“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” Elon Musk
It seems to me we are experiencing a dearth of care and an abundance of carelessness. In this post I’m going to posit what we might want to care more about and what we might be better off not caring about at all. I recently read three books that bring that idea into sharp focus. The stories in these books dispel the myth that people in power always care for the people they supposedly serve.
In the book Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams describes the evolution of Mark Zuckerberg as he accumulated more and more power and wealth. Mark, as she refers to him in the book, founded Facebook with a vision of creating a more open and connected world. I believe that was his intention in the beginning. Over, the course of Facebook’s history (2000-2025), however, as he became more rich and famous, he succumbed to the lure of money over his original intention of developing a technology that could change the world and improve peoples’ lives.
As Zuckerberg became increasingly addicted to attention, he shifted from his significant coding and engineering strengths to politics, posturing, and positioning. For example, he directed his staff to attract massive crowds in which he could be “gently mobbed.” Zuckerberg was not the only one who was seduced by praise and got drunk on delusion. Sheryl Sandberg’s true self is nakedly exposed as well. Wynn-Williams shares many stories of how her public image of “Lean-In” and promoting women were undermined by her extreme demands on employees. I was also disturbed by stories of Joel Kaplan, who is now President of Meta’s global affairs. Kaplan, a former Marine who clerked for Justice Scalia, helped bring George W. Bush into office and played a powerful role in Facebook’s assistance to Trump in the 2016. He demanded that Wynn-Williams work through a particularly problematic pregnancy and maternity leave, assaulted her with sexually charged comments and behaviors, and constantly dismissed her concerns.
While these three executives stood out in the book, Wynn-William’s tell-all demonstrates how personality, culture, and values can change dramatically when power and profits enter the mix. In addition to stories of personal degradation, she also exposed Facebook’s ugly role in politics. For example, during the Trump administration, Facebook helped the Trump campaign target potential voters and feed them “misinformation, inflammatory posts, and fund-raising messages.” They didn’t stop with domestic politics. In Myanmar, Facebook used it influence to propagate lies and incite genocide against the minority Rohingya ethnic group. In China, they helped the Communist Party enhance its surveillance capabilities. The book raises questions not only about the abuses of power and technology, but also about how careless people can become when greed consumes them. When confronted with ethical concerns and real safety issues for the customers, the response becomes, Who cares?
In the book, Who is Government, Michael Lewis features essays on the critical work of often maligned, dedicated experts in the US government. For example, he tells the story of when the US Government formed the Bureau of Mining Safety with the intention of creating safer working conditions for people who were risking their lives to produce the coal to power a rapidly industrializing country. He shares how one person, Christopher Mark, followed his passion for several years, digging into the details of mine safety, so that fewer people would have to be dug out of the mines that collapsed on them. His efforts resulted in saving thousands of lives. Now, of course, many of those experts are being summarily dismissed to achieve relatively meager cost savings.
The book goes on to highlight the contributions of hundreds of federal employees who have devoted their lives to specific issues because they cared deeply about them. It includes stories of cybercrime specialists at the IRS who have been cavalierly cut in the DOGE purge as well as experts on the Consumer Price index, historians at the National Archives, medical experts at CDC, FDA, and NIH, scientists in nuclear waste and food safety, and meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Lewis and his co-authors reveal the threats to essential government functions and emphasizes the importance of public service. And what was Elon Musk’s response when criticized for making arbitrary cuts to critical services? Who cares?
Finally, in the book, Bad Company, Megan Greenwell documents how communities suffer when private-equity profiteers prevail. Greenwell scrutinizes a poorly understood sector of the economy that makes life more precarious for many Americans. Private equity firms own hundreds of hospitals and newspapers, supermarket chains, countless smaller companies, and “the rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums.” Yet the industry has vigorously avoided any transparency, spending tens of millions of dollars to elect lawmakers who protect its bountiful tax breaks and enable its ruthless profit-making maneuvers. Greenwell spotlights four people whose lives were adversely affected by private equity—a doctor, a retail worker, a journalist, and an affordable housing advocate and carefully demonstrates the human cost of an industry playbook that prizes cutting workers, slashing services, and raising prices. While these PE firms minimize their own risks, they impose untenable risks on their acquired companies. As a result, vital hospitals and popular stores close or are driven into bankruptcy, and many people lose jobs. And the response one might expect from PE titans when asked about the companies they destroyed and the people whose lives were upended or ruined? Who cares?
In our constitution, our founders had a vision of freedom, justice, liberty, and equality for all. I believe they cared about those values, even though many of the authors were living lives that clearly violated them.
In a recent conversation with my daughter, we were discussing an interview with Tom Homes, the border czar. Ironically, we were both unsettled by how well he answered the questions posed by Natalie Kitroeff, a NYT journalist. Essentially, he responded to her hard and challenging questions with compelling answers that masked the draconian practices and cruel culture demanded by his boss and implemented by his agents. If you didn’t know the facts behind the narratives, you might conclude: he’s simply following orders and upholding the law. With over 40 years of experience, Homans presented a credible response to a complex issue, i.e. how to secure the border AND adhere to values of fairness and equity. To me, what the administration has done with its mass deportation policy is extend the categorization of people of color to people of difference. If you aren’t a white, straight, Native-born, Christian we don’t want you. And what is the Trump administration’s response to questions about due process, civil rights, basic decency, and our stated values? Who cares?
