new to me, anyone who has not closely been following "the culture war" will likely find the contents covered here super informative.
5 stars.
July 9, 2021
This is a good primer to understand what’s happened at larger corporations and how they migrated from neutrality on political matters to becoming “woke.” I saw it happen at a major food company I once worked for (I retired in late 2018). It starts with companies seeing no downside under great pressure from woke “socially responsible” investor groups, and encouraging employee cultures with the creation of affinity groups that divide people by race and gender, and focusing on “diversity and inclusion” to the exclusion of “unity.” You remember, E Pluribus Unum, one of our national mottos (for Americans, anyway).
Until “non-woke” people awaken and start punishing these companies with their feet, and just as importantly, employees begin challenging weak management that has become terrified of marauding woke activist employees, it’s going to get worse.
Until “non-woke” people awaken and start punishing these companies with their feet, and just as importantly, employees begin challenging weak management that has become terrified of marauding woke activist employees, it’s going to get worse.
October 6, 2021
We all know by now that Big Tech is woke, but what you might not know is that the financial sector is in the same camp. Yes, really. The original capitalists are now Marxist warriors for social justice and equity.
So says Stephen Soukup, author of The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business, who brings to his study the ethos of a financial insider himself. Like Big Tech, Big Finance is willing “to use the structure of the capital markets to supersede the democratic will of the people to advance progressive policies that would otherwise be politically untenable.”...[read more at: https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/22/wo...
So says Stephen Soukup, author of The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business, who brings to his study the ethos of a financial insider himself. Like Big Tech, Big Finance is willing “to use the structure of the capital markets to supersede the democratic will of the people to advance progressive policies that would otherwise be politically untenable.”...[read more at: https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/22/wo...
January 19, 2022
This book points out some very interesting things and provides some good information, but at the same time...it's just not written very compellingly at all. Books like this are rarely page-turners, but this one was more of a slog to get through than usual for me, despite my interest in the topic. The tone is very high-strung too, so that can make it a bit of an annoying read at times too, but again, the subject matter might just cause that sort of feeling no matter what.
Either way, I found the book to have some insights, so I found value in that; I just wish it was written in a less dry manner.
Also, if you're reading this book to brush up on the specifics of how awful Apple, Disney, Amazon, etc can be, then you should note that the those topics are only about 10% of this book - the other 90% comes in front of that 10%, and is mostly talking about general business and philosophy stuff...which isn't bad information to have, all things considered, but you should adjust your expectations going into this book, or else maybe look elsewhere for the more in-depth stories that you might like to know about.
In terms of where the book stands politically...it's clearly towards the right, but it doesn't feel far right to me. Maybe center-right. It's definitely a champion of capitalism though, for whatever that means to you. So make of that what you will before choosing to read.
2.5 out of 5.
Either way, I found the book to have some insights, so I found value in that; I just wish it was written in a less dry manner.
Also, if you're reading this book to brush up on the specifics of how awful Apple, Disney, Amazon, etc can be, then you should note that the those topics are only about 10% of this book - the other 90% comes in front of that 10%, and is mostly talking about general business and philosophy stuff...which isn't bad information to have, all things considered, but you should adjust your expectations going into this book, or else maybe look elsewhere for the more in-depth stories that you might like to know about.
In terms of where the book stands politically...it's clearly towards the right, but it doesn't feel far right to me. Maybe center-right. It's definitely a champion of capitalism though, for whatever that means to you. So make of that what you will before choosing to read.
2.5 out of 5.
August 7, 2021
This is an important contribution to understanding the modern corporate mentality. Soukup spends a lot of time explaining the trends going on in business schools that resulted in the shift of focus from shareholders to "stake-holders." This is an important shift, as it shows how corporate management today has taken on a not-entirely-helpful sense of social conscience. Expressed briefly, they think they are supposed to change the world, not sell soap, soft drinks, razor blades, or broker your stock trades.
