‘Progress Ought to Feel Beautiful’
Readers respond to stories from our January/February 2023 issue.
The Eureka Theory of History Is Wrong
Invention alone can’t change the world, Derek Thompson wrote in the January/February 2023 issue. What matters most is what happens next.
Derek Thompson’s conclusion that societal progress depends on trust is profound and should be shouted from the rooftops. I am a rabbi, and I may make it the topic of my High Holiday sermon this coming year.
Rabbi Ilana Goldhaber-Gordon
Palo Alto, Calif.
Derek Thompson makes a number of insightful arguments about the decline in American progress. But in citing 1980 as the end of “building,” he glosses over an important point: 1980 is not a random year in U.S. history—it is the dawn of the Reagan era. The shift that began then—declaring a quest for personal advantage to be a driving
