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Digital News Media
2019 TYT Network & The Young Turks
Digital News Media ... 2019 TYT Network & The Young Turks ... December 10, 2019
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Hey TYT Fans,
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen has long been a stalwart advocate for progressive causes and a living example of a mold-breaking business leader promoting responsible business practices. So we at TYT were delighted to be invited to hear Cohen’s plenary session at the recent Social Venture Circle’s 2019 Conference in Berkeley, California. The SVC brings progressive-minded business leaders and investors together to promote business practices that are “regenerative, equitable and prosperous for all.” Not only were we excited to hear what Ben had to say, but at his presentations there’s always the chance of free ice cream.
A Different Kind of Business
After detailing the many inequities that have long plagued American society, in particular the injustices faced by African-Americans, Native Americans and other minority groups, Cohen said that in 1987 he and a small group of other business leaders began to dream about a different societal path, driven by socially-conscious employers.
“Essentially the dream was justice,” he said. “Could it be possible that business, money, finance - the very things that have produced and financed injustice, the very things that have degraded the environment, that have profited off war, that have exploited workers and forced them to work for poverty wages - could it be possible that investors, business owners could use their powers to not only do no harm but to be reparative?”
At the time the idea was virtually unheard of, and no one else was asking this question. Cohen talks about visiting one bookstore after another looking for books offering advice on socially-conscious business practices, but he found none. Yet he remained determined in his belief that the, quote, “hippie values of peace and love” could be integrated into for-profit business.
Centering Values
The key, he says he’s learned in the intervening 32 years, is that these values have to be central to the organization's identity, and not just an afterthought or reflected in a few percentage points of net profits donate to “good causes.”
“You can't tack them on,” he says. “You can't check the box. Values and justice must be integrated, they must be the heart and soul. Intention counts. There's a spiritual aspect of business, just as there is to the lives of individuals. As you give, you receive. As you help others, you are helped in return. As your business supports the community, the community supports your business.”
One side benefit Cohen notes - unlike businesses that surreptitiously lobby and try to hide campaign contributions to promote their interests at the expense of consumers or the environment, socially conscious businesses can openly live their values and tout the work they do and even add messages of advocacy into promotional and advertising efforts.
MLK Values
Cohen next played a video of Martin Luther King Jr. famous 1967 speech with the lines, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death” and “America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values.”
With these ideas at the forefront, Cohen closes by suggesting that in the upcoming presidential election there is one candidate who embodies the “revolution of values” MLK talked about, who will provide every American with healthcare and affordable college education, who will stand against war and warmongering, will support immigrants and roll back the carceral state and who will mobilize the nation and the world to combat climate change. That candidate, he says, much like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, comes from Vermont and is named Bernie Sanders.
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