I

remember a couple of, well, this would be, I guess, five-ish years ago, I was teaching a class of business students, and we were talking about the great stagnation, how people aren't making new stuff anymore.

There's not that many new ideas in films, in science, in new businesses.

And I asked them to tell me, to give it some thought and say, well, what that is being made right now is genuinely new.

like where's that creative energy this is before chat qbt came out and upended everything yeah but they said the two things at the time that seemed genuinely new were the metaverse and spacex right so going to settle on mars getting the getting the hell off planet earth and then going into the metaverse and getting the hell off earth right Alienation in both ways.

Yeah, alienation.

And the role that trips play in the imagination of upwardly mobile young people, or not just young people, but the role that travel plays, I think is really interesting, right? This idea that elsewhere, right? Elsewhere, there's something, right? If I could get elsewhere, right? Then there might be something that would make meaning, right? But then you get there and it turns out that it can be great to go to a new place, but it is still a place.

The bottom you

Can you dive into that, the three tiers for me, please?

Yeah, so that sort of complexity and fragility of a sense of world and self and belonging that I was talking about, one interesting thing about it is that we seem, with capital N, we seem to need other people.

in order to maintain a sense of self and world that like can add up to a feeling of, of being at home in the world.

And, you know, it's, it's not totally clear, like at the outset, what is that? Like, what is it that we need from each other? I mean, if you have enough money, you can, purchase like all of the practical sort of experiences of friendship, right? Like you can purchase assistance when you need it.

You can purchase companionship, you can purchase sex, you know, you, you can purchase, I mean, most of the things that friends do for you in a kind of obvious practical way.

Um, but, but feel, you know, utterly bereft and lonely.

And so what is that missing ingredient? And I think it's that we need to share a world with people.

I was wondering, using these examples, how do you find that the economic processes of modern life are interacting with our desire for home or undermining it?

Can you dive into that, the three tiers for me, please?

Yeah.

So that, that sort of complexity and, um, fragility of a sense of world and, and self and belonging that I was talking about, one, one interesting thing about it is that we seem, you know, capital N, we keep... seem to need other people in order to maintain a sense of self and world that, like, can add up to a feeling of, of being at home in the world.

And, you know, it's, it's not totally clear, like, at the outset, what is that? Like, what is it that we need from each other? I mean, if you have enough money, you can purchase, like, all of the practical sort of experiences of friendship, right? Like, you can purchase assistance when you need it.

You can purchase companionship.

You can purchase sex.

You know, you, you can purchase, I mean, most of the things that friends do for you in a kind of obvious, practical way, um, but, but feel, you know, utterly bereft and lonely.

I was wondering, using these examples, how do you find that the, uh, economic processes of modern life are interacting with our desire for home or undermining it?

Can you dive into that, the three tiers for me, please?

Yeah.

So that, that sort of complexity and, um, fragility of a sense of world and, and self and belonging that I was talking about, one, one interesting thing about it is that we seem, you know, capital N, we seem to need other people in order to maintain a sense of self and world that, like, can add up to a feeling of, of being at home in the world.

And, you know, it's, it's not totally clear, like, at the outset, what is that? Like, what is it that we need from each other? I mean, if you have enough money, you can purchase like, all of the practical sort of experiences of friendship, right? Like, you can purchase assistance when you need it.

You can purchase companionship.

You can purchase sex.

You know, you, you can purchase, I mean, most of the things that friends do for you in a kind of obvious, practical way, um, but, but feel, you know, utterly bereft and lonely.

I was wondering, using these examples, how do you find that the, uh, economic processes of modern life are interacting with our desire for home or undermining it?

Can you dive into that, the three tiers for me, please?

Yeah, so that sort of complexity and fragility of a sense of world and self and belonging that I was talking about, one interesting thing about it is that we seem, with capital N, we seem to need other people.

in order to maintain a sense of self and world that like can add up to a feeling of, of being at home in the world.

And, you know, it's, it's not totally clear, like at the outset, what is that? Like, what is it that we need from each other? I mean, if you have enough money, you can, purchase like all of the practical sort of experiences of friendship, right? Like you can purchase assistance when you need it.

You can purchase companionship, you can purchase sex, you know, you, you can purchase, I mean, most of the things that friends do for you in a kind of obvious practical way.

Um, but, but feel, you know, utterly bereft and lonely.

And so what is that missing ingredient? And I think it's that we need to share a world with people.

I was wondering, using these examples, how do you find that the economic processes of modern life are interacting with our desire for home or undermining it?

Can you dive into that, the three tiers for me, please?

Yeah.

So that, that sort of complexity and, um, fragility of a sense of world and, and self and belonging that I was talking about, one, one interesting thing about it is that we seem, you know, capital N, we seem to need other people in order to maintain a sense of self and world that, like, can add up to a feeling of, of being at home in the world.

And, you know, it's, it's not totally clear, like, at the outset, what is that? Like, what is it that we need from each other? I mean, if you have enough money, you can purchase, like, all of the practical sort of experiences of friendship, right? Like, you can purchase assistance when you need it.

You can purchase companionship.

You can purchase sex.

You know, you, you can purchase, I mean, most of the things that friends do for you in a kind of obvious, practical way, um, but, but feel, you know, utterly bereft and lonely.

I was wondering, using these examples, how do you find that the, uh, economic processes of modern life are interacting with our desire for home or undermining it?

book is

called Tribe, I think.

Tribe.

That's it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think that's right.

an economic embodiment of some of the themes we've been talking about?

It's at least something to picture.

And I think the left generally quite often lacks it these days.

I don't think Biden had it.

And what I meant by shyness, Jake, was not sort of being personally retiring, which I think Biden is not.

But I think, you know, and I come at this, I've grown up in Massachusetts and I've Massachusetts.

I think the sort of moral confidence to say, hey, here's how I think we ought to live.

And I'm going to exercise a kind of leaderly role to lead us towards this thing that is good.

I don't know where you would take it, but it's a source for sure.