This has led them to all sorts of "political correctness" in their advertising, public statements, product marketing, and operations. Even if you think those things are good, at a certain point they will conflict with a company's duty to the people who actually own it -- its shareholders. The actions some large companies are taking to signal their "wokeness" will turn off many customers, but will they produce new customers as well? It's never been clear.
Soukup's book explains how we got to this point, and what some people are doing to try to recover the old sense of shareholder responsibility, not social responsibility, as a first principle.
This has led them to all sorts of "political correctness" in their advertising, public statements, product marketing, and operations. Even if you think those things are good, at a certain point they will conflict with a company's duty to the people who actually own it -- its shareholders. The actions some large companies are taking to signal their "wokeness" will turn off many customers, but will they produce new customers as well? It's never been clear.
Soukup's book explains how we got to this point, and what some people are doing to try to recover the old sense of shareholder responsibility, not social responsibility, as a first principle.
May 19, 2021
I can't remember how I heard about this book, but I was instinctively drawn to it.
For the past year I have been selling off the Blackrock ETFs in my portfolio. Something I heard from the CEO just struck me as a business getting a little too into politics for my liking.
Then I read about Blackrock in this book and my gut instincts appear to have been 100% on target.
For the past year I have been selling off the Blackrock ETFs in my portfolio. Something I heard from the CEO just struck me as a business getting a little too into politics for my liking.
Then I read about Blackrock in this book and my gut instincts appear to have been 100% on target.
June 9, 2021
Kudos to the Left. When your ideas can't win at the ballot box, seek every other mean's necessary: media, judiciary, academia, ... AND the capital markets. A polemic approaching a screed but surely revealed a dimension of advocacy that was new to me.
May 1, 2021
A must read!
To understand the politics in business, this work sheds light on this situation. Woke capitalism is another manifestation of left-wing activism.
To understand the politics in business, this work sheds light on this situation. Woke capitalism is another manifestation of left-wing activism.
March 29, 2021
Muy recomendable libro para entender cómo los grandes corporativos e inversionistas, especialmente en EEUU, apoyan con creciente fuerza la imposición de ideologías y comportamientos "políticamente correctos" (muchos de ellos contrarios a la dignidad de la persona, la libertad, la vida y la familia) que se podría pensar van en contra de los valores y opiniones de muchos de sus empleados y clientes e, inclusive, de sus propios intereses.
Esta presión de los grandes corporativos es parte de un movimiento neo-marxista que tiene su origen en la academia, especialmente en los pensadores de la Teoría Crítica de la Escuela de Frankfurt, que ante la falla del marxismo de alcanzar el poder en occidente, empiezan a mediados del siglo pasado lo que llamaban "la larga marcha por las instituciones" para ir moldeando las instituciones sociales, económicas y políticas de acuerdo a sus teorías revolucionarias y subversivas.
Esta larga marcha incluye las empresas y las escuelas de negocios, donde se manifiesta principalmente a través de la amorfa y maleable teoría de los "stakeholders", o grupos de interés, que pretende hacer de las empresas un vehículo de promoción ideológica y política, independientemente de los deseos o convicciones de sus dueños. Para estos académicos el fin de la empresa no es la satisfacción de las necesidades de los consumidores en un ambiente de cooperación mutua a través del mercado sino un cambio radical de la sociedad, con el objetivo de "liberar" a los diferentes grupos sociales de la "opresión" del capitalismo.
El libro nos ayuda a entender las consecuencias negativas de que las empresas se alejen de su función de crear valor para sus accionistas a través de proveer productos y servicios valiosos para sus clientes utilizando los recursos escasos de la manera más eficiente posible, y se enfoquen más bien al activismo político, de acuerdo a las prioridades y la ideología de las élites que se autodenominan "progresistas", incluyendo el enfrentamiento entre razas y grupos sociales, la liberación de la "opresión" del hombre a la naturaleza y de las personas de los valores "heteronormativos" y "patriarcales" de la sociedad occidental.
