If you want inspiration for this moment in time I have two recommendations: watch Babylon Berlin and read the Foundation Trilogy. They are roadmaps for living a moral life in a time of profound regression.
I am approaching this moment with the clarity that comes from recognizing that one has failed. Over a decade ago I started calling for dramatic changes to how we organize society. I gave talks, wrote blog posts and even published a book.
But I didn't make a dent. Instead, the existing societal machinery carried on. I knew all too well that it was falling apart. And yet I had hopes that it could be fixed.
The old order was clearly decaying. The rule of law had been undermined for years. Jack Welsh and his acolytes broke the economy. Private equity raided industries for short term financial gain. Everything got financialized. Government grew ever more bloated and ineffective. Well-meaning laws were weaponized to prevent anything from being built.
Major problems weren't being addressed. Income and wealth inequality exploded. Atmospheric carbon skyrocketed. Infrastructure decayed. The misguided war on terror consumed immense resources and eroded civil liberties. To keep the public pacified gambling was allowed to grow boundless.
I kept arguing for an enlightened turn. For addressing our myriad problems head on all the while not giving up on core principles of democracy and rule of law. But I failed to build a sufficient audience or momentum for my ideas.
If you want inspiration for this moment in time I have two recommendations: watch Babylon Berlin and read the Foundation Trilogy. They are roadmaps for living a moral life in a time of profound regression.
I am approaching this moment with the clarity that comes from recognizing that one has failed. Over a decade ago I started calling for dramatic changes to how we organize society. I gave talks, wrote blog posts and even published a book.
But I didn't make a dent. Instead, the existing societal machinery carried on. I knew all too well that it was falling apart. And yet I had hopes that it could be fixed.
The old order was clearly decaying. The rule of law had been undermined for years. Jack Welsh and his acolytes broke the economy. Private equity raided industries for short term financial gain. Everything got financialized. Government grew ever more bloated and ineffective. Well-meaning laws were weaponized to prevent anything from being built.
Major problems weren't being addressed. Income and wealth inequality exploded. Atmospheric carbon skyrocketed. Infrastructure decayed. The misguided war on terror consumed immense resources and eroded civil liberties. To keep the public pacified gambling was allowed to grow boundless.
I kept arguing for an enlightened turn. For addressing our myriad problems head on all the while not giving up on core principles of democracy and rule of law. But I failed to build a sufficient audience or momentum for my ideas.
And in the meantime the forces that were willing to support a “blow it all up” approach kept growing. No principles. Oblivious to grift and corruption. Anything in the name of accelerating change. Might makes right. Along with so much else this is an echo of a century ago when futurism supported fascism. As Marx so brilliantly put it: history repeats, first as tragedy then as farce. We are getting the farcical version, but it is no less destructive.
So what now? There are two essential tasks at hand now.
The first task is to keep the bad from becoming extremely bad. To slow down the descent into madness. To create time for individuals, families, communities and even nations to prepare for what’s coming. The two approaches that I am partial to here are using what’s left of the old system as well as peaceful protest. Leveraging state and local powers and courts as long as they can assert themselves independently. And providing a surface for government overreach and brutality.
To be clear up front: this will be an incredibly frustrating and costly process demanding great individual sacrifice. In Babylon Berlin, Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter never stop pursuing justice even as the Weimar Republic crumbles around them. Many heroic acts of trying to uphold order, ultimately overwhelmed by the rise of evil. Another historic lesson is to anticipate the eventual use of “agent provocateur” tactics.
Now maybe the United States has a stronger immune system so another reason to apply effort to this task is that it might just succeed here.
The second task is to invent what can come after the madness. This requires taking a long view. Establishing principles. Building a movement. Gathering strength. All while avoiding or surviving attacks from the agents of chaos. The traps along this task are a great many and unfortunately we don’t have the benefit of a Hari Seldon who has set all of this in motion for us already. Still we can take inspiration from the Foundation series. A movement that will be long term successful would do well to embrace the core principle that ultimately knowledge does underpin power.
A key challenge on this task will simply be to keep at it as the unfolding regression could last for generations. This is what I am committing myself to. I will continue to develop the ideas from The World After Capital and my blog. If I have one true strength,it is tenacity. Far from abandoning the quest for a “Knowledge Age,” now is the time to double down. That is exactly what Gigi and I are doing with our projects in the Hudson Valley, such as HudsonUp, The Spark of Hudson, Hudson Dots and Wally Farms.
Whatever we do, let’s not succumb to opportunism or worse become an active promoter of chaos and destruction. Instead let’s apply ourselves to one or both of these tasks. We need to buy as much time as possible and keep the regression as small as possible – all the while we are actively building a new and better world.
And in the meantime the forces that were willing to support a “blow it all up” approach kept growing. No principles. Oblivious to grift and corruption. Anything in the name of accelerating change. Might makes right. Along with so much else this is an echo of a century ago when futurism supported fascism. As Marx so brilliantly put it: history repeats, first as tragedy then as farce. We are getting the farcical version, but it is no less destructive.
So what now? There are two essential tasks at hand now.
The first task is to keep the bad from becoming extremely bad. To slow down the descent into madness. To create time for individuals, families, communities and even nations to prepare for what’s coming. The two approaches that I am partial to here are using what’s left of the old system as well as peaceful protest. Leveraging state and local powers and courts as long as they can assert themselves independently. And providing a surface for government overreach and brutality.
To be clear up front: this will be an incredibly frustrating and costly process demanding great individual sacrifice. In Babylon Berlin, Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter never stop pursuing justice even as the Weimar Republic crumbles around them. Many heroic acts of trying to uphold order, ultimately overwhelmed by the rise of evil. Another historic lesson is to anticipate the eventual use of “agent provocateur” tactics.
Now maybe the United States has a stronger immune system so another reason to apply effort to this task is that it might just succeed here.
The second task is to invent what can come after the madness. This requires taking a long view. Establishing principles. Building a movement. Gathering strength. All while avoiding or surviving attacks from the agents of chaos. The traps along this task are a great many and unfortunately we don’t have the benefit of a Hari Seldon who has set all of this in motion for us already. Still we can take inspiration from the Foundation series. A movement that will be long term successful would do well to embrace the core principle that ultimately knowledge does underpin power.
A key challenge on this task will simply be to keep at it as the unfolding regression could last for generations. This is what I am committing myself to. I will continue to develop the ideas from The World After Capital and my blog. If I have one true strength,it is tenacity. Far from abandoning the quest for a “Knowledge Age,” now is the time to double down. That is exactly what Gigi and I are doing with our projects in the Hudson Valley, such as HudsonUp, The Spark of Hudson, Hudson Dots and Wally Farms.
Whatever we do, let’s not succumb to opportunism or worse become an active promoter of chaos and destruction. Instead let’s apply ourselves to one or both of these tasks. We need to buy as much time as possible and keep the regression as small as possible – all the while we are actively building a new and better world.
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Blog post: What Now? https://continuations.com/what-now-slow-down-the-worst-and-build-the-new
Appreciate you consistently being one of the only top VCs speaking up!