Editor's note: Fareed Zakaria recently delivered the commencement address at Harvard. While the audience was graduates, the message could apply to a great many of us, so we've reprinted a modified version below.
By Fareed Zakaria
The best commencement speech I ever read was by the humorist Art Buchwald. He was brief, saying simply, “Remember, we are leaving you a perfect world. Don’t screw it up.”
You are not going to hear that message much these days. Instead, you’re likely to hear that we are living through grim economic times, that the graduates are entering the slowest recovery since the Great Depression. The worries are not just economic. Ever since 9/11, we have lived in an age of terror, and our lives remain altered by the fears of future attacks and a future of new threats and dangers. Then there are larger concerns that you hear about: The Earth is warming; we’re running out of water and other vital resources; we have a billion people on the globe trapped in terrible poverty.
So, I want to sketch out for you, perhaps with a little bit of historical context, the world as I see it.
The world we live in is, first of all, at peace — profoundly at peace. The richest countries of the world are not in geopolitical competition with one another, fighting wars, proxy wars, or even engaging in arms races or “cold wars.”
This is a historical rarity. You would have to go back hundreds of years to find a similar period of great power peace. I know that you watch a bomb going off in Afghanistan or hear of a terror plot in this country and think we live in dangerous times. But here is the data. The number of people who have died as a result of war, civil war, and, yes, terrorism, is down 50 percent this decade from the 1990s. It is down 75 percent from the preceding five decades, the decades of the Cold War, and it is, of course, down 99 percent from the decade before that, which is World War II. Harvard professor Steven Pinker says that we are living in the most peaceful times in human history.
The political stability we have experienced has allowed the creation of a single global economic system, in which countries around the world are participating and flourishing. In 1980, the number of countries that were growing at 4 percent a year — robust growth — was around 60. By 2007, it had doubled. Even now, after the financial crisis, that number is more than 80. Even in the current period of slow growth, keep in mind that the global economy as a whole will grow 10 to 20 percent faster this decade than it did a decade ago, 60 percent faster than it did two decades ago, and five times as fast as it did three decades ago.
The result: The United Nations estimates that poverty has been reduced more in the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years. And much of that reduction has taken place in the last 20 years. The average Chinese person is 10 times richer than he or she was 50 years ago — and lives for 25 years longer. Life expectancy across the world has risen dramatically. We gain five hours of life expectancy every day — without even exercising! A third of all the babies born in the developed world this year will live to be 100.
All this is because of rising standards of living, hygiene, and, of course, medicine. Atul Gawande, a Harvard professor who is also a practicing surgeon, and who also writes about medicine for The New Yorker, writes about a 19th century operation in which the surgeon was trying to amputate his patient’s leg. He succeeded — at that — but accidentally amputated his assistant’s finger as well. Both died of sepsis, and an onlooker died of shock. It is the only known medical procedure to have a 300 percent fatality rate. We’ve come a long way.
To understand the astonishing age of progress we are living in, just look at the cellphones in your pockets. Your cellphones have more computing power than the Apollo space capsule. That capsule couldn’t even Tweet! So just imagine the opportunities that lie ahead. Moore’s Law — that computing power doubles every 18 months while costs halve — may be slowing down in the world of computers, but it is accelerating in other fields. The human genome is being sequenced at a pace faster than Moore’s Law. A “Third Industrial Revolution,” involving material science and the customization of manufacturing, is yet in its infancy. And all these fields are beginning to intersect and produce new opportunities that we cannot really foresee.
The good news goes on. Look at the number of college graduates globally. It has risen fourfold in the last four decades for men, but it has risen sevenfold for women. I believe that the empowerment of women, whether in a village in Africa or a boardroom in America, is good for the world. If you are wondering whether women are in fact smarter than men, the evidence now is overwhelming: yes. My favorite example of this is a study done over the last 25 years in which it found that female representatives in the House of Congress were able to bring back $49 million more in federal grants than their male counterparts. So it turns out women are better than men even at pork-barrel spending. We can look forward to a world enriched and ennobled by women’s voices.
What it means for the U.S.
Now you might say, “This is all wonderful for the world at large, but what does this mean for America?” Well, for America and for most places, peace and broader prosperity — “the rise of the rest” — means more opportunities. I remind you that this is a country that still has the largest and most dynamic economy in the world, that dominates the age of technology, that hosts hundreds of the world’s greatest companies, that houses its largest, deepest capital markets, and that has almost all of the world’s greatest universities. There is no equivalent of Harvard in China or India, nor will there be one for decades, perhaps longer.
The United States is also a vital society. It is the only country in the industrialized world that is demographically vibrant. We add 3,000,000 people to the country every year. That itself is a powerful life force, and it is made stronger by the fact that so many of these people are immigrants. They — I should say we — come to this country with aspirations, with hunger, with drive, with determination, and with a fierce love for America. By 2050, America will have a better demographic profile than China. This country has its problems, but I would rather have America’s problems than most any other place in the world.
When I tell you that we live in an age of progress, I am not urging complacency — far from it. We have had daunting challenges over the last 100 years: a depression, two world wars, a Cold War, 9/11 and global economic crisis. But we have overcome them by our response. Human action and human achievement have managed to tackle terrible problems.
We forget our successes. In 2009, the H1N1 virus broke out in Mexico. Now, if you looked back at the trajectory of these kinds of viruses, it is quite conceivable this one would have spread like the Asian flu in 1957 or 1968, in which 4,000,000 people died. But this time, the Mexican health authorities identified the problem early, shared the information with the World Health Organization, learned best practices fast, tracked down where the outbreak began, quarantined people and vaccinated others. The country went on a full-scale alert, banning any large gatherings. In a Catholic country, you couldn’t go to church for three Sundays. Perhaps more importantly, you couldn’t go to soccer matches either. The result was that the virus was contained, to the point where, three months later, people wondered what the big fuss was and asked if we had all overreacted. We didn’t overreact; we reacted, we responded, and we solved the problem.
There are other examples. In the 12 months following the economic peak in 2008, industrial production fell by as much as it did in the first year of the depression. Equity prices and global trade fell more. Yet this time, no Great Depression followed. Why? Because of the coordinated actions of governments around the world. 9/11 did not usher in an age of terrorism, with al-Qaeda going from strength to strength. Why? Because countries cooperated in fighting them and other terror groups, with considerable success. When we can come together, when we cooperate, when we put aside petty differences, the results are astounding.
So, when we look at the problems we face — economic crises, terrorism, climate change, resource scarcity — keep in mind that these problems are real, but also that the human reaction and response to them will also be real. We can more easily map out the big problem than the thousands of individual actions governments, firms, organizations, and people will take that will constitute the solution.
In a sense, I’m betting on the graduates. I believe that your actions will have consequences. Your efforts will make a difference.
I know I am expected to provide some advice at a commencement. Should you go into nanotechnology or bioengineering? What are the industries of the future? Honestly, I have no idea. But one thing I do know is that human beings will reward and honor those talents of heart and mind they have always honored for thousands of years: intelligence, hard work, discipline, courage, loyalty and, perhaps above all, love and a generosity of spirit. Those are the qualities that, at the end of the day, make you live a great life, one that is rewarded by the outside world, and a good life, one that is rewarded only by those who know you best. These are the virtues that people honor, that they built statues for 5,000 years ago. Well, nobody builds statues anymore. They build weird, modernist sculptures with strange pieces of metal falling off of them, but you get my idea. Trust yourself; you know what you should do. You know the kind of life you should live. You don’t need an ethics course to know what you shouldn’t do. Just trust in your instincts, be true to them, and you will make for yourself a great and a good life. And, in doing so, you will change the world.
