The paradox of progress is that because there is no universal utopia — every utopia is built on someone’s back — there can be no universal progress, no absolute measure of it. Its relativism conceals a euphemism for moving the world in the direction of one’s own desires, relativism laced with myriad hypocrisies.
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive.
Author: Zadie Smith | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Here’s the thing, however, about radical change. It is, as our more numerate readers might say, a “high-variance strategy,” meaning that the range of possible outcomes is far wider than what we might expect from more incremental, within-the-system change.
Perhaps we nail the jackpot and manage to hit upon the political choices that really can create something meaningfully better out of a broken system. But … [ Read more ]
Author: Bryan Walsh | Sources: MSN, Vox | Subjects: Change, Concepts, History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Our peculiar history of racism has meant that every time it seems we are approaching equality before the law, those determined to prevent that equality have turned people against it by insisting that government protection of equality will cost tax dollars, thus amounting to a redistribution of wealth from those with property to those without. That is, if Black and Brown Americans, and poor people, … [ Read more ]
Author: Heather Cox Richardson | Subjects: America, History, International, Politics & Public Policy, Race Relations
Throughout our history, America has swung between the defense of equality outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the defense of private property outlined in the Constitution.
Author: Heather Cox Richardson | Subjects: America, History, International, Politics & Public Policy
The default setting in world history is authoritarianism. Freedom is a rare appearance on the historical map of the world, and requires extraordinary, extraordinary vigilance and effort to preserve it. And when I see leaders here or elsewhere moving toward authoritarianism, it sets off alarm bells. Because I do read history. The history of the world is strongmen lying to people, gaining power over them … [ Read more ]
Author: Mitt Romney | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: History, Politics & Public Policy
There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.
Author: Charlie Munger | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, History
By the 21st century it became clear that Americans were no longer disagreeing with one another; they didn’t even perceive the same reality. You began to hear commencement speakers declare that each person has to live according to his or her own truth. Critics talked about living in a post-truth society. [James Davison] Hunter talks about cultural exhaustion, a loss of faith, a rising nihilism … [ Read more ]
Author: David Brooks | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, Culture, History, International, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
James Davison Hunter… reminds us that a nation’s political life rests upon cultural foundations. Each society has its own way of seeing the world, its own basic assumptions about what is right and wrong, its own vision of a better world that gives national life direction and purpose. Culture is the ocean of symbols and stories in which we swim.
American culture, Hunter argues, was formed … [ Read more ]
Author: David Brooks | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, Culture, History, International, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
As business became the dominant motif in American life and as a vast material empire rose in the New World, business increasingly looked for legitimation in a purely material and internal criterion—the wealth it produced. American business, once defended on the ground that it produced a high standard of culture, was now defended mainly on the ground that it produced a high standard of living. … [ Read more ]
Author: Richard Hofstadter | Subjects: America, Business, History
Sometimes leaders, whether political or scientific, get so caught up in the momentum of history that they become a part of the machinery, of the history of the world, that they almost lose their agency in the process.
Author: Moshik Temkin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: History, Leadership, Politics & Public Policy
History is shaped by two types of minds: one that sees things in new and creative ways, and without traditional limitations; and one that sees things in the same, limited ways, as countless others have done in the past.
Author: Jeff Blum | Subjects: Change, Concepts, Creativity and Innovation, History
Larry Summers said that events are mostly negative and trends are mostly positive. Well, we [the news] cover events. If we want to be the first rough draft of history, it’s worthwhile to do a better job covering those positive trends.
Authors: Larry Summers, Nicholas D. Kristof | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, History, Journalism, Life & Society
The white man… came with two great weapons. One is the bible and the other was the gun. If he didn’t humble you with the bible, he crumbled you with the gun. And, he’s still praising the Lord and passing the ammunition, all across the world.
Author: Lewis H. Michaux | Subjects: History, Race Relations
The Habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All History will convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruits of experience, not the Lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the Heart, then those qualities which would otherways lay dormant, wake into … [ Read more ]
Author: Abigail Adams | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Personal Improvement
A revolution is any change that alters the power structure. This [Fourth Industrial Revolution] is not a revolution. It’s a reformation, because it bolsters the existing power structure. The rhetoric of revolution is a cover-up.
Author: Gianpiero Petriglieri | Subjects: Change, Concepts, History, Life & Society, Sociology | Anthropology
But people start to wonder if our politics make sense
When religion is our best excuse for national defense
And when our citizens start saying that our wars are not okay
And Washington keeps telling them God loves the USA
And they teach us history so we can learn from our mistakes
And this generation wants to know how many years it takes
To change … [ Read more ]
Author: Griffin House | Subjects: History, Military | War | Peace, Politics & Public Policy, Religion
It is difficult to think of any politician who has lived to be eighty and still been regarded as a success. What we call a ‘great’ statesman normally means one who dies before his policy has had time to take effect. If Cromwell had lived a few years longer he would probably have fallen from power, in which case we should now regard him as … [ Read more ]
Author: George Orwell | Subjects: History, Politics & Public Policy
We can think of history as a succession of rare big events in which a story goes viral, often (but not always) with the help of an attractive celebrity (even a minor celebrity or fictional stock figure) whose attachment to the narrative adds human interest.
Author: Robert J. Shiller | Source: strategy+business | Subject: History
The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.
Author: Eric Hoffer | Subject: History