Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas, rural America’s fortunes, restarting Three Mile Island
Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas, rural America’s fortunes, restarting Three Mile Island
Wrapping up the week for September 29, 2024
Happy Sunday!
First of all, hot off the presses in The New York Times Book Review is Anand’s take on Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, which he describes as a brand extension of his old book. Check that out here.
Closer to home, this week’s essays and interviews in The Ink look at how we tackle the threats of the present and future while those of the past remain with us. We’ve talked about the lasting impact of the murder of Emmett Till, the way the looming problems of climate change and artificial intelligence are forcing a reassessment of our uncomfortable relationship with nuclear power, and how a new generation of small-town activists are fighting for small-d democracy — and pointing the way towards how to repair the decades of neglect that damaged the Democratic Party’s relationship with rural America.
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In his new book The Barn, author Wright Thompson reexamines the murder of Emmett Till in order to tell a new history of the United States.
[T]his one of the most covered murders in American history. And yet, every time anybody dives into it, there's a whole bunch of new stuff. By the way, the next person who does this will find stuff I didn't find. There's been so much erasure that people are going to be uncovering this forever. The Secretary of the Interior came down here for a tour and was told propaganda and lies by white supremacists that are now being repeated as history. We're not nearly done telling this story. And it's just because we're still fighting these forces of erasure.
In the second season of his podcast, “To See Each Other,” activist George Goehl investigates how a nursing home sale sparked a small-town democratic uprising — and how rural America can demand better politics.
And so I would say what’s going on with this issue kind of gives you a look at what democracy getting stripped away at the local level looks like. We talk about it so much at the national level because of the specter of a second Trump administration. But what's been amazing to me is we've had losses in some of these fights.
And in one fight, we lost a vote. We went back to the church afterward. All these older folks, it's super late at night, and you would have thought they would have been dejected. But actually, they're like, "No, okay. What's the next step on this? Where's the next place that we can get some leverage and fight?"
How dealing with today’s existential threats — A.I. and climate change — has forced a reckoning with the apocalyptic threats of yesteryear.
[I]n every generation, there is an alleged threat to the survival of all humankind. Some persist, and some fade into the past. And in the story on Three Mile Island, three of them crash into each other: the anxiety over today’s greatest existential threat, climate change, is compelling a relaxation of anxiety about a once-dreaded existential threat in nuclear power, but the purpose of this revival is to facilitate A.I., which could well be the next apocalypse we all fear.
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Hello. I am writing about door-to-door canvassing that my husband and I did last week in northwest WI. I was raised there and have lived in Boston, MA for decades. My husband and I canvassed in Eau Claire, WI in October 2022 and in mid-September 2024 went back there, this time canvassing in the nearby towns of Altoona and Fall Creek, WI. (We stayed with my sister who lives in Eau Claire.) We went in part to have the opportunity to talk with people who hold different beliefs than we do, talk with like-minded people from a different part of the country and to work alongside the committed, engaged members of the Eau Claire County Dems. They are a remarkable, wonderful organization.
We listened and learned a lot. The most powerful message we heard when talking to people who vote Democratic is that they are AFRAID of their Republican neighbors. About 95% of the dozens of people we talked to refused to have a candidate sign in their yards for fear of provoking their neighbors and being on the receiving end of some kind of unspecified violence and/or anger. Several people mentioned that their neighbors are gun owners. The fear was palpable and powerful. They are either estranged from Trump-supporting family members and/or don't talk politics with family or neighbors. A few people told us that they no longer fly the American flag for fear of being identified as Republicans. I said to everyone with whom I spoke that no matter who wins in November, we will all still be neighbors after the election and we have to figure out how to talk together. No one disagreed but it's far from clear how that will happen.
I did talk with three Republicans who came out of their houses to talk with me after I told them that I did not want to persuade them or argue with them about their beliefs. I just wanted to listen. I didn't learn anything that shook my world; we didn't have enough time to do deep canvassing work. But I asked questions and listened. It was a start.
And I have a Minoqua Brewing Company #nevertrump NOPE sign and an American flag in my front yard.