At my age I don’t feel competent to give you much advice, but I will give you one last piece of wisdom that comes with age. For all of you who are graduating students or, really, anyone who is still young, trust me. You cannot possibly understand the love that your parents have for you until you have children of your own. Once you have your own kids, their strange behavior will suddenly make sense. But don’t wait that long. On this day of all days, give them a hug, and tell them that you love them.
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I think we're still in the storm. Commencement addresses are about optimism. Mail a copy to Congress and the President.
No doubt these graduates are very lucky and can forward to a bright future. They should never turn a blind eye to the plight of their peers in some other parts of the world. A few days ago some 120 schoolgirls and three teachers at a school in Tahkar in Northern Afghanistan had been poisoned. The Afghan intelligence believed that radicals opposed to education of women and girls had used an unidentified toxic powder, which was sprayed in classrooms to contaminate the air. Insurgents and other groups have been behind a wave of similar attacks against schoolchildren in several provinces. In April, more than 100 schoolgirls from Takhar were taken to hospital after drinking water at their school that was suspected to be poisoned. Very tragic!
please read can LOOK forward to a bright future. Fareed is right that girls do better at school than boys. That's why radicals in some parts of the world deny girls the right to learn, because they're afraid of being outdone by women. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!!!
Could you kinly clarify? Are you for equality and betterment of little girl's lives the world over or do you want to go all the way for go for pay back on little boy's while you are at it for justice's sake?
@j. von hettlingen Wow, you certainly are a paranoid, ignorant sack of shlt!
Yes, Fareed is good at writing cute essays. But that's just it, sometimes he comes across like an 8th grade English student.
..an 8th grade communist English student in Liberia wearing "Down with the USA" shorts and burning American flags during recess.
Zunar...that is ridiculous.
So what prominent magazine or journal publishes YOUR erudite opinions?
Is this his own writing? Or is he still paying some immigrant $5 to get his stuff?
What Fareed forgot to mention.
The graduating class, the luckiest 1% of the World population (Go USA!) has wonderful opportunities in Science and Technology that will completely transform the World in their lifetime, but alas, in totally unpredictable ways, and whether the outcome of such a transformation would be positive or negative or even apocalyptic is also not clear.
In the brave new world we could soon have some portions of the World population happily living in virtual worlds, merging with machines, pharmaceutically, surgically an genetically altering themselves even trying to get away from mother Earth while doing all of the above. All good and dandy if you ask me, but last I checked, Mr. No-i-am-mad in ban-ban-istan has very different ideas and would not and cannot accommodate such abominations and would be compelled to something about it as it is his duty according to one sacred absolute truth-acle of the 6th century.
I agree with him totally but I am a realist. He sees the glass half full, others see it half empty, a realist simply knows that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
.
中國GDP早晚要趕上美國成為世界第一
中國國防預算也將超過美國
中國對抗美國的時代會到來
.
I'm 12, here is my advice on what the agenda of Obama should be
Get the spending cuts done with the debt ceiling
we already have onwe trillion in cuts
cut 500 billion of defense
single payer healthcare, India, England, Taiwen use it and have 100% access with less than 12% of budget ours is 18, cuts at least 400 billion
cut education- 300 billion
transportation- 200 billion
2.3 Trillion in cuts- 3 trillion in 10 years, no more cliffs.
Gay Marriage, try making it the most imortant issue, make t civil rights with speeches 100% focused on the tbwemes of gay marriage
tback slap 234 hours with house ansd senate members, invoke protests as similar to civil rights movemen, put 100% on gay marriage if he manages to have personal face to face with all members of leadership on republican partykeep pushing with many speeches, before vote try to get republican co sponsor, than put bill to political show vote.
Actually try to get passed on second vote
Do immagration
tax code reform
Push for equal education- vast majority of countries with this system are ranked higher in all subjects, make the atgument with examples of other countries and say ideology of capatilaism versus socialism does not matter
maybe voting reform
I'm 12, here is my advice on what the agenda of Obama should be
Get the spending cuts done with the debt ceiling
we already have onwe trillion in cuts
cut 500 billion of defense
single payer healthcare, India, England, Taiwen use it and have 100% access with less than 12% of budget ours is 18, cuts at least 400 billion
cut education- 300 billion
transportation- 200 billion
2.3 Trillion in cuts- 3 trillion in 10 years, no more cliffs.
Gay Marriage, try making it the most imortant issue, make t civil rights with speeches 100% focused on the tbwemes of gay marriage
tback slap 234 hours with house ansd senate members, invoke protests as similar to civil rights movemen, put 100% on gay marriage if he manages to have personal face to face with all members of leadership on republican partykeep pushing with many speeches, before vote try to get republican co sponsor, than put bill to political show vote.
Actually try to get passed on second vote
Do immagration
tax code reform
Push for equal education- vast majority of countries with this system are ranked higher in all subjects, make the atgument with examples of other countries and say ideology of capatilaism versus socialism does not matter
maybe voting reform
Our minds create the mess we live in and our very minds create the heaven we experience. Therefore, I applaud Fareed's optimism and an attempt to change minds around the world.
Citizen: I hit my finger with a hammer yesterday. My pain was immediate, intense, real, and impervious to any effort of mine to think it away. The hammer blow caused my pain.
Say what you will about our minds causing this or that, external reality imposes itself on us. Unavoidably.
fair enough, alan s. how's this for another bit of reality? you have a computer to type on, internet access to express your opinion, and a roof over your head. in other parts of the world, a child dies every 5 minutes due to remediable medical illness, like diarrhea, or from violence.
the hysteria in this country is tiresome. yes, we are in difficult times, but, as i have just demonstrated, things could be an awful lot worse.
Hey Alan,
Great analogy with the hammer and all. I especially love the part where you assert external realities "imposes itself" on us. What a wonderful point you made except the part where YOU DID IT TO YOURSELF.
ROFL you made me laugh in RL. Grats on the attempt at making sense, and only succeeding in making me laugh.
Well, at least the hammer temporarily took your mind off the real world economic catastrophy we are going through now, much like this article has done.
But if you had been using your mind to concentrate on hitting that nail and only that nail, you wouldn't have had hit your finger.
SOUND LIKE THE HURTFUL FINGERS DO THE TYPING.
This is not optimizm – its called deception.
Well put, DOD.
I'm surprised how low Zakaria has stooped with this non-sense. I initially respected the man – very disappointing . . .
I guess it's totally impossible for you to see anything positive in this world ... I feel sorry for you.
Great article! – I applaud your courage to focus on a positive vision.
We need more articles like this to maintain a balanced view of things.
In this bloated World we live in, how can any progress be made? We are overproductive in manufacturing everything from commodities to the people who manufacture them; we're choking the planet and burying ourselves in our own trash. We just can't get past "Denial"! Do we blame education, or the lack of it???
