Weekly Insider (Dependence, Independence, Outliers & Energy)
It’s said that the pen is mightier than the sword (or “S” Words if you’re Sean Connery being mocked on Saturday Night Live), that words can be weapons and that words can make a deeper scar than silence can heal. Yet Mark Twain also said: the right word may be effective but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed…pause.
And so I pause to share the power of words, put to music, that moved a private group last night to help fight poverty. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam led an exclusive 3-hour show put on by the Robin Hood Foundation that raised $3 million in one night. Every single dollar goes directly to benefit the portfolio of deeply-diligenced charities held to the highest standards of accountability—as all the costs are underwritten personally by the prominent board of Robin Hood.
Now as we go into the 4th, I trade my own independence for the dependence of the pen and words of others. First: Daniel Gross captures brilliantly the zeitgeist of the energy bubble. Then a blogger captures the essence of Macolm Gladwell’s forthcoming best-seller er, book. I predict he underestimates the amount of luck in life. And finally we end with words from Bill Kristol on Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence—remember no matter how bad life may seem today, in the fullness of history how incredibly lucky we are.
DANIEL GROSS: “All the talk about the bad oil bubble obscures the potentially good bubble still inflating in the realm of alternative energy. Wind turbine installations more than doubled last year. Ethanol production capacity will nearly double once all the plants under construction are completed. Investors have given SunPower, a solar panel spinoff from Cypress Semiconductor, a market value much larger than that of its former parent.
Such exuberance is characteristic of bubbles that periodically inflate. Some, like the one we’ve had in housing, end in losses and Congressional investigations. Others, like the dot-com boom, leave behind something useful.
During a bubble, investment is spurred by technological progress and new economic assumptions — in this case about the price of oil, climate change and the desire to curb carbon emissions. Government does its part by using subsidies and the tax code to encourage the new industry. Just as in the 19th century the federal government offered land grants to inspire a railroad boom, Congress today is pushing an alternative energy boom by mandating ethanol use and giving generous tax credits for solar and wind-based energy. The investment has already led to more efficient solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries.
Many of the new alternative energy companies will fail. But that’s when the fun will begin. Think about what happened after the dot-com bust. The commercial infrastructure laid down in the 1990s — fiber-optic cables, servers, payment systems — was put to use by new companies like Google, YouTube and Facebook.
Bubbles also leave behind mental infrastructure. People didn’t stop buying books online or sending e-mail messages when pioneering Internet firms failed. Since concerns about global energy demand, emissions and climate change are likely to survive the oil bubble, the market for alternative energy won’t evaporate.
It’s hard to say what we’ll be left with after this bubble. But a few years from now, as ethanol companies linger in bankruptcy and the stocks of alternative energy firms wallow in the single digits, I’ll pick you up in my plug-in hybrid, which I’ve just recharged using the wind turbine in my driveway, and we can discuss it.
A BLOGGER: “Malcolm Gladwell’s new book is about success and the special characteristics of people who are successful. Speaking of success, Gladwell’s massive book sales appear to follow a simple formula. Step 1: Tell stories about special people with magic powers. Step 2: Explain how the magic powers can make you rich or popular or smart with almost no effort. I like to call it the “superheros and free lunch” strategy — just reach the tipping point or blink and your problems are solved. Gladwell’s first two books were brilliant examples of the appeal of free lunches, each with subtitles about getting something for nothing: “How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference” and “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”. Outliers is more focused on superheros or “Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t”. Tip to would-be authors: superheros + free lunches = book sales!!!
WILLIAM KRISTOL: With regret, the 83-year-old Jefferson wrote that his ill health compelled him to decline the invitation to travel to Washington for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of American independence. But then, perhaps knowing this would be his final word, Jefferson sets forth in stirring prose his faith in the universal significance of the Declaration of Independence:
“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government.”
Jefferson claims his faith is based on the progress of enlightenment. He is confident that “all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.” Indeed, “The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view, the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god.”
Jefferson may have been overly sanguine that the spread of the light of science would necessarily strengthen the cause of human rights. But even the optimistic Jefferson was well aware that the enemies of liberty and equality could regroup and resist — certainly abroad, perhaps even at home.
That’s one reason he trusted that “the annual return of this day” would “forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.” Our devotion — and the sacrifices inspired by that devotion — are needed to make effectual the palpable truth of human equality.
The fate of equality, Jefferson makes clear, also depends on those who see further than, and act first on behalf of, their fellow citizens. In the letter, Jefferson pays tribute to his fellow signers — “that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword.” He wishes he could meet with the few of that band who still survived “to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made.”
So the signers of the declaration made the bold and doubtful choice for independence. Their fellow citizens ratified the choice. But they might have been slow to act if the worthies had not moved first.