Look, I get it. We need to protect the border; we need to reduce the national debt, inflation and the associated cost of living; we need to enforce laws; we need to improve governmental efficiency; we need to implore European countries to increase their defense budgets; we need to contain China, and we can’t allow Iran to possess a nuclear bomb. I have no problem with WHAT needs to be done. I even agree that Israel and the US may have needed to exert military force to reduce the threat of Iranian terrorism.
What I don’t agree with is WHY we are implementing these policies and HOW we are implementing them. Specifically, is the purpose of our actions driven by power and profits or by the vision we have of ourselves as a country? Is the way we are implementing these policies aligned with the universal values of interconnectedness, interdependence and interrelatedness; or by greed, grift, and aggrandizement? WHAT needs to be aligned with WHY and HOW to have any enduring effect. And, while military force may be necessary at times, it is never sufficient to solve a problem.
Here’s what too many people don’t seem to get. The Trump administration is driven to achieve ideological dominance through a strategy of psychological performances. If a particularly heinous policy decision doesn’t fly (e.g. sending the National Guard and marines to Los Angeles), they simply create a new headline from a middle-of-the-night tweet (e.g. we have completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability). It doesn’t matter if there is any truth behind their headlines, it keeps people distracted from all the evil being perpetrated – the Big Beautiful Budget bill is a perfect example of that. Also, it is no surprise that Trump claimed that NATO’s commitment to increase their allocations to defense to 5% of GDP by 2035 was a “monumental win” which could have never happened without him, when the truth is that his lack of support for Ukraine was the primary factor in that decision. NATO can no longer assume that they have US support if a member country is attacked.
Numbers matter. Facts matter. Truth matters. In the stories above and in this administration, they don’t appear to. But they should.
Here are some numbers I care about.
There are 8 billion people on our planet.
There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy.
There are 100 billion galaxies in our universe
Our earth has existed for 4 billion years
Homo Sapiens have only inhabited the earth for 300,000 years
To me, those facts are important because we are all interconnected and we live in an infinitely large and continually expanding universe. There is a reason the infinity symbol (∞) represents endlessness. It also carries spiritual and philosophical meanings connected to the idea of harmony in the universe. The symbol design, resembling a sideways figure eight, visually balances opposing forces such as light and darkness, masculine and feminine, soft and hard. It represents the possibility of limitless potential and universal wisdom.
A few more facts:
Almost 50% of Los Angeles is Latino
75% of Latinx have lived there 10 years or more.
Only 10% of deported immigrants have committed violent crimes.
Illegal immigrants have a homicide conviction rate of 2.4/100,000 – lower than the 2.8/100,000 for native-born Americans
To me, those facts are important because we are all interdependent and live in a world populated by people with endless differences: neurological differences, sexual differences, ethnic differences, personality differences, etc. Each of us is different is our own way. To use country of origin, color of skin and class of working as reasons for mass deportation seems to me extremely self-defeating and careless. Just as we need to control our borders and enforce the law, we also need to value difference, care about human dignity and the ways we define justice.
Further Facts:
About 10% of people are lesbian, gay, or bi-sexual.
Less than 1% of people identify as Transgender
There are only about 10 trans-athletes competing at the college level
I believe those facts are important because we are all inter-related. We are assigned a sex at birth based on biological realities – we either have a penis or a vagina. As we grow older we form identities at some point on the gender continuum. For many people that identification changes over time – gender identities can be fluid. Also, as we grow older, our sexual orientation may change. We may feel mildly or strongly attracted to men at one point or we may feel mildly or strongly attracted to women. Or, of course, we may we completely straight – only attracted to one sex for our whole lives. Contrary to the other issues I have raised in this post, I say, “Who Cares?” In this case, it seems to me, to take any other position is very careless.
The point is that when people don’t care about the numbers, facts, and truth they get careless with their words and actions. For example, while humanitarian aid accounts for only .2% of GDP and yields enormous returns in soft power, Elon Musk obliterated it. In this case, obliteration is an accurate representation not only of the impact on the agency, but also on millions of lives throughout the world. There are some things we should care about and some things we would be better off not caring about.
Final Facts:
38% of voters approve of Trump
27% of voters approve of the Democratic Party.
These two facts are extremely important for two very important reasons: One, 38% of the voters don’t care about Trump’s carelessness because they agree with WHAT he is doing. Maybe they should care, but they don’t. Two, only 27% of voters approve of the Democratic Party because they are not inspired by the vision; they believe that Democratic leaders care more about fringe issues than they do about cost of living, law and order, and immigration; they don’t get shit done; and they are tired of being condemned for the way they think, relate, and speak. Mamdani’s surprising win in the NYC mayoral primary makes one point crystal clear: people want affordability and humility. And they don’t care about different skin color, a different religion, or a different approach.
So to answer the question this post poses: Who Cares? Fortunately, I know a lot of people who do care. For starters, my family and friends, and fellow farmers at Maple Bay Garden where we grow tons of healthy food and give it to food pantries. Also, I am lucky enough to work with lots of volunteers and nonprofit leaders and staff who spend endless hours trying to create healthy, innovative, and trustworthy organizations. I’m sure you could say the same. There are people who care.
In summary, when we cling fiercely to the values of independence, isolationism, ideology, and ego-centricity, we are vulnerable to acting carelessly. When we align our actions with the belief that we are all interconnected, interdependent, and inter-related, we tend to take more care with our words, our decisions, and our actions.
I wish we would start caring about the things we should care about and quit caring about the things that shouldn’t matter. I wish we would give careful consideration to the WHY and HOW before we embark on whatever WHAT. May it be so.
Excellent my friend! Thank you!