I'm hopefully optimistic that Fareed will move back to India where he belongs!!!
he is from pakistan, he is naturalized american citizen, and he has more sense and brain than 1o million of your type
Rick, I am hopefully optimistic that you will move back to wherever your ancestors moved to the US from.
What a silly, close-minded, bigoted statement! Perhaps we all should go back to where we belong...if we only could find where that is. Remember, the optimist and the pessimist might both get to the same place, but the optimist has a lot more fun getting there.
And most people would hope that you return to the mental hostpital you escaped... oh, and do not forget your white hood
You are absolutely correct. The author is constantly putting down this country unless he is kissing the butt of Obama. Why are real Americans writing these articles??
That unfortunately is plain bigoted ignorance. However, safe to say Fareed does exhibit an immigrants Euphoria and anmendable liberal mindset.
BTW, he is from India not Pakistan.
Get back...get back....get back to where you once belonged. Get back Loretta.
Agree with Richard! We need more people like him. He speaks and handles things respectfully. Indian born and educated from Harvard. People will always find things to be critical of about everyone these days. He is respected in many circles of people. Proud to call him American, better than those who are constantly belittling each other abd nagging disrespectfully on others so much, thats for sure.
nice
Agree – things are really not much better. Many of the current college students can't find summer jobs and the recent college graduates are not faring much better. Economy is just sputtering – not recovering.
And a big part of the article was about how there's more to the world than just the U.S. economy. It's a shame you can't see beyond it.
Please, I was a university student in the late 1960's and during my college years students were shot dead by the national guard for protesting the vietnam war. JFK and RFK and Martin Luther King were assassinated and urban areas rioted for days and days. The current generation has no idea of how bad the bad old days were.
This is exactly the problem Zakaria's surprisingly ignored.
He's proclaiming the new generations are our best hope, but they're in no better position than anyone else. Our best and brightest are all in debt. Is that something to be optimistic about? Is Zakria secretly a campaign plant for Romney? Who else would be happy about that?
Bravo ! You are able to read. Now please take some schooling in comprehension!
Islam is ticking time bomb. Unless they evolve they start killing each other and us in BIG numbers.
What truly is the greatest danger in our world is people with profoundly ignorant views of the world such as yourself Ted. It is not religion (sorry, Bill Maher) but the zealots who don't understand the tenets of their own religion who cause most of the issues. Most would call them extremists; they think of themselves as defenders of their faith,country, people or in actuality... their warped view of the world. Yes, Ted, there are people of the Muslim faith who are terrorists, just as their are extremists who claim (like yourself) to be devout Christian, Hindus, Buddhist, etc. who are doing God's will by causing or calling for harm to others for their own self-serving reasons. For Atheists, such as Maher, or even people of differing faiths, the problem is ignorance and intolerance not faith. People like Ted don't understand that we are all God's children, created in his image and He loves all of us equally irrespective of our faith, color or creed.
To put it much more succinctly, it is the intolerant, who try to blame another group of people whom the don't even know and who don't even understand their own faith's teaching who call for harm or the destruction of others. This is truly the threat we face in the next generation and really have always faced. Ted, your viewpoint and those that think like you could just as well be quoting Hitler's "Mein Kampf." Fortunately, Good eventually always triumphs over Evil (at least I hope so.) Eventually the Teds of the world will be swept away into the dustbins of history.
Have a wonderful day!
I see that you don't know many atheists, JC. Atheism is not a result of ignorance, but of education. If I may make a sweeping generalization, ignorance runs far more rampant in those who believe in a higher power and attribute everything to him (or her, or them, etc.).
Whether or not you believe in the existence of God, we should all be able to agree on the common origin of the human race as so perfectly described in the book "The View from the Center of the Universe" – We are all made from stardust; the matter cast into space by the Big Bang that created the Universe we inhabit.
I have to agree with Ted, do a little googling and you'll be shocked. While Jesus teaches love on earth with possible harsh judgement only affecting your eternity, Islam is very very different. Their (modern) views on slavery, women, infidels and the rest of mankind stand in very stark contrast to other religions. In fact their religion is better described as an ideology (look up the real meanining of ideology) Once understood it really is their way or the highway and not in eternity, but in the present.
Colleen.....Everytime I read the message boards there seems to be one person touting their superior intelligence and it's just plain tiresome. My mother has a bachelors degree, masters degree, SPHR and a CPA certification. She is the CFO of a large company and teaches at two Universities. My dad has a bachelors, masters and is in the last (teaching portion) of his Ph.d program. He is an actuary and Ph.d student teacher at a University. I have a degree from UCSD which was ranked 24th in the world and am still deciding on a graduate program (I work as an Accountant). All three of us believe in God. I only say this because I have never come on a board and stated that atheists are ignorant or uneducated. I do not believe we are better or worse informed than the rest of humanity though you seem to believe we are all ignorant of the great wisdom you seem to possess. I have no issue that you are an atheist, religion is a choice. I too have a problem with the practices of many who do terrible things in the name of religion but I hope you can consider as well that there are a great number of people who do practice faith and are not ignorant or uneducated.
Oooohhh! Scary! Go hide under your bed then!
Oh come on....has not to do anything with islam.... uneducated people with guns or power are a ticking timebomb, no matter if they are from an islamic, christian or whatever country, would be about time to understand that!
You are correct, Ted. Islam should be a banned "religion". The true believers are only judged by how many people they kill.
Who killed each other in world war.Christians have the history of killing each other and others
This story could be about the best way to cut an onion,
and some moron will find a way to put religion or politics into it.
Optimistic outlook or not, it is so good to read something positive about this country and our future for a change. Bravo!
The predictable "Rosie-outlook about Obama's first four years" article from one of his biggest cheerleaders. Data be damned..
Whose and what data?
wow! really?? Obama = epic fail.
Perhaps you're suffering from what a lot of other stupid folks like you suffer from? The disease expects one man and his administration to fix the monumental and near, multiple catastrophes of the real mor 0n in office before him lickety split. Well, feeble minded you, it doesn't work that way. You don't spend 1,2,3, even 4 years to miraculously pick up the millions of lost jobs, trillions in lost wealth and thus the economy in this manner. Stupid people like you don't realize the trouble we were in or how close the house of cards really came to bringing itself as well as the country with it. Those ripples hit shores overseas on every continent. Every market suffered, some still are suffering. And you judge the single man, at the mercy of a defunct and inept Congress, to fix it all.
Why don't YOU propose guaranteed solutions, since you're so good at scoffing at the man trying to reverse the damage? Why don't YOU do something instead of whine like a child not getting his cookie? The reason is because you have nothing to give, no ideas, and I question even your intelligence. That would be why you whine and do nothing else.
well spoken!
Xman, your smug superiority allows you to call all of us stupid when all you are really doing is ranting at your mirror. The author's speech was as one sided as the gloom and doomers' "all is lost" mantra. The fact is that this administration has failed miserably in turning around a failing economy that has left millions of people jobless, which in turn cost the loss of millions of homes, wrecking families all across America. This administration has brought us closer together because more of America is a ghetto of poverty and joblessness. This group of American apparchiks offers us so little hope because they are so tied to their failed political philosophy, socialism.
As for our atheist friend, I give you Stalin, Mao, Lenin. The worst murders in history...all atheists.
