Managerial Madness

Summertime in Maine brings with it not just the slowing down of the day-to-day but also time for some serious reading. During the "normal" time of the year, I am a voracious reader, a "book nerd," if you will, but during the summer, with the lack of the usual distractions, time allows for even deeper dives, reading-wise, beyond just my typical topics of history, religion, and philosophy (I know, for half of you, your eyes just glazed over.) This week, during my expanded reading, I discovered a political philosopher named James Burnham. His story is quite an interesting one. Don't worry, those whose eyes have glazed over, this will tie up nicely. 

James was a former Trotskyite (aka Communist) who became disillusioned with the movement and moved to the right. In 1941, he published a book entitled, The Managerial Revolution. Burnham argued at the time that capitalism wouldn't be overtaken by socialism but by a more pernicious nonsocialist successor; not dominated by traditional capitalists (e.g., Warren Buffet) but by a managerial class who would come to own the economy regardless if they have a stake in it. He foresaw the growth of the administrative state, the alphabet soup of federal agencies that write much of the regulations that affect our daily lives. They came not from our elected officials but lifelong managerial bureaucrats making rules for businesses they don't necessarily completely understand. 

So what, may you ask, does this have to do with "the biz?" To put it in simple terms, the managerial class has already begun to overtake the decision-making that creates the content we engage with daily. For example, the rapid growth of the DEI infrastructure throughout the last few years led to the hiring of racial equity consultants in some cases. As Malcolm Kyeyune recently highlighted in a piece for City Journal entitled "Wokeness, the Highest Stage of Managerialism:

"Time was when a screenwriter would conceive of a plot and populate it with characters, drawing upon crude, inequitable instruments such as empathy and imagination; this is less and less permissible. Populating stories with various minority characters is not just encouraged but demanded—and one must do so only after employing intermediary consultants. Writing now requires intercession from a class of moral managers."

And there you have it; the new managerial managers are the woke scolds who come down on us if something doesn't fit their specific worldview. Before I get hoisted by my own petard by the Twitterati, the new diversity encompassing Hollywood has brought many new voices into the fold. As any regular reader of this newsletter knows, I'm a big supporter of this movement. However, rather than meeting in the moderate middle and encouraging additional voices from ALL sides, it comes only from one POV, and all others must be silenced. That is managerial madness on steroids. As discussed in past issues, this has only begun to stifle the creative process and brought a culture of abject fear into every writers' room and pitch meeting. Fear and diversity edicts force everyone to cower that they might be next for the cancellation or ostracized from the creative community altogether. James Burnham's book might have been written over 50 years ago, but even he could see that the freedom-crushing tactics of his former Trotskyite pals were beginning to push their way into our society which has now blossomed into Woke, Inc.  

There is evidence that the tide is beginning to turn with Netflix's continued support of comics such as Dave Chapelle and Bill Barr, who don't follow the latest PC rules. But as philosopher and author Wesley Yang recently pointed out on Twitter (yes, it is not ALL Bad, just mostly): "Wokeness has not peaked. It is not subsiding. It is consolidating power in the most consequential domains." Thus, those of us who still believe in free expression and finding new storytelling voices must continue to fight back against this managerial class when possible. I mean, who doesn't love telling the manager to stick it?

Wakanda Forever: Damn Straight

This past weekend brought back ComiCon in person for the first time since 2019. Well, almost, there were still a few virtual panels, but for the most part, it was in person. Having been to a few ComiCons, it is quite the experience. Not just the people, but the location in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego makes it all the more enjoyable. The best part for most of us movie/comic-book geeks is the plethora of trailers that greet the annual "geek prom." This year was no exception. There were some "meh" trailers (there's that word again,) but there were also some genuinely great trailers. I would include the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in this latter category. If you haven't seen the piece yet, I'll post it below:

Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Official Teaser - YouTube

Typically, I'm not a massive fan of slowing down an ordinarily fast song, but here it works perfectly. It captures the mood so beautifully, and the shots back it up. I wish the consumer could understand the difficulty of pulling this trick off because it rarely works, but that is not the case here. And the quiet title read, followed by the flourish of music, also genius—an all-around fantastic execution. Kudos to the Marvel Marketing team and, more specifically, the creative advertising team. Well done!

Looking forward to the full trailer when the time comes.

Pages from the Commonplace Book

We're going to stick with more contemporary voices. This week, we'll meet Thomas Sowell. Professor Sowell is an American author, economist, political commentator, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He has a fascinating life story. I encourage you all to look more into his background, but for now, I'll offer you a quote from one of his books, Intellectuals and Society:

"Wisdom is the rarest quality of all - the ability to combine intellect, knowledge, experience, and judgment in a way to produce a coherent understanding. Wisdom is the fulfillment of the ancient admonition, "Wisdom requires self-discipline and an understanding of the realities of the world, including the limitations of one's own experience and of reason itself. The opposite of intellect is dullness or slowness, but the opposite of Wisdom is foolishness, which is far more dangerous."

Exemplary words to remember. Strive for wisdom and avoid the foolishness of the supposed intellectual who is often blind to evidence and reason. 

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