Stakeholder Capitalism Preface

Preface to the book & preface to my review series

The Great Reset is an attempt to destroy small businesses by multinational corporations and global elites, according to many tweets on my Twitter feed. COVID-19 is just a tool to get changes for this international cabal.

I’m opening the book Stakeholder Capitalism, written by Klaus Schwab with Peter Vanham, that just arrived by mail. I like the layout of the book. In the preface, Klaus writes how he planned this book earlier, but was interrupted by COVID-19. He writes:

The sudden and all-encompassing impact of COVID-19 made us understand, much more than the gradual effects of climate change or increasing inequality, that an economic system driven by selfish and short-term interests is not sustainable.

Those angry tweets are often made by “deplorables” that suffer the most under inequality and short-term thinking. You might think that exactly these people should pay attention if some influential guy like Klaus points this out.

Obviously trust is lacking. The word sustainable might do it. We’ve seen whole forests being cut down in Holland for the sake of “sustainability”, “nature” and “climate” under the leadership of our prime minister Rutte, who is on the second text page, recommending the book.

Rutte talked during a recent WEF talk (see my Dutch-written review on that talk) on agriculture and food chains, together with the multinational company DSM that together with the government tried to impose animal food “solutions” on farmers. It didn’t succeed as both farmers and veterinarians got angry (statement in Dutch). Should farmers fear the WEF? Some proposals might hurt them. But during this COVID-19 crisis, farmers prove economic stability and deliver food security. The co-author Peter made very favorable comments on farmers during an interview in Bloovi (Dutch).

Are those conservatives and other angry people in my twitter timeline really giving the works of their “enemies” a fair chance, or are they just paranoid? While holding this book in my hands, I feel like there are opportunities for mutual understanding if we can bridge a few cultural barriers.

I will write a series of blogposts on Stakeholder Capitalism while reading the book, because I feel like it, because it is important, doing what I’m used to do: being highly critical, often siding with the underdogs, conservatives and Traditionalists, and maybe even enjoying some enmity of the mainstream correct culture who cannot grasp my disdain for normal bourgois career building while I also love modern technology. In university, I learned how to program my own simple neural network using C++ with pointers and data structures. My parents were shepherds. I love Tradition, I love the future, it’s just modernity which I find hard to digest. Let’s do a Great Reset, but make sure it is not a globalists show, make sure we include all stakeholders and preserve our roots. I like the theme.

Having just read the first chapter, I have to admit that this time, I will have a hard time to attack the book. The authors are very amiable, and their positions are agreeable, forcing me to engage with the book in a more personal style. Reflecting on the book by making my personal thoughts, feelings and history explicit might be more interesting for both myself and my public than just summarizing the book.

Still I will seek out omissions or weak points in their reasoning, and be on the lookout for other reviews. For example, Steve Denning replied to my tweet on his article in Forbes, mentioning managing issues.

If you want to follow my adventure with this book, just follow this weblog or check my twitterfeed or Facebook timeline with the hashtag #wefbookclub or the mention @WEFBookClub for the next few weeks. You might also order the book, and maybe even join the WEF Book Club on Facebook, so you can make this a participatory experience for yourself.

Also check the index page of my review series that I will update as I add blogposts on this subject.

Deze blogpost werd in december 2022 overgezet van WordPress naar een methode gebaseerd op Markdown; het is mogelijk dat hierbij fouten of wijzigingen zijn ontstaan t.o.v. de originele blogpost.