Are you ready to take a break from the investment markets & talk about ideas?
I certainly was! Every year around July 4th, I take that break & attend the Aspen Ideas Festival.
For four days my brain is bombarded with ideas from global leaders who gather in Aspen to discuss “issues that shape our lives & challenge our times.” The summons is to “Think Big.”
This year’s program tracks included: Pushing the Limits of Human Performance; Coming to Grips with Climate Change; Defining Economic Progress; Redefining Conservatism in America; Hope Made Visible: Innovation by Design; The Art of the Story; American Reckoning, American Renewal; In Search of Meaning; Next World Order; and Understanding Emotion.
Ideas came from people as diverse as Jon Batiste; Arthur Brooks; David Brooks; Chris Christie; Common; Bob Corker; John Dickerson; Jeffrey Goldberg; Heidi Heitkamp; Walter Issacson; Kevin Love; Theodore Olson; Elaine Pagels; Penny Pritzker; Jeffrey Rosen; Karl Rove; Robert Rubin; Paul Ryan; Jessica Seinfeld; Amy Walter; Tara Westover; George Will; Judy Woodruff; Mark Zuckerberg; & four high school teams selected in city-wide competitions to present their own solutions for problems in their cities of Dallas & Louisville.
Some of this year’s buzz included: Rural America; Bridging Faiths; Forging an Immigration Policy; The Future of Conservatism; Make China Great Again; Love Your Enemies; Our New Supreme Court; Can the Center Hold?; and The Zip Code Reality: Where You Live Matters.
Here’s a sampling of some of the ideas presented to stretch your mind around:
- Art brings diverse people together. – Common
- Love our way to solutions, but not necessarily agreement. – Arthur Brooks
- Government regulation is needed in social media. – Mark Zuckerberg
- People are worn out. Each year is like 7 political dog years. – Karl Rove
- Being Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair is a great way to be unelected. – Bob Corker
- Growing trend in Supreme Court is to chip away at “stare decisis.” – Jeffrey Rosen.
- What will be next? Now we know, and that didn’t take long. – Justice Elena Kagan
- 25 cities in the U.S. have 30% of the population & 60% of job growth. You can’t just clean up the part of the swimming pool that you are swimming in. “Bloom where you are planted.” – Mary Daly
- Take care of your ship first. Then your shipmates. And finally, yourself. – US Navy
- Elvis Presley was not the 1st person to record “Hound Dog”. Listen to Big Mama Thornton! – Jon Batiste.
Enjoy your summer, family & friends, and remember “Man’s mind stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes.
* Sources include The Aspen Institute Ideas 2019 program, web site & Phyllis’ notes.
