Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
The shining city on a hill was supposed to replace remote big government with a community of energetic and compassionate citizens, all engaged in a project of national renewal. But nothing held the city together. It was hollow at the center, a collection of individuals all wanting more. Free America measured civic health by gross domestic product.
... See moreGeorge Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
The social foundation of this era was an urban industrial working class. That class comprised many migrants from Ireland and southern and eastern Europe, or their children and grandchildren, and southern whites who were struck by the Depression but actually had never recovered from the Civil War. They were either already organized or organizing int
... See moreGeorge Friedman • The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
THE POLITICS of the cold war and the
Elaine Tyler May • Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
- There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first, the Orwellian culture becomes a prison. In the second, the Huxleyan culture becomes a burlesque.
- What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countena
Notes On Amusing Ourselves To Death
The postindustrial era has concentrated political and economic power in just a few hands and denied ordinary people control of their own lives. Overwhelmed by unfathomably large forces, Americans can no longer think and act as fellow citizens. We look for answers in private panaceas, fixed ideas, group identities, dreams of the future and the past,
... See moreGeorge Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
The same shadow is spreading today. According to one global institute (Freedom House), the share of the world’s population not living in “free” nations has expanded over the last decade from 55 percent to 80 percent.
Neil Howe • The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End
They were no longer bound to the home.
Elaine Tyler May • Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
But it was pop star Pat Boone who stole the show that night, closing with an impromptu address that Reagan would recall years later: “I would rather see my four girls shot and die as little girls who have faith in God than leave them to die some years later as godless, faithless, soulless Communists,” Boone asserted. His audience was thrilled, even
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