The End of the American Dream

As described by Kurt Anderson, we've been living in the 80s for close to thirty years. We've taken a childlike approach to life, where we celebrate and party, turning a blind eye to the problems and crisis related to economic shifts. And, like a child, when things don't work they way we want, we throw a tantrum - an eloquent allusion to the town halls being held all across our country. The massive wealth and splendor of our country is an anomaly in our history, and an anomaly in the historical context of the world, and the old growth of massive industry is blocking the ability for the new growth to grow and sustain. This message of new growth/old growth is one that was repeated at SXSW last March by Stephen Berlin Johnson, in his talk "Old Growth Media And The Future of News" - where he spoke in the context not of the car companies or banks, but in relationship to the old publishing models and methods of content distribution. In both cases, the call is for a return to the amateurs, and to those who are new to things, and who embrace and celebrate the newness of a first time, rather than avoiding the anxiety and humility of lack of experience. Kurt's closing point was apt: he urged the audience to "Re-imagine yourself as a beginner, to climb out of the holes in which we find ourselves".

As an introduction to speaker John Fetterman, Andrew Zolli - host of poptech - said "We have to pay attention to the bottom of our own pyramid." His point is dead, dead on. John Fetterman's description of Braddock, PA, was upsetting not in a scale comparable to the atrocities we might associate with a third world country, but simply in the existence of such a crisis in our own, insulated land of American dreams and possibilities. Fetterman is the mayor of Braddock, a city in the land of the free and home of the brave. The city was a thriving Steel town that has now shrunk to a state where the median home price is $5,200. The scale of financial devastation has left families in a state similar to the refugees of Katrina, but without a financially solvent government and without the tools to help themselves. Quite literally from the ground up, Fetterman is attempting to rebuild the city, but with blow after blow against him. He spoke of UPMC announcing the closing the large hospital in the area last week, removing 600 of the few jobs that remain in the area.

Willie Smits presented an argument for an intellectually deep understanding of sustainability causality, as he referenced and demonstrated software he has developed intended to model specific sustainability actions (such as planting a new forest), and illustrate the long term carbon benefits of a discrete action. His work, primarily focused on sugar palm trees, indicates both the depth of knowledge required to make sense of the convoluted environmental and sustainable landscape confronting us, and also the necessity for us to embrace and understand the long now.

This, of all themes, is the one I've embraced the most from the conference thus far. All speakers today wove together a thread of time and behavior, and the critical role of ignoring and rejecting the short term demands and rewards in favor of a longer, patient, introspective and retrospective outlook. This is true in the environment, and in the stock market, and even in the art and design work presented by Gideon Obarzanek and Reuben Margolin. We've spent, according to Kurt Anderson, the last thirty years living too quickly. It's time to be contemplative, intellectual, and calculated. It's time to slow the fuck down.