Cultural Forces, Business and Peace

Cindy couldn’t agree me. There are examples all over about recording artists, donating not just their time and their money but their voice. I think about the concerts hosted around hurricane season last year and the money raised for those communities. My favorite example of this though is a local one, Dolly Parton and the imagination library. You think about how she took action regarding a struggle she had when she was young and makes a consistent, active difference all across the country through the Imagination Library.

My point is, not only is it a way for an individual to foster peace but it becomes more than just action when it’s repeated and wide spread. It becomes part of their legacy!

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This is an easy one - Trump had gotten a lot of backlash for this - here’s a link to some examples of those who pushed back. Not only is there a connection to how music impacts politics via campaign rally’s and campaign “themes” in a sense but also favorites. In Tim Fort’s class, we had an awesome discussion as a class around those in the political forefront and their favorite songs. With our culture being as social media focused as we are today, even just a post of a spotify playlist could change people’s opinion towards songs, say if a candidate you don’t agree with posts something. It’s incredible with how connected we are that one post can make such an impact that’s as widespread as what we’ve seen in politics today.

The only thing I’d argue is that hackers today are getting more and more complex - and whats even more interesting is that regardless of what some companies do, many hacks or cyber attacks come from an individual within an organization making what is likely a harmless mistake (e.g. clicking an email, leaving something out, sharing a password, etc). Not so say companies shouldn’t do everything in their absolute power to prevent a cyber event but each of us serves as powerful contributors to prevent what can absolutely disturb peace both at an organization and individual level.

When you mentioned music in the workforce, my first thought was the national anthem in a sports context. In a sense, teams don’t really have “songs” but the anthem is a universal thread that binds. Hockey is notoriously a more “violent” or aggressive sport yet when we see US and Canadian teams play each other, there is a moment of peace as each anthem is played. I think of what you mentioned in the fight songs as well Tim in the Notre Dame is #1 excerpt is especially true here. In the playoff’s when Nashville played I believe Winnepeg, the Canadian anthem was performed well. The crowd clapped politely as “rules” were followed. The team stood respectfully and peacefully with each other. Then comes a grammy award winning artist and the feel in the room went from 0-60 for the US National Anthem. Regardless of what you believe, where your from, that level of excitement and pride across the board is something you can feel. If you consider an arena a workplace, I can’t think of a more powerful use of music.

Tim I think I shared this in our discussions as well or something similar but this is one impressive list with our most current political leader at front and center. Hadn’t thought about a legal aspect of it but I can’t imagine there is much the law can do - is an exception if they use it in commercials or ads? I’d assume that would require permission?

You’re right Ashley. In one of his posts, Josh noted that “the law needs help” and mentioned that, in their article, they relied more on ethical theory (especially Kant) to suggest ways of behaving. They know more about this subject than I do, but their view seems right to me. And, of course, the challenge with ethics is that its enforcement is harder unless there is a strong enough consensus so that public opinion and/or conscience can be effective.

Makes sense. Seems at times it’s definitely not even law that drives an action but rather a public response. As companies focus on public image even if they’re not breaking laws if they’re trying to keep their customer base happy they likely have to treat the public reaction as “law”.

I Agree Casey, cyberbullying is quite sad and people do use the anonymity of the internet to be much rougher than they would otherwise. I suspect people are also tougher in dealing with companies, say customer service, online than on the phone or in person. Somehow the internet doesn’t seem quite real…like what you say on the internet stays on the internet.

I was thinking of CyberConflict in terms of viruses, malware etc. and state, and corporate behavior but your cyberbullying and individual thoughts are great.

Hi Matthew,

I do think businesses need to make cybersecurity a priority. I think one tricky item is that in many cases it is likely difficult to make money by having excellent cybersecurity. What I mean is, unless as a company you are the victim of a very large attack, it is hard for most customers, at least individuals, to make a decision based on cybersecurity. We simply don’t know enough to know which companies have excellent cybsecurity and which are mediocre. If a company truly invests in its cybersecurity it may want to tell us consumers and use that as a selling point, but it’s hard for us to know whether the claims are true and in any case by discussing in detail its cybersecurity, it may inadvertently give away useful info to hackers and may also invite attack by seeming to brag about how great its security is.

I agree that cybersecurity is important, valuable, and should likely be more heavily invested in, but unless the incentives line up to encourage management to invest in it, it likely won’t happen. Consider the Tragedy of the Commons…everyone should protect the land, but people don’t and in the end the land is ruined for all. How do we work to make the incentives line up so that what benefits society is also in each firm/management’s best interests??

Great example, Casey. To explore the Tom’s example a bit further – their business model has inspired countless other companies to follow a similar operations model – most notably and recognizable is probably Warby Parker. I stumbled across this whole article discussing copycats: http://www.realclearlife.com/books/16-brands-use-toms-model-one-one-giving/

Additionally, as Toms’ business has grown, they’ve adapted their offerings to include new product lines that in turn offer related charity across the globe. For example, the company sells sunglasses now, and for every pair purchased, they provide a full eye exam to someone in need, as well as the follow up treatment. (Read more here: https://www.toms.com/what-we-give-sight )

It’s pretty remarkable to see how one company’s efforts toward peace-building can inspire so many others!

