Why do American cities feel less "alive" than their European counterparts?
It's because of something called the "missing middle".
A century ago, American cities looked completely different... (thread) 🧵
negative ambition
- i will make more than this guy
- i will prove the world wrong
- if i am not rich then i am worthless
- zero sum
- scarcity coded
positive ambition
- there is enough pie for everyone
- i want to build wealth to enjoy life
- i can have peace right now
- i want to play games that excite me
- i want to serve my loved ones
- abundance is default
RIGHT NOW in 2011, U.S. Navy SEALs storm an Al Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and kill Osama bin Laden. The SEALs report bin Laden's death with the code: "For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo." Visuals are streamed live to the White House situation room.
The American literary elite has a thing for lowbrow perversion of European origin which is what explains its devotion to Lolita. Higbrow perversion like Bataille's, on the other hand, is beyond its intellectual grasp.
In the mid-20th century, US science fiction was one of the most inspiring arts. We believed we could achieve great things — and we did!
Today, the opposite is largely true: futuristic work tends towards dystopian, and in real life, govt & media mock and attack our greatest innovators.
Culture matters. What you believe and work toward tends to bring about that reality.
No matter your political views: there's no reason we can't achieve an astonishingly brighter future! Let's embrace a positive vision, and support our best & brightest to work toward it.
With American Optimist 2024, we hope to be a small part of helping to change the narrative.
"Education is not memorizing that Hitler killed six million Jews.
Education is understanding how millions of ordinary Germans were convinced that it was required.
Education is learning how to spot the signs of history repeating itself."
~Noam Chomsky
Any TV playing this kind of package after IK & Bushra Bibi convictions in Toshakhana case?
Just a reminder that never gloat and glorify, never vilify and never be arrogant
What a squeamish, obsequious twit this man is. Taking the politics out of education, research and learning to avoid controversy is like taking the air out of a car's tires to avoid getting a puncture.