On Risk

Whence this ideal of entrepreneurship? Whence its mystique? The seducing quality of business is its riskiness. An entrepreneur who makes a risky investment is idealized like a fire fighter, a police officer and other action heroes. Risk is seductive. The naive adore it.

In capitalist societies, risk is taken for granted, but not questioned. But the fact that there is risk involved in business should clue us in that there is some fundamental controversy. Yet risk is so romanticized, so thoroughly tilled into the soil of our pioneer imaginary, that most of us do not question the reason for risk.

Why is business risky? Business is risky in capitalism because, directly or indirectly, it is an imposition, an injustice, or an exploitation. And exploitation is risky because, whether subtly or explicitly, it is built on the precarious submission, complacency, or ignorance of the exploited. The risk is of rebellion, upheaval and retaliation.

The risk, on the other hand, that is so often associated with resistance, often obscures the latent reality that resisting is the only dignified reaction to the risk inherent in exploitation, the risk taken by the exploiters at the expense of the exploited.