2020 A Year of Hope

What we have learned from the past year

Lord Keynes wrote: 

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.  Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.  Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.

The year 2020 will be remembered as one of the most valuable years in history.

The intellectual ropes that bind us, as they bind all people, silken as they may seem, have been loosened.  I’m not sure any of us fully realize how much we have been shocked into a new intellectual and emotional life. 

Hope is again possible.  Those of us who are not restrained by phantoms (some call them conspiracy theories) are “on the march.”  We expect new ideas; we welcome doubt and we will discover new lines of inquiry.  It is the time of our life.  The right time to be alive. 

Ok, I have gone overboard and waxed too lyric.  But we need to counter a darkness that is also rising, despair, a feeling of inadequacy, the fear of a next and greater storm. 

Lay it out in order. 

·         First, we have been offered clear warning about the danger of being unprepared, especially  for a health crisis.  We have seen the power of science to combat disease and now recognize the correctable weaknesses in our public health systems.  What a great challenge for the 21st century. What other similar challenges await us.

·         Second, we have tried new ways of living, sharing resources and organizing productive forces.  We are already outside and beyond many old ways of work and leisure.  Let the experimentation continue.  Once outside the box, we are at worst in a new but larger box.  And some of are becoming certified “box-busters.” 

·         Third, we should soon be realizing, if not already, that many old economic/political models don’t explain and predict like we imagined.  Increase government debt and you don’t necessarily get inflation.  Public goods are affordable and necessary.  Government is neither too big nor too small, it is effective or ineffective.  There is not just “Capitalism.” There is good and there is bad “Capitalism.” 

·         Fourth, we are seeing the possibility of a new day of racial harmony.  We, both black and white Americans, realize that the task ahead is monumental, but that the costs, great as they may be, will and must be borne with genuine gratitude.   Gratitude for being offered an opportunity in this generation to fulfill a destiny and finally move beyond 400 years of unremitting wrong. 

Welcome to 2021.  There are so many of us that want to work together to shape the future.  No grand plan, no holy design, no final triumph.  Just a journey forward. Lighted by hope. And guided by a broadening understanding of the world in which we live.