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Ryan McCormick's avatar

Did you ever come across the book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin Friedman in the research for your book? It strikes me as a rather prophetic work from the 90s on decadence among the leadership class in the 21st century: chronic anxiety, a spirit of risk-aversion rather than adventure, a cult of data that leads to intellectual stagnation rather than growth, and an over-reliance on empathy that leads to herding/polarization around the most emotional manipulative members of society. The current emotional maturity of the West's leadership class seems to indicate enduring decadence - if you follow the argument of the book.

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Adam K's avatar

The notion of community represents a commitment on our part to care for something beyond ourselves. We have come to express this commitment through various institutions - mostly brick and mortar - such as schools, offices, sports, places of worship, gyms, etc. These institutions help us group together, not only for our own benefit, but for the others who have joined, and often for the benefit of the institution itself. Over time, this mutual commitment to care for one another can have a multiplying effect, even extending beyond the institutions we contribute to and into the broader communities of which they are a part.

In the world we know today, the institutions we rely upon (and which, in turn, rely on us) have been reduced to shadows of their former selves. They are less available - if they are still permitted to be available at all - and have in many cases also grown to become smaller priorities to us as we have sheltered in place, away from these broader communities and with only those closest to us. The 'us' we care about is a much smaller group. Decisions that used to be made relying on a larger group are now made by individuals and their individual families. Our focus has shifted, our generosity and sympathy gradually whittled away so that only enough remains for us, our families, perhaps our dearest friends. It has moved more about what is best for me and mine.

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