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Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
In this New York Times bestseller, a young and successful entrepreneur makes the case that politics has no place in business, and sets out a new vision for the future of American capitalism.
There’s a new invisible force at work in our economic and cultural lives. It affects every advertisement we see and every product we buy, from our morning coffee to a new pair of shoes. “Stakeholder capitalism” makes rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally-friendly world, but in reality this ideology championed by America’s business and political leaders robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a traitor to his class. He’s founded multibillion-dollar enterprises, led a biotech company as CEO, he became a hedge fund partner in his 20s, trained as a scientist at Harvard and a lawyer at Yale, and grew up the child of immigrants in a small town in Ohio. Now he takes us behind the scenes into corporate boardrooms and five-star conferences, into Ivy League classrooms and secretive nonprofits, to reveal the defining scam of our century.
The modern woke-industrial complex divides us as a people. By mixing morality with consumerism, America’s elites prey on our innermost insecurities about who we really are. They sell us cheap social causes and skin-deep identities to satisfy our hunger for a cause and our search for meaning, at a moment when we as Americans lack both.
This book not only rips back the curtain on the new corporatist agenda, it offers a better way forward. America’s elites may want to sort us into demographic boxes, but we don’t have to stay there. Woke, Inc . begins as a critique of stakeholder capitalism and ends with an exploration of what it means to be an American today—a journey that begins with cynicism and ends with hope.
There’s a new invisible force at work in our economic and cultural lives. It affects every advertisement we see and every product we buy, from our morning coffee to a new pair of shoes. “Stakeholder capitalism” makes rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally-friendly world, but in reality this ideology championed by America’s business and political leaders robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a traitor to his class. He’s founded multibillion-dollar enterprises, led a biotech company as CEO, he became a hedge fund partner in his 20s, trained as a scientist at Harvard and a lawyer at Yale, and grew up the child of immigrants in a small town in Ohio. Now he takes us behind the scenes into corporate boardrooms and five-star conferences, into Ivy League classrooms and secretive nonprofits, to reveal the defining scam of our century.
The modern woke-industrial complex divides us as a people. By mixing morality with consumerism, America’s elites prey on our innermost insecurities about who we really are. They sell us cheap social causes and skin-deep identities to satisfy our hunger for a cause and our search for meaning, at a moment when we as Americans lack both.
This book not only rips back the curtain on the new corporatist agenda, it offers a better way forward. America’s elites may want to sort us into demographic boxes, but we don’t have to stay there. Woke, Inc . begins as a critique of stakeholder capitalism and ends with an exploration of what it means to be an American today—a journey that begins with cynicism and ends with hope.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published August 17, 2021
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August 22, 2021
I had absolutely no clue who Vivek Ramaswamy was, but when I was interviewing the author Peter Boghossian for my podcast, he told me that I should check this book out. As a person who considers himself pretty left-leaning, I instantly judged Vivek with my first impressions of him. Personally, I’m not sure if capitalism can be fixed, so when I learned that he was a former CEO of a biotech company, and the first clips of him I saw was on Fox News, I had an idea of what type of guy he was. And on top of that, typically any book that has the word “woke” in the title or subtitle makes me think it’s going to be some ultra-conservative person just trying to play into tribalism.
But, I was 1000% wrong, and I’m so glad that I was. Once I started this book, I couldn’t stop reading it. I grabbed my copy on Friday and finished it by Sunday.
As someone on the left, I’ve felt insane watching so-called liberals get played by the rich and elite like a bunch of fiddles. In this book, Vivek brings his insider knowledge as a former CEO to showcase how corporate America loves playing into the culture wars because it makes them more money and distracts from all of the real issues. Vivek is a man with principles, and as you read the book, you can tell he’s a legitimately good person who wants to help people. Unfortunately, when it comes to the culture wars, people don’t care if you want to do the greatest good; all they care about is if you’ve properly shown you’re “one of the tribe”. Rather than buckling to the pressure, Vivek left his position as CEO and wrote this extremely important book.
Aside from Vivek being a decent guy, he’s a deep thinker. As I read this book, I almost felt like I was reading the words of a philosopher, and I loved it. I don’t completely agree with all of Vivek’s ideas and solutions, but I definitely respect all of them. I think there may be some other root causes and potential solutions, but the point is that we need to recognize what’s happening and work together. In my opinion, this is one of the best books of 2021 alongside Batya Ungar-Sargon’s upcoming book Bad News.
But, I was 1000% wrong, and I’m so glad that I was. Once I started this book, I couldn’t stop reading it. I grabbed my copy on Friday and finished it by Sunday.
As someone on the left, I’ve felt insane watching so-called liberals get played by the rich and elite like a bunch of fiddles. In this book, Vivek brings his insider knowledge as a former CEO to showcase how corporate America loves playing into the culture wars because it makes them more money and distracts from all of the real issues. Vivek is a man with principles, and as you read the book, you can tell he’s a legitimately good person who wants to help people. Unfortunately, when it comes to the culture wars, people don’t care if you want to do the greatest good; all they care about is if you’ve properly shown you’re “one of the tribe”. Rather than buckling to the pressure, Vivek left his position as CEO and wrote this extremely important book.
Aside from Vivek being a decent guy, he’s a deep thinker. As I read this book, I almost felt like I was reading the words of a philosopher, and I loved it. I don’t completely agree with all of Vivek’s ideas and solutions, but I definitely respect all of them. I think there may be some other root causes and potential solutions, but the point is that we need to recognize what’s happening and work together. In my opinion, this is one of the best books of 2021 alongside Batya Ungar-Sargon’s upcoming book Bad News.
August 28, 2021
Finishing the book left me with a few thoughts:
The book could be improved with better research. He should read The Color of Law (Rothstein) and The Sum of Us (McGhee). He waves away systemic racism out of convenience, never actually defining and refuting it.
It’s not clear where or why he draws the line on a person making choices vs a company, lead and composed of people, wanting to make choices.
I found it curious he implies inflating college applications with fluffy volunteering and social impact projects started up only in the 2000s. That’s been a thing. For a while.
McCarthyism blacklisting of smeared/falsely accused individuals is not the same as today’s cancel culture punishing people for actions and words they actually said and did, captured for posterity on the internet. I don’t like either of them, but it’s an apples and oranges comparison. They are not the same.
Companies aren’t always in the best position to price the true cost of their goods. He mentions negative externalities once in the book. Yet I don’t get the impression he agrees with pricing and taxing polluters.
It seemed very curious to have so much dedicated to labeling the Uyghur genocide in China, yet be so angry at a ‘woke’ consumer who, learning their preferred clothing brand may source cotton through forced labor origins, decides to stop buying their clothes and shares their story with others.
So many arguments in the book are shaped into a choice of A vs B, with not much imagination spent on alternative options.
So much love for capitalism, yet no acknowledgment of how far we really are from pure capitalism in America. Some entities are too big to fail. We have a federal reserve designed to lesson the swings between winners and losers in business cycles. Like it or not, American society has higher expectations on community well being that cannot be met with capitalism. Everyone must be seen that goes to an ER. Profit alone cannot guide the rules we choose to abide by when engaging with others.
The book could be improved with better research. He should read The Color of Law (Rothstein) and The Sum of Us (McGhee). He waves away systemic racism out of convenience, never actually defining and refuting it.
It’s not clear where or why he draws the line on a person making choices vs a company, lead and composed of people, wanting to make choices.
I found it curious he implies inflating college applications with fluffy volunteering and social impact projects started up only in the 2000s. That’s been a thing. For a while.
McCarthyism blacklisting of smeared/falsely accused individuals is not the same as today’s cancel culture punishing people for actions and words they actually said and did, captured for posterity on the internet. I don’t like either of them, but it’s an apples and oranges comparison. They are not the same.
Companies aren’t always in the best position to price the true cost of their goods. He mentions negative externalities once in the book. Yet I don’t get the impression he agrees with pricing and taxing polluters.
It seemed very curious to have so much dedicated to labeling the Uyghur genocide in China, yet be so angry at a ‘woke’ consumer who, learning their preferred clothing brand may source cotton through forced labor origins, decides to stop buying their clothes and shares their story with others.
So many arguments in the book are shaped into a choice of A vs B, with not much imagination spent on alternative options.
So much love for capitalism, yet no acknowledgment of how far we really are from pure capitalism in America. Some entities are too big to fail. We have a federal reserve designed to lesson the swings between winners and losers in business cycles. Like it or not, American society has higher expectations on community well being that cannot be met with capitalism. Everyone must be seen that goes to an ER. Profit alone cannot guide the rules we choose to abide by when engaging with others.
November 27, 2023
Let’s make this review the most liked on Goodreads. Almost there.
Trying to rebrand corruption.
Woke Inc. is an interesting perspective from a CEO of a pharmaceutical company and his take on recent social upheaval and how it dovetails with the corporate entity. Ramaswamy offers an unabashed tirade against state and corporate collusion with some very accurate insights while also seriously conflating concepts to mold into a grand polemic about what he perceives wokeism to entail.
A big part of the book is the debate between the virtues of stakeholder capitalism and shareholder capitalism. Stakeholder capitalism asserts the corporations should operate with all stakeholders interests including shareholders, customers and the greater public good. Shareholder capitalism is that all interests and goals should be entirely devoted to boosting shareholder profits, as is the fiduciary duty of the managerial class. Ramaswamy argues that stakeholder capitalism lends to corporations being involved in social causes and making themselves the unwanted stewards of advancing social change. Since they are not elected and only care about corporate self interest, this makes them wholly unqualified to be involved in philanthropy. Such causes inevitably turn into a form of cultural authoritarianism—paying lip service while paradoxically destroying cultures, people and wealth both domestic and abroad. I wholeheartedly agree with this point. Many examples abound in the book from Google and Apple ignoring human rights violations in Xinjiang while having a little BLM logo on their websites. This stuff is all over the place and is incredibly obvious to many. Ramaswamy really beats a dead horse about a phenomenon that is obvious to everyone that thinks critically for even a single moment about corporate motivations.
Ramaswamy clearly endorses shareholder capitalism and valorizes the fiduciary duty of an increasingly belligerent managerial class that they have to their shareholders. Both public and private, Ramaswamy scolds the managerial class for trying to seize both state and corporate power from the people and the shareholders, respectively. Ramaswamy argues that shareholder capitalism ensures that corporations stay in their lanes and not take up social causes, deceiving the public and profiting nonetheless. I certainly think there is a case to be made for this but there is a glaring problem with this logic: why is shareholder capitalism actually good for society in its own right? He never explains how increasing short term profits for a small group of people is a win for the public good. And the reason he doesn’t explain it is because it isn’t good. Wealth concentration is bad. And it’s bad for some of the very reasons he talks about: that wealth power spills over to public control. I very much agree with his assessment of section 230 and how our tech overlords are subverting democracy and the public good. His best point is that corporations shouldn’t dictate what is moral and ethical and they definitely do by their default power that they leverage from cultural liberalism.
