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LETTERS FROM THE GLOBAL PROVINCE |
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2010 LETTERS Shooting Oneself in the Foot, Hoof and Mouth Disease, and Other Dilemmas (December 29, 2010) "We find that at every turn hordes of people are ready to march over a cliff as they chase after notions that are not just a little off course, but completely wrong-headed. The challenge then is to imagine what might forestall such herd behavior and keep society and its members from vaporizing themselves." To read more, click here. The Past Revives Us (December 15, 2010) "There are all sorts of uses for history, biography, and memories of things past. This is especially true at the present moment when we are living in a-historical times where we so gorge on the present that we forget where we have come from and where we are going." To read more, click here. Happy Days Are Here Again (November 10, 2010) "The Twentieth Century was America’s time in the sun, and now we have to see how the Twenty-First will play out...this calls for an expansive spirit that’s not currently blowing in our winds." To read more, click here. The Sounds of Turkey (October 27, 2010) Istanbul is a city of sounds that are a summons to action or enjoyment or worship...sounds upon sounds penetrate this atmospheric screen and instruct us to get on with our lives." To read more, click here. College for Cardinals (September 29, 2010) "Unfortunately the brainiac community has become as much a thundering herd as the people at Merrill Lynch, and it may be leading us over a cliff." To read more, click here. The Best and Worst of Everything: New York City (September 15, 2010) "Even when slightly depressing mayors and rapacious financiers are in the saddle, the wonder of New York is that its musical heart never goes away." To read more, click here. Adventures for Autumn (September 1, 2010) "It’s fair to say that Americans no longer have an easy conversation with the world outside our borders and have become prisoners instead of virtual worlds ginned up by their notebook computers." To read more, click here. Home from the Wars (August 18, 2010) "With virtually all institutions in these United States now in terrible disarray, surely it’s time for the home to re-assert itself... It’s time to come home. We need the home, our most basic social unit and the fount of true community." To read more, click here. Life After Death (August 4, 2010) "There is virtually no major institution in our society—government, academia, business, church, etc.—that is running well and bettering our society. Gridlock has affected more than Congress and our claustrophobic urban streets: it is the state of the nation." To read more, click here. Strictly Local (July 15, 2010) "Local greatness is the centerpiece of our quest for survival." To read more, click here. Unplugged (June 30, 2010) "Mis-firing and bad wiring about sum up our society’s present predicament. At every turn we are plugged into systems that distort our lives and our pocketbooks. Time for some circuit breakers." To read more, click here. Cuba Libre (June 16, 2010) "Time and human character have so muddled the story of Cuba that we can be pretty sure nobody has got it right." To read more, click here. Blowin’ in the Wind: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (June 2, 2010) "The sum of our daily activities stirs up a lot of heat, and adventure, and accomplishment. But there’s a residue—smoke and dust and charred remains. It pays up to deal with it, or life turns to dross." To read more, click here. Eating Lunch at Your Desk (May 19, 2010) "We’re reconciled to life without lunch. There will be no restoration of luncheon banter. You are probably eating at your desk. The only question is how you can make the best of it." To read more, click here. Cutting Down the Weeds and Cutting to the Chase (May 5, 2010) "One must get rid of the weeds to enjoy the fruit, wherever you go. In consulting, we say that we must get free of the weeds in order to get to the heart of the matter. If one gets too caught up in detail, useful knowledge proves elusive. Global wisdom evades those who are inherently provincial." To read more, click here. It’s Not My Fault: You Should Have Known (April 21, 2010) "The two decades since the Cold War ended have been wasted; this was an era in which world security and the world economy could have advanced. Instead, we have regressed, and our middle classes have taken a tremendous hit that adds up to a 20-30% decline in their standard of living. And we will continue to regress as long as leaders don’t own up to their personal failures." To read more, click here. How to Arouse the Living Dead (April 7, 2010) "To drink the cup of life fully these days requires an anachronistic temperament where one is either behind or ahead of the times." To read more, click here. I Know Nothing: Modern Psychiatry (March 17, 2010) "Depression, whatever it is, is running rampant in developed countries, and nobody has come up with anything that will stem the tide. It’s fairly clear that pills and behavioral therapy and all the other popular nostrums of the moment are not helping the afflicted, but are laying waste to our economy." To read more, click here. A House Is Not a Home(February 24, 2010) "Amidst this sea of dysfunction and conflict, our best hope for happiness is to get things straight in our own households, the arena where we can most assert our good will and our values. Helpless we may be in confronting the ills of society, but we can reconstruct ourselves behind our front door, at the dinner table, or in the rambling garden." To read more, click here. The Play's The Thing (February 10, 2010) "How do we reclaim a playful society when we have thrown the playbook away? We would suppose that we must turn to men of vivid imagination who take up improbable adventures." To read more, click here. Global Province Letter: Miami Vice, Gauguin, Luck, Random Walk Theory, Mike Hicks, Jimmy Walker (January 20, 2010) "Clients often pose this very question to the partners at our firm. They ask, “What do you do?” and are still often puzzled about us no matter how detailed and how direct we are with our answers. Like it or not, we are a trifle mysterious." To read more, click here. Global Province Letter: The Magic Olive Oil Salon and the Cultivar Economy (January 6, 2010) "The merriment surrounding Christmas has to get started very early in December and must last well into January if one’s heart is to become properly bestirred." To read more, click here.
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