All Against All
Last Thursday (March 30, 2023), Fortune published a long-form academic article that argued Stakhanovism (an ideology connected to the mass cultural movement surrounding Alexei Stakhanov, a long-forgotten Soviet coal miner once featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1935) continues to thrive today through essentially the same jargon originally used by the Stalinists. Three days later (Sunday April 2, 2023), HBO aired a new episode of Succession, its provocative and award-winning dramedy about the media, money, power, and politics. The show’s iron-fisted patriarch of a highly dysfunctional dynasty (and fictional global media conglomerate) made an impromptu visit to one of his television news networks and, as the aging founder wandered through the bustling news writers’ bullpen, he observed aloud that there are ‘f—ing Stakhanovites in here’ before he delivered a impassioned speech letting his workers know that their hard work would pay off because they would soon rule the news world.