I agree with Ramaswamy that wokeism is becoming a monolithic dominant cultural force that demands conformity of thought in academia and in the workplace. This is harmful to productive discourse and erodes the public good. Cancel culture is a serious threat to free thought. People should not be fired or ostracized for voicing opinions, thoughts and views that are counter to mainstream liberal thought as long as those views aren’t outright hateful or inciting to violence. Where Ramaswamy overreaches is calling wokeism a literal religion evoking words like “blood sacrifice” and “worship.” Not only is this highly demeaning to people of actual religious faith but it’s completely inaccurate. A religion has codified doctrine, central authority, acolytes and an underlying spirituality. Wokeism may appear to have these things but it’s a bastardized version at best. Ramaswamy is conflating religion with ethos.
Ramaswamy has a love affair with what he perceives as capitalism and clearly endorses free market solutions. He goes as far as to argue that capitalism abolished the caste system in India. This kind of sweeping claim had me raising my eyebrows pretty early on in this book. As a CEO himself, it’s very clear that his world view has coalesced into believing that market solutions naturally address society’s problems. I don’t know if this is self delusion or plain naivete, either way, I think he’s quite a bit off base.
Let me dig in more here. Ramaswamy blames the government for the 2008 financial crisis. In sweeping accusations he states that housing “policies in the 90s” created too much liquidity in the housing market and caused an asset bubble that burst like 15 years later. Others have made the argument that the FHA, HOLC and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that have been used to provide easier public loans through GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) like Frannie and Freddie fueled the housing bubble. I have some bad news for Ramaswamy: he’s demonstrably wrong. The facts are that consumers who already had mortgages and who built up equity in their homes were more likely to be targeted by subprime loans than first time home buyers. The crisis was caused by the rise of private predatory lending. FHA loans have never dominated the markets, ever. In fact, FHA loans had less market share going from 14% to 3% from 2001 to 2007. Delinquency rates were also lower for these loans. GSE loans had a delinquency rate of 6% during that time while private loans were 28%. So how could public backed loans fuel an asset bubble when they had a tiny portion of the market share? And of the defaulted loans, only 6% were CRA loans. It was CLEARLY an unregulated mortgage backed security market that led to the bubble. Seems like a business titan CEO like Ramaswamy would be able to understand this.
Here’s what Ramaswamy is doing with this book: he’s taking an age-old phenomenon, tokenism, and rebranding as a new left-wing authoritarian Orwellian nightmare and repurposing that as wokeism. Both companies and public entities use the politics of inclusion and tokenism to gain popular support and then go and do whatever they want. We all know this. But Ramaswamy is trying to act like it’s a new left wing phenomenon that is subverting democracy. The point he’s missing is that it is big business, monopolization and state-corporate collusion by any social and political means that is destroying democracy. It’s not just “the woke industrial complex”. By compartmentalizing it as a left-wing phenomenon, he has HUGE blinders on that become evident as the book goes on with mountains of confirmation bias.
Ramaswamy denies that systemic racism is a current American phenomenon. Why does he deny this? Because he’s conflating individual racial prejudice with de facto racial apartheid. He clearly does not understand the de jure racial government policies that are the literal foundation of the United States. From the Homestead Act, to the GI Bill, the FHA, HOLC, New Deal programs, the Drug War, 3 strikes felony charges, to subprime lending, the United States has the bones of a literal racial apartied. Ramaswamy doesn’t think for a minute that there is some residual systemic racial prejudice going on as a fallout from such race selective policies? The gall to deny that American institutions may have implicit race preference and to cast racism as a Woke-corporate charade is a sign of someone who hasn’t done a lot of reading and thinking outside his own echo chamber.
So what’s the impact of a book like this? Two things: confirmation to those that already think this way and obfuscation to those who are confused about how power actually operates in this country. This book, and many like it, serves to deny REAL subjugation that is very much active in American society. It’s ultimately the manifesto of a deluded rich man who wants you to know how much he and others like him have done for you. I found it worthwhile to read to understand why someone thinks this way so I do recommend reading it but maybe get it from the library.
Trying to rebrand corruption.
Woke Inc. is an interesting perspective from a CEO of a pharmaceutical company and his take on recent social upheaval and how it dovetails with the corporate entity. Ramaswamy offers an unabashed tirade against state and corporate collusion with some very accurate insights while also seriously conflating concepts to mold into a grand polemic about what he perceives wokeism to entail.
A big part of the book is the debate between the virtues of stakeholder capitalism and shareholder capitalism. Stakeholder capitalism asserts the corporations should operate with all stakeholders interests including shareholders, customers and the greater public good. Shareholder capitalism is that all interests and goals should be entirely devoted to boosting shareholder profits, as is the fiduciary duty of the managerial class. Ramaswamy argues that stakeholder capitalism lends to corporations being involved in social causes and making themselves the unwanted stewards of advancing social change. Since they are not elected and only care about corporate self interest, this makes them wholly unqualified to be involved in philanthropy. Such causes inevitably turn into a form of cultural authoritarianism—paying lip service while paradoxically destroying cultures, people and wealth both domestic and abroad. I wholeheartedly agree with this point. Many examples abound in the book from Google and Apple ignoring human rights violations in Xinjiang while having a little BLM logo on their websites. This stuff is all over the place and is incredibly obvious to many. Ramaswamy really beats a dead horse about a phenomenon that is obvious to everyone that thinks critically for even a single moment about corporate motivations.
Ramaswamy clearly endorses shareholder capitalism and valorizes the fiduciary duty of an increasingly belligerent managerial class that they have to their shareholders. Both public and private, Ramaswamy scolds the managerial class for trying to seize both state and corporate power from the people and the shareholders, respectively. Ramaswamy argues that shareholder capitalism ensures that corporations stay in their lanes and not take up social causes, deceiving the public and profiting nonetheless. I certainly think there is a case to be made for this but there is a glaring problem with this logic: why is shareholder capitalism actually good for society in its own right? He never explains how increasing short term profits for a small group of people is a win for the public good. And the reason he doesn’t explain it is because it isn’t good. Wealth concentration is bad. And it’s bad for some of the very reasons he talks about: that wealth power spills over to public control. I very much agree with his assessment of section 230 and how our tech overlords are subverting democracy and the public good. His best point is that corporations shouldn’t dictate what is moral and ethical and they definitely do by their default power that they leverage from cultural liberalism.
I agree with Ramaswamy that wokeism is becoming a monolithic dominant cultural force that demands conformity of thought in academia and in the workplace. This is harmful to productive discourse and erodes the public good. Cancel culture is a serious threat to free thought. People should not be fired or ostracized for voicing opinions, thoughts and views that are counter to mainstream liberal thought as long as those views aren’t outright hateful or inciting to violence. Where Ramaswamy overreaches is calling wokeism a literal religion evoking words like “blood sacrifice” and “worship.” Not only is this highly demeaning to people of actual religious faith but it’s completely inaccurate. A religion has codified doctrine, central authority, acolytes and an underlying spirituality. Wokeism may appear to have these things but it’s a bastardized version at best. Ramaswamy is conflating religion with ethos.
Ramaswamy has a love affair with what he perceives as capitalism and clearly endorses free market solutions. He goes as far as to argue that capitalism abolished the caste system in India. This kind of sweeping claim had me raising my eyebrows pretty early on in this book. As a CEO himself, it’s very clear that his world view has coalesced into believing that market solutions naturally address society’s problems. I don’t know if this is self delusion or plain naivete, either way, I think he’s quite a bit off base.
Let me dig in more here. Ramaswamy blames the government for the 2008 financial crisis. In sweeping accusations he states that housing “policies in the 90s” created too much liquidity in the housing market and caused an asset bubble that burst like 15 years later. Others have made the argument that the FHA, HOLC and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that have been used to provide easier public loans through GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) like Frannie and Freddie fueled the housing bubble. I have some bad news for Ramaswamy: he’s demonstrably wrong. The facts are that consumers who already had mortgages and who built up equity in their homes were more likely to be targeted by subprime loans than first time home buyers. The crisis was caused by the rise of private predatory lending. FHA loans have never dominated the markets, ever. In fact, FHA loans had less market share going from 14% to 3% from 2001 to 2007. Delinquency rates were also lower for these loans. GSE loans had a delinquency rate of 6% during that time while private loans were 28%. So how could public backed loans fuel an asset bubble when they had a tiny portion of the market share? And of the defaulted loans, only 6% were CRA loans. It was CLEARLY an unregulated mortgage backed security market that led to the bubble. Seems like a business titan CEO like Ramaswamy would be able to understand this.
Here’s what Ramaswamy is doing with this book: he’s taking an age-old phenomenon, tokenism, and rebranding as a new left-wing authoritarian Orwellian nightmare and repurposing that as wokeism. Both companies and public entities use the politics of inclusion and tokenism to gain popular support and then go and do whatever they want. We all know this. But Ramaswamy is trying to act like it’s a new left wing phenomenon that is subverting democracy. The point he’s missing is that it is big business, monopolization and state-corporate collusion by any social and political means that is destroying democracy. It’s not just “the woke industrial complex”. By compartmentalizing it as a left-wing phenomenon, he has HUGE blinders on that become evident as the book goes on with mountains of confirmation bias.
Ramaswamy denies that systemic racism is a current American phenomenon. Why does he deny this? Because he’s conflating individual racial prejudice with de facto racial apartheid. He clearly does not understand the de jure racial government policies that are the literal foundation of the United States. From the Homestead Act, to the GI Bill, the FHA, HOLC, New Deal programs, the Drug War, 3 strikes felony charges, to subprime lending, the United States has the bones of a literal racial apartied. Ramaswamy doesn’t think for a minute that there is some residual systemic racial prejudice going on as a fallout from such race selective policies? The gall to deny that American institutions may have implicit race preference and to cast racism as a Woke-corporate charade is a sign of someone who hasn’t done a lot of reading and thinking outside his own echo chamber.
So what’s the impact of a book like this? Two things: confirmation to those that already think this way and obfuscation to those who are confused about how power actually operates in this country. This book, and many like it, serves to deny REAL subjugation that is very much active in American society. It’s ultimately the manifesto of a deluded rich man who wants you to know how much he and others like him have done for you. I found it worthwhile to read to understand why someone thinks this way so I do recommend reading it but maybe get it from the library.
August 19, 2021
A social construct run amuck, “Woke” or wokeness focuses on anything and everything a person says or does, filtering it for the smallest possible instance that might be a micro aggression, (even if it isn’t), and personifying it for all to see and hear.
This new construct has left the social realm and found its way into business and politics. Gone are the days of THE AMERICAN DREAM and E Pluribus Unum. They’ve been replaced with “Woke”corporations, fighting for sustainability or some specific politically voteable issue. These same corporations encourage focusing on the differences between people: race, gender, creed, etc., rather than celebrating unity and working for a common productivity.
“Woke, Inc.,: Inside the Social Justice Scam” - the title really does say it all for this one and author, Vivek Ramaswamy, does a good job delivering the information. His writing is clear, concise and altho’ he definitely is conservative, there’s no bashing to be found, just reasoned text.
Marriage between corporate America, politics and the social construct flavor of the day is ruining one of the pillars of our country. Read “Woke, Inc.” for your own look at what happened and how to fight back📚
This new construct has left the social realm and found its way into business and politics. Gone are the days of THE AMERICAN DREAM and E Pluribus Unum. They’ve been replaced with “Woke”corporations, fighting for sustainability or some specific politically voteable issue. These same corporations encourage focusing on the differences between people: race, gender, creed, etc., rather than celebrating unity and working for a common productivity.
