“Arguments that shift blame from powerful producers to “human nature” or “all of us” are useful in distributing responsibility.”
Here’s a welcome addition on the growing scourge of corporate hooliganism & extinction advocacy by newcomer Jennifer Jacquet. She joins a frontline vanguard of women authors & investigators who seem to be leading on the subject – providing the majority of the most numerous, proactive & bold contributions on this exceptional menace (Nancy Maclean, Sarah Chayes, Jane Mayer, Vandana Shiva, Louise I. Shelley, Carey Gillam, Arundhati Roy, Andrea Bernstein, Sara Posner, Witney Webb to name some extraordinary heavyweights in the field).
The Play Book’s strategy is quite novel. Eager to expand or elaborate on the territory with new formula or techniques, Jacquet has opted to use what she describes as “epistolary nonfiction”.
The book is presented as a series of missives from the perspective of the corporation & reads more like advise from a “paid consultant” or insider veteran.
It is a novel approach & can be very revealing & exemplary of the kind exponential falsification, subterfuge, cant, miscuing, mendacity & extreme casuistry that is deployed by this grievous behemoth – particularly on the nature of conspiracy & premeditation that regularly strays into criminal conduct.
“U.S. newspapers reprinted industry-backed messages opposing action on climate change around twice as often as messages from other sources that encourage climate action, showing not only the importance of press releases but also that the fossil fuel industry has a number of surreptitious allies in the media.”
Alternative angles, enhanced narratives & simplification are all entirely honourable grounds in encouraging further urgency & action against this mass murdering multinational terroriser & its protective clothing & political abettors.
I however don’t feel that The Play Book has the same strength, clarity & penetration as Thieves of State, Dark Money or Democracy in Chains etc, there is a scantness of sorts & something insubstantial about the precision or depth & the information imparted.
Then again, maybe I am missing the prevailing purpose, which is to fully bare the utter, intentional untruth, exigent sophistry & ardent mass-defrauding that is at the heart of this lying, corrupt, corporate killer?
In no way would I dismiss or attempt to devalue the book & it’s research, it is both brilliant & necessary.
Others may also feel that it captures the fuel behind this apocalyptic threat more accurately.
Irrespective, it is another welcome addition to the defensive floor, & is further succour in the fight against corporately assisted armageddon & the fast-exacerbating ravages of business conduced dystopia.
“I’ve been a reporter for a long time, covering wars, the CIA, presidencies and a lot of very powerful organisations. But the Kochs [David and Charles] are the only people I’ve ever covered who hired a private investigator to try to dig up dirt and plant untrue stories about me in order to hurt my reputation.” – Jane Mayer
Jennifer Jacquet, 2022, Allen Lane, 176 pages.