Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

1814 Pages·2016·3.42 MB·English

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Table of Contents
A Note About the Author
Copyright Page

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This is my seventh and, who knows,
maybe my last book. Since I published
From Beirut to Jerusalem in 1989, I
have been extremely lucky to have had a
special group of teacher-friends who
have been with me on this journey, many
starting with that first book and others on
virtually every one since. They have
been incredibly generous in helping me
think through ideas—over many years,
over many hours, over many books and
many columns. So this book is dedicated
to them: Nahum Barnea, Stephen P.
Cohen, Larry Diamond, John Doerr,
Yaron Ezrahi, Jonathan Galassi, Ken
Greer, Hal Harvey, Andy Karsner,
Amory Lovins, Glenn Prickett, Michael
Mandelbaum, Craig Mundie, Michael
Sandel, Joseph Sassoon, and Dov
Seidman. Their intellectual firepower
has been awesome, their generosity has
been extraordinary, and their friendship
has been a blessing.
PART I
REFLECTING
ONE
Thank You for Being
Late
Everyone goes into journalism for
different reasons—and they’re often
idealistic ones. There are investigative
journalists, beat reporters, breaking-
news reporters, and explanatory
journalists. I have always aspired to be
the latter. I went into journalism because
I love being a translator from English to
English.
I enjoy taking a complex subject and
trying to break it down so that I can
understand it and then can help readers
better understand it—be that subject the
Middle East, the environment,
globalization, or American politics. Our
democracy can work only if voters know
how the world works, so they are able to
make intelligent policy choices and are
less apt to fall prey to demagogues,