Thegifans...wrong. You are so wrong. The economy is better now than it was 4 years ago. This is a fact. Unemployment is down, hiring is up. The manufacturing sector is actually...manufacturing things! And EXPORTING them. Whether you want to admit it or not, President Obama saved the auto industry along w. thousands of jobs.
This is all a moot point, however, b/c the article does not even mention President Obama!
It's not wrong to have a positive outlook on our future, nor to see that things are *not* as gloom and doom as Fox News likes to paint them. I'm not quite sure why positivity would upset someone. We do NOT have it all that bad and I'm tired of people whining about it.
Obama's pet dog = zakaria
If you actually looked up and analyzed the data, you'd realize how phony a line you've been fed by Fox news.
Now now...we couldn't do that! Facts?? What is the world coming to! We want to whine and gnash our teeth against all our imagined ills!
I dont recall seeing Obama's name mentioned in the article.
You have a reading problem ?
Betting on the graduates? You mean the poor kids who'll be in debt for the rest of their lives? Great plan!
Yea, I mean, why propel our future in this country to our youth? I mean, we're living a lot longer now, maybe we can just kneel and pray that all the people in their 40s on up will just live long enough to really turn things around and let's not help the next generation with a better world than when we found it.
Were you born this ridiculously stupid or did it take decades of practice? Please don't reproduce. We have enough stupid in America as it is.
Is it difficult to breathe with your head lodged so far up your ass?
Anyone's who's read the news the past 2 years knows about students graduating college and not finding work. Which means they're being left in debt without any way of paying it off.
Should I send you scuba gear? You've got to be running out of oxygen, and you can't breathe methane.
I don't know how the current crop of conservatives can claim to be followers of Reagan. Whatever his faults, the Gipper exuded optimism and confidence in the future. To a man, the modern conservative is a negative, fearful chicken little. Gloom and doom is their message. We are broke; we can't do anything right; we need to go back to the past. Whatever happened to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?
Right on, Cal. Right on. It warms me a little to see people with a functioning brain.
If you're referring to me as a republican you're hilariously mistaken. And where did I say anything about going back to the past?
You're projecting so hard you're threatening to make the sun irrelevant.
Land of the Free? Freedom went out of the window together with political correctness and Patriot act. You listen to some politicians and you folks wont even be free to get rid of you US citizenship soon. Slaves for life to bushs, clintons and their buddies at the helm of the corporate world aka contributors that will decide for you who will win next election. Too much time here is wasted on republican v democrat arguments.. Take a hard look at who is standing behind the curtains.. Its the same thieves for both parties. Optimism? More like close your eyes tight, have some budweiser and convince yourselves there is a bright future ahead for you kids.. Good luck......
Zpace> Stop whining. It's ridiculous. We have it SO much better than a lot of people in other countries, but we can't even bother to enjoy what we have.
So tired of the gloom and doom stuff.
Is this country perfect? Of course not! And there is no doubt that there is corruption in our govt and business sector, however your reality is what you make of it. If that is all you choose to see, and not the actual GOOD politicians who want to help people? Well, then I guess you're living in a hell of your own making. Good luck to you.
Chane you world with democracy. Democracy can solve all problems. Even the poor Syrians know democracy will solve their all problems why don't you believe in that.
I live with my good friend and his two teenage daughters, who are like my own daughters because I have known them for so long. They are 14 and 16 years old and I can say that what people say about the latest generation being lost is completely untrue. These girls live their lives with virtue. They are the kindest, most intelligent and wise young ladies I have ever known. The youngest one repeatedly demostrates how much smarter she is than I. When we are in public, she exhibits so much kindness to strangers. Nothing is more important to her than family. She goes completely out of her way to do things for other people, without expecting anything in return.
They understand the troubles this world faces. They face it with love and compassion. So when there are young people living their lives like this, the only thing I really have to say about the future of this world is that, yes, we have hope. We will make it because so many of us will continue to be loving, caring, compassionate towards each other. In the end, we are a wonderful people, not alone in the night, but together on that shining city on the hill.
What a nice thing to read
Likely hard for particular individuals to accept, who are out of a job or living in parts of Mexico, etc, but a great article with a macro perspective of the world. Nice job!
I have been a lover and student of history since I was a child, and it was my major in college. It has always occured to me that this age is no more crazy and it is SIGNIFICANTLY less dangerous on a day to day basis than at any point in human history. For God sakes, we live longer than we ever have and I would say that is a profound and obvious indicator that our times are safer. Read about entire villages throughout world history that have been raided, plundered and residents killed and/or left for dead by roving bandits and invading armies. We only have the perception that the world is crazier and more dangerous because news travels infinitely quicker than it did in the past.
And because we are experiencing it, rather than reading about it 100 years after the fact.
Change happens in this world but people become puzzled that progress they have obtained . Fareed has just delivered his address based on 90 years of human history and evade the history of colonial repression . We are at better position because Colonial force has gone .If we take history of prehuman to date into consideration , situation is worse . There are many opportunities for job than any other time in human history . but people are still protesting for job . Only 1 % are enjoying all advantage . No progress for others . We should leave the narrow thinking that we use some device it is the progress .
To maintain a state of preparation benefits those that can enter the door or window of opportunity.
Romney vs. Frankenstein (Obama)
Put simply, better the devil you don't know. Vote Romney.
Here's some good news for your Aaron, your vote will be worthless, as I am going to cancel it with mine. The other 3 votes in my house are going to Obama,
)). Nothing you or any of the other R E P U B L I T A R D S here can do about it !!!
good lord! you and your other 3 in the house are morons.
Count my voice in and my husband's, too.
my wife and i are both voting for obama. so are 80% of the people i work with.
As am I, my girlfriend, friends, and father. Obama 2012 for progress!
Yes, I'm voting for him, as well.
Why in the world would you vote for "the devil you don't know"???
So you're going to vote for someone you know nothing about? (except that his company bankrupted other companies and put people out of work, all the while making $$$ for themselves? Or how about those Cayman Island accounts? And he still has not released his taxes! What gives?!)
I live in Massachusetts so Rmoney is the devil I know too well. He's full of crap. Obama is the better choice by far.
Agree! Obama is the better choice!
Job of politician is a devil's job.
Sorry, i will take Frankenstein over that blood sucking vampire
called Romney.
Actually, Aaron it is always better to go with the devil you know because then you know what you get. I really fear a Romney president (especially from an international perspective). Romney could finish what Bush has started: the end of US dominance worldwide (just remember how Americans were perceived during the Bush administration!) and how much Bush's wars cost (one of the major reasons for the huge budget deficit and US troubles now)
Aforementioned skepticism has merit, but we can applaud FZ's giving us the big picture in terms of how we as a civilization have taken more control of our own lives, our health, security and welfare. Any progress results from human curiosity, problem solving, ingenuity and good old Yankee persistence and can-do spirit.
Reblogged this on ibeamarioh and commented:
Optimism. Catch it.
I am happy you can be such an optimist. The Euro zone is in danger. Greece might be on the verge of an economic depression. All industrialized countries are so deep in depth in debt, we have mortgaged our grandchildren`s future. Islam is a powder keg. Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power and the regime is so irrational it is scary. The safeguards of nuclear weapons in Pakistan is hazardous. The financial health of the planet is uncertain. New graduates have problems getting jobs. A large portion of the planet`s population is hungry, thirsty, poor and or sick. Yet, there you stand in front of a crowd of super privileged students painting a rosy picture. You do have some nerve.