“Woke, Inc.,: Inside the Social Justice Scam” - the title really does say it all for this one and author, Vivek Ramaswamy, does a good job delivering the information. His writing is clear, concise and altho’ he definitely is conservative, there’s no bashing to be found, just reasoned text.
Marriage between corporate America, politics and the social construct flavor of the day is ruining one of the pillars of our country. Read “Woke, Inc.” for your own look at what happened and how to fight back📚
August 29, 2021
This book was thought-provoking in some parts, but disappointingly short-sighted and biased in others. You'd think the author would have stayed away from making basic, rightwing-youtube-channel-comment-level statements like:
"“Intersectionality” became the word of the day, and then the decade, even though no one understood exactly what it meant—an ideal feature for any concept to evade falsifiability."
Imagine claiming that no one understands intersectionality and putting that in your book as if it's fact. Do you really not understand it or do you just not like it? Could it be that it evades falsifiability because it's basic common sense? A simple example: Being a woman comes with its challenges. Being black comes with its challenges. Being a black woman comes with additional challenges that come from the intersection of challenges. It really is not that deep.
Here's another passage that had me confused as to how he could just publish that in a book that claims to be an exposé of the American corporate class:
"In a woke world, we are each defined by the innate and the immutable, by the visible and the skin-deep. This narrative now permeates our social consciousness in America.
According to this worldview, you are simply a fault line at the intersection of the tectonic plates of group identity. You aren’t really a free agent in the world, but simply a member of your “group” who is supposed to advance your group’s interests. Your race isn’t just the color your skin happens to be. It’s essential to your voice, your ideas, and your identity. This is what woke essentialism is all about: it posits that your genetically inherited attributes are the true essence of who you are."
Where did he get this from? What are his sources? What part of intersectionality implies that you are not a free agent? How does acknowledging intersections of social disadvantages lead to the erasure of one's individuality? It's all purely arbitrary musings. He could have left these amateur bits out and it would have made the book a much less tedious read. I sense he was just catering to his rightwing base.
"“Intersectionality” became the word of the day, and then the decade, even though no one understood exactly what it meant—an ideal feature for any concept to evade falsifiability."
Imagine claiming that no one understands intersectionality and putting that in your book as if it's fact. Do you really not understand it or do you just not like it? Could it be that it evades falsifiability because it's basic common sense? A simple example: Being a woman comes with its challenges. Being black comes with its challenges. Being a black woman comes with additional challenges that come from the intersection of challenges. It really is not that deep.
Here's another passage that had me confused as to how he could just publish that in a book that claims to be an exposé of the American corporate class:
"In a woke world, we are each defined by the innate and the immutable, by the visible and the skin-deep. This narrative now permeates our social consciousness in America.
According to this worldview, you are simply a fault line at the intersection of the tectonic plates of group identity. You aren’t really a free agent in the world, but simply a member of your “group” who is supposed to advance your group’s interests. Your race isn’t just the color your skin happens to be. It’s essential to your voice, your ideas, and your identity. This is what woke essentialism is all about: it posits that your genetically inherited attributes are the true essence of who you are."
Where did he get this from? What are his sources? What part of intersectionality implies that you are not a free agent? How does acknowledging intersections of social disadvantages lead to the erasure of one's individuality? It's all purely arbitrary musings. He could have left these amateur bits out and it would have made the book a much less tedious read. I sense he was just catering to his rightwing base.
November 18, 2021
Fabulous analysis of USA presently from this author's eyes and placements. Most of which is from the inside out, as opposed to government, media, academia etc. which seems to define and/or composite most issues from the outside in. And always from top down, while redefining up to be down at the same time.
Some of his observances are so savvy and context knowledge rich that they are hard for people who are not WITHIN business to context, IMHO. But regardless, woke equated to religion is clearly what is occurring. As are the tenets of stakeholder corps works duplicitous /phony representations as opposed to the capitalism that was based on shareholder base concerns.
This is a book every business owner should read. The quotes of referral are point to point 6 stars (Orwell's is 7 stars). Every American should read several of these chapters, especially Silicon Leviathan.
What I like the most about this author is that he can define sublimely. Up is up. Up is not redefined down. And he also knows what he sees. Which is the process that Orwell's quote cores. Woke capitalism ploys are decimating the core and essence of American democracy and the republican form of government too. It's the antithesis of its (USA base forms) core. And not only in concept either. Also in entire onus of workability.
Some of his observances are so savvy and context knowledge rich that they are hard for people who are not WITHIN business to context, IMHO. But regardless, woke equated to religion is clearly what is occurring. As are the tenets of stakeholder corps works duplicitous /phony representations as opposed to the capitalism that was based on shareholder base concerns.
This is a book every business owner should read. The quotes of referral are point to point 6 stars (Orwell's is 7 stars). Every American should read several of these chapters, especially Silicon Leviathan.
What I like the most about this author is that he can define sublimely. Up is up. Up is not redefined down. And he also knows what he sees. Which is the process that Orwell's quote cores. Woke capitalism ploys are decimating the core and essence of American democracy and the republican form of government too. It's the antithesis of its (USA base forms) core. And not only in concept either. Also in entire onus of workability.
May 11, 2022
There’s a really interesting thread here. And I essentially agree with the narrow minded thesis the author proposes in the first third or so of the book. Currently, businesses hide behind progressive language and “wokeness“ in order to just continue doing what they’ve always done to maximize profits. Perfect. No notes.
It’s pretty obvious when you see business social media posts about gay and transgender rights only during the month of June. The bandwagoning of Ukraine support. And so on and so forth. Don’t get me wrong I also generally support these ideals, but it is incredibly hypocritical to claim to support human rights while engaging in manufacturing processes that support the stripping of human rights in Third World countries. It’s not really anything new. The pointing out of this kind of hypocrisy has been sport in certain circles for as long as I’ve been paying attention.
I think the frustrating part of this book is that the author uses these examples to attempt undermine the core of these movements. It's a strawman, without ever really engaging with the principles of the movements themselves. Arguing that “anti-racism“ has no place in corporate world is a sentiment that I can agree with because it’s often entirely the wrong implementation and done so by sleazy profiteers such as Robyn D’Angelo, who makes about as much sense as a Furby. But the author uses this strawman built around corporate politics to draw a larger connection to the movements themselves that doesn’t track.
Calling all modern progressive movements “wokeness” and criticizing that concept is a cool rhetorical trick, but the rest of the book rings hollow due to the failure to clearly define what “wokeness” is. Sometimes it’s BLM, sometimes its employee activism, sometimes it’s overreaching feminism. It’s a hydra with many heads, an all encompassing pejorative term that doesn’t actually mean anything other than the author doesn’t like something. So what kind of emerges is a caricature of the most extreme of the ideals the author claims to argue against.
And there’s no way this guy doesn’t get that. He’s smart, well educated, and wrote well through this book. The decision not to engage with these ideas honestly and at their core is deliberate and in my opinion after reading, so willfully misconstruing of the points that it undermines the validity of the rest of his arguments.
There’s also this super weird digression where he tries to “legally“ show that “Wokeness“ is a religion are because it’s a “strongly held belief“ I didn't find any of it convincing and it ultimately sounds like Yale law school mental masturbation combined with CPAC rhetoric. If I’m being generous I get the ultimate place he’s trying to take the argument is that political identity should be separate the same way that we separate religion from business. But instead of getting bogged down up conscientious objectors, title VII, and a handful of supreme court cases, the whole idea would’ve been better if he had just written it up clearly.
So what Im left with is roughly a third of a book I found thought provoking and two thirds of a book that has left reality and traipsed off in to weird, speculative anti-wokeness land. Mostly a miss.
It’s pretty obvious when you see business social media posts about gay and transgender rights only during the month of June. The bandwagoning of Ukraine support. And so on and so forth. Don’t get me wrong I also generally support these ideals, but it is incredibly hypocritical to claim to support human rights while engaging in manufacturing processes that support the stripping of human rights in Third World countries. It’s not really anything new. The pointing out of this kind of hypocrisy has been sport in certain circles for as long as I’ve been paying attention.
I think the frustrating part of this book is that the author uses these examples to attempt undermine the core of these movements. It's a strawman, without ever really engaging with the principles of the movements themselves. Arguing that “anti-racism“ has no place in corporate world is a sentiment that I can agree with because it’s often entirely the wrong implementation and done so by sleazy profiteers such as Robyn D’Angelo, who makes about as much sense as a Furby. But the author uses this strawman built around corporate politics to draw a larger connection to the movements themselves that doesn’t track.
Calling all modern progressive movements “wokeness” and criticizing that concept is a cool rhetorical trick, but the rest of the book rings hollow due to the failure to clearly define what “wokeness” is. Sometimes it’s BLM, sometimes its employee activism, sometimes it’s overreaching feminism. It’s a hydra with many heads, an all encompassing pejorative term that doesn’t actually mean anything other than the author doesn’t like something. So what kind of emerges is a caricature of the most extreme of the ideals the author claims to argue against.
And there’s no way this guy doesn’t get that. He’s smart, well educated, and wrote well through this book. The decision not to engage with these ideas honestly and at their core is deliberate and in my opinion after reading, so willfully misconstruing of the points that it undermines the validity of the rest of his arguments.
There’s also this super weird digression where he tries to “legally“ show that “Wokeness“ is a religion are because it’s a “strongly held belief“ I didn't find any of it convincing and it ultimately sounds like Yale law school mental masturbation combined with CPAC rhetoric. If I’m being generous I get the ultimate place he’s trying to take the argument is that political identity should be separate the same way that we separate religion from business. But instead of getting bogged down up conscientious objectors, title VII, and a handful of supreme court cases, the whole idea would’ve been better if he had just written it up clearly.
So what Im left with is roughly a third of a book I found thought provoking and two thirds of a book that has left reality and traipsed off in to weird, speculative anti-wokeness land. Mostly a miss.
December 24, 2021
The author has three qualities which together pretty much always guarantee you’re about to read a dramatic monologue from someone with no self-awareness or the inclination to undertake serious research: he’s wealthy, loudly anti-woke, and a Harvard-Yale alum.
The central thrust of the book is made up of at least four different lines of criticism (none of them new), which together form an incoherent mess:
1. “Even worse, partisan politics is now infecting spheres of our lives that were previously apolitical. Our social fabric depends on preserving certain spaces as apolitical sanctuaries, especially in an increasingly divided polity like ours.”
2. Corporations use progressive sloganeering and diversity hires to deflect from their shitty behaviour.
3. Corporations are unelected and so should not get involved in politics (“America was founded on the idea that we make our most important value judgments through our democratic process, where each citizen’s voice is weighted equally, rather than by a small group of elites in private. Debates about our social values belong in the civic sphere, not in the corner offices of corporate America.”)
4. Corporations flame controversy to make money (“Today, capitalists are the gunsmiths of our culture war.”)
The biggest problem is that he doesn’t seem to be able to connect the dots: he rightly (as leftists do) criticize corporations for hypocrisy – eg: standing up for social justice in America while censoring their criticism about authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia and China. His argument is that somehow progressive-seeming corporations are currently legitimating those regimes, so if they stayed out of moral politics altogether, presumably they’ll at least stop helping those regimes’ image. First, he doesn’t provide any evidence at all that these corporations are actually playing any substantive legitimating role right now. But the embarassing shortfall of this argument is that he fails to see that his own proposal that corporations stay out of politics entirely would make the situation much worse: while corporations might at least drag their feet about doing business with bad actors now, his proposal would give them the green light to do whatever they want.
