Obama has a birthday, and here are some wishes for him:
Obama’s failure would be unthinkable. And yet the best indications now are that he will fail, because he will be unable–indeed he will refuse–to seize the radical moment at hand.
Every instinct the president has honed, every voice he hears in Washington, every inclination of our political culture urges incrementalism, urges deliberation, if any significant change is to be brought about. The trouble is that we are at one of those rare moments in history when the radical becomes pragmatic, when deliberation and compromise foster disaster. The question is not what can be done but what must be done.
Fresh from the feed garden:
- Ria Baeck on collaborative classroom design.
- George Por on his contemplative co-tweeting experiement, Parts 1 and 2
- Geoff Brown continues the holding questions thread.
- Euan Semple on what constitutes radical action.
- Mushin on living social fields.
- Johnnie Moore on Dave Snowdon and complexity in government
- Rob Paterson has a TED talk from Stewart Brand on environmental heresies.
Links I’ve grazed this week.
- A soldier writes from the front, and from the grave.
My friend Adam Yukelson took up rock balancing after hanging out with us at the ALIA Institute last month. He made this sculpture on the shores of the Dead Sea a couple of weeks ago.
Beautiful.
Prince Edward Islanders like to caution vistors to drive safely and not to speed. I understand this, coming as I do from a slow island. However, the motive here seems to be different: after driving around eastern PEI today I have concluded that Islanders like vistors to keep a steady speed so they can pass you 15 km/h over the limit!
Glad to know that. Happy to do my part!