And you insist on focusing solely on the negative aspects of your own myopic view point, and expect the rest of us to act as if your opinion carried some weight. You have some nerve, as well!
To presume that I expect you to take the same point of view that I express is, to say the least idiotic. I simply expressed an opinion. You can simply agree or disagree. You get too excited over nothing. Perhaps you should not omit taking your lithium.
year after year, group after group of the super wealthy and super connected graduate to warm fuzzy words from other super wealthy and super connected mouthpieces. They spew fancy and pretty words about how hard they worked and how they'll be the intelligent elite to fix the world. Yeah right. As soon as the graduation robes come off they get right to work enriching themselves and forgettnig all about morality and the ideals of their youth. Every single one of the people that put us in this global economic and geopolitical nightmere stood on a stage in their graduation gowns and listened to sweet words from some other ego-inflated wind-bag. Fareed included. The universities are ground zero for all our social ills today.
And you left your cake out in the rain.....oh no....
I love how you people focus on a handful of the negatives and assume that is the world we live in. And you wonder why nothing changes in your lives. Those graduates with degrees in fields that are in demand are getting job offers left and right. I just finished my masters in electrical engineering and had to turn down several offers. Even if Iran does create nuclear weapons, they will never get the chance to use them. The whole world has them in check. They will be attacked before they can push the button. And our economy is still the most profitable and most stable in the world. Even if the EU collapses, the world will be flocking to our economy. Keep thinking the way you do and your lives will always be crap.
World is at peace? No proxy wars? Really?
In what world does he live in?
One with a longer view of history than yours, obviously.
He is right.
The NEOCONS are running out of excuses to start wars.
For now.
I hope you are correct Fareed, I really do. I hope the environment will not follow scientific predictions, as that would change this whole scenario. Unfortunately, there will be a major war again someday, it has happened since the beginning of humanity and it will happen again. However, humanity has survived and flourished despite the worst catastrophes so I hope that continues. I want to believe you Fareed, I really do.
We need more optimism. Ther is much to nuch negativity. Optimism breeds more optimism. So try to look at the positives and spend less time on negatives.
Zakaria – I have listened to you "speak your piece" – and you are insidious. This piece of "editorial" is nothing more than an attempt to spin a complete disasterous four years of Liberalism on steroids. I've heard you try and justify failures of this Administration, and you need to step back and get your nose out of the pablum – you've been eating it for too long along with many of your peers at CNN. Whatever happened to American excpetionalism? It has abandoned this country and left mediocrity in place of a dynamic, vibrant economy. Wake up and get a grip!
I don't believe this article (or really anything he was saying, for that matter) was political at all. He was making his case for optimism by pointing out facts and statistics that have occured over many decades and with many different political figures in office. Hell , he wasn't even talking about just America!! Way to throw your pessimism out there by making this political, dude!
Read Fareed's entire section of the article "What It Means For The U.S.", where he talks about American Exceptionalism, moron. All you've proven here is you are not exceptional by any means.
The librals are out ta get ya....BOO !
I am sure Mr Zakaria is a smart man, but he did deliver a bunch of garbage in that commencement speech. Because what matters is whether I am better off today than yesterday. And whether I will be better off tomorrow than today. It does not matter whether I am better off than my great-great-great-great grandfather who died in a famine or a war. If you are diving that far in history, you may just as well compare yourself to be better off than the primitive hunter-gatherer man of the stone age and be happy about it.
Based on his narrative, the Greeks should be happy today because they're better off compared to the dark ages.
Human perspective is short. This is what drives us to do great things. Comparing the present to something that is long-past is just comparing apples to oranges. because over a long enough timeline, we are all dead anyway, and nothing really matters.
Right. All that matters is whether YOU are better off today than you were yesterday. Nothing else in the world is more important than your own personal situation, and the rest of us should just accept that, right?
Obviously you are rather limited in your responses. You ought to change your tune and express an opinion rather than always answering
Hey – did anyone ever question that idea that the only thing that matters is being better off tomorrow than you are today? My life is fantastic today. If it never got any better, that would be fine with me. In fact, if I'm being honest, I have far more material things that I reasonably need. I could even suffer a decline in my standard of living and I would still be living a great life. I'm not a 1-percenter, or anything like that, just a guy with a decent job, a great spouse with a decent job, and 2 wonderful kids. I think there are a lot of people in the US who are basically in the same boat, but are not grateful for all that they have because we all seem to be in an incessant search for "more". Be thankful for all that you have. And, yes, I know there are some people who are legitimately in bad shape. Sadly, that is part of the human condition. However, I think most of us are doing fine if we're honest about what we really need to have a decent life.
The new generation of selfish whine.
fareed is a complete M o R o N!
He says the same about you.
Your move.
While many Americans are pesimistic about this country's prospects, it is immigrants like Fareed and those who have experienced a less than abundant lifestyle in other countries who are optimistic. Life could be a LOT worse for Americans. Many have no idea what this really means and for that, we should be thankful. Thanks Fareed. You are wise and I'm a fan.
Fareed, thanks man, I really needed that. I'm stopping by the Nursing Home on my way home tonight. Thanks agin!
Well, Fareed, that's the best thing you've written in a long time! Optimism motivates people to go out and do something, pessimism and criticism tells poeple to stop and freeze. So optimism is a really good thing, especially, as you so well pointed out, that there is good reason for it. Your part about how at peace the world is today seems odd, but it's true. Did you know that other than the Kosovo mess, Europe has been at peace withing its own borders for the decades since world war two, even during the cold war, for the first time since the roman empire ruled during the Pax Romana! So this relatively peaceful time is really an extremely rare thing historically speaking. Hopefully, we can all just keep getting along...
Durn, Fareed. Good article.
Thank you, Fareed, for such an optimisitc and encouraging article. It !was so very heartening!
That was a well written and articulated speech.
It should be mentioned that Mr. Zakaria gave this same graduation speech at Duke University on May 13th. I think it is a good commencement address.
Fareed; You have been a favorite of mine for a long time. You always make sense. Your knowledge of history and the world gives you a perspective many people in America do not have. Thank you again for a great commentary. Your Sunday program on CNN is really good mainly because the people you interview are rarely arguementative. Even the panel discussions are civil. thanks again. mary
How did we "avoid' a depression? We're in the middle of one right now! Today Europe is lavishing in one of the greatest depressons it ever had and will continue to do so as long as the Eurozone lasts! As usual, Fareed Zakaria is quite wrong! Moreover, there are no creative or sensible leaders in Europe today, just bureaucrats waiting to carry out orders from Washington D.C..
You can avoid depression by taking your medication.
A 15-year-old high school freshman has invented a test to detect pancreatic and other cancers. In pancreatic cancer it's 90% accurate, is 100 times more sensitive than the current test, costs 3 cents for the test strip, and has results in five minutes. It can detect pancreatic cancer before it spreads, which will make pancreatic cancer something we can treat instead of a death sentence. The kid's name is Jack Andraka. His is a great story.