For, as the declaration itself notes, “all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” The people are conservative. Liberty sometimes requires the bold leadership of a few individuals.
And so I pause to share the power of words, put to music, that moved a private group last night to help fight poverty. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam led an exclusive 3-hour show put on by the Robin Hood Foundation that raised $3 million in one night. Every single dollar goes directly to benefit the portfolio of deeply-diligenced charities held to the highest standards of accountability—as all the costs are underwritten personally by the prominent board of Robin Hood.
Now as we go into the 4th, I trade my own independence for the dependence of the pen and words of others. First: Daniel Gross captures brilliantly the zeitgeist of the energy bubble. Then a blogger captures the essence of Macolm Gladwell’s forthcoming best-seller er, book. I predict he underestimates the amount of luck in life. And finally we end with words from Bill Kristol on Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence—remember no matter how bad life may seem today, in the fullness of history how incredibly lucky we are.
DANIEL GROSS: “All the talk about the bad oil bubble obscures the potentially good bubble still inflating in the realm of alternative energy. Wind turbine installations more than doubled last year. Ethanol production capacity will nearly double once all the plants under construction are completed. Investors have given SunPower, a solar panel spinoff from Cypress Semiconductor, a market value much larger than that of its former parent.
Such exuberance is characteristic of bubbles that periodically inflate. Some, like the one we’ve had in housing, end in losses and Congressional investigations. Others, like the dot-com boom, leave behind something useful.
During a bubble, investment is spurred by technological progress and new economic assumptions — in this case about the price of oil, climate change and the desire to curb carbon emissions. Government does its part by using subsidies and the tax code to encourage the new industry. Just as in the 19th century the federal government offered land grants to inspire a railroad boom, Congress today is pushing an alternative energy boom by mandating ethanol use and giving generous tax credits for solar and wind-based energy. The investment has already led to more efficient solar panels, wind turbines and storage batteries.
Many of the new alternative energy companies will fail. But that’s when the fun will begin. Think about what happened after the dot-com bust. The commercial infrastructure laid down in the 1990s — fiber-optic cables, servers, payment systems — was put to use by new companies like Google, YouTube and Facebook.
Bubbles also leave behind mental infrastructure. People didn’t stop buying books online or sending e-mail messages when pioneering Internet firms failed. Since concerns about global energy demand, emissions and climate change are likely to survive the oil bubble, the market for alternative energy won’t evaporate.
It’s hard to say what we’ll be left with after this bubble. But a few years from now, as ethanol companies linger in bankruptcy and the stocks of alternative energy firms wallow in the single digits, I’ll pick you up in my plug-in hybrid, which I’ve just recharged using the wind turbine in my driveway, and we can discuss it.
A BLOGGER: “Malcolm Gladwell’s new book is about success and the special characteristics of people who are successful. Speaking of success, Gladwell’s massive book sales appear to follow a simple formula. Step 1: Tell stories about special people with magic powers. Step 2: Explain how the magic powers can make you rich or popular or smart with almost no effort. I like to call it the “superheros and free lunch” strategy — just reach the tipping point or blink and your problems are solved. Gladwell’s first two books were brilliant examples of the appeal of free lunches, each with subtitles about getting something for nothing: “How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference” and “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”. Outliers is more focused on superheros or “Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t”. Tip to would-be authors: superheros + free lunches = book sales!!!
WILLIAM KRISTOL: With regret, the 83-year-old Jefferson wrote that his ill health compelled him to decline the invitation to travel to Washington for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of American independence. But then, perhaps knowing this would be his final word, Jefferson sets forth in stirring prose his faith in the universal significance of the Declaration of Independence:
“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government.”
Jefferson claims his faith is based on the progress of enlightenment. He is confident that “all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.” Indeed, “The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view, the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god.”
Jefferson may have been overly sanguine that the spread of the light of science would necessarily strengthen the cause of human rights. But even the optimistic Jefferson was well aware that the enemies of liberty and equality could regroup and resist — certainly abroad, perhaps even at home.
That’s one reason he trusted that “the annual return of this day” would “forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.” Our devotion — and the sacrifices inspired by that devotion — are needed to make effectual the palpable truth of human equality.
The fate of equality, Jefferson makes clear, also depends on those who see further than, and act first on behalf of, their fellow citizens. In the letter, Jefferson pays tribute to his fellow signers — “that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword.” He wishes he could meet with the few of that band who still survived “to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made.”
So the signers of the declaration made the bold and doubtful choice for independence. Their fellow citizens ratified the choice. But they might have been slow to act if the worthies had not moved first.
For, as the declaration itself notes, “all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” The people are conservative. Liberty sometimes requires the bold leadership of a few individuals.
posted by Josh Wolfe at
10:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home