The business world, as we have long been told by prominent business people themselves, isn’t about getting political. And it’s certainly not about upsetting people who could potentially buy your products and/or services.

Our MBAs have said for years it’s about maximizing your return and streamlining costs – to earn the profit that allows you to continue making money, maybe investing in new things too. It’s a simple, easy-to-follow philosophy, because it keeps you as a company focused, and divorces you from either the responsibility for any externalities that the production of their product/service might cause[1], as well as not bog you down in any messy areas.

There’s little doubt that doing things that way has allowed us as people and companies to survive, earning income and sustaining our ways of life without it getting too complicated.

For many of us[2], this approach probably worked for most of our adult lives, because the harm you saw out in the world never rose to anything worth losing your job over.

But here’s the problem: Because we’ve chosen money over societal good for so long, we ended up enabling the worst of us. Today, it’s the cartoon villains and fraudsters who now reign. It’s a time when our tech billionaires, hyper-focused on “me, me, me” and not shy about flaunting it, stopped thinking of how to benefit broader society long ago. 

And unlike years past, the usual “keep-your-head-down-don’t-make-waves-and-keep-making-money” approach won’t necessarily spare you the wrath of today’s narcissistic sociopaths, much less any fawning, obsequious gestures you might try to win their good graces.  

And the worst part? 

We continue to play the “business as usual” card, as if our current situation is simply normal. 

We’ve Given the Joker, Lex Luthor, & The Duke Brothers Free Reign

Can you name a time when an American leader threatened to invade another country’s sovereign territory (a European ally no less!) simply because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize?

You could’ve possibly imagined such a plot line in some fantasy movie, but in real life?

Where exactly are the business leaders of this country on this issue? Is anyone going to say anything about the insanity of the U.S. potentially invading Greenland? How about a business leader standing up and saying something about the ICE raids in Minnesota? How, maybe, we shouldn’t murder American citizens who are protesting the federal presence? 

The problem, of course, is that the villainy doesn’t just exist with Orange Nightmare and the federal government. A great many corporate and government leaders today share his worldview and certainly qualify when it comes to sociopathy.

Take Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s comments on a recent investor call. Karp, who leads the AI-powered software surveillance company used by the U.S. government and other foreign governments in theater warfare, said the following: “Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world, and when it’s necessary to scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them. We hope you’re in favor of that.”  

Huh?

This is a company, mind you, that’s not just being used in theater warfare but expanding into the corporate sector, including consumer data systems. One whose platform can already potentially access your data. Where you shop, what you like, what you say privately to someone else. With comments like the above, would you really want Alex Karp to know exactly what you do all day? 

Or, consider Palantir investor and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. When asked whether he thought the human race should endure (a pretty straightforward question), he couldn’t answer in the affirmative. 

Meanwhile, ServiceNow Inc. CEO Bill McDermott says artificial intelligence is helping his company save on labor costs. To wit: “We’re slowing down the hiring in jobs that are — quite frankly — soul crushing jobs,” McDermott said on Bloomberg Tech. 

Aren’t soul-crushing jobs still jobs for people, Bill?

You couldn’t make this stuff up. 

It’s as if we rolled the Joker, Lex Luthor, Miranda Priestly, and the Duke Brothers all into one and just let them do whatever they like. Yet, we’re also not stunned by this. 

 In a movie, we’d always root for such individuals’ demise, but where are those people today? By taking our usual corporate approach (silence, ass-kissing, deference, etc.), you can argue that we’re still enabling the villains and bad guys, and making them even stronger and more powerful. To dictate what happens to us, whether we like it or not.

And the result?

Because these leaders of ours don’t care, they are now inflicting real cruelty, pain, and suffering on ordinary people across our country. Meanwhile, as they all get rich, they continue gaslighting their constituencies with lies that ultimately cause those individuals to blame their circumstances and/or misdirect their anger at foreigners, people of color, or people who don’t live traditional lifestyles.

The Somalis steal all your tax dollars? That might be a small scandal (certainly worth investigating). But for the biggest heist, one need only look at the Forbes richest list to see who really stole your money. And there’s no doubt, it was stolen. By them. From you, the average person, while you weren’t paying attention.

It’s Understandable That Not Everyone Can Speak Out or Wants To

I honestly don’t blame anyone for doing whatever it is they have to do to survive. Also, certainly, there are those out there who must think this period of time is simply business as usual. No need to rock the boat. And even if there was, it doesn’t rise to the level of risking one’s income.

Furthermore, many of the same leaders whom I might look at as villains have legions of supporters[3], who not only believe that the things happening today are right, but also align with their own worldview. They’re doing just fine.

OK. That’s human nature.

And, in truth, the goal of writing this isn’t to try to convince those who believe the current path is the righteous one to change their opinion. It’s certainly not to make anyone feel bad about the personal decisions they may or may not make for themselves.  

It’s perhaps more to enable those who believe we’re not on the right path to feel more comfortable in speaking out freely. Because the truth is, whatever side you’re on and whatever you believe, there’s little doubt we’re all pretty complicit in what is currently happening to us, as a country, as a people, and as a broader society. And frankly, the more this goes on, the more I worry about the indifference we exhibit to others’ cruelty and the suffering of the average person. (Yes, I’m expressing a form of empathy, something that Elon Musk has called a “fundamental weakness of Western civilization.”)  

Let’s face it: the business-as-usual, keep-your-head-down approach won’t work with people like Musk, Thiel, McDermott, Karp, or Orange Traitor in such positions of power. These individuals don’t care about you, the average person. At all. 

And sadly, many of our businesses are similarly turning a cold shoulder to ordinary people as well, focusing on their quarterly targets and cost savings through AI, ignoring the needs of the employees and the communities they serve.    

What should be pretty clear by now (at least it is to me) is that the inmates are running the asylum. In government. And in many of our businesses, their powers growing unchecked. By any other measure (and certainly in the movies), we would call them for what they are: “villains.” 

Conclusion

One last note. In many films, the villains are often so bad that they double-cross even their partners or those who have been on their side. (That’s how we know they’re really amoral.) I guess the point is this: Even if you do play it safe or remain on their side, who’s to say the real-life ones won’t also do the same to you?    

At least Dr. Evil would be funny doing it. This won’t be.

[1] The philosophy being, from a free-market perspective, that customers will make informed choices. The problem with this, of course, is that consumers don’t make informed choices. So fraudsters and cartoon villains can take advantage of them.

[2] I myself am definitely complicit in this. That’s also not to say there aren’t people out there who could argue there actually has been significant harm done to others over the years, but we all just turned to look the other way. 

[3] The employees of Palantir call themselves “Palantirians!” Which sounds like they are aliens, and they might as well be with the way they view humanity.