Thoughts on Motivation and my 40-year Career
One of the reasons modern life feels so fragmented and hard is because so many of our institutions have broken down or betrayed the people they were supposed to serve. So many of the associations that used to frame our lives and identities — church, government, military, etc — have tolerated or covered up so much predatory behavior and corruption, it no longer surprises anyone.
We’ve spent the past few decades ripping down institutions and drifting away from them. But we haven’t stopped wanting them, or needing them.
I hope, perhaps naively, that we are entering into a new era of rebuilding, sadder but wiser. An era of building institutions with accountability and integrity, institutions with enduring value, that we can belong to and take pride in… not because we were coerced or deceived, not because they were the only option, but because they bring us joy and meaning. Because we freely choose them, because they are good for us.