Of course, someone might agree that #2 is bad, that corporations shouldn’t be able to superficially speak the language of social justice; instead they ought to actually do better. But the author’s basic starting point (informed apparently only by theoretical writing of people like Hayek and von Mises, and not actual histories of capitalism) is that the capitalism is great – apparently “In the real world, very few American companies are able to harm people over the long run while still making sustainable profits - because the public holds them accountable over time, through both market mechanisms and democratic accountability” and “most corporate actions that are known to harm people are either illegal or likely to hurt the company’s reputation - and profits - in the long run.” Climate change activism is lumped in with the stupid “woke” crowd, which explains how he’s able to write such doozies.
He seems completely insensitive to two trends, which is why he's stuck accusing everyone he disagrees with of irrational, even religious mania: One, he is stubbornly unwillingness to consider that "business" isn't simply some discrete domain outside society but embedded in it, meaning corporations wield power by just existing. The question is what role they will play: will they pretend their bottomline is the only goal or recognize they already have all kinds of effects? Lots of business people clearly already realize this is a complicated, live question. His platitudes and soundbites are an embarrassing way to avoid those complexities. Second, because the only evil actors in his narrative are the corporations themselves, he fails to account for other bad actors who corporations can check. People who create misinformation and send rape threats, for example, are left out of his story, which lets him paint the internet platforms as acting purely because of ideological reasons or self-interest. Maybe, just maybe, the world is complicated.
The dumbest thing in the book by far is his treatment of caste in India, which I quote:
To make the obvious points: caste was emphatically an economic system as well (which is why even in his story it was the lower caste people working at his Brahmin household instead of the other way around), wealth has always had social dimensions including the allocation of status, caste-injustices have not disappeared, and the reason they’ve even been beaten back is because of social mobilization by activists and the system of reservation – the very reservation system he ridiculously accuses of being “the main vestige of the caste system that’s left.”
I keep reading centrist and conservative books in the desperate hope of finding at least one that’s insightful, self-aware, and intellectually honest; for now they seem to not value diversity of intellectual capability, since every one of their thought leaders seems utterly mediocre.
The central thrust of the book is made up of at least four different lines of criticism (none of them new), which together form an incoherent mess:
1. “Even worse, partisan politics is now infecting spheres of our lives that were previously apolitical. Our social fabric depends on preserving certain spaces as apolitical sanctuaries, especially in an increasingly divided polity like ours.”
2. Corporations use progressive sloganeering and diversity hires to deflect from their shitty behaviour.
3. Corporations are unelected and so should not get involved in politics (“America was founded on the idea that we make our most important value judgments through our democratic process, where each citizen’s voice is weighted equally, rather than by a small group of elites in private. Debates about our social values belong in the civic sphere, not in the corner offices of corporate America.”)
4. Corporations flame controversy to make money (“Today, capitalists are the gunsmiths of our culture war.”)
The biggest problem is that he doesn’t seem to be able to connect the dots: he rightly (as leftists do) criticize corporations for hypocrisy – eg: standing up for social justice in America while censoring their criticism about authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia and China. His argument is that somehow progressive-seeming corporations are currently legitimating those regimes, so if they stayed out of moral politics altogether, presumably they’ll at least stop helping those regimes’ image. First, he doesn’t provide any evidence at all that these corporations are actually playing any substantive legitimating role right now. But the embarassing shortfall of this argument is that he fails to see that his own proposal that corporations stay out of politics entirely would make the situation much worse: while corporations might at least drag their feet about doing business with bad actors now, his proposal would give them the green light to do whatever they want.
Of course, someone might agree that #2 is bad, that corporations shouldn’t be able to superficially speak the language of social justice; instead they ought to actually do better. But the author’s basic starting point (informed apparently only by theoretical writing of people like Hayek and von Mises, and not actual histories of capitalism) is that the capitalism is great – apparently “In the real world, very few American companies are able to harm people over the long run while still making sustainable profits - because the public holds them accountable over time, through both market mechanisms and democratic accountability” and “most corporate actions that are known to harm people are either illegal or likely to hurt the company’s reputation - and profits - in the long run.” Climate change activism is lumped in with the stupid “woke” crowd, which explains how he’s able to write such doozies.
He seems completely insensitive to two trends, which is why he's stuck accusing everyone he disagrees with of irrational, even religious mania: One, he is stubbornly unwillingness to consider that "business" isn't simply some discrete domain outside society but embedded in it, meaning corporations wield power by just existing. The question is what role they will play: will they pretend their bottomline is the only goal or recognize they already have all kinds of effects? Lots of business people clearly already realize this is a complicated, live question. His platitudes and soundbites are an embarrassing way to avoid those complexities. Second, because the only evil actors in his narrative are the corporations themselves, he fails to account for other bad actors who corporations can check. People who create misinformation and send rape threats, for example, are left out of his story, which lets him paint the internet platforms as acting purely because of ideological reasons or self-interest. Maybe, just maybe, the world is complicated.
The dumbest thing in the book by far is his treatment of caste in India, which I quote:
The contrast between capitalism and the caste system was striking. Living in Kerala every summer as a kid made me miss America. Capitalism was the first ideal I really loved, the first time I’d ever loved a system. Capitalism brought people together; the caste system kept them apart.
My dad’s a liberal, and he argues that American capitalism creates a new caste system based on wealth. That’s hard to deny. But that’s not the goal of capitalism—certainly not the pure form of it that I fell in love with as a kid. Capitalism is supposed to be just an economic system, not a social system. And the caste system is supposed to be the opposite—a social system, not an economic system. Paradoxically, that means they both share one fundamental precept in common: the size of your bank account has nothing to do with your moral worth.
Yet over the next 30 years, it was actually American-style capitalism that slowly bound the wounds opened by caste. People now regularly marry across caste lines. There’s no rule about who can and can’t enter a house through the front door. “The lower-caste guy who works at Domino’s now delivers to our home in the village, and my family tips him to show their appreciation, just as we do in America. When you eat out at Pizza Hut, you ring a large bronze bell to say thank you when you leave—funny enough, the exact same kind of sacred bronze bell that we used to ring when we left the village temple.
By allowing Indians to share goods and services with each other freely, capitalism gradually allowed them to marry whomever they wanted to as well. Capitalism, an economic system, fixed these problems with caste, a social system
To make the obvious points: caste was emphatically an economic system as well (which is why even in his story it was the lower caste people working at his Brahmin household instead of the other way around), wealth has always had social dimensions including the allocation of status, caste-injustices have not disappeared, and the reason they’ve even been beaten back is because of social mobilization by activists and the system of reservation – the very reservation system he ridiculously accuses of being “the main vestige of the caste system that’s left.”
I keep reading centrist and conservative books in the desperate hope of finding at least one that’s insightful, self-aware, and intellectually honest; for now they seem to not value diversity of intellectual capability, since every one of their thought leaders seems utterly mediocre.
September 18, 2021
This is BY FAR they best book regarding "current affairs" i have read this year. Regardless of the party you affiliate with, this is the book to read. As we have seen recently, even the Democrats are open season for Woke,Inc. Anyone that has read my reviews will know that I am a BIG proponent about making "political affiliation" a protected class. This would fix many problem. The moment that someone takes your MAGA hat or rips off your "Feel the Bern" shirt, that would be considered a hate crime. All we would need is a few sacrificial lambs and people would get the idea real quick.
Woke is a religion of zelots. Companies, including the ones that employ us or the ones that host our blog sites and our social media accounts can wipe you off the face of the earth for something you do on your personal time and when not even on the social media platform. This book does a fanominal job in exposing the nefarious and duplicitous tactics of the WOKE, Inc.
This cannot continue. Even leftists today, and I mention them by name because they are almost exclusively the leaders of this religion or cult, are waking up to the delosional ways of wokeness.
You have people like Bill Maher and recently Nicki Minaj, with 22 Million followers on Twitter which found herself on the wrong side of the woke croud for daring to question the woke narritive. She
posted one of the best response I have seen from either side.
"Right. I can’t speak to, agree with, even look at someone from a particular political party. Ppl aren’t human any more. If you’re black & a Democrat tells u to shove marbles up ur @$$, you simply have to. If another party tells u to look out for that bus, stand there & get hit"
This cannot continue. The "woke" don't even make sense and there is zero consistency. Examples:
1. Only women can have an opinion on abortion, but "men can have babies" and should be cosidered "birthing person".
2. Equal rights for women, but trans women (biological men) can compete for opportunities specifically set aside for biological women.
3. There is a pay gap for women, but you can identify as a man. Do bilogical men that identify as a woman get paid less?
I have always said that in a feeding frenzy, phiranha will kill each other. This is what will happen to the woke as well. The weapons you arm those you deploy to do your enforcing, will eventually be turned on you.
The author breaks down the legal implecations of the "Woke Religion" and how the Civil Rights act of 1964 and 1968 protect from being persecuted for having a religious belief or DONT follow their religiou beliefs. His comparison of Woke Religion and Christianity is on pointe.
I highly recommend this book. He is a conservative, but only because he slipped it in a couple of times. You can assume he is because he is not WOKE and as I mentioned above, the woke are mostly leftists.
Woke is a religion of zelots. Companies, including the ones that employ us or the ones that host our blog sites and our social media accounts can wipe you off the face of the earth for something you do on your personal time and when not even on the social media platform. This book does a fanominal job in exposing the nefarious and duplicitous tactics of the WOKE, Inc.
This cannot continue. Even leftists today, and I mention them by name because they are almost exclusively the leaders of this religion or cult, are waking up to the delosional ways of wokeness.
You have people like Bill Maher and recently Nicki Minaj, with 22 Million followers on Twitter which found herself on the wrong side of the woke croud for daring to question the woke narritive. She
posted one of the best response I have seen from either side.
"Right. I can’t speak to, agree with, even look at someone from a particular political party. Ppl aren’t human any more. If you’re black & a Democrat tells u to shove marbles up ur @$$, you simply have to. If another party tells u to look out for that bus, stand there & get hit"
This cannot continue. The "woke" don't even make sense and there is zero consistency. Examples:
1. Only women can have an opinion on abortion, but "men can have babies" and should be cosidered "birthing person".
2. Equal rights for women, but trans women (biological men) can compete for opportunities specifically set aside for biological women.
3. There is a pay gap for women, but you can identify as a man. Do bilogical men that identify as a woman get paid less?
I have always said that in a feeding frenzy, phiranha will kill each other. This is what will happen to the woke as well. The weapons you arm those you deploy to do your enforcing, will eventually be turned on you.
The author breaks down the legal implecations of the "Woke Religion" and how the Civil Rights act of 1964 and 1968 protect from being persecuted for having a religious belief or DONT follow their religiou beliefs. His comparison of Woke Religion and Christianity is on pointe.
I highly recommend this book. He is a conservative, but only because he slipped it in a couple of times. You can assume he is because he is not WOKE and as I mentioned above, the woke are mostly leftists.
