Sun Tzu, in his famous ‘The Art of War’ wrote, “Therefore, a victorious army first obtains conditions for victory, then seeks to do battle. A defeated army first seeks to do battle, then obtains conditions for victory.” In 1971, Lewis Powell felt closer to defeat than victory as a board member of Philip Morris trying to convince people cigarettes didn’t cause harm in the face of Ralph Nader and Nader’s increasingly successful Consumer Product Safety movement. In response, Powell would write one of the keystones to the fall of modern America, the “Attack on American Free Enterprise System” memo, whose influence on today’s oligarchy cannot be understated.
In Powell’s Memo, he calls for gaining and using power, ‘This is the lesson that political power is necessary; that such power much be assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination – without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has been so characteristic of the american business.’ Saying ‘no thoughtful person can question that the american economic system is under broad attack’ and without irony, ‘the american business executive is truly ‘the forgotten man.” (*1) The famously diverse ‘american business man’ was never being left behind, merely other people were getting a seat at the table, and people like Powell couldn’t tolerate that. (*2)
Having a seat at the table is a matter of importance, so critical and basic it shouldn’t need to be explained. In 1884-1885, the Berlin Conference was a relatively large table. Fourteen European countries met to discuss colonial activity in Africa, who was not at said table. In 1938 Nazi Germany, The UK, France, and Italy handed over part of Czechoslovakia, who was not at the table, to the Nazis and was a significant piece of why WWII happened. Other peoples such as (but certainly not limited to) The Kurds, The Tibetans, The Uyghurs, The Palestinians (*3), and now the Ukrainians (*4), have been left out of the room when people are deciding what to do about them and history hasn’t been kind to them.
Having a seat at the table isn’t just some broad pie-in-the-sky concept. When your insurance company denies your claim, although your doctor ordered it, a uniquely American problem, seats were removed from a table that should only have had two chairs on it – you and your provider. When laws are written to deny people their right to love, marry, have a family, use the bathroom, control one’s own body, pray to whomever, including no one, and all this other culture war bull@#$%, they aren’t being written by people who are going to be impacted by the law itself.
Powell’s Memo wasn’t just popular in its time; it was inspirational in organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, the CATO Institute, the Koch Bros, The National Association of Scholars, and others to keep one seat at the table and one seat only. The times we’re living in now with Project 2025 dismantling our government is in no small part due to Powell’s Memo and a deeply ingrained attitude of a section of the country against people who differ from the traditional center of power. At the same time, that traditional center of power is becoming bolder in its attempts to seize and maintain power.
The honest way to overcome this is through a united effort, and here’s the real success of their efforts: they keep us fighting amongst ourselves. The Culture War is a distraction from The Class War. If you’re trying to get a seat at the table while also fighting against the Trans community, you’re doing their work for them. They’ve been aggressively attacking the media, education, funding the culture war, stacking the judiciary, etc., for decades to remain the only seat at the table, and it can be really easy to point fingers elsewhere.
We’ve been living in an illiberal democracy for quite some time, but it’s difficult to argue anything other than we’re living in an oligarchy now. Powell advocated for a government run by the businessman for the businessman, and we’re here, being pillaged by the world’s richest man. We have a rubber-stamp congress afraid to speak against the cult leader and a compromised judiciary hand-selected by the very think tanks inspired by Powell’s Memo. No one is coming to save us, we have to do it ourselves.
The good news is we can do it. Senator Bernie Sanders is filling up local stadiums with capacity crowds in Red Districts. At the same time, their own elected officials are too afraid to hold town halls. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett are speaking truth to power openly and loudly, and protest movements across the country are gaining momentum. Support for our Allies abroad remains strong, including and especially for our neighbors north and south. What’s left is for us to support one another where it counts.
Evelyn Beatrice Hall was reported to have said, ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ Now is the time to adopt a similar attitude. I may not agree with everything everyone stands for, but I do know having only one seat at the table is catastrophic for all of us. The one seat means all of our work and resources will only be funneled upwards endlessly. Our table is easily large enough to accommodate seats for all of us, and once properly seated – once properly represented – let’s have respectful conversations about how to move forward.
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” -Abraham Lincoln.
(*1) The Forgotten Man conspiracy theory would take an even uglier turn in the social media age with the ‘replacement theory’ and other claims that anything related to DEI was actually just a way to hurt white men in particular.
(*2) Yes, that is heavy sarcasm – something I am not known for in my writing. At the time of this writing, there have only been 19 Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
(*3) I am aware some people are going to try to say Hamas was their seat at the table, but by that point, Israel was already there and expanding. I’m referring more to the mass relocation of people to Palestine without any say of the Palestinians themselves. The ‘but Hamas’ is a modern example of the same cavalier attitude as the colonization of The New World, which was, in fact, already inhabited.
(*4) Trump undoing decades of American historical precedent and world order as a whole and meeting with the Russians in Saudi Arabia to openly negotiate about Ukraine without the Ukrainians present speaks for itself.