Book Review
Global System Change
Frank Dixon
Global System Change, Middle Grove, NY (2017)
Irresistible
Adam Alter
Penguin Press Random House, NY (2017)
By Hazel Henderson © 2017
Both these books see the vital role of truthful information in educating the consent of the governed. Both authors also explore the extent to which public opinion and behavior is manipulated and steered by culture, use of big data, marketing, political advertising psychology and propaganda. These explorations are vital in today’s world of fake news, cyber-attacks, populist demagoguing which is threatening decades of liberal democratic order. The imploding Trump presidency in the USA is providing many examples to other threatened democracies in Europe and worldwide.
In “Global System Change “, the first volume in a series on this vast topic, Frank Dixon, Harvard MBA and former head of global research for Innovest, a pioneering social auditing firm (now owned by Morgan Stanley) explores many options for shifting to more sustainable futures for humanity.
As is often the case in systems analyses, linear thinking gives way to more holistic assessments of interactions–connecting silos and reductionist approaches. Thus, counterintuitively, this book begins with Chapter 7 of Dixon’s forthcoming overall series, since this section addresses the most relevant of today’s problems opportunities and current debates. Dixon’s highly personal style cites few conventional sources . Thus, Chapter 7 addresses the issues of empowerment of citizens in current democracies, the need for higher goals and engaging voters in longer-term envisioning of desirable futures. Dixon sees the need for overcoming the short-term economic self-interest rationales toward broader definitions of success and satisfaction. The myopic philosophy I term “economism” also drives short-termism in corporations and capital markets. Dixon focuses on broadening education and curricula, strengthening secular and scientific understanding to overcome religious dogmas. In the political realm, the author reminds us that the US founding fathers did not favor political parties, believing they foster factionalism and divisiveness. Certainly, the rigidity of the US two-party system is less flexible than in many other democracies where multiple parties keep all issues in play and require cooperation and coalition governments. This chapter is a deep dive into US history with many insightful examples of how societies evolve.
Chapter 8 addresses Dixon’s approach to achieving his model Total Corporate Responsibility (TCR) which goes beyond the current approaches of environmental, social and governance standards (ESG) for individual companies as pioneered at Innovest. Dixon points out, using the example of his work with Walmart (WMT), that this can take reforms only so far, since the flawed economic system still drives short-term competitive profit goals. His TCR model calls for system change and encourages companies to include disclosing their approaches to politics, lobbying, marketing, advertisement and setting higher standards across the broader economic and political system.
Chapter 9 explores how these broader corporate policies, together with education and citizen empowerment can redefine goals and help achieve sustainability and real prosperity. Succeeding discussions examine how democracies became degraded, by special interests, money in politics, mass media and short-termism. Subsequently Dixon turns to all the better options and policies for regeneration and how we the people can play a fuller role in achieving better outcomes for all.
This is a challenging volume and on page 467 is a Table of Contents for Chapter 1 through 6 forthcoming to complete the series. Navigating this rich material could be simplified and the addition of an Index would make this easier. For full disclosure, Frank Dixon serves on our Ethical Markets Advisory Board and we are hoping to help in promoting use of his TCR model, which complements our own suite of global standards.
In “Irresistible”, New York Times best-selling author Adam Alter, marketing professor at New York University Stern School of Business, paints a shocking picture of how marketing, especially via social media platforms, including Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), YouTube, Twitter (TWTR) and others use gaming, click-bait and other psychological manipulation to shape the behavior and beliefs of “we the people”. Author Alter describes in well-researched analytical detail how behavioral addiction has become as important in advanced societies as substance addiction. He describes these symptoms, identified by psychologists, and how our human brains are vulnerable to manipulation in many new ways. Addictive behavior and substance abuse are sought as relief from psychological pain. Many examples are described showing how our brains produce dopamine, endorphins and how humans responded to their electronic devices, social media platforms’ use of “likes”, fake news, click-bait and gaming to keep us in front of our screens. New Scientist (25 March 2017) editorializes about the harm caused: “A quick click, a quick buck “.
Alter’s analysis is highly original and riveting—with new insights on every page. He shows how cultural cues propel us toward goals: success, comparative performance, competing with others while dampening our instinctive abilities of balancing and self-regulation. Surprisingly, the author does not include addiction to trading which I have likened to gambling, and detailed in the “The Hour Between Dog and Wolf” (2012) by former currency trader, John Coates. Alter describes how wearing such devices as Fitbit and other metabolic monitoring gadgets rob us of our natural internal mechanisms, or lead toward hypochondria. Other analysts and social critics including MIT’s Sherry Terkle in “Reclaiming Conversation” (2015) have also examined the pathological dependence on smart phones, tablets, Internet and social media— to the detriment of our relationships, and especially damaging to children.
The pervasive business of keeping us hooked is describe in detail in Alter’s Chapter 12 on Gamification. I was shocked at how many millions of my fellow citizens became addicted to games: World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, Super Mario Bros, Farmville, Cow Clicking
, the Kardashians, as well as binge-watching of TV Series encouraged by Netflix formats. Clinics for Internet addition are few so far in the USA, but common in South Korea and China, where there are 400 such treatment centers and more than 24 million teenage internet addicts.
Alter’s most chilling evidence of how today’s marketers and even business school curricula are pushing behavioral addiction for profit. He illustrates this by informing us how IT executives shelter their own children from their addictive products. Steve Jobs refused to let his kids use Apple’s I-Pad; Chris Anderson former editor of WIRED, enforced strict limits on use of screens at home; Evan Williams a founder of Blogger, Twitter, and Medium bought hundreds of books for his two young sons but refused to give them an I-Pad. These titans of Silicon Valley have the same view as casino owners and drug pushers: “Never get high on your own supply”!
As is usually the case, the tortoise of social regulation always lags the hare of market led technological innovation—as I learned as a science-policy wonk in the USA’s Office of Technology Assessment in the 1970’s. Today we see CRISPR gene editing, virtual reality, big, data, A1 machine learning all outpacing public understanding and legislative response as I described in “The Idiocy of Things Requires a New Information Habeas Corpus” and “Artificial Intelligence + Algorithms=Assumptions”.
Both these books offer a wake-up call!