August 15, 2021
Extraordinary book. Right on point. Really shows the real nature of the world
September 4, 2021
If you’re on the left, you should read this book to understand how millionaire fat cats have co-opted the things you care about and used your cherished beliefs as a smoke screen to distract you from the truly disgusting things that their corporations are actually doing. They are waving rainbow flags and laughing at you, using you as what Marx called “useful idiots”.
If you’re on the right, you should read this book to understand how the principles of straight forward, honest capitalism have been subverted by crony deals, corruption, and a rigged system that uses the private sector to undertake dirty work that government is quite rightly forbidden from doing.
If you use social media, this book will explain exactly what mechanisms are in place to stop you finding out the truth, and how private companies now have the power to decide what is true, and what political opinion is acceptable.
If you care anything at all about giving too much power to unelected psychopaths, you should read this book to understand exactly how the Chinese Communist Party, Hollywood and Silicone Valley are equally manipulating the whole shower, laughing all the way to the bank as the next generation tears itself apart.
The book also deals extensively with the side effects and pitfalls of the growing divide between left and right, explaining why this is more damaging than you might think. As division leads to fanaticism, comparisons between political ideology and religion are competently and thoughtfully analysed.
This book is a great companion to “How to Destroy America in 3 Easy Steps” , “Cynical Theories” and “the Coddling of the American Mind”. There is enough new insight in this book to make it worth reading , even if you’ve already read them all.
Although very strongly Americentrist, the issues described in this book are balanced and relevant enough to be directly transferable to Britain (This wasn’t the case with a couple of those other books).
If you’re on the right, you should read this book to understand how the principles of straight forward, honest capitalism have been subverted by crony deals, corruption, and a rigged system that uses the private sector to undertake dirty work that government is quite rightly forbidden from doing.
If you use social media, this book will explain exactly what mechanisms are in place to stop you finding out the truth, and how private companies now have the power to decide what is true, and what political opinion is acceptable.
If you care anything at all about giving too much power to unelected psychopaths, you should read this book to understand exactly how the Chinese Communist Party, Hollywood and Silicone Valley are equally manipulating the whole shower, laughing all the way to the bank as the next generation tears itself apart.
The book also deals extensively with the side effects and pitfalls of the growing divide between left and right, explaining why this is more damaging than you might think. As division leads to fanaticism, comparisons between political ideology and religion are competently and thoughtfully analysed.
This book is a great companion to “How to Destroy America in 3 Easy Steps” , “Cynical Theories” and “the Coddling of the American Mind”. There is enough new insight in this book to make it worth reading , even if you’ve already read them all.
Although very strongly Americentrist, the issues described in this book are balanced and relevant enough to be directly transferable to Britain (This wasn’t the case with a couple of those other books).
September 1, 2021
"I used to think corporate bureaucracy was bad because it’s inefficient. That’s true, but it’s not the biggest problem.
Rather, there’s a new invisible force at work in the highest ranks of corporate America, one far more nefarious. It’s the defining scam of our time—one that robs you of not only your money but your voice and your identity. The con works like a magic trick, summed up well by Michael Caine’s character in the opening monologue in Christopher Nolan’s movie The Prestige:
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called The Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man.… The second act is called The Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call The Prestige..."
Woke, Inc. was an interesting look into the strange and dyfunctional arranged marriage of woke leftist "progressivism" with big business corporatism. He drops the above quote in the books' introduction.
Author Vivek Ramaswamy is a former American entrepreneur in the biotechnology sector and now an author and pundit. He is the founder and executive chairman of the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. Prior to founding Roivant in 2014, Ramaswamy co-founded a technology company and was a partner at an investment firm.
Vivek Ramaswamy:
Ramaswamy begins the book with a high-energy intro, that sets the writing off on a good foot. He also narrates the audiobook version, which is always a nice touch.
He lays out the scope of the problem early-on:
The broader story told here by Ramaswamy is the long march of woke ideology through corporate America. Recently hitting a tipping point, even Wall St. has joined in on the frenzy of hollow virtue-signaling, and rigid enforcement of leftist political ideology. He writes that this social contagion will ultimately harm the very fabric of our democracy:
Although this moral grandstanding is seemingly very fashionable these days, it is largely window-dressing from companies who value the bottom line more than any social justice cause they purport to support. Ramaswamy provides many examples of this false signaling in the book. In this quote, he talks about Coca-Cola's recent mandated political reeducation, forced on its employees to encourage them to “try to be less white,” whatever that means:
Ramaswamy also talks about many other corporate hypocrites here, including Disney, Apple, Facebook, and Google; among many others. Often no more than naked partisans who happen to be extraordinarily wealthy and powerful, they are some of the chief drivers of this groupthink enforcement.
Freedom of speech is a lynchpin value, and is at the core of any healthy free society. Its importance cannot possibly be understated. The right of the individual to speak out against orthodoxy is necessary to help prevent the ideological conformity that is often the end result of people's inborn pro-social wiring.
Most of history's greatest man-made atrocities are the result of ideology running unchecked and out of control, having silenced all contrarian voices and opposition.
Ramaswamy also spends a bit of time talking about Big Tech, and their recent censorship and discrimination of public figures, as well as individuals who forward content that does not align with the current social orthodoxy.
The modern-day power that Silicon Valley has is almost unprecedented in the history of the world. The world turns on information, and the power to dictate to the entire world what is and is not allowed to be discussed, shared or otherwise uploaded and seen by others ultimately rests in the hands of just a few ideologically-motivated uber-wealthy partisans. This should deeply concern you, no matter where on the political spectrum you currently reside...
If you believe in Enlightenment values, free inquiry, and other principles that reflect the ethos of Western Civilization, then you do not violate those deontological principles based on tribal allegiances/considerations. Ever.
Ramaswamy writes:
In Chapter 10, Ramaswamy notes that adherents of modern wokeism and related Critical Theories have become religious in their doctrines, aims, and social enforcements. Dubbed by some as "the DIE religion" (Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity), they abandon meritocracy and individualism in favor of group judgments and collective punishment. He writes:
Ramaswamy forwards the idea of an addendum to the Civil Rights act of 1964, to include protection against wrongful terminations for political, and/or religious beliefs. If people are truly worried about unfair discrimination, then it follows that they should do this. They won't, of course...
If I were to find fault with this book, I would note that Ramaswamy does not provide the naive reader with the foundations of woke. Modern leftist "woke" ideology has philosophical underpinnings; namely at The Frankfurt School in the mid-60s'. Herbert Marcuse, Angela Davis, and a few others were at the tip of this spear, in the efforts to bring this line of thinking to the west.
Critical theories, including critical race theory have their roots in Marxism. They can be fairly defined as rebranded, or neo-Marxism.
Instead of the class struggle between "landlords" and the peasant class that underpinned Stalinist and Maoist doctrine and societies, the modern critical theorists have substituted landlords with "white" people, and the peasants with people "of colour." The results are what we see today, and what this book is about.
************************
Woke, Inc is an important and timely book.
If you have been closely following the culture war, most of what is covered here will not be new to you. The reader new to this discourse, however, is sure to find the book illuminating.
Ramaswamy also closes the book with an excellent bit of writing in the last chapter, worth the price of the book alone, IMO.
5 stars.
Rather, there’s a new invisible force at work in the highest ranks of corporate America, one far more nefarious. It’s the defining scam of our time—one that robs you of not only your money but your voice and your identity. The con works like a magic trick, summed up well by Michael Caine’s character in the opening monologue in Christopher Nolan’s movie The Prestige:
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called The Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man.… The second act is called The Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call The Prestige..."
Woke, Inc. was an interesting look into the strange and dyfunctional arranged marriage of woke leftist "progressivism" with big business corporatism. He drops the above quote in the books' introduction.
Author Vivek Ramaswamy is a former American entrepreneur in the biotechnology sector and now an author and pundit. He is the founder and executive chairman of the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. Prior to founding Roivant in 2014, Ramaswamy co-founded a technology company and was a partner at an investment firm.
Vivek Ramaswamy:
Ramaswamy begins the book with a high-energy intro, that sets the writing off on a good foot. He also narrates the audiobook version, which is always a nice touch.
He lays out the scope of the problem early-on:
"Sincere liberals get tricked into adulation by their love of woke causes. Conservatives are duped into submission as they fall back on slogans they memorized decades ago— something like “the market can do no wrong”—failing to recognize that the free market they had in mind doesn’t actually exist today. And poof! Both sides are blinded to the gradual rise of a twenty-first-century Leviathan far more powerful than what even Thomas Hobbes imagined almost four centuries ago.
This new woke-industrial Leviathan gains its power by dividing us as a people. When corporations tell us what social values we’re supposed to adopt, they take America as a whole and divide us into tribes. That makes it easier for them to make a buck, but it also coaxes us into adopting new identities based on skin-deep characteristics and flimsy social causes that supplant our deeper shared identity as Americans.
Corporations win. Woke activists win. Celebrities win. Even the Chinese Communist Party finds a way to win (more on that later). But the losers of this game are the American people, our hollowed-out institutions, and American democracy itself. The subversion of America by this new form of capitalism isn’t just a bug; as they say in Silicon Valley, it’s a feature..."
The broader story told here by Ramaswamy is the long march of woke ideology through corporate America. Recently hitting a tipping point, even Wall St. has joined in on the frenzy of hollow virtue-signaling, and rigid enforcement of leftist political ideology. He writes that this social contagion will ultimately harm the very fabric of our democracy:
"But there’s a difference between speaking up as a citizen and using your company’s market power to foist your views onto society while avoiding the rigors of public debate in our democracy.
That’s exactly what Larry Fink does when BlackRock issues social mandates about what companies it will or won’t invest in or what Jack Dorsey does when Twitter consistently censors certain political viewpoints rather than others. When companies use their market power to make moral rules, they effectively prevent those other citizens from having the same say in our democracy."
Although this moral grandstanding is seemingly very fashionable these days, it is largely window-dressing from companies who value the bottom line more than any social justice cause they purport to support. Ramaswamy provides many examples of this false signaling in the book. In this quote, he talks about Coca-Cola's recent mandated political reeducation, forced on its employees to encourage them to “try to be less white,” whatever that means:
"Under the guise of doing good, the corporate con artists hide all of the bad things that they do every day. Coca-Cola fuels an epidemic of diabetes and obesity among black Americans through the products it sells. The hard business decision for the company to debate is whether to change the ingredients in a bottle of Coke. But instead of grappling with that question, Coca-Cola executives implement antiracism training that teaches their employees “to be less white,” and they pay a small fortune to well-heeled diversity consultants who peddle that nonsense. That’s the Goldman playbook. It’s not by accident; it’s by design..."
Ramaswamy also talks about many other corporate hypocrites here, including Disney, Apple, Facebook, and Google; among many others. Often no more than naked partisans who happen to be extraordinarily wealthy and powerful, they are some of the chief drivers of this groupthink enforcement.
Freedom of speech is a lynchpin value, and is at the core of any healthy free society. Its importance cannot possibly be understated. The right of the individual to speak out against orthodoxy is necessary to help prevent the ideological conformity that is often the end result of people's inborn pro-social wiring.
Most of history's greatest man-made atrocities are the result of ideology running unchecked and out of control, having silenced all contrarian voices and opposition.
Ramaswamy also spends a bit of time talking about Big Tech, and their recent censorship and discrimination of public figures, as well as individuals who forward content that does not align with the current social orthodoxy.