I saw the same thing – another reason to be optimistic about the future. There are lots of stories like this if you read widely enough and don't limit your sources of information. The world will never be perfect as long as humans are around but life IS overall better for most (I'm 60 and have a longer view than some posters.) For those who think otherwise, take a look at history over the last five or six decades and decide if you'd rather live then than now. I vote for now.
This was a very good article and puts into perspective all the negative talk on Cable TV and other self serving media outlets. Yes, we are facing problems, but so has every other generation before us. We believe that our generation (born between 1960 and 1980s) is the best every. Maybe you remember how our parents said we were no good and they were better. But yet we propelled this country forward and made it better. I believe this new generation will build on the previous generation and also create its own better future. (and then they will complain about their children)
In the last 3 years we were in a Great Recession and people say how bad it is. Yes, there are still a lot of people out there hurting real bad, but on the whole this is nothing compared to the Great Depression of the 30s when people were actually starving, unemployment of 25%, long lines for soup kitchens, no social safety net.
Things can't be that bad with millions of people buying expensive smart phones, ipads and gadgets. Restaurants with waiting lines. Amusement parks cramped full of people paying tons of money to enter. Planes full of travelers paying more than ever to fly. Roads clogged up with people going to/from work. Auto industry booming.
If things were bad, we would have none of the above. Let's keep that in mind. I heard the same doom and gloom after the 1992 recession and by 1999 we were running 2 consecutive year budget surpluses.
Your parents said you were no good?
Wow, what did you do to deserve this from your own parents?
I have plenty of Optimism for my family...once Obama is voted out
Even the grandfather of Bush cannot bring anything better until US stop looting oil and interfering others matters.
I have plenty of Optimism for my family...once Obama is voted to a second term.
Really? So Bush v.2 give you optimism? Because Bush v.1 did such a spectacular job, ya know...
How are all those jobs coming? You know, what with the extension of the Bush tax credits...the ones that were supposed to case the "job makers" to hire people? How's that working out?
Yes Zakaria, I'm very optomistic that Obama will be gone and that the Democrats will be thinned out come November. There IS hope and change coming. Thank goodness.
mmh...Sounds like you want to have the George W. Bush time back when Bush (a fiscal conservative) doubled our National Debt during an economic expansion! Obama's National Debt increase is mostly caused by the deep recession and resulting drop in tax revenue caused by Bush and his gang and their drive for financial deregulation.
Please keep in mind we have ONLY money coming into the federal government to pay for SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, DEFENSE and INTEREST ON THE NATIONAL DEBT. That is it!!! All the rest is borrowed!
Try to cut yourself out of this one.....we can't
The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007, the day democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.
The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this:
January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress. At the time:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB GROWTH
Remember the day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
Unemployment... to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!
Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy.
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress
So when someone tries to blame Bush..
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"
There is just no way around it.
No matter how you look at it, this mess
was caused by George W. Bush.
Deny all you want.
It doesnt alter the truth.
We go forward.
We dont backpeddle.
Sorry Dean...This financial crisis was years in the making. Congress does not move that fast.
The financial sector was playing fast and loose in the shadowy derivatives market and the Republicans fought against any regulation of that and the loosy goosy mortgage lending market of the 2000s. Remember people with almost no income getting huge home loans?...that did not happen before 2000. But by the end of 2007 the house of cards run by the Republicans started to collapse.
No one believes that the Democrats started this.
Nice cut and paste job, Dean.
Next time try thinking for yourself.
I remember the good old days. In 1962, the US and USSR went to brink of WW III and nuclear war. It was called the Cuban missile crisis. Somehow the US and USSR managed to stumble back and only continue a terrible Cold War instead. If the nuclear WW III would have happened, none of us would be writing about the present being so bad or good. Billions of people would have died and the world would have plunged back into a Dark Ages for thousands of years; maybe forever. That was only 50 years ago. So hopefully humans have made some progress towards peace and away from war.
So is the present time better than the past? You had better believe it is better now.
We gain 5 hours of life expectancy evey day" – where do you get those data, Fareed. I am SO surprised thaat you still have your job. If that was true, the life would be 1/5 longer. From 80 years to 96. Untill now, 96 years is not average.
He is actually right. Every 4.8 years a person born that year can expect to live one more year than a person born 4.8 years earlier.
Translated it means a person born today let's say can on average expect to live 76 years. A person born in 4.8 years can expect to live on average 77 years.
Life expectancy in 1900 was only 47 years, mostly due to poor nutrition (including poor water quality) and no modern health care.
We have come a long way since then...an unprecedented advancement in health and well being in human history.
5 hours gained per day = 76 days gained per year. In other words, each year, the average life expectancy increases by about 2 and 1/2 months. (Just thought I'd throw a little basic math into the discussion)
A bit more math. 5 hours a day equals 18,000 seconds. Amazing Joe. You can even count
When was the last time that anything good happened in the news? Not lately, that's for sure! The economy in Europe is getting worse day after day and the talks between Iran and five other countries have yet to succeed in Baghdad. I only hope that another senseless war doesn't break out over in the Middle East!
I guess it depends on where you get your reading/viewing matieral, eh?
Might want to expand your media viewing. Or else stop watching altogether, if you want an accurate view of the world. Bad news sells. Period.
Optimism is a good thing, so perhaps I shoud stop reading these blogs. An awful ot of what I read is atheists and religious people hating on each other. The same with gays and staights, conservatives and liberals. While I enjoy the well reasoned comments–even if I disagree, I am sorry to say that much of what I see and hear is shallow thinking or people just repeating the doctine of their favorite ideology. The lack of empathy and the ability to at least understand someone else's point of view is sad.
This is one of the best artcle I have ever read.Its like a glass half full of water. Its half full and half empty. Its how you look at it.
Ashok
This guy is really out of his mind when it comes to China. My friend graduated from Harvard with honors. Then she went to teach economics at Beijing University. She said those students are just as good if NOT BETTER than her Harvard peers. She also said the gap is between the two is closing faster than anyone wants to admit.
Optimism at a time the GOP's willful denial to vote "NO" of almost all Obama's Budget proposals reveals the truth of how the economy would have grown. It is this reason Obama must be re-elected to have the mandate to fulfill his work and dreams for middle class Americans
And you think in his second term the GOP will miraculously turn into obedient zombies granting every Obama wish!
That's why we vote to get them out!
And one of the reasons is maybe that Zakaria will go back to the place where he crawled out from one day. We will finally get less unprofessional articles on cnn.
The place he crawled out from? It's called Pakistan. It's a country. And I'm sure those from there really appreciate you acting as if their country is second rate.
I'm wondering if you would have such a view of this "unprofessional" article if the author's skin weren't tan.
All is well till hindu fat lady sings.
You will have to wait a long time. Hard to find a Hindu fat lady in a country of manourished!
The problem is not that China or India does not or will not have a Harvard in the next 50 years.
The real problem is that too few US people belongs to the 99% can not go to Harvard and too many people in the 1% can go to Harvard too easy.
And the result? Rich people become richer, and poor people become poorer.
Harvard is now filled with people from 1% and higher and higher percentage of Professors in Harvard have to be from other countries because smart and poor people in the States are not getting access to the fair education.
Now that's the real problem.
Fareed is in halucination. Reality shows different. Wake up.
