Corporate Social Responsibility 2.0
The leaders of our most prestigious corporations can’t have it both ways. Having been granted status as ‘legal persons’ in 1886, corporations have the right to “free speech” that cannot be abridged. And they exercise this right all the time through lobbying, advertising, social media and so forth (even thought that status resulted from a courtroom fluke, about which more later). And virtually all of that commercial advertising speaks to personal behaviors and public issues that have clear connections to the cultural and political context of the moment.
But now, when it comes to speaking out about the destruction of democracy in America, to the killing of American citizens by federal agents in riot gear, wielding weapons generally used only in combat, the voices of corporate leaders are barely audible. And when forced to say something, it is generally a garbled whisper – as most companies duck behind the cover of needing to not enter into politics. All the while, corporate lobbyists swarm Capitol Hill and executive agencies wielding political power to shape laws and regulations.
Destruction of American Democracy
When the history of the Trump Era is written, which companies and associations will be listed as enabling the destruction of democracy in America?
Which listed as speaking out? Which listed as remaining silent?
Which are helping pay, literally, for the destruction of the East Wing of the White House?
Which CEOs approved donations to the Trump inauguration?
Which companies are using shareholder capital to the tune of $1,00,000 for explicit access to the President, under the guise of it being a present in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday?
I know that ESG, corporate social responsibility, the “triple bottom line”, DEI, and all manner of other corporate commitments to do more than turn a profit are being cut back or buried.
Where are our business leaders with courage, with a determination to protect long-term brand and shareholder value?
Companies That Supported the Nazis
Businesses need to speak and act now. No one wants to ever be included on a list similar to the one below -- of companies that supported the Nazi takeover of Germany.
Allianz, Audi, BMW, Chase, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Bank, Ford, General Motors, Hugo Boss, IBM, JAB Holding, Krupp, Lufthansa, Mercedes, Nestle, Porsche, Siemens, Standard Oil, Volkswagen.
I know that these companies today are not run by the same people that started them.
I know that was then and this is now.
I know that some firms and families have issued profoundly sincere apologies.
I know that America is not Nazi Germany.
xxx thes companies xxI am not calling anyone a Nazi.
Yet the history of these corporations are intertwined with what Milton Mayer describes as “the pressure of combined reality and illusion.” In 1955, after extensive research and interviewing in Germany, Mayer authored “They thought They Were Free.” And with frightening prescience wrote the following.
“Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany.... It was what most Germans wanted—or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want... I came back home a little afraid for my country, afraid of what it might want, and get, and like, under pressure of combined reality and illusion. I felt—and feel—that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man. He happened to be in Germany under certain conditions. He might be here, under certain conditions. He might, under certain conditions, be I.”
It is time for business leaders to lead. To preserve shareholder value, to stay ahead of the growing movement to boycott, to preserve personal integrity, and to show what it really means to be a patriotic American.
Especially now, under pressure of combined reality and illusion.