The modern-day power that Silicon Valley has is almost unprecedented in the history of the world. The world turns on information, and the power to dictate to the entire world what is and is not allowed to be discussed, shared or otherwise uploaded and seen by others ultimately rests in the hands of just a few ideologically-motivated uber-wealthy partisans. This should deeply concern you, no matter where on the political spectrum you currently reside...
If you believe in Enlightenment values, free inquiry, and other principles that reflect the ethos of Western Civilization, then you do not violate those deontological principles based on tribal allegiances/considerations. Ever.
Ramaswamy writes:
"These corporate behemoths are doing the work of big government under the mantle of private enterprise—and they’re getting away with it together. It’s the most dangerous kind of woke capitalism of all—the kind where the government explicitly co-opts private institutions to do the government’s own bidding.
As we’ve discussed, the unholy marriage between government and corporations isn’t just hypothetical. Nor is it hyperbole—in fact, it may soon have a name. New York University researchers published a report titled “False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim That Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives,” which calls for the Biden administration to form a new “Digital Regulatory Agency” to fight dangerous ideas such as the assertion that social media companies have anti-conservative bias.46 Remind you of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth?
Well, it gets worse.
According to the New York Times, we now have a “reality crisis.” The solution? Experts are calling for the administration to “put together a cross-agency task force to tackle disinformation and domestic extremism, which would be led by something like a ‘reality czar.’” Importantly, “This task force could also meet regularly with tech platforms, and push for structural changes that could help those companies tackle their own extremism and misinformation problems… it could become the tip of the spear for the federal government’s response to the reality crisis.” Others are calling for a “truth commission.”47 For anyone who’s still wary of my argument that Big Tech censorship is state action disguised as private action, don’t take it from me. Just listen to America’s newspaper of record..."
In Chapter 10, Ramaswamy notes that adherents of modern wokeism and related Critical Theories have become religious in their doctrines, aims, and social enforcements. Dubbed by some as "the DIE religion" (Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity), they abandon meritocracy and individualism in favor of group judgments and collective punishment. He writes:
"The analogy between Christianity and the Church of Diversity is so strong that it’s evident that wokeness plays a religious role in one’s life, and therefore really is a religion, for legal purposes. Under the woke worldview, being born white, straight, male, or—worse—all three is an original sin that one must spend their life atoning for. Just as Catholics think we inherited the sins of Adam and Eve even if we’ve done nothing wrong, disciples of wokeness think we’ve inherited the sins of the Founding Fathers—the mechanism for group guilt is just called systemic racism instead of original sin. And as I pointed out earlier, the woke left punishes its heretics with the same fervor as any inquisition and for the same reasons—even more important than bringing infidels to the light is keeping the faithful on the straight and narrow path. Any deviation from orthodoxy must be punished..."
"...Don’t get me wrong. True diversity is very valuable, both for a nation and for a company. But it’s diversity of thought that’s supposed to matter, not a kind of diversity crudely measured by appearance or accent. At some point we all started using superficial qualities as proxies for intellectual diversity. But the more we focused on those proxies for intellectual diversity, the less we cared about the thing the proxies were supposed to represent. Just as Jesus had become a threat to the institution of the Church in Dostoevsky’s tale, intellectual diversity had become a threat to American corporations, universities, and other institutions. Just as the Grand Inquisitor sentenced Jesus to execution, today’s corporate stewards sacrifice intellectual diversity at their corporate altars in the name of a new Diversity..."
Ramaswamy forwards the idea of an addendum to the Civil Rights act of 1964, to include protection against wrongful terminations for political, and/or religious beliefs. If people are truly worried about unfair discrimination, then it follows that they should do this. They won't, of course...
If I were to find fault with this book, I would note that Ramaswamy does not provide the naive reader with the foundations of woke. Modern leftist "woke" ideology has philosophical underpinnings; namely at The Frankfurt School in the mid-60s'. Herbert Marcuse, Angela Davis, and a few others were at the tip of this spear, in the efforts to bring this line of thinking to the west.
Critical theories, including critical race theory have their roots in Marxism. They can be fairly defined as rebranded, or neo-Marxism.
Instead of the class struggle between "landlords" and the peasant class that underpinned Stalinist and Maoist doctrine and societies, the modern critical theorists have substituted landlords with "white" people, and the peasants with people "of colour." The results are what we see today, and what this book is about.
************************
Woke, Inc is an important and timely book.
If you have been closely following the culture war, most of what is covered here will not be new to you. The reader new to this discourse, however, is sure to find the book illuminating.
Ramaswamy also closes the book with an excellent bit of writing in the last chapter, worth the price of the book alone, IMO.
5 stars.
September 7, 2022
"Woke, Inc" is a difficult book to both read and review. In essence, it's a case of "the good" obfuscating "the bad" while making a case for "the crazy." It is also a polemic against a social movement (i.e. "wokeism") the author blames for ruining his romanticized version of the U.S, and his own subjective experience of American life.
Honestly, I think Ramaswamy makes a lot of astute points in the book. The main argument of which - namely that corporations should not be allowed to serve as the moral and ethical guide of a society - I wholeheartedly agree with. How he figures that'll be achieved by companies only focusing on profits for the sake of profits, well, that's interesting... (a.k.a. a capitalist wet dream on acid.) I have no idea how he can consolidate the two.
Or, at least, I have no idea how he can believe the reasoning he outlines in the book. That people could read "Woke, Inc" and be persuaded, however, that I understand; The author does a great job of obfuscating, conflating, straw-maning, and presenting one false dichotomy after another. It's a very skillfully executed con, if you ask me. He draws the reader in by describing a phenomenon that's kind of a "duh," but that makes the reader feel validated in their brilliance of perceiving it - that corporations will jump on whichever bandwagon (without any sincerity) that'll benefit them the most. He then orchestrates some splashy anecdotes, false analogies, re-writings of history, and fear-mongering into a cohesive(ish) argument that paints wokeism as the greatest threat facing American democracy. To which, of course, a purer form of capitalism is the answer.
Throughout his argumentation he also frequently resorts to democratically idealistic concepts where policies around all moral and ethical positions are pedagogically and reasonably debated and decided on through a democratic process where one person equals one vote - the ideal America is built on. These things should be dealt with by fairly and democratically elected officials as true expressions of the will of the people. All without addressing the fact that one person-one vote, in the American context, doesn't really mean equal representation - and how that may prompt other approaches towards achieving fairness. Just another example of disingenuous reasoning, one among many.
Again, though, that's not to say that it's all a bunch of hogwash. In fact, I really like a few of his suggestions in the book. One of my favorites is the idea of a mandatory and universal civil service as a sort of a public good in combination with the creation of a unifying shared experience. He doesn't go into the details of how to achieve this in a fair way (likely at least partially because he probably wouldn't like some of what it would take to achieve it), but at its core, it's a good idea.
I just wish the good points and astute observations weren't bundled with so much junk and outright lies. To argue that wokeism is a greater threat to American democracy than the third (or so) of the U.S. population, including an alarming chunk of other elected officials, who actively deny certified democratic election results, that's a stretch difficult to swallow. Even in the best of times, which these times are not.
So, by all means, read the book. It is a valuable insight into the author's thinking - which is not unique, if particularly well-put. Just, as another reviewer put it, maybe get it from a library. Not that the author will hurt from the loss of revenue - but it is an act of protest, a particular form, that pisses him off, so totally worth it still!
Honestly, I think Ramaswamy makes a lot of astute points in the book. The main argument of which - namely that corporations should not be allowed to serve as the moral and ethical guide of a society - I wholeheartedly agree with. How he figures that'll be achieved by companies only focusing on profits for the sake of profits, well, that's interesting... (a.k.a. a capitalist wet dream on acid.) I have no idea how he can consolidate the two.
Or, at least, I have no idea how he can believe the reasoning he outlines in the book. That people could read "Woke, Inc" and be persuaded, however, that I understand; The author does a great job of obfuscating, conflating, straw-maning, and presenting one false dichotomy after another. It's a very skillfully executed con, if you ask me. He draws the reader in by describing a phenomenon that's kind of a "duh," but that makes the reader feel validated in their brilliance of perceiving it - that corporations will jump on whichever bandwagon (without any sincerity) that'll benefit them the most. He then orchestrates some splashy anecdotes, false analogies, re-writings of history, and fear-mongering into a cohesive(ish) argument that paints wokeism as the greatest threat facing American democracy. To which, of course, a purer form of capitalism is the answer.
Throughout his argumentation he also frequently resorts to democratically idealistic concepts where policies around all moral and ethical positions are pedagogically and reasonably debated and decided on through a democratic process where one person equals one vote - the ideal America is built on. These things should be dealt with by fairly and democratically elected officials as true expressions of the will of the people. All without addressing the fact that one person-one vote, in the American context, doesn't really mean equal representation - and how that may prompt other approaches towards achieving fairness. Just another example of disingenuous reasoning, one among many.
Again, though, that's not to say that it's all a bunch of hogwash. In fact, I really like a few of his suggestions in the book. One of my favorites is the idea of a mandatory and universal civil service as a sort of a public good in combination with the creation of a unifying shared experience. He doesn't go into the details of how to achieve this in a fair way (likely at least partially because he probably wouldn't like some of what it would take to achieve it), but at its core, it's a good idea.
I just wish the good points and astute observations weren't bundled with so much junk and outright lies. To argue that wokeism is a greater threat to American democracy than the third (or so) of the U.S. population, including an alarming chunk of other elected officials, who actively deny certified democratic election results, that's a stretch difficult to swallow. Even in the best of times, which these times are not.
So, by all means, read the book. It is a valuable insight into the author's thinking - which is not unique, if particularly well-put. Just, as another reviewer put it, maybe get it from a library. Not that the author will hurt from the loss of revenue - but it is an act of protest, a particular form, that pisses him off, so totally worth it still!
September 25, 2021
Ramaswamy rails against the insidious ways stakeholder capitalism give too much power to the capitalist class, but all too often misunderstands the forces that create these conditions. He waxes nostalgic for a type of capitalism that is unmoored by social responsibility (but also postures as a saint for heading a biotech company and eventually stepping down...for the good of the business?). Surely, though, the answer to undue hegemonic control by the capitalist class in the media and government ought to be met with, I don't know, anti-capitalism.
Unfortunately, Ramaswamy's counterclaim for why stakeholder capitalism could work is more compelling than any of his own ideas. Early in the book, he explains that (some say) because corporations benefit from inequity and further cause marginalization and environmental harm, it is their responsibility to counteract this inherent fact by taking social stances. He frames this as intuitively foolish, however. Not because of the logical contradiction of being a corporation that both marginalizes and publicly states it works to end marginalization (which is what most rational observers might see). No, it's because it creates the condition for corporate leaders to have too much control in advancing progressive policy decisions -- never mind the fact that capitalists having too much political power has always been the case under capitalism, or that many capitalists still work to advance incredibly right-wing policies. And never mind the fact that the "progressive policies" always seemed to come from the employees (the rank-and-file or lower-tier ladder climbers) or the consumers, not the suited execs at the top of the company in basically any of his real-world examples. (And these examples read as more gossipy big business anecdotes and not firmly researched or analyzed studies of a greedy business.)