Libro muy recomendable para las mujeres y hombres de negocios que quieran contribuir al bien común sin destruir a la sociedad en el proceso, así como para los académicos de escuelas de negocios bien intencionados que, muchas veces sin darse cuenta, por miedo o ingenuidad, acaban siendo tontos útiles en esta larga marcha marxista por las instituciones.
Esta presión de los grandes corporativos es parte de un movimiento neo-marxista que tiene su origen en la academia, especialmente en los pensadores de la Teoría Crítica de la Escuela de Frankfurt, que ante la falla del marxismo de alcanzar el poder en occidente, empiezan a mediados del siglo pasado lo que llamaban "la larga marcha por las instituciones" para ir moldeando las instituciones sociales, económicas y políticas de acuerdo a sus teorías revolucionarias y subversivas.
Esta larga marcha incluye las empresas y las escuelas de negocios, donde se manifiesta principalmente a través de la amorfa y maleable teoría de los "stakeholders", o grupos de interés, que pretende hacer de las empresas un vehículo de promoción ideológica y política, independientemente de los deseos o convicciones de sus dueños. Para estos académicos el fin de la empresa no es la satisfacción de las necesidades de los consumidores en un ambiente de cooperación mutua a través del mercado sino un cambio radical de la sociedad, con el objetivo de "liberar" a los diferentes grupos sociales de la "opresión" del capitalismo.
El libro nos ayuda a entender las consecuencias negativas de que las empresas se alejen de su función de crear valor para sus accionistas a través de proveer productos y servicios valiosos para sus clientes utilizando los recursos escasos de la manera más eficiente posible, y se enfoquen más bien al activismo político, de acuerdo a las prioridades y la ideología de las élites que se autodenominan "progresistas", incluyendo el enfrentamiento entre razas y grupos sociales, la liberación de la "opresión" del hombre a la naturaleza y de las personas de los valores "heteronormativos" y "patriarcales" de la sociedad occidental.
Libro muy recomendable para las mujeres y hombres de negocios que quieran contribuir al bien común sin destruir a la sociedad en el proceso, así como para los académicos de escuelas de negocios bien intencionados que, muchas veces sin darse cuenta, por miedo o ingenuidad, acaban siendo tontos útiles en esta larga marcha marxista por las instituciones.
May 2, 2021
Should sustainability be our new standard for investing? According to Larry Fink of BlackRock (more than $7 trillion in assets) the answer is yes. This book documents the ESG movement—an investment trend focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance matters in assessing a company’s long-term value. American investors have put more than $20 billion into ESG funds in 2019. ESG will save the world—from climate change, from homophobia, fossil fuels, and on and on. If you’re skeptical, this book is for you. The whole stakeholder/shareholder definition is a false dichotomy. Companies have always paid attention to stakeholders, just read the J&J credo from 1943. If you wonder why companies like Apple, Disney, the NBA, etc. can publicly oppose Georgia’s voting or abortion laws while doing business with a country that is actively engaging in massive human rights violations—China—this book will shed some light on how politics has infiltrated the last bastion of innovation and creativity—business. As the author writes: ESG: to use the structure of the capital markets to supersede the democratic will of the people to advance progressive policies that would otherwise be politically untenable.
The book is divided into two parts, the first detailing the history of “The Long March Through the Institutions.” This is a very detailed, academic look at the intellectual tradition of the Frankfurt school and major intellectuals of the left. The second half details the current players on the left, which are many, and on the right, which are few. There’s a chapter dedicated to Disney, Apple, and Amazon.
I didn’t agree with every contention in this book, but it did teach me many things about ESG and Woke Capital that I did not know. This is a big issue, and it’s flying under the radar, but we can see it manifested in how corporate CEOs are more willing to be involved in politics. That’s not the mission of business, and we should all be worried where this is headed.
The book is divided into two parts, the first detailing the history of “The Long March Through the Institutions.” This is a very detailed, academic look at the intellectual tradition of the Frankfurt school and major intellectuals of the left. The second half details the current players on the left, which are many, and on the right, which are few. There’s a chapter dedicated to Disney, Apple, and Amazon.