The WW1 truce example is a powerful one. It’s both hopeful and not at the same time. Individuals who were just shooting at each other stopped and recognized their common beliefs and even common humanity. That said, the truce was depressingly temporary. Higher ups ordered shelling and soldiers to get back to fighting. They were concerned about losing control and ended the truce. Why did the soldiers comply? Part of it may have been discipline, part self-preservation (both from those shooting at them and their own higher ups). Maybe the strongest part comes from the famous Keegan book, Face of Battle.

This book explores in detail several major battles (Agincourt for example) and also why soldiers fight. The conclusion is that for most soldiers, the primary reason they fight is not big picture stuff like nationalism, but simply they’ve bonded with their fellow soldiers and don’t want to let down they squad mates etc. This group loyalty can promote various results, but in the case of the Christmas peace, it’s easy to see that once a few soldiers nearby were show or shot at and started shooting back, out of loyalty to ones own squad, many would quickly get back in the fight and the truce would end.

Loyalty to clan etc. can produce remarkable things…but can also encourage conflict when “us”/“in group” is valued over “them”/“out group”.

Hi Scott,

That’s an impressive amount of detail. How do we as individuals and society broadly incentivize management to truly invest in cybersecurity? Because if cybersecurity is simply a cost, an area that investing in does not produce a tangible return for the firm and its management, then we will collectively underinvest in cybersecurity. Even in the extreme cases like Target you mentioned, the firms recovered fairly quickly, but for most companies, where underinvesting in cybersecurity is not clear to most customers and only moderately increases the risks of debilitating cyberattack…how can we expect management to invest in what they personally, and their firms, won’t be compensated for investing in?

Building on one of Kathleen Higgins’ strategies, that, “…opportunities should be created for people to engage in “participatory performance,” which can transform people from relative strangers into shared musical participants…” I think that musical education helps shape people and also encourages peacebuilding through a shared responsibility. I read this article (see link below) about a non-profit in San Diego that offered a weekly program called “Taking Music to the Streets”. The program offered free music lessons with instruments provided to anyone that wanted to participate – but most notable reaching out to the homeless population. The homeless participants noted that the program helps them feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment, keeps them out of trouble, and furthermore allows them to learn a skill that can bring money.

Growing up, our school district required musical education from 3rd grade through High School, whether it was chorus or an actual instrument. It provided a way for our class to connect and work together on a different level – not so competitive as a sports team or typical classroom may be. You had to work together to find the rhythm and chords, and the end product was something truly beautiful. I wonder if there are any studies out there measuring the effects of learning music as an adolescent and what impact it has throughout evolving school years. I would imagine that in the “teenage angst” years, music could really play a big role.

Does anyone remember the song We Are The World? I can’t think of a better song that is promoting peace than that one. There were a number of well know artist that contributed to that song, and I believe all of the profits went to a charitable cause. I’d be surprised if anyone can mention a song that rang PEACE more than that.

I don’t know where to begin when it comes to law and fostering peace. It’s almost a subject that is going to cause an argument. In the eyes of a minority the “law” is far behind in promoting peace. I may be way off subject here, but I think the “law” is about controlling people, and not about engaging people, creating bonds or creating unity. It’s doing a better job at creating division at this point in history.

And besides it promoting peace, it also spurred future artists and organizations to make and produce more charity singles to help charities such as the song “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” for the earthquake. There are also benefit concerts to aide charities and to benefit humanity which really brings music, business and peace together.

Very interesting link to the 16 brands. I did not know the place I sometimes buy used textbooks from, BetterWorldBooks, had that kind of charitable impact to the world. It isn’t advertised too much on their website or when you buy it from their Amazon or ebay accounts.

It is indeed pretty remarkable how these companies can benefit the world and inspire other companies to do the same. Supporting a cause the company cares about and also providing excellent products in the marketplace seems to be the key to their successes.

There seems to be more and more stories regarding cyber security which will hopefully wake some companies up to step up their cyber security game. I hope that the companies that have already been hit by attacks have had a full rework of their security systems. I know for my company, Pratt and Whitney and parent company UTC, have very strong international trade compliance rules internally because of leaks and fines in the past. I can imagine companies that did not have the leaks or fines would be a lot less relaxed in their internal ITC rules. Similarly, if you haven’t had cyber security issues in the past, you might think it will never happen to you.

I follow the auto industry quite a bit and just recently one of the suppliers for automakers such as Toyota, Tesla, and VW had cyber security issues so this is still very real and an area that needs improvement. With a global economy, all parts of your supply chain needs to be on board in terms of cyber security.

Jermaine, interesting viewpoint. Are you speaking generally about the law as the system of rules or more specifically as the criminal justice system, including the police?

Casey, while I do like your example, I wonder if it was just a matter of right place / right time. Unfortunately, cases like this (especially in the world of soccer fandom) tend to be far outnumbered by examples of the exact opposite behavior. As much as sports can bring people together, one would only need to wear a Yankees jersey to a Red Sox game to become a living example of how fandom creates anything but social harmony.