Ramaswamy's book is mostly just a series of cliched right-wing dog-whistles that posture as anti-establishment populism, valuable for "both sides of the aisle." This book is really a scaremongering tactic meant to inspire fear because the deeply conservative space of capitalism has been infiltrated by young liberals. If Ramaswamy were a leftist, perhaps he would have found these young liberals' decisions to go into finance and the corporate world appalling considering their socially progressive beliefs (and, ahem, that logical contradiction I mentioned earlier). But no, it's the fact that their socially progressive beliefs enter corporate memorandums that he finds disturbing.
The saying goes a broken clock is correct twice. Ramaswamy's belief that the current state of capitalism is at odds with democratic institutions is correct; likewise, he is right to raise an eyebrow at corporate entities espousing socially progressive mission statements. The latter is more an effect of how corporations reflect their consumer's choices, creating a funhouse mirror of an ethical consciousness that is just that-- a distorted, reflective surface. (I think of Lockheed Martin changing its logo during Pride month to a rainbow, while they manufacture weapons that will ultimately harm queer people.) The former, however, needs to be pushed further. Capitalism itself is undemocratic.
TLDR: There's more economic and political salience in Patti Harrison's biphobic Nilla Wafers tweet than in Ramaswamy's entire tome.
Unfortunately, Ramaswamy's counterclaim for why stakeholder capitalism could work is more compelling than any of his own ideas. Early in the book, he explains that (some say) because corporations benefit from inequity and further cause marginalization and environmental harm, it is their responsibility to counteract this inherent fact by taking social stances. He frames this as intuitively foolish, however. Not because of the logical contradiction of being a corporation that both marginalizes and publicly states it works to end marginalization (which is what most rational observers might see). No, it's because it creates the condition for corporate leaders to have too much control in advancing progressive policy decisions -- never mind the fact that capitalists having too much political power has always been the case under capitalism, or that many capitalists still work to advance incredibly right-wing policies. And never mind the fact that the "progressive policies" always seemed to come from the employees (the rank-and-file or lower-tier ladder climbers) or the consumers, not the suited execs at the top of the company in basically any of his real-world examples. (And these examples read as more gossipy big business anecdotes and not firmly researched or analyzed studies of a greedy business.)
Ramaswamy's book is mostly just a series of cliched right-wing dog-whistles that posture as anti-establishment populism, valuable for "both sides of the aisle." This book is really a scaremongering tactic meant to inspire fear because the deeply conservative space of capitalism has been infiltrated by young liberals. If Ramaswamy were a leftist, perhaps he would have found these young liberals' decisions to go into finance and the corporate world appalling considering their socially progressive beliefs (and, ahem, that logical contradiction I mentioned earlier). But no, it's the fact that their socially progressive beliefs enter corporate memorandums that he finds disturbing.
The saying goes a broken clock is correct twice. Ramaswamy's belief that the current state of capitalism is at odds with democratic institutions is correct; likewise, he is right to raise an eyebrow at corporate entities espousing socially progressive mission statements. The latter is more an effect of how corporations reflect their consumer's choices, creating a funhouse mirror of an ethical consciousness that is just that-- a distorted, reflective surface. (I think of Lockheed Martin changing its logo during Pride month to a rainbow, while they manufacture weapons that will ultimately harm queer people.) The former, however, needs to be pushed further. Capitalism itself is undemocratic.
TLDR: There's more economic and political salience in Patti Harrison's biphobic Nilla Wafers tweet than in Ramaswamy's entire tome.
August 18, 2021
While I don’t agree with every conclusion or argument in this book it had a lot of well argued and supported points as well. It was certainly thought provoking.
August 18, 2021
I have been waiting for this book since I watched the author talking about his theory of the origins of woke religion, great intellectual pleasure
August 31, 2021
The author did a great job with this book. Very thought provoking for sure.
The following are notes that I made at the end of each chapter in the book. Corporations should not be the arbiters of morality. He who has the gold, makes the rules. Money corrupts the political process. Corporations were intended to provide limited liability to shareholders. In exchange, corporations were to limit their activities to the pursuit of commercial profits to prevent corporations from having undue influence / power in social and political matters. The managerial class have too much power and are not accountable, causing the company or institute to not realize its goal. Stakeholder capitalism is not about serving shareholders, it’s about serving the managerial class itself, self preservation.
Corporations adopted wokeness to cloak itself in moral superiority, to keep power. It allows wokeness a platform for its message. But this marriage gives corporations social and political power that is bad for democracy. The author does not address my key question; how did the woke make white millennials feel guilty about their birthright ?
Foreign governments use corporate wokeness or stakeholder capitalism to accomplish things in the US they cannot otherwise do. While doing so, portray themselves as virtuous. China does this as gatekeeper to its market by using US corporate wokeness to attack systematic racism, while at home persecuting religious groups. This makes the US less safe. Silicon Valley restricts speech. Appoint themselves as truth arbiters. Then ban violators of their platform rules. By assuming the role of the state, Silicon Valley companies censor public opinions in ways no government can. The church of diversity is a dangerous place. Cross it and you will be cancelled.
He provides a great legal analysis on why political speech should be a protected class under the civil rights act. It’s puzzling why these legal theories have not been tested in the courts, e.g. Google employee being fired by writing a thought provoking memo. Critical Diversity Theory as a replacement for CRT, with focus on diversity of thought.
Woke consumerism creates division. As a result, we make decisions based on race, gender or party and not based on what’s good for America. Woke consumers cross the line when they make / force a boycott - decisions on others. The cost of this is disproportionality borne by the poor. Too many times being in the service of others is for self service, hoping to get into college, get a job. Rarely do we serve others for the sake of others. He proposed universal service for high school students in the summer months.
Wokeness turns capitalism and democracy on its head. From many, one to from many, one - by dividing us. It perverts the American Dream where your birth characteristics determine who you are and what you can achieve.
The following are notes that I made at the end of each chapter in the book. Corporations should not be the arbiters of morality. He who has the gold, makes the rules. Money corrupts the political process. Corporations were intended to provide limited liability to shareholders. In exchange, corporations were to limit their activities to the pursuit of commercial profits to prevent corporations from having undue influence / power in social and political matters. The managerial class have too much power and are not accountable, causing the company or institute to not realize its goal. Stakeholder capitalism is not about serving shareholders, it’s about serving the managerial class itself, self preservation.
Corporations adopted wokeness to cloak itself in moral superiority, to keep power. It allows wokeness a platform for its message. But this marriage gives corporations social and political power that is bad for democracy. The author does not address my key question; how did the woke make white millennials feel guilty about their birthright ?
Foreign governments use corporate wokeness or stakeholder capitalism to accomplish things in the US they cannot otherwise do. While doing so, portray themselves as virtuous. China does this as gatekeeper to its market by using US corporate wokeness to attack systematic racism, while at home persecuting religious groups. This makes the US less safe. Silicon Valley restricts speech. Appoint themselves as truth arbiters. Then ban violators of their platform rules. By assuming the role of the state, Silicon Valley companies censor public opinions in ways no government can. The church of diversity is a dangerous place. Cross it and you will be cancelled.
He provides a great legal analysis on why political speech should be a protected class under the civil rights act. It’s puzzling why these legal theories have not been tested in the courts, e.g. Google employee being fired by writing a thought provoking memo. Critical Diversity Theory as a replacement for CRT, with focus on diversity of thought.
Woke consumerism creates division. As a result, we make decisions based on race, gender or party and not based on what’s good for America. Woke consumers cross the line when they make / force a boycott - decisions on others. The cost of this is disproportionality borne by the poor. Too many times being in the service of others is for self service, hoping to get into college, get a job. Rarely do we serve others for the sake of others. He proposed universal service for high school students in the summer months.
Wokeness turns capitalism and democracy on its head. From many, one to from many, one - by dividing us. It perverts the American Dream where your birth characteristics determine who you are and what you can achieve.
February 8, 2022
I don't read these types of books. These types of books are short and fleeting, often outdated even as they are being written, but Vivek seems to have written the perfect time capsule that articulates the Managerial Class at its final moments before its own tyranny or dissolution. This book is a masterclass ammalgamation of every snappy article that you've read or heard of. More than that, in the same way people have a friend that has their pulse on what's the most definitional of culture's unending fluctuations, Vivek not only is that friend but is in the highest perch you could ask for. Vivek understands the periles. More often than not, his analysis is spot on and his reasoning is at the calibre of all American thought, which is applied philosophy in essence.
Not only that, Vivek presents solutions. This book is an indespensible guide to a world grown bureaucratic. It reminds me of something precious about the march of old history. In the end, Hegel and Kant will outlive Napolean and his propaganda broadsheet, and the books that were biographies of Napolean will be put to pulp in the old storehouse of forgotten words. Ironically, the closer we get to the world, the more applied our thoughts, the shorter history holds on to them. But that all being said, I hope dearly for future American historians that this book will find a place in their work, because it is a rare glimpse into the upper class before, or during, the fall of an Empire. I don't think of this book really as a final warning anymore, rather its is really just a part of the final swansong from a nation gone mad.
At any rate, it's a first rate current event book by a first rate individual and should be treasured as something to be burried for a century or two, and then looked on anew, found by an overly curious wart of a person in some forsaken bookstore or library and, just as I did, say "Oh, so that's how it happened."
Not only that, Vivek presents solutions. This book is an indespensible guide to a world grown bureaucratic. It reminds me of something precious about the march of old history. In the end, Hegel and Kant will outlive Napolean and his propaganda broadsheet, and the books that were biographies of Napolean will be put to pulp in the old storehouse of forgotten words. Ironically, the closer we get to the world, the more applied our thoughts, the shorter history holds on to them. But that all being said, I hope dearly for future American historians that this book will find a place in their work, because it is a rare glimpse into the upper class before, or during, the fall of an Empire. I don't think of this book really as a final warning anymore, rather its is really just a part of the final swansong from a nation gone mad.
At any rate, it's a first rate current event book by a first rate individual and should be treasured as something to be burried for a century or two, and then looked on anew, found by an overly curious wart of a person in some forsaken bookstore or library and, just as I did, say "Oh, so that's how it happened."
Read
November 12, 2023SNL parody "Trump" on Vivek Ramaswamy: "This kid he checks a lot of boxes - he's rich, he's rude, he's got weird hair, he's a lot like me except for one thing that matters a lot to my horrible horrible base: white. Sad he's going nowhere."
Is Ramaswamy a fantasist first and anti-woke warrior second?
Ramaswamy is best when dealing with specific topics e.g. the origin & manifestations of the authoritarianism in the Covid period, less good on trying to reduce the current age of populism & outsized billionaire personalities under the framework of wokeness.
Is Ramaswamy a fantasist first and anti-woke warrior second?
Ramaswamy is best when dealing with specific topics e.g. the origin & manifestations of the authoritarianism in the Covid period, less good on trying to reduce the current age of populism & outsized billionaire personalities under the framework of wokeness.
October 4, 2021
Cynical af, but sometimes that digs up surprising insights. This book covers a lot about America's culture war, but offers a unique perspective and some suggestions on fixes. It's worth reading.
September 3, 2021
I often read from both sides to create my own understanding of issues but this book fails in so many ways I can not really invest the effort to explain. But when you read that the Jan 6 insurrectionists were protesters you know you ion for a far-right ride of typical lazy explanations as if they are worthy of our nation.
