Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

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We have a great future behind us

Susan Crawford blog :: A gentle decline.  I just learned from David Weinberger that Susan Crawford is someone to pay attention to.  I’d so say.  Her blog is a delight to read.  Even in a bleak moment, there’s an intense power of words:

“ … We have a great future behind us. 

“PhD candidates from other countries are finding it so difficult to be admitted to the country that they're staying home.  Public education is in crisis.  We don't have a replacement for Bell Labs, we don't know how basic research is going to be funded, and we label outsourcing to other countries as un-American, even though people in those other places speak English better than we do and work harder.”

…

“It's hard to see this crisis; it's made up of a million incremental steps.  But it's happening.  The terrible state of broadband penetration in this country is just a visible symptom.  The solution isn't going to be found in short-term market players who have every reason to act monopolistically (and uniformly bad track records).  The people who lead us need to recognize that this country is steadily declining, and that pride in our former accomplishments won't save us.  We need vision, and we need it now.”

I think this observation is about far more than the state of broad-band infrastructure.  It seems to be a question of national malaise, one that is not uniformly shared.  I also wonder whether John Cooper’s thoughtful comment isn’t the most challenging of all, reminding us that we get the leaders (and the government) we deserve.  So, as followers, what action is available for us to restore our sense of flourishing vitality and promise, one that joins us with the diverse aspirations of ordinary people everywhere? 

I am left to ask: What am I doing, today, to create the world I want to live in?

{tags: civil participation democracy social responsibility us-them governance public interest Susan Crawford orcmid}

posted by orcmid at 4/02/2006 04:26:02 PM