the Powell Memo

[Caleb Evenson]

Whenever I consider just about any political, social, and/or economic issue long enough, the Powell Memo comes to mind. The condition has afflicted me since my first reading the memo after revisiting Chomsky lectures within days after the 2016 election.

As far as a search for "Powell memo" has shown me, jclay is the only other person to have mentioned it in this forum. Believing Powell's thoughts outlined in the memo and then-contemporary readers' reactions created an effective, insidious pivot within US society, with far reaching consequences for the whole world, and that far too few people are aware of it, I intend this thread to put more emphasis on the document. Those unfamiliar, please read it, and if you're so inclined, discuss.

[classtimesailer]

"It is time for American business — which has demonstrated the greatest capacity in all history to produce and to influence consumer decisions — to apply their great talents vigorously to the preservation of the system itself."

And currently, with a public shift from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, most Americans believe that it doesn't get any better than a trip on the good ship Enterprise.

[Too Tall]

Thanks, I'll digest this over a few days and chat.

[monadnocky]

All of this nonsense from a man who, as chairman of the board of Phillip Morris for about 10 years (during a time of near-ubiquitous cigarette smoking before the associated dangers were adequately publicized), directly contributed to the deaths and misery of more people around the world than anyone in history (save a handful of genocidal dictators, I guess....)
Powell and Thomas Midgley Jr (inventor and endless cheerleader of leaded gasoline AND CFC's)... go go unbridled capitalism.

[vertical_doug]

My take on stakeholders capitalism versus shareholder capitalism when someone like Larry Fink is lecturing me on it.

All I hear is the pig from Animal Farm: "All Animals are created Equal, but Some Animals are more Equal than Others."

Of this, I am certain.

[j44ke]

The persecution complex of the American CEO.

[classtimesailer]

The memo's call to control the narrative was clearly effective. The youth of the 80's onward were not nearly as anti-establishment as the wayward youngsters of the 60s and 70s that so worried corporate america. Powell's mention of "minorities" early in his memo likely hooked readers to read to the end.

[Mark Walberg]

....... anti-establishment as the wayward youngsters of the 60s and 70s that so worried corporate america...........

By the way, what happened to all those love and peace flower children?
It seems that they must have changed their outlook.
I don't see many of them around any more.

[Bob Ross]

By the way, what happened to all those love and peace flower children?
It seems that they must have changed their outlook.
I don't see many of them around any more.

They didn't change their outlook, they just changed their hair color...and not intentionally: I see them all over the place, they're just a bit harder to recognize these days because most of them are 70 years old now.

Y'know what I don't see? Teenagers and young adults who are the same age now as those love and peace flower children were in ~1968 who still share those values and ideals.

[BBB]

I skimmed over the memo and felt it was pretty poorly written, particularly coming from someone who was about to be appointed as a Supreme Court Judge.

In any event, a couple of things stand out:

(1) The so-called defence of the system against communists, New Leftists etc etc has resulted in many problems. Pushing manufacturing off-shore to lower the cost base. Yep that worked out well. See the composition of the rioters for example. In tandem with this issue, the growing disparity between the take home pay of CEOs or executives and the ordinary person on the street. Such gross wage inequality is not a good thing. Some corporates have done very well and the concerns expressed in the memo have not come to pass, but at what cost?

(2) Much of what these corrosive elements in society that capital needed to push back against have had their way in any event. Equality in the work place, whether it is removing gender discrimination (that memo was written a long time ago and most corporates would have been run by men) or pay equalisation (still a work in progress) and so on has had a positive effect. Consumer protection. Make a dodgy product or mislead a consumer and the law provides remedies as well as having a watchdog to hit companies when they do the wrong thing. Corporate social responsibility. While western governments are tripping over themselves to be seen to do something about climate change, boards are increasingly taking action. These are but three examples. The sky hasn't fallen in yet.

[classtimesailer]

In 1971, a small shift in investment strategies drowned out the influencers who might have guided folks in un-American directions. It is interesting watching the modern efforts to eliminate such malice. Such as...

https://www.c4isrnet.com/opinion/202...roving-ground/

"The cognitive security proving ground is envisioned to be a comprehensive and flexible live-virtual-constructive simulated environment scalable from the individual to large populations for research, engineering, test/evaluation, training, and development of strategies to defeat malicious influence campaigns."

[9tubes]

They didn't change their outlook, they just changed their hair color...and not intentionally: I see them all over the place, they're just a bit harder to recognize these days because most of them are 70 years old now.

Y'know what I don't see? Teenagers and young adults who are the same age now as those love and peace flower children were in ~1968 who still share those values and ideals.

This. ^^^

The press does a very poor job of reporting on this important question. Why do today's youth seem so liberal, yet so unwilling to lift a finger for liberal causes? (BTW, I'm not taking a political stand here; don't infer anything about my politics.) Examples: It seems odd to me that today's youth would be so impassioned on the subject of Black Lives Matter but so unconcerned about dropping cluster bombs on black civilians in Yemen. That they would be so concerned about refugees from Guatemala and Mexico but give no damns about the U.S. role in creating 12 million homeless refugees in Syria.

[classtimesailer]

I think the memo outlines the strategy that if followed creates the attitudes and perspectives that will not question the tactics employed by the empire as it extends its reach. But events that have the potential to divide the working class while not threaten the business of business will be news and textbook chapters.