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The Federalist Diaries
Are
We Going to Lose This One?, Part 8
Libertarian
ideologues and moneygrubbers stand aside. Make room for the people.
Statement
of August 19, 2008, by Don McCanne,
retired
physician and an advocate on behalf of Physicians for a National Health
Program, an organization of fourteen thousand American physicians advocating
for single-payer national health insurance.
Let us end this essay on
an optimistic note. Do you share
the writer’s optimism?
Andy:
“As an über-blogger, Seth
Godin gets a special hyperbole permit not available to the rest of us. But
I totally agree. We are exiting the consumption era, where people defined
themselves by what they consumed (and took whatever job would pay for it)
and entering the era of culture making, where people define themselves by
what they contribute to the world. And, by the way, we don't have to
"imagine" what would happen if 5,000 investment bankers were to
put their talents to doing something else . . . the long-overdue Great
Deleveraging will ensure that happens. Not without pain, to be sure, but
I, like Seth, am hopeful.”
Perhaps
we’re on the verge at getting much better at making useful things,
spreading ideas that matter and helping people, and not quite so good at
leveraging capital for financial institutions. Imagine what would happen if
5,000 investment bankers or 500 M & A lawyers put their talents to work
doing something else…
As
I look through all the notes and applications I received for the program
I’m running next year, I’m not just optimistic. I’m thrilled. There
must be hundreds of thousands of movers and shakers out there, people of all
ages who are smart and get things done. And more and more, they’re being
motivated by the quest, or the outcome, or the people they work with, not
just the cash payout. It’s exciting beyond words. The ten people I’ve
chosen are just astonishing, each and every one of them.
If
you can’t find people like these, you’re not looking in the right
places. And if you can’t figure out how to work with them, you’re
missing out.
http://www.culture-making.com/post/not_just_optimistic/
December 25, 2008
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