Thank you Fareed for finally show the Media is not a total loss...that it just focus on disasters, disgrace, doom and gloom. Let's debate the positive, let's bring the bar higher, enough of fear, anxiety , uncertainty the 3 main mantras of this decade. Last decade it was "terror".. Let's create a positive Mantra.
Yes, thank you Fareed for telling us what we want to hear. BTW, mantra's are a stuff of myths just like Fareed!
No doubt when the orchestra played at Auschwitz, there were some who sang along.
Well Mark, at least a few of us get it – great comment!
No it's not. It's a stupid comment that's insulting to people who were actually captives of the Nazis.
Nice hyperbole, Mark.
On balance a wonderful overview that provides a persective that is not often seen in the 24 hour news cylce of doome and gloom. I have have often hoped that the the news would offer 10 minutes of good news during the 30 minute evening news focusing on the positive both at the mico and macro level. This would show what is possible. Instead we are witness to tragedy and disaster night after night. It reminds me of the the old Simon and Garfunkel line: "I get all the news I need on the weather report".
To be sure that there are major problems out there some of which we must as both a nation and as a global communuty resolve and we must do these in a forthright manner. A gimpse through rose-colored glasses, I think not. It is important to see where we are going relative to the past while recognizing issues ahead. An uplifiting piece that offers hope. Thanks
Missa Fareed, Pick up you turban at dry cleaners pleass. You doan want to wear dirty turban.
I'm amazed your trailer has a computer ...
I'am doing my part , my neighbor kid needs a job , he just got out of college can't find any work . So I will hire him for $10 dollars a hour for a couple of days. See college does pay off.
If you think gas prices are costing you a fortune wait until you have to fork over money for Obamacare health insurance come 2014. Dont have the money? Guess what? The IRS will simply take your tax refund. Thats going to happen to millions of people! The Romney camp has this ATOM BOMB that they can drop on the Obama administrations campaign- the fact that the Obama administration is about to STEAL millions of peoples tax refunds. Forget about the countries debt. Obama created this personal debt for every citizen of America (on top of high gas prices)
You mean, just like Romney did in Massachussetts ?
Romney care is good, but Obama care is bad.
They are the same.
Romney would be stupid to throw that bomb.
Stop lying. If you truly don't have the money for healthcare, you will be part of a Medicaid plan. No-one is going to "take your tax return" if you have no money to HAVE a tax return!
You're already paying for uninsured people with your insurance premiums. Having everyone in healthcare pools will cause your premiums to go DOWN.
How much are you getting paid to post here, btw?
Oh, and the President doesn't country gas prices. Again with the lies...
With all due respect to Mr. Zakaria, living in fear is not living in a state of peace. We are most certainly a world living in fear.
I dont live in fear.
Its a waste of time.
If you live in fear, the GOP have you right where they want you.
You should switch parties, better for your health.
I refuse to live in fear. Sorry to disappoint.
"The world we live in is, first of all, at peace — profoundly at peace"
If this is peace, I would hate to see how much it would cost us to have a war!
Excellent observation!
The legalization of recreational drugs would be a reason for optimism.
Es mejor un gato montes que te montes un gato
There is always going to be optimism when we get rid of all illegals and moslems and commies and social gov. and liberal terrorists and odoepy...then things will be good.
... and the haters .. you first
You forgot, woman, and gay people, black people, and people who like the color blue,
and bike riders, and dog lovers and.....and.....and.....and....
I find it both funny and sad, well, mostly sad, that on an article that is meant to uplift peoples spirits, i'ts booed and derided. This article isn't political, it doesn't favor anyone over another, so what do you hate about this?Do you like feeling scared or down? This article made me feel better, that maybe this world isn't doomed. That we can come together as a species, and make things right.
Yeah...it's a little messed up that people would hate this article. I don't get it.
we human being screw up a lot but I think we do things right 51 percent of the time- and over a million years -that majority percent makes all the difference between a senscient being that prospers and one that fails
circle jerk
No, it's called positivity. You should try it some time.
Thank you for the article Mr Zakaria...definitley interesting to go back over the years to see where we have come.
I have a history with time and remember the scare during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a very unsettling time.
Your facts and timelines are general, yet woven around how far the world in general has come. The UN has always been criticized, but the ultimate face to world pressure to end wars and poverty has definitely changed for the better. The day of welcoming the breakup of USSR was nothing short of miraculous although risidual problems exist, yet the alternative was far more worrisome. If anyone doubts how afraid we were in the west, just read the history books.
I could go on, yet overall I found it very wrorthwhile reading....
Everything is rosy and bright. Zakaria says so. Got it. Will someone please tell the 15 million unemployed so we can move on??
The slowest recovery in history is all in our minds. Let's all sing and feel good.
Uuuummmmmmm
You are right Rudy.
Time to jump off a building.
After you.
You're right. We should all just be miserable and whine and cry about our plight, b/c that's working out so well for us.
Did you know that being hopeful and positive actually causes good things to happen? It's true!
cheer on and spin away, until you're done in cashing in what little poweryou think you have, Fareed.
This is a great article and all, but look at the image at the top of the article: Wall Street bankers. Plus the caption "Because of the coordinated actions of world governments, we avoided another Great Depression, Fareed Zakaria said."
Kind of absurd, no? There are a lot of reasons for optimism in this world, but the Wall Street people who actually created the crisis that the world's population paid to clean up via their taxes sure aren't one of them.
Let's be real here. The majority of these graduates are going straight to the unemployment line and straight back to live at their parents house. Although I don't blame Obama for the cause of the problem. I do blame him for his lousy performance in fixing the problem.
Its a world wide recession.
I think Obama is doing a great job considering how little help he gets.
Slow and steady.
That could be because of the major they chose or the area of the country they happen to live in. There IS job growth in certain sectors and in certain areas of the country and that is hardly the fault of the current administration.
Perhaps you should place the blame where it belongs: w. the toddler GOP who have filibustered every single thing this President has tried to do before it could even come to a vote! The President does not pass laws...that's Congress! Don't like, fire your Congressperson!
Note to editor's note: As mentioned by Duke Parent, Dr. Zakaria also spoke at Duke's commencement on May 13th. The text of that speech is here: http://today.duke.edu/2012/05/zakariaspeech
i dont' agree
Do you live in Africa or in Indian slums?
can you believe this partisan drivel from zakaria? Is that the only thing zakaria does? Is he strictly in the tank for obama? I fail to see why people think he reports news....he is a propagandist, a shill, a cover....
I find him so biased that it does no good to read him...there's just no balance...
I find him so biased that it does no good to read him....
But you just did, you whiney little moron.
Did he say anything once, in the entire article, about President Obama?
So because this man chooses to see things positively, you refuse to read his article (even though, apparently, you already did?)? That's...stupid, frankly.
The era of the Global Economy came and went in little more than nanoseconds. . We are instead on the threshold where every collection of a few tens of millions in population can provide every good or service they need at next to zero cost - Zakaria whooshed by this with the term "custom manufacturing". . The long-term goal is to remove human labor from the production of all goods and services - and thereby eliminate cost.
Nay-say it, Go on - And I know it gives you a headache : But THAT is the future of the future.
