## Metadata - Author: [[Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro]] - Full Title: Power, for All - Category: #books ## Highlights - Deep and lasting development of empathy requires more than temporarily seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. It entails sustainably shifting from a focus on the self to an awareness and appreciation of interdependence. Psychologists think of this shift in terms of self-definition: People can view themselves as separate from and independent of others, or they can see themselves as connected to and interdependent with others. ([Location 617](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=617)) - Observed from afar, humanity is but a speck of dust in an endless universe, our position as inconsequential as it is fleeting. At the deepest level, what we humans long for are two defenses against this existential dilemma: first, protection from the whims of dangerous forces much greater than our own that could annihilate us in a moment; second, reassurance of our value as individuals in a universe that is indifferent to us. Ultimately, then, we aim to satisfy two basic human motives: safety from harm and confirmation that we are worthy of esteem. The need for safety and the need for self-esteem are so fundamental that they reliably shape power relationships across time and space. ([Location 758](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=758)) - People who have played the role of agitators, as many in the movement for marriage equality had, can struggle to pivot from raising public awareness and condemning those who uphold the status quo to broadening the coalition and uniting the different parts of the movement. The change in posture from an agitator’s “us vs. them” identity to an orchestrator’s stance as mediator and unifier is essential, ([Location 2208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2208)) - In 1492, the German abbot Johannes Trithemius wrote In Praise of Scribes to express his concern that the loss of handwritten transcription harmed the spiritual development of monks, because copying both occupied them and exposed them to constant learning, and to decry the inferior material and aesthetic quality of printed books. ([Location 2292](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2292)) - Social entrepreneur Greg Brodsky put it this way: “Technology has disrupted almost every part of the economy: the gig economy, gaming, shopping, and how to book hotels. But the one thing the technology sector has not been willing to touch is ownership itself. In some ways, the tech sector is just recreating the wealth inequality in every other part of the economy.” ([Location 2628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2628)) - Until quite recently, most director searches were conducted within the inner circle of the corporate elite, resulting in directors connected to one another, and to management, through direct and indirect channels.30 These interlocks were so strong that had a virus infected the Board of Chase Manhattan Bank in January 1999, it could have spread to 97 percent of the largest 600 public firms in the United States by May via their monthly Board meetings! ([Location 2817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2817)) - The average ratio of highest to lowest salary in U.S. corporations grew from 20-to-1 in 1965 to 320-to-1 by 2019. ([Location 2831](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2831)) - In August 2019, the Business Roundtable, whose membership includes the CEOs of most major U.S. corporations, issued a statement rejecting the primacy of shareholders in favor of creating value for their employees and stakeholders, including their customers, and society at large. But when it comes to accountability to these groups, as of a year later, at least, not much had changed. A study revealed that when COVID started spreading in the spring of 2020, companies that signed the Business Roundtable statement fired their employees 20 percent more than those that did not sign the statement.37 They were also less likely to donate to relief efforts, offer customer discounts, or shift production to pandemic-related goods. The takeaway is not surprising: If we leave it to those in power to change, they may change their discourse but rarely their behavior. ([Location 2842](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2842)) - Even with new accountability systems, though, concentration of power is hard to avoid if only shareholders are represented on Boards. Such excessive power imbalance between those who invest their financial capital (the shareholders) and those who invest their labor and intellect (the workers) is problematic, not only because it is unfair, but also because it leaves the power of shareholders unchecked.42 In a provocative statement, the philosopher Elizabeth Anderson suggests that “bosses are dictators, and workers are their subjects,” as they are not represented in the governance of their workplaces. ([Location 2859](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2859)) - 2021 was the fifteenth consecutive year in which democracy regressed globally. ([Location 2975](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2975)) - As historian Timothy Snyder reminds us, “The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions.” ([Location 2977](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2977)) - Often, it isn’t a sudden and violent coup that kills democracy, but the slow and steady erosion of rights and freedoms that opens the door to autocracy by habituating the public to their loss. ([Location 2979](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDY166W&location=2979))