SEEING THE BIG PICTURE - DON'T RULE OUT ART

What does art have to do with aggregates? 

As a prime influencer of the cultural zeitgeist more than you think.

The other night I sampled “Yellowstone”, a modern TV Western.  The show just entered its third season setting record ratings and was the number one most-watched cable premier of 2020.  By combining our current era’s mythology with the age-old “good vs. evil” theme, a rich rancher is pitted against land developers and the corporate interests of oil, natural gas, lumber, and mining.

In full disclosure, I turned it off after the initial anti-industry sermonizing, so it’s possible I’m being too harsh about its heavy-handed messaging.

But too often only a singular point of view is represented in art exhibitions, TV shows, movies, media, and books.  People mostly don’t follow policy discussions, but millions partake of the biases displayed in arts and entertainment.  When such claims are asserted as facts, and reinforced by mass and social media, a SARS-type social virus can be created that too often becomes government policy.

So the next time you see an exhibit at your local art gallery or museum that claims destruction of the earth by natural resource industries, contact the curator and ask to talk about another side of the story at a discussion or docent walk.  You might find that your audience will be interested and influenced by a different point of view.

A New Decade Under Construction

Recently Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, and Carol Browne shared their top 10 Tech Policy Issues for the 2020s.  Achieving number 1 status was “Sustainability”.  For purposes of this list, sustainability is shorthand for climate change issues.  Both governments and corporations will be expected to prioritize sustainability.  The movement is now changing from direct sources of carbon emissions to indirect sources – meaning companies’ entire value chain from manufacturing to the concrete used in new buildings.

Carbon issues are now considered “multifaceted” – defined as including impacts on water, waste, biodiversity, ecosystems and just about anything else that can be stated as affecting this category.  According to Mr. Smith, data science, artificial intelligence, and ultimately quantum computing will all be used toward new technologies and innovations directed at addressing this concern.

The other issues (in order of importance) are 2) defending democracy (both internally and internationally); 3) needing to have healthy journalism; 4) privacy in an AI era; 5) tension between digital technology and geopolitics (particularly related to the movement of large data sets and economics); 6) digital safety; 7) internet inequality; 8) a tech “cold war” (between the US and China); 9) ethnics for AI – humans need to govern artificial intelligence; and 10) jobs and income inequality in an AI economy.

In a future blog I will discuss how these developments will only make communications strategies and public affairs some of the most important sources of strength for successful corporate outcomes in relationships with governments and the public during this upcoming turbulent decade.