A little over 150 years ago, close observers of the human experience in Europe began writing serious works about the rise of modern capitalist life: the emergence of the bourgeoisie as an urban political force, basic public education for all, the creation of new rights for women and minorities, democratization, and the overarching expansion of human choice over everything from work to government to love. This proliferation of choice and the growth of individual power in society and nature characterizes much of modernization — and of liberalism.
Dialogue Concepts
The Dialogue took place at the spectacular Cavallo Point resort near Sausalito, California. For more on the location, please click HERE.
RE-EXPERIENCE the Breakthrough Institute's
Inaugural Dialogue Conference
Revisit Videos by SPEAKER
- Rob Atkinson (The Race for Global Innovation Advantage and Why the U.S. is Falling Behind)
Fred Block (State of Innovation: The U.S. Government’s Role in Technology Development)
Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog)
Dalton Conley (Elsewhere, USA)
Audrey Kurth Cronin (How Terrorism Ends)
Erle Ellis (Long-Term Biogeochemical Changes in China's Anthropogenic Landscapes)
Chris Foreman (Signals from the Hill: Congressional Oversight nand the Challenge of Social Regulation)
Steve Hayward (The Age of Reagan)
Peter Kareiva (Conservation Science: Balancing the Needs of People and Nature)
Michael Lind (The Radical Center, The American Way of Strategy)
Matthew Nisbet (Climate Shift)
Roger Pielke, Jr. (The Climate Fix)
Steve Rayner (Human Choice and Climate Change: An International Assessment)
Mark Sagoff (The Economy of the Earth)
Dan Sarewitz (Techno-Human Condition)
Michael Shellenberger (Break Through)
Ted Nordhaus (Break Through)
Revisit Agenda Topics
1. New Risks: Uncertainty and Ideology. How do we understand and react to various risks today, from terrorism and global warming to obesity and finance?
2. The State and Neoliberalism. If “the era of big government is over,” why is government bigger than ever? What is the role of markets and what is the role of the state in driving technological innovation, productivity, and economic competitiveness?
3. Modernizing Environmentalism and Conservation. What's behind apocalyptic fears of resource collapse and how might we turn ecological concern away from Malthusianism into support for technological and societal modernization to create the gardened Earth we want?
4. Politics, Media, Polarization. What are the principles and policies of a new politics capable of transcending the hyper-partisan political environment?