The Show Must Go On

(Really, must it?)

Many of you responded to a sentence from last week’s email: “Trump isn’t a cause, he’s a symptom, and the disease runs deep.” Seven years ago I wrote a book about how the institutions that made post-war America great were diseased and fragile — and technology threatened to be the last straw, leading to a collapse. This is where Rule 1 was born: it will get crazier. (Incidentally, paid subscribers to this newsletter get a complimentary signed copy of my book.) When I tried to diagnose why our institutions had lost their way, it was complicated, but one thing kept emerging…