Wonderful essay, thank you. It’s easy to be sad & discouraged, it looks like s lot of stuff is hapening that we say we don’t want, but it’s what there is to contend with in our time. I heard a metaphor I loved this week, about the stuff we all get to deal with. He said “ If you’ve ever done white water rafting, you know getting around the rocks is what makes it fun”
Such exalted company—you, Robert Reich, and Heather Lofthouse. Let’s hope “The Last Class Film” is the beginning of a new reckoning of what has value for mankind as a whole. Thank you all.
I am much cheered in these difficult times at the growing number and variety of folk using very different opportunities to speak thoughtfully about value & values. Thank you so much.
To me, at its heart, journalism is about speaking truth to power, and digging, sometimes painfully, for facts and useful information. Democracy dies without it, and the Last Post is played.
Your film, The Last Class, in collaboration with Heather Lofthouse, deserves accolades! Teaching is another form of speaking truth to power.
Thank you for bringing up ROI and the potential harms its misapplications are having on culture, art and the environment, sustainability and plastics pollution in particular. If we continue misapplying ROI as broadly as it currently is, by viewing our decisions through an immediate economic lens that ignores the adverse economic impacts on the externalities such as those you mention, we will not survive. Often in conversations when I raise the question about choosing more efficient HVAC or auto or solar roof, the immediate response is how the ROI doesn’t justify the efficiency or solar choice.
Outstanding analysis and summary. I'd love to think that a shift twds empathy, connection, and altruism will overcome the power of greed for most of us - including those who are ripping apart our communities and society in general. At 58, I don't know if my hope is even remotely realistic, but I'll hang on to that hope of seeing a shift to valuing humanity's common good over individual enrichment anyway
Success was the moment we took our first breath. It’s called life. When we recognize that it began then and will end when we take our last breath, then we will understand it’s about being, not doing.
Elliot asks the question how in this modern world of business metrics and formulas where almost everything is measured in monetary terms, productivity, return on investment, yield and profit to put a worth, a return, a value on an intangible - the public good and wellbeing. The answer is, in direct terms, it cannot be.
As he states - “But ultimately, the most powerful agents of change are those who channel the full measure of our humanity.
All of us have experience investing in ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, and even our country and the world, in ways that can’t be accounted for in dollars. We give love and hope, empathy and service. We do good deeds without any expected financial benefit—or even recognition.
Most of us do this because we understand that the most important returns are not measured by accumulated wealth or material goods.”
That is the true measurement in the progress of a civilization.
It seems that this nation has reaped huge political returns on very modest investments (basically, voting) for decades. More recently, we have come to take the accumulated benefits for granted, even as segments of society were plotting the withdrawal of those benefits for some long time. The opportunity came, the straw man was erected and now the edifice is being dismantled down to its foundation. It hasn't yet been completely dismantled; largely speaking, court orders are still being acknowledged, if begrudgingly. Can we survive 3 more years of this assault on our democratic institutions? I'm no soothsayer, but I like the growing emergence of a vocal opposition. It appears the fear of the autocrats is receding, even as the existential fear of eroded institutions is growing.
Great column Elliot. I wish our religious leaders and our “political leaders would read this and start talking about it from the pulpit. Continuing your them it’s way past time for an “accounting”
Meanwhile the Giants are losing but the game isn’t over yet so maybe my fervent wishes will get through to the players and the Giants will win. Even though this game is meaningless.
I feel the same way about the current government that maybe the Congressional Republicans will face Trump down on one significant thing and we will find a secure path to sanity.
Wonderful essay, thank you. It’s easy to be sad & discouraged, it looks like s lot of stuff is hapening that we say we don’t want, but it’s what there is to contend with in our time. I heard a metaphor I loved this week, about the stuff we all get to deal with. He said “ If you’ve ever done white water rafting, you know getting around the rocks is what makes it fun”
Such exalted company—you, Robert Reich, and Heather Lofthouse. Let’s hope “The Last Class Film” is the beginning of a new reckoning of what has value for mankind as a whole. Thank you all.
I am much cheered in these difficult times at the growing number and variety of folk using very different opportunities to speak thoughtfully about value & values. Thank you so much.
To me, at its heart, journalism is about speaking truth to power, and digging, sometimes painfully, for facts and useful information. Democracy dies without it, and the Last Post is played.
Your film, The Last Class, in collaboration with Heather Lofthouse, deserves accolades! Teaching is another form of speaking truth to power.
Excellent article. May all who read it be involved in a community that will make a difference to support our common lives together!
Thank you for bringing up ROI and the potential harms its misapplications are having on culture, art and the environment, sustainability and plastics pollution in particular. If we continue misapplying ROI as broadly as it currently is, by viewing our decisions through an immediate economic lens that ignores the adverse economic impacts on the externalities such as those you mention, we will not survive. Often in conversations when I raise the question about choosing more efficient HVAC or auto or solar roof, the immediate response is how the ROI doesn’t justify the efficiency or solar choice.
Outstanding analysis and summary. I'd love to think that a shift twds empathy, connection, and altruism will overcome the power of greed for most of us - including those who are ripping apart our communities and society in general. At 58, I don't know if my hope is even remotely realistic, but I'll hang on to that hope of seeing a shift to valuing humanity's common good over individual enrichment anyway
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Success was the moment we took our first breath. It’s called life. When we recognize that it began then and will end when we take our last breath, then we will understand it’s about being, not doing.
Elliot asks the question how in this modern world of business metrics and formulas where almost everything is measured in monetary terms, productivity, return on investment, yield and profit to put a worth, a return, a value on an intangible - the public good and wellbeing. The answer is, in direct terms, it cannot be.
As he states - “But ultimately, the most powerful agents of change are those who channel the full measure of our humanity.
All of us have experience investing in ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, and even our country and the world, in ways that can’t be accounted for in dollars. We give love and hope, empathy and service. We do good deeds without any expected financial benefit—or even recognition.
Most of us do this because we understand that the most important returns are not measured by accumulated wealth or material goods.”
That is the true measurement in the progress of a civilization.
Sometimes money costs too much.
It seems that this nation has reaped huge political returns on very modest investments (basically, voting) for decades. More recently, we have come to take the accumulated benefits for granted, even as segments of society were plotting the withdrawal of those benefits for some long time. The opportunity came, the straw man was erected and now the edifice is being dismantled down to its foundation. It hasn't yet been completely dismantled; largely speaking, court orders are still being acknowledged, if begrudgingly. Can we survive 3 more years of this assault on our democratic institutions? I'm no soothsayer, but I like the growing emergence of a vocal opposition. It appears the fear of the autocrats is receding, even as the existential fear of eroded institutions is growing.
Great column Elliot. I wish our religious leaders and our “political leaders would read this and start talking about it from the pulpit. Continuing your them it’s way past time for an “accounting”
You inspire, Elliott, and have an admirable sense of balance. Value isn'r defined solely by dollars signs and never has been.
Thanks for waxing philosophic, which you do quite well. Easy to see why Robert Reich appreciates you.
We need to get back to putting The Common Good at top of our priorities instead of shareholder returns.
Meanwhile the Giants are losing but the game isn’t over yet so maybe my fervent wishes will get through to the players and the Giants will win. Even though this game is meaningless.
I feel the same way about the current government that maybe the Congressional Republicans will face Trump down on one significant thing and we will find a secure path to sanity.