Week 8: You Get to Live—What More Do You Want?

Dear all,

For some time now, I have been hosting a podcast series, "One Step Ahead Radio." You can find it here. "One Step Ahead Radio & Podcast" by Lundquist & Beslik is a platform for discussing the latest sustainability and ESG topics. Weekly live shows air every Friday at 8:45 AM CET, featuring a podcast that shares real sustainability stories and business insights.

The series targets professionals in communication, sustainability, and finance. Last week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Ioannis Ioannou, Professor at London Business School and a recognized thought leader on corporate leadership and ESG integration. Ioannis discusses how sustainability leaders and ESG professionals can respond to the stark new context of early 2025 with “courage” and “pragmatism” and offers valuable advice on navigating the emerging business landscape.

You can find it here.

Which in a way leads into this context…

Any conversation, even the most relaxed one over a beer in a bar, eventually slides into a set of questions about where our world is heading. A sort of minor psychosis—perhaps that’s one way to describe it. People simply can’t escape the inception they are exposed to. Planted like a neurological parasite, emotional resignation clasps its bony fingers around our throats and breathes heavily into our frontal lobes.

What comes next? Are we heading for a big war? What happened to our values? Worry, mixed with isolation.

However, we choose to approach this, we must, above all, resist the feeling of being isolated and powerless. Inevitably, many retreat into the necessities of life, avoiding the storm beneath the surface—blindfolding themselves. And this is precisely what those creating this havoc desire: to control the narrative, demonstrate force, and subdue values.

You are alone. Isolated. Powerless. A pawn.

There is nothing you can do when the big bullies with guns rule the world. Countries can’t survive this—just look at Ukraine. Even unions of countries struggle—just look at the EU. If you’re lucky, you’ll be accepted as a passenger on the feudal train, paying your dues, keeping your head down in submission. But at least you’ll have a life.

Yes, it will be sold to you as efficiency, security, stability. Politicians will even convince you that they are negotiating with the lords and that small countries, after all, have little choice. One day, the lords will come and take part of your country as ransom for the security they themselves destroyed in the first place. And they will tell you this brings peace and prosperity.

You get to live—what more do you want?

You will be told that your rights, your values, your aspirations for a more diverse, inclusive, and just world are wrong. You will eventually realize that the “good guys” don’t win and that the subconscious notion of continuous human progress is a big, fat lie. There are only predators and prey.

Be sure of that.

You are a soldier in the machinery, heading for Mars—or God knows where. They know everything about you: who your friends are, what you eat, where you travel, whom you love or hate, what you buy, and what you dream of. Your phone, your laptop, your social media—it’s all in the hands of the lords.

And the machines they are creating? They will replace you. And they will tell you this, too, is progress.

Machines will talk, write, and tell stories. And who will own these machines? The lords. Who will help them develop these machines? You will. Every single word you give away, every single thought—processed, copied, multiplied into a thousand versions.

There is no more unique you. Your thoughts—the way you construct, forge, and express yourself—are no longer yours. The soul will belong to the machines.

And all of this is happening right now. In plain sight. Not concealed from us at all.

Some will feel there are few options left, that it’s better to keep the wheels turning and their heads down, hoping even this storm will pass. Some will think it’s over—for now. But this isn’t over. Not yet.

The future isn’t a straight road; it’s a tangled mess of possibilities. And we still have choices left to make. We can resist the pull of division. We can step away from the endless, mindless wars of words and start listening again. We can rebuild what was broken—not by shouting louder, but by finding the common ground we abandoned.

We need to start practicing what we preach.

Listening.

Truly understanding.

Questioning relentlessly.

Engaging in real conversations.

Never claiming to be right—only striving to find what is.

The past can’t be changed.

The present is bleak.

But the future?

The future is still unwritten.

Regardless of what they tell you.

Regardless of how much they want you to believe it doesn’t exist.