SmartRemarks

Collapsing industries are hardly an unusual thing this year. Real estate, banking, airlines, automobiles, music and more are all in dire straits. One of the most consequential ones, however, with ripple effects that will last far beyond the pain of this current economic downturn, is the death spiral of the newspaper business.

For some years now, even when economic times were better,a common question in public discourse was “will print journalism be able to survive the challenge of the internet?” 2008 was the year the answer became a painfully clear “no,” and the question shifted to “how long before print journalism gives up the ghost?” Indeed, one of the biggest news stories of the year was, ironically, the death spiral of the industry responsible for coving big news stories.

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Once in a while it’s nice to get away from the computer for a couple of days. That’s what my lady love and I did this past weekend, predominantly so as to enjoy the final weekend of the Chicago Humanities Festival.

One of the things I enjoy most about big city life is the cultural amenities, and the CHF is a distinctive one. For two weeks every autumn, the CHF (a nonprofit organization) invites scores of prominent writers, scholars, thinkers and doers to town to offer public lectures and discussions. The highlight last week was David McCullough, as I wrote at the time.

This Saturday, among other things, we heard a group of urban planning experts discuss the prospects for high-speed rail in the U.S. (considerably better than they were a few years ago, given the now-obviously-dire future of fossil fuels), and enjoyed listening to Judge Frank Easterbrook, Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe (a former instructor of Barack Obama), and U of Chicago Law Prof. Geoffrey Stone (a former colleague of Obama) discuss the current state of Constitutional Interpretation.

On Sunday, we heard physicist Ronald Mallett discuss the possibility of time travel; saw a panel of scientists including (via hologram!) Ray Kurzweil discuss the past, present, and future of human evolution, including the accelerating sophistication and likely effects of information technology; and saw Naomi Klein discuss her recent book, Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, in the context of the current economic crisis and the potential for change under Obama.

History, law, science, politics, economics, and more… all wrapped up in a friendly format with Q&As and book signings, all at $5 a head per session. The large and diverse audiences that the event draws every year are heartening evidence that our society has not yet totally surrendered to anti-intellectualism. Taken all together, it’s a tonic, a reminder of the vast world of ideas out there in which we all swim, a reprieve from the day-to-day world and its mundane concerns. And it’s a good reminder that there’s more to life than just what you can find on the internet. What I saw this weekend will certainly influence my future reading and thinking, as it always does… and this time it’ll influence what I write on this blog, as well.

Historian David McCullough, biographer of Harry Truman and John Adams, multiple Pulitzer winner, world traveler and distinguished television host, spoke this morning as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival.

He lamented the resurgent anti-intellectual strain in recent American culture. He spoke at length and eloquently about the importance of history not only as a scholarly discipline but as context for life and its challenges. He reminded us that no one has ever lived in “the past,” only in their own present… that when living through one of history’s periods of transformation, as we are today, no one has the benefit of knowing in advance how it’s going to turn out.

And when asked during the Q-and-A to offer some historical context for the current election, he said with conviction and with no trace of hyperbole…

“This is one of the most important elections in our nation’s history… a turning point for the country and the world.”

The seldom-discomposed McCullough visibly choked up when discussing what Barack Obama has already achieved, in his own life and in American politics, using words like “inspiring” and “thrilling.”

And he capped off his response with the confident prediction, received to raucous applause, “I think it’s gonna be a landslide.”

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McCullough expressed regret that he wouldn’t still be in Chicago for Obama’s victory rally Tuesday night in Grant Park. I’m happy to say that I will. It’s a chance to be on hand for a moment that makes history… hopefully only the first of many to come.