Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
John W. GardnerRead
More and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.
Interpretation
The quote expresses concern over the negative impacts of technological advancement and industrial progress on society and nature.
John W. Gardner highlights the anxiety many Americans feel regarding the adverse effects of unchecked technological and industrial growth. He warns that while society may become wealthier, the quality of life could deteriorate, leading to a paradoxical state of 'sumptuous misery' where affluence does not equate to happiness or livability.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about sustainable technology practices.
Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stuff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they always have been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we've got to move on.
What leaders have to remember is that somewhere under the somnolent surface is the creature that builds civilizations, the dreamer of dreams, the risk taker. And remembering that, the leader must reach down to the springs that never dry up, the ever-fresh springs of the human spirit.
What the computer in virtual reality enables us to do is to recalibrate ourselves so that we can start seeing those pieces of information that are invisible to us but have become important for us to understand.
The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy.
Who wants a stylus. You have to get em and put em away, and you lose em. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus.
There's no magic line between an application and an operating system that some bureaucrat in Washington should draw.
I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways. But I also see why it's appealing - I've had that little high you get from posting stuff online. But then you think, 'Did I need to say that?' I've explored that enough to know to stay kind of quiet these days.
I don't think in today's world you can go too far. However you may feel about social media or the Internet or selfies, it's part of how we all live today. 'Vogue' needs to understand and reflect that.
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