There are a few good points but they lose validity when faced with so many statements that seek to deny the right of people to force companies to have a conscience. Companies have rights, they take positions, so they must bear responsibility? IF you don't like it then write a book?
One point I accept is a need for a compulsory national service not military but service aimed. Many Americans seem to lack respect for one another's cultures, the rights and privileges they have and the need to work together to create a better society. And to get their heads out of screen mode social media obsession.
From that point along I added another star. But I wish Goodreads would allow us to select half stars?
Woke is not entirely healthy or good for America. There are positive points but far too much of an is image activity and not enough real policy to be effective.
I worry about a generation that finds WOKE a means to action and change. We have systems in place and should be working harder to protect voter rights, against suppression and gerrymandering and then, once the nation is properly represented, instead of cheated by social media, lies, tweet attacks, we can have a Congress that actually works and makes lives better instead of lining politicians pockets and empowering corporations.
This book only showed me some of the evil behind the anti-WOKE movement and the examples were weak and ineffective.
There are a few good points but they lose validity when faced with so many statements that seek to deny the right of people to force companies to have a conscience. Companies have rights, they take positions, so they must bear responsibility? IF you don't like it then write a book?
One point I accept is a need for a compulsory national service not military but service aimed. Many Americans seem to lack respect for one another's cultures, the rights and privileges they have and the need to work together to create a better society. And to get their heads out of screen mode social media obsession.
From that point along I added another star. But I wish Goodreads would allow us to select half stars?
Woke is not entirely healthy or good for America. There are positive points but far too much of an is image activity and not enough real policy to be effective.
I worry about a generation that finds WOKE a means to action and change. We have systems in place and should be working harder to protect voter rights, against suppression and gerrymandering and then, once the nation is properly represented, instead of cheated by social media, lies, tweet attacks, we can have a Congress that actually works and makes lives better instead of lining politicians pockets and empowering corporations.
This book only showed me some of the evil behind the anti-WOKE movement and the examples were weak and ineffective.
January 3, 2024
I was initially drawn to this book as I saw on the nightstand of a guy I hooked up with, and was intrigued by what I believe to be the concept of the book- the co-opting of the “woke” movement by corporations for marketing campaigns. Shortly into it, I realized that was not so much what the book was about. Instead, it’s nothing more than some Ben Shapiro-wannabe decrying woke culture while capitalizing on how well the term sells when you slap it in a conservative think piece.
I stopped listening when he said “I didn’t understand systemic racism, so I didn’t believe in it.” How ignorant can you be to just dismiss a valid issue in this country because he doesn’t want to take the time to read an article. Honey, you went to Harvard, we know you know how to read and use critical thinking.
I found most of the arguments and analyses to be overly simplistic and incomplete. To frame trainings that allow BIPOC to be treated equally in the workplace as nothing more than “teaching people to be ashamed they’re white”, he completely misses the point of why we had the trainings in the first place. Do I think diversity training solved/will solve racism? No. But they provide education that is critical for a more just and equal America- Justice and equality are the American values I admire.
I could go on, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m sure Fox News viewers will squirt to this kind of book but I guess it just ain’t for me.
Overall, the worst part of the book was realizing that I slept with a Republican.
I stopped listening when he said “I didn’t understand systemic racism, so I didn’t believe in it.” How ignorant can you be to just dismiss a valid issue in this country because he doesn’t want to take the time to read an article. Honey, you went to Harvard, we know you know how to read and use critical thinking.
I found most of the arguments and analyses to be overly simplistic and incomplete. To frame trainings that allow BIPOC to be treated equally in the workplace as nothing more than “teaching people to be ashamed they’re white”, he completely misses the point of why we had the trainings in the first place. Do I think diversity training solved/will solve racism? No. But they provide education that is critical for a more just and equal America- Justice and equality are the American values I admire.
I could go on, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m sure Fox News viewers will squirt to this kind of book but I guess it just ain’t for me.
Overall, the worst part of the book was realizing that I slept with a Republican.
August 24, 2021
A fantastic insight into how the unholy nexus of big tech, big business, and the new Left birthed the Woke virus to undermine liberal, free societies by strangling them with that very liberty. Big business wins because they can continue to horde capital and continue their greed with shallow actions like screaming empty platitudes of diversity/inclusion and making corporate boards more diverse irrespective of merit/ability. The Left wins because it gives them institutional power. Big Tech wins because they can continue their monopolistic practices in exchange for censoring the dissent against the new Left. The CCP wins by keeping this pot boiling and weakening the USA from within. Who loses? The average American...VERY IMPORTANT BOOK!
August 18, 2021
Great analysis. Thoughtful answers.
December 13, 2023
Really interesting insights into the conjunction between business and social issues. I wanted insight into presidential contenders, and this book showed me what Ramiswamy was thinking before he ran.
September 29, 2023
I found this book absolutely fascinating. Written in 2021 but still holds true today (2023). Whether you're considering voting for the guy or not, you have to admit he is hella smart and brings some good points to the table. Or at least points to think over.
Want to read
September 22, 2021"Biden is the embodiment of American weakness. (...) New culture in America that celebrates defeat"
September 2, 2022
This is somewhat of a deceiving title, in that the book is more about the guileful corruption of capitalism from the left in general, rather than specifically the so called 'woke' progressives. This is a shame as the title is more likely to appeal to those already intolerant of the far left, rather than those who it would be most enlightening for - the general unsuspecting left.
I have to admit that even I was somewhat skeptical of the book at first, but quickly realised I held a rather stereotypical view of CEO's, assuming they were all motivated by greed, profit and expansion at the expense of any social responsibility. Vivek Ramaswamy, although still having a slightly imperious personality, is proof of my ignorance and susceptibility to ideological framings. It's clear Vivek is intelligent and that he knows what he is talking about when it comes to what makes a successful business. He argues convincingly that business and politics should never mix.
He makes is very clear that the majority of the left are misguided in believing that capitalism (even when done ethically in its purest form) is the enemy of everything. The harsh reality is that without it, humanity would be in a far worse predicament. If we genuinely want to solve the real challenges of the planet and our human survival in it, capitalism, done ethically, is our greatest asset.
If you are skeptical of this book, don't be fooled by its inflammatory title nor by your own biases. Give it a try and I guarantee you'll learn some valuable truths that might well shake your current understanding of the world and encourage you to listen to more educated, intelligent voices, no matter which side of the political spectrum you assume they represent.
Nobody is identical by any stretch of the imagination. As a result we all have our biases and blind spots, but we also have valuable perspectives on the world that can help others, no matter what our perceived status, background or ideological beliefs are.
I have to admit that even I was somewhat skeptical of the book at first, but quickly realised I held a rather stereotypical view of CEO's, assuming they were all motivated by greed, profit and expansion at the expense of any social responsibility. Vivek Ramaswamy, although still having a slightly imperious personality, is proof of my ignorance and susceptibility to ideological framings. It's clear Vivek is intelligent and that he knows what he is talking about when it comes to what makes a successful business. He argues convincingly that business and politics should never mix.
He makes is very clear that the majority of the left are misguided in believing that capitalism (even when done ethically in its purest form) is the enemy of everything. The harsh reality is that without it, humanity would be in a far worse predicament. If we genuinely want to solve the real challenges of the planet and our human survival in it, capitalism, done ethically, is our greatest asset.
If you are skeptical of this book, don't be fooled by its inflammatory title nor by your own biases. Give it a try and I guarantee you'll learn some valuable truths that might well shake your current understanding of the world and encourage you to listen to more educated, intelligent voices, no matter which side of the political spectrum you assume they represent.
Nobody is identical by any stretch of the imagination. As a result we all have our biases and blind spots, but we also have valuable perspectives on the world that can help others, no matter what our perceived status, background or ideological beliefs are.
November 12, 2021
This is a really interesting book. Although the book was written by someone who identifies as a conservative, contrary to what the title might suggest, the book is not about right-wing propaganda or a right-wing diatribe against woke values. The book is actually a critique of a newer variant of crony capitalism, not a necessarily a critique of so-called woke values per se.
The main thesis of the author is that stakeholder capitalism (which he identifies as woke capitalism) is fooling everybody by pretending to care about social justice issues when in reality they just care about their bottom lines and as a result, they use the popularity of social justice issues as a way to distract from their shady internal practices at home and abroad. A prime example of this behavior, for instance, is Nike. They hired Colin Kaepernick as a Nike rep because they understand the values for which he stand for are popular at home—and are widely shared by their target audience. Such move gave Nike great PR capital and made them money. But abroad Nike has been consistently called out for owning sweat shops. If this is the case, then we have a clear scenario of corporate hypocrisy, and these sort of moves are more common than what we might think.
You might not necessarily agree with all of Ramaswamy's proposed solutions, but it's still a fascinating read with plenty of material for all, progressives, libertarians, and conservatives to agree on.
The main thesis of the author is that stakeholder capitalism (which he identifies as woke capitalism) is fooling everybody by pretending to care about social justice issues when in reality they just care about their bottom lines and as a result, they use the popularity of social justice issues as a way to distract from their shady internal practices at home and abroad. A prime example of this behavior, for instance, is Nike. They hired Colin Kaepernick as a Nike rep because they understand the values for which he stand for are popular at home—and are widely shared by their target audience. Such move gave Nike great PR capital and made them money. But abroad Nike has been consistently called out for owning sweat shops. If this is the case, then we have a clear scenario of corporate hypocrisy, and these sort of moves are more common than what we might think.
You might not necessarily agree with all of Ramaswamy's proposed solutions, but it's still a fascinating read with plenty of material for all, progressives, libertarians, and conservatives to agree on.
February 11, 2022
4+, almost a 5
Vivek Ramaswamy's bio makes it clear that he is one smart cookie, and he has brought his thinking ability to his argument that corporate America is doing society harm with their adherence to "wokenomics", a new economic model that infuses woke values into big business.
The author is conservative but not a rightwinger, and he has some solid arguments backed up by disturbing examples from business and academia, such as employees being disciplined for expressing their beliefs in social media in their own accounts on their own time. He cites some of my favorite current-day thinkers, too, like Harvard's Michael Sandel.
This is an excellent book for openminded people of all stripes.
(The element that kept this from being a 5 is a fairly common one in nonfiction, where the author goes on a side track and dwells on a pet idea or interest of his, like Ramaswamy's proposal that all high school students should have to spend their summer vacations doing civic service. This detracts from his main subject.)
Vivek Ramaswamy's bio makes it clear that he is one smart cookie, and he has brought his thinking ability to his argument that corporate America is doing society harm with their adherence to "wokenomics", a new economic model that infuses woke values into big business.
The author is conservative but not a rightwinger, and he has some solid arguments backed up by disturbing examples from business and academia, such as employees being disciplined for expressing their beliefs in social media in their own accounts on their own time. He cites some of my favorite current-day thinkers, too, like Harvard's Michael Sandel.
This is an excellent book for openminded people of all stripes.
(The element that kept this from being a 5 is a fairly common one in nonfiction, where the author goes on a side track and dwells on a pet idea or interest of his, like Ramaswamy's proposal that all high school students should have to spend their summer vacations doing civic service. This detracts from his main subject.)
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