8/ Just two examples: venture capital and reverse migration trends, which Fallows treats as evidence for the potential of Little Sky Country.
-
-
19/ From the mass manufacturing revolution at Springfield and Harper's Ferry, through the wartime mobilization, to the Internet and Apollo, America's great contributions have been, well, Big things involving massively large-scale collaboration. Not narcissistic homesteading.
Show this thread -
20/ And perhaps no greater Big Sky project exists in America than the great coastal cities. The Interstate system of the human soul, if I may be forgiven a bit poetry.
Show this thread -
21/ I mean, I'm sympathetic to the plight of the little guy, seeking his (and it's mostly men) little homestead-scale American dream, and wish him all the best in carving out a little place to call his own in the emerging economic landscape...
Show this thread -
22/ And certainly, as it always has in history, Little Sky country will serve as the source of Big Sky dreamers (like Robert Noyce from Iowa to SV), who have always left the "heartland" to migrate to places where Big Sky thinking is appreciated, enabled, and rewarded.
Show this thread -
23/ But I think it is dangerous to let this instinct of kindness towards small dreams lead us towards overstating the importance or history-shaping potential of that cultural force. America has simply never worked that way. It's just a comforting myth for a lot of Americans.
Show this thread -
24/ Obviously, I haven't read Fallows' book since it isn't out yet, and I'm totally behind the attempt to provide a healing, positive narrative of local agency and empowerment to a forgotten/ignored demographic.
Show this thread -
25/ But bottomline: America isn't Little Sky country. 100,000 locally flourishing little Thornton Wilder tales don't add up to a new kind of American mass flourishing. The problem is with Big Sky country, and the solution needs to be found there.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
Certainly, but the point is, American greatness is disproportionately a function of the work of those who succeeded. Not those who failed, and not those who didn't try, but simply joined one gold rush or the other.
- 4 more replies
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.