I didn’t agree with every contention in this book, but it did teach me many things about ESG and Woke Capital that I did not know. This is a big issue, and it’s flying under the radar, but we can see it manifested in how corporate CEOs are more willing to be involved in politics. That’s not the mission of business, and we should all be worried where this is headed.
October 29, 2021
The main idea of the book is that the CEO’s , like Larry Fink of Black Rock, manage enormous amounts of money and use their power to influence politics.
The three big stock companies are Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street. They don’t use ethics in their investments nor care if losses occur for the shareholders.
I understand that is normal but I don’t think they should get involved in politics or use their strong arm to force their ideas on companies.
The three big stock companies are Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street. They don’t use ethics in their investments nor care if losses occur for the shareholders.
I understand that is normal but I don’t think they should get involved in politics or use their strong arm to force their ideas on companies.
December 24, 2021
This is the third book in the last 30 days that I have read that addresses the issue of the changing culture of America that has me so baffled. Needless to say things are becoming clear and horrifying at the same time. This is quite a short book that packs a lot of very good information into its narrative and I highly recommend it for anybody struggling with the politicization of every aspect of American life
July 26, 2025
There were parts of this book, particularly the historical parts, e.g about Wilson and the Frankfurt School that I found very interesting Ultimately Soukups's ad hominem screeds against progressives and liberals undermined his whole argument. This was written for true believers, not to change the belief of open-minded readers.
September 19, 2021
Profiles individuals that have brought ideas, then shares activist CEOs who claim position in the United States but not so much internationally. Insightful.
February 22, 2022
And it has. Big business has/is continually sucking up to the WOKE.
April 9, 2022
A thrilling read about how political correctness made it's way from the university campus in the 70s and all the way to the world's largest institutional investors today.
January 24, 2022
Part 1 of this book looks at the people, trends, and ideas that "produced the total politicized state and the applications of those ideas to create a total, political societal ethos"; largely taking up leftist, elitist, and technocratic thinkers and activists.
Part 2 of this book delves deep into the matter of how the same trends that corrupted and transmogrified all of the key cultural institutions in the West have similarly swept through Western business, and in so doing, have swept the whole of human enterprise into the total system.
Soukup's book is, in some ways, a spiritual successor to Stephen R.C. Hicks' Explaining Post-Modernism, George Will's The Conservative Sensibility, and Kuehnelt-Leddihn's Leftism, going one step further: looking at how leftists, the new oligarchs, and the new clerisy (not mutually exclusive) have cemented their hold on power by turning business and the market against all dissenters, especially conservatives.
Part 2 of this book delves deep into the matter of how the same trends that corrupted and transmogrified all of the key cultural institutions in the West have similarly swept through Western business, and in so doing, have swept the whole of human enterprise into the total system.
Soukup's book is, in some ways, a spiritual successor to Stephen R.C. Hicks' Explaining Post-Modernism, George Will's The Conservative Sensibility, and Kuehnelt-Leddihn's Leftism, going one step further: looking at how leftists, the new oligarchs, and the new clerisy (not mutually exclusive) have cemented their hold on power by turning business and the market against all dissenters, especially conservatives.
February 27, 2022
This book traces how wokeness has taken over business schools and how ESG is being pushed top down from e.g. Blackrock and the Davos class.
Basically it tells the tale of how corporations are taking over democrazy by financial force.
Also, everyone losses when ESG goals are pursued as these goals distorts the market from solving issues as it used to.
Maybe the attack on Ukraine will make more people see that ESG is a security risk. As such this book helps explain the downfall of Europe.
Basically it tells the tale of how corporations are taking over democrazy by financial force.
Also, everyone losses when ESG goals are pursued as these goals distorts the market from solving issues as it used to.
Maybe the attack on Ukraine will make more people see that ESG is a security risk. As such this book helps explain the downfall of Europe.
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