What Went Right
For the final installment of the Edgy Optimist for 2024, I first want to thank all of you for reading and engaging, and especially for those who took the time to write and comment and disagree. These pieces are meant to spur a conversation about who we are, what we are, and how we can do our collective best to steer ourselves into a future of our hopes and dreams and not of our fears. And one vital ingredient of that is the willingness to see and acknowledge and build on the best of who we are as people, as communities, as states and as nations and as humankind. If we can’t recognize and honor what is good in the present, the maw of despair opens ever wider about the bleak prospects of the future.
I have tried and will continue to try to infuse a sensibility into these discussions, one of openness to what is positive and to the upside potential in what most see as a downside. I expect that as we enter Trumplandia Part Deux that will be essential. I expect as well that it will be controversial, not because I crave controversy but because the very act of looking at what is going right or being willing to examine what is positive in the midst of a sea of negativity has become laden. It used to be that a subversive act was to stand against the harsh edifice of self-serving consensus. That meant challenging religious pieties, artistic sensibilities or political orthodoxies. Today, in a world full of rage and anger and dark rumblings, being optimistic – focusing on the boundless potential of silver linings and the better angels of our nature – is subversive.
In the months ahead, I plan to start more conversations with you, with Substack Chats and videos and whatever else springs up. If you are reading for free, welcome. If you wish to subscribe and pay, thank you, and know that it goes to help the work of The Progress Network. Either way, the more we are culturally drawn into a vortex of anger and gloom, the harder it will be to avoid the trap of the self-fulfilling prophecy. That is the challenge for the year ahead, for Americans in the age of Trump, for the EU in the face of a social compact that is fraying because of demographics and immigration and war, for the world as a whole in the face of China and America at odds and their peoples everywhere demanding more than their elites and governments have delivered. And on that note, I’m attaching my year-end round-up of What Went Right for The Wall Street Street Journal that highlights the vibrancy of democracy in 2024 and promise of medical breakthroughs and social media rethinks and economic stability.
And on that note as well, I wish all of you a New Year of hope, not blind to all of the problems but stronger than any of them.
Much has been written recently about half the country feeling optimistic while the other half is pessimistic or even in resistance mode. The fact is that we all face the same extremely serious challenges, and at least some degree of bipartisan support is required for durable solutions. Examples? We have to bring Federal spending in line with revenues, otherwise your grandchildren will exist at a fraction of your living standard. We all agree we need a coherent, enforceable immigration reform - let’s get to it. We all know Americans are historically unhealthy, both mentally and physically. This is not a red/ blue issue. Maintaining the solvency of Social Security is a fundamental pact between our government and its people. It’s easy, it just requires political will. So listen. The election is over. Put your partisan politics on the shelf for a while. Let’s pull together and move the country forward.
I've printed this excerpt out and left it next to my computer: " It used to be that a subversive act was to stand against the harsh edifice of self-serving consensus. That meant challenging religious pieties, artistic sensibilities or political orthodoxies. Today, in a world full of rage and anger and dark rumblings, being optimistic – focusing on the boundless potential of silver linings and the better angels of our nature – is subversive."