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Chapter 7
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Careless People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Carelessness, Wealth, and Greed
Idealism and the Failed Promises of Technology
Sexism in the Workplace
Bureaucracy and Obstacles to Change
Summary
Analysis
In October 2012, Facebook celebrates 1 billion users. But Wynn-Williams witnesses how for top management, this is a crisis time for Facebook as its stock price drops out of fear that it will be hard for the company to grow any larger. When the military junta in Myanmar joins other countries like North Korea and Cuba in blocking Facebook, senior management decides Myanmar has too many potential users to lose. Marne and Javi send Wynn-Williams to Myanmar.
This passage captures the contradictions of capitalism and how when Facebook is at its moment of greatest success, this is actually a cause for concern, because it means that future growth will be more difficult. Facebook’s decision on Myanmar is an early example of how Facebook is willing to bend ethics for the sake of growth.
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Wynn-Williams goes to the capital of Myanmar, a planned city called Nay Pyi Taw that surprises her with how orderly it is. She has registered to go to a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Myanmar. The older businessmen she meets at WEF tell her that Facebook is in the junta’s “bad books.” Wynn-Williams tries to find an excuse to meet up with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize–winning leader of Myanmar’s opposition party, by attending a luncheon in her honor. Despite competition, Wynn-Williams manages to get Aung San Suu Kyi’s attention.
Aung San Suu Kyi represents the type of person Wynn-Williams would have admired during her diplomatic career, someone who was able to make progress through traditional political means. Meeting Aung San Suu Kyi in this context and seeing how she is seemingly on the verge of bringing about dramatic change in Myanmar causes Wynn-Williams to momentarily question whether she made the right choice by transitioning over to the world of technology.
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Aung San Suu Kyi introduces Wynn-Williams to Shwe Mann, a man whose military appearance suggests that he’s part of the junta, although Aung San Suu Kyi explains that she is trying to collaborate with him in the upcoming election. Shwe Mann, who doesn’t speak much English, is amazed to learn that Wynn-Williams is from Facebook.
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Wynn-Williams goes back to her hotel, where there is no Wi-Fi. Struggling get around without any internet or knowledge of Burmese, she eventually makes it to the government ministry. The receptionist makes Wynn-Williams wait for a long time, and she fears the junta might be angry about her connection to Facebook. But when two men finally come out to meet her, they seem more amused by her presence.
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The men explain the issue to Wynn-Williams. Right now, due to high prices and regulations, only about 1 percent of Myanmar’s population has internet, but almost all of them are on Facebook. The men worry that people on Facebook are using it to stoke ethnic tensions and opposition to the junta. Wynn-Williams tries to convince them to contact Facebook directly before turning it off. Over the course of more meetings, Wynn-Williams gets them to agree to turn back on Facebook, but there’s no guarantee it will stay up.
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When Wynn-Williams gets back to her hotel, she gets a call in her room from Tom, who is worried since her phone hasn’t been working. He is more worried than he’s been before, and Wynn-Williams thinks it is in part because she recently found out she was pregnant, but she hasn’t told any of her Facebook bosses yet.
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