Feeding the Cancel Culture Beast

Capitalism is a pretty straightforward concept.

You produce or provide goods and services that others want and they purchase them from you. You then buy from others and hopefully make a profit. If you do, then you may grow your business or employ people.

Success revolves around satisfying the needs and wants of others. The more you do that, the more money you will make.

One would presume that most business owners are capitalists. Otherwise there is no real purpose to their process. Why risk your time and money to not make a profit?

That's what makes their embrace of the woke movement and all that it entails as so strange.

Wokeness, political correctness, affirmative action and whatever other dreams are thought up by the crazed leftists have their genesis in Marxism.

This is a doctrine that seeks to transform society economically, socially and culturally. It paints humans as 'sufficient within themselves' with no need for higher belief.

Marx thought that Capitalism imprisons humans, believing the more value he creates the more he devalues himself.  He also believed the demise of the business owners (bourgeoisie) and the victory of the workers (proletariat) was inevitable.

This would be achieved through a permanent revolution involving:

A provisional coalition between the proletariat and the petty bourgeoisie rebelling against a capitalism that is only superficially united. Once a majority has been won to the coalition, an unofficial proletarian authority constitutes itself alongside the revolutionary bourgeois authority.

Its mission is the political and revolutionary education of the proletariat, gradually assuring the transfer of legal power from the revolutionary bourgeoisie to the revolutionary proletariat.
(source Britannica.com)

Today, it may surprise you to hear that Marx' ideology is becoming the dominant mindset for business leaders as they succumb to the demands of the proletariat and their agitators.

It's known as wokeness. This was defined by author James Lindsay as being:

Wokeness is a fusion of the critical theory school of neo-Marxism, which is a form of identity politics, and radical activism that has a very particular worldview that separates the world into liberationists versus oppressors or oppressed versus oppressors.

It has all of the conflict theory...with zero-sum conflict, no ability to agree or understand one another across those, and then takes on the postmodern understanding of truth being just politics by other means, which removes all of the brakes standing up against it,”

Under wokeness, the truth is malleable. it is constructed around power and who drives the narrative. In effect, the truth is replaced by my truth.

It has spawned an entire industry from anti-racism training to choose your own gender adventure; from white privilege to discriminating against normality.

That's where business finds itself today.

It has become the default ideology of big business and the bureaucracy. They employ entire armies of woke consultants to comply with increasing demands in the hope they won't fall victim to the mob.

And who can blame them. When the mob comes they can be vicious. Online activists seek to cancel the non compliant. Protesters destroy property and reputations while the politicisation of every business and civic institution is now the norm.

Even signalling compliance won't always save you.

The pervasive trends under the guise of equality makes diversity training in government, schools and corporate Australia,  destructive, divisive, and harmful.

The recent BLM protests is a case in point.

BLM was created by avowed marxists. They raised tens of millions of dollars from corporate America while organising violent and destructive protests across the country. One of the founders invested millions of dollars in a personal property portfolio.  

In Australia, the corporate and business elite did much the same. They tipped in millions to create a movement built on Marxism with no applicability to our own country.

It had nothing to do with black lives but all to do with being bullied into virtue signalling.

Now we find ourselves in the business boat of not being able to choose the best person for the job. It's all about quotas and minority representation.

Now some business owners may choose to do this off their own bat. You want to provide opportunities to the disadvantaged or culturally diverse. Maybe they are simply the best person for the job. But many times they aren't.

Today, if the best person for the job is a white, middle class, heterosexual male they will likely be discriminated against on the basis of those characteristics.

Why else would consulting firms like KPMG ask about gender, pronouns or sexual preferences in their application process?

I thought employment law was meant to be blind on these and other matters.

Unfortunately, this is no longer a choice. Diversity is a requirement to picking up business.

If you don't comply you will be targeted and your business will suffer. Your partners will walk away from doing deals with you as your business and executive reputation is trashed.

We've seen companies targeted for political contributions, public advocacy or even for refusing to support a particular cause.

The Australian Christian Lobby was bombed during the Same Sex Marriage debate and no business wants to risk that happening to them.

Wokeness and cancel culture has engendered a culture of fear and fosters unfairness wherever it exerts itself.  

And it's not just in business where the cancel-culture kicks in. Even the usually compliant are targeted as appropriateness moves according to the whims of the woke.

Pop star Adele was hounded for wearing a Jamaica flag bikin top and having a stupid hairstyle.

Another popular influencer, Sarah Davidson was harangued for cultural appropriation.  Her crime was buying a didgeridoo for Father's Day. When she deleted abusive comments from her profile she was further accused of 'silencing Aboriginal people'.

Apparently even playing the didgeridoo is a no-no under the new racism and needs 'cultural permission'.

Children's television cartoon Paw Patrol was targeted because is had a dog character who helped the police.

Even iconic kids show Bluey, had two episodes pulled by the ABC over the term 'ooga booga'.  

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Wokeness and the marxism is fosters, is destroying us all as it chips away at the fabric of our past, our present and our future.

Some will say that it is a move in the right direction to bring about equality and fairness but fighting discrimination with discrimination is not about fairness.

Cancelling history because it doesn't comply with today's impossible standards of conduct is not rational. Nor is denying the differences between men and women to allow men to compete in women's sport.

This is where we find ourselves and as we feed the beast in an attempt to appease it, the only hope is that it will eat us last.