An article by Neil Gabler in the Sunday Review section of The New York Times entitled, "The Elusive Big Idea," attracted quite a bit of attention. Eliciting comments such as:
When people like James Cooper and Ben Malbon makes comments like that, then this is an article worth reading, and indeed it is. Of course, it's well written, as you would expect from T the
Times and an author who is the author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination and a senior fellow at the Annenberg Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California. But after reading the article I was left conflicted. When you look at the level of political discourse in our country, or some of the lowest common denominator entertainment that fills the airwaves, it's easy to come to the conclusion, as Gabler seems to have, that the "Big Idea" is a lost art in America. And yet I found myself disagreeing with some of the underlying foundations of Gabler's argument.
On a base level Gabler is saying, "Things were better in the old days!" He makes nods to big names from the past like Betty Friedan, Albert Einstein and Marshal McLuhan and asks where are there present day counterparts? This sort of argument always falls flat with me. First, it's subjective. Your list is going to be different from my list, and we can argue the lasting impact of the people or ideas they put forth. Second, it's always dangerous to compare things from different eras. I'm sure 75 years ago someone was lamenting that there were no more Thomas Paines and Jonathan Swifts. And 200 years ago, there were no doubt cries for a new Da Vinci, whose contemporaries were searching for the next Aristotle. The past is the past and the present is the present, to try to compare eras without looking at the larger cultural and societal landscape is pointless.
But more than that, I take exception to the basic premise. I think there are no shortage of people with Big Ideas. Of course, we could argue about the definition of Big Ideas, but off the top of my head, here's a list of people who are thinking big:
- Grant McCracken
- Doc Searls
- Jacqueline Novogratz
- Clay Shirky
- Jane McGonigal
- Bud Caddell
- Steven Berlin Johnson
- Umair Haque
- Nouriel Roubini
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Duncan Watts
- Stephen Hawking
- Austan Goolsbee
- Henry Jenkins
- Andrew Sullivan
Henry Jenkins - The New School
Ok, you get the point. That's a list from a guy (me) who doesn't really follow academia or science or finance or politics deeply enough to pull out more names. But on some level, that's the point. These are people who have a level of general notoriety. I'm familiar with them through books, TV appearances, magazine articles, and yes, social media, which seems to be trotted out by Gabler as the root of all evil.
Haven't we moved beyond that argument? Apparently Gabler hasn't, stating, "Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, etc., the most popular sites on the Web, are basically information exchanges, designed to feed the insatiable information hunger, though this is hardly the kind of information that generates ideas." But that's a medium issue, not a message issue.
There are plenty of books that are unsophisticated and puerile, but we don't throw a blanket over the notion of books and say they aren't contributing to moving ideas forward. People also use social media as a way to share information about worthy, dare I say Big Ideas. Take a look at what the Internet has done for TED. Literally millions of of people have been exposed to Big Ideas, several by people mentioned above, thanks to the Internet and social media.
To blame the Internet or social media for the perils of society smacks of the old man shaking his cane at the young kids riding skateboards down the street. But maybe the issue isn't that Big Ideas are gone, but rather that they've become more evenly distributed. Perhaps Gabler upset that Big Ideas are no longer the private domain of academics and other "approved" intellectuals, but now come from game designers, marketers, columnists and business people.
Neil, the world has moved on, it always does. The very definition of Big Idea changes with the times. We can't go back to the good old days (which maybe weren't all that good), and we can't complain if people aren't using new technology the way you wished they would, or if you preferred they didn't use them at all. Big Ideas, their creation and consumption, are a choice. Most people won't choose to participate, but today, I believe more people than ever, from all walks of life, do choose to participate in those discussions.