It's not optimism; it's realism. People seem to have no sense of history of memory. I graduated college in 1984. Unemployment was about what it is now. It took me six months to get a job that paid just a step above minumum wage, same thing a lot of new grads will have to do this year. Guess what? I survived, and they will too. In fact, a whole lot of our financial statistics (unemplyment, drop in housing market prices, etc.) are completely on par with the first half of the 80s, a period that some people now seem to think were the good old days. During that same period we had terrorists blowing up U.S. Marines in barracks in Lebanon and discos in Germany, the Taliban rose to power and we had the Soviets pointing nuclear tipped missles at us. Get some perspective, and you'll feel a lot better.
Women are definitively smarter? LOL!!
Yes they are.
Obviously.
And you're outnumbered, friend.
I'm optimistic that the country has learned its lesson and will turn itself around this November after the huge mistake it made in November 2008.
Americans love to do mistakes.Two times Bush and then Obama.I guess Americans will keep their strategy.
I'm optimistic that the country has learned its lesson and will keep Republicans out of the White House.
Right. Because things were so much better under the Bush regime.
I especially enjoyed the warrrentless wiretapping and the waterboarding, not to mention the endless wars and the free-falling economy. what was your favorite part??
How about this. 31% of our nations debt has been run up by the current administration – which has also managed to keep the unemployment rate above 8%. We have developed drones to the point that we can (and do) kill people across vast differences. The drones are so successful they are being proposed for deployment over the US. Sleep well.
a powerful
well done article
thank u
email me
i am very similar to u
<3 <3 <3
Wow what a speech. Where to start? At least it is not as blatant of propaganda as his usual show. Stories of government saving the day after the media overhyped the H1N1 and other crises.
Male bashing, women are smarter. If he had said men are smarter he would have been hammered.
How does he get away with this?
Women spent more on pork barrel spending, a stupid stupid thing for our nation, so they are smarter?
Didn't Obama say he was going to stop pork barrel spending? Now suddenly it is good? of course he never did. He ramped it up to whole new levels.
He says "Just trust in your instincts, be true to them, and you will make for yourself a great and a good life. And, in doing so, you will change the world." Not exactly.
Last of all this guy says, "trust me" and we all know that any time anyone says trust me it means you can't trust them.
"He says "Just trust in your instincts, be true to them, and you will make for yourself a great and a good life. And, in doing so, you will change the world." Not exactly."
No. That's exactly right. Sorry if you are pessimist.
This is all the "put on a smile face" for Obama's re-election push. FK is just another mouthpiece for the Democratic party, and the new watchword is "get out there and sell the feel good under Obama message." It won't work. We all know where the financials of America sit – with Detroit on the verge of insolvency, and Californian in massive debt (just to mention 2 examples.) Zakaria wants us to think were are better off that we were 4 years ago, but his false optimism is just another lie Obama and his cronies are thrusting on us to forgo a massive change in Washington. It will not work Fareed! We know what has to be done to have a real "optimistic future." Replace Obama and his Socialist/Marxist wingmen. We will be far more optimistic when we are free of this clown of a President and have a fiscal manager in the White House doing what needs to be done to put American back on track!
The US is a not a business. Businessmen make AWFUL politicians. "Fiscal manager"? Doing what needs to be done? You mean like putting all those companies out of business and raking in the dough? Like that? Sounds great.
I'm still laughing over anyone a. equating Marxism and Socialism. They're not the same thing. and b. thinking the President of the United States and his administration are anything remotely resembling these.
Go ahead. Vote for a guy who thinks it's ok to drive his DOG around in a carrier on the ROOF of his car! Someone who doesn't even care about the welfare of an animal, doesn't give a cr*p about actual humans, either.
Fareed is optimistic because he KNOWS his beloved religion....Islam.....is on the march....worldwide!
?
Oh, I forgot.
We're only allowed to be christians.
My bad!
Sorry about one of your statements about being optimistic.......In the U.S. the current generation of children under 10 years of age is the first generation in our history whose life expectancy is less than their parents.
Also 2001 was the first time the U.S. had been attacked by anyone since Dec 1941 and before that 1812. The enemies were defeated and became allies. The current situation with our terrorist enemies is continuing and has changed our way of life and there is no foreseeable end to this problem.
*** The current situation with our terrorist enemies is continuing and has changed our way of life and there is no foreseeable end to this problem....
Those NEOCONS know what they are doing.
Everybody sucked up the kool aid.
There will be terrorism for the rest of our lives,
the enemy they created is just like playing whack-a-mole.
just keep putting one ft in front of the other every day
If we are fortunate enough to diffuse the global warming bomb, there will be many people who will say...what was all the fuss about? There was no problem to begin with. Worse that that, they will vociferously castigate those whose actions saved the world from itself. In the US, we call these shortsighted, misguided people "Republicans".
Another global warming wing-nut!
Let me guess: evolution doesn't exist, either.
These science deniers crack me up. They'll believe the most ridiculous things: a man coming back to life, someone walking on water, the Red Seas being parted, but bring up something that's actually TESTABLE and they freak out and call you a wing-nut. If there's a god, I'm pretty sure he/she/it wouldn't be cool with us using the earth as a giant port-a-potty. We're supposed to be "stewards of the earth", right?
We are in the Jimmy Carter phase of the next Reagan Revolution.
You betcha, fer sure.
The pendulum is starting to turn back to the left.
Too much damage from the right will do that.
Ah another piece by the "Obama can do not wrong" Fareed. Who is paying this moron, CNN or the DNC??? Good GOD so obvious. American think the country of going into the frigging toilet. Stop with the puff pieces already!
Another republican that cant read.
Obama's name was not mentioned.
Try again.......moron.
"American think the country of going into the frigging toilet."
Er. What?
Once the US Spring begins, I will be optimistic.
Why? Are you planning to poop on a sidewalk?
I am not a negative person, but I do like to remain in the real world. Perhaps things look better at this point is because when your economy, politics, and even world ecology has hit close to the bottom, where else do we have to go but up? Our world is in a mess right now, but we always have a chance to make things better. People don't realize that even the smallest thing that one person can do, can make the largest impact on so much.
The only people with a "grim outlook" are those Nattering Nabobs of Negativity, the newsmedia, and those who read their gloom and doom. Read Happy News Dot Com at least once a day, right before bed, and you'll see what I mean.
Nattering Nabobs of Negativity......
Judging by the posts they are all coming from Republicans.
You have been well trained.
For example, the regular news media only reports about dead or missing kids. But Happy News reported on a 12-year-old Florida boy who SAVED all 4 of his younger siblings in a fire last week. Why can't you ever write about stuff like that, CNN?
Good news is out there, it seems we get drawn to the bad...... I do it too, but then I read the good stuff and see, it's what I'm looking for, good or bad, it's all there, always has been, we choose what we want to see and focus on.
"Are in fact smarter than men, the evidence now is overwhelming: yes." "Female representatives in the House of Congress were able to bring back $49 million more in federal grants than their male counterparts." How exactly is that "overwhelming" evidence? And where are the rest of these studies? Zakaria's PhD is in political science, not neuroscience or statistics or cognitive psychology. If Zakaria's statement was intended to be humorous, it was an abject failure. If it was intended to be serious, Zakaria should stop marketing himself as an intellectual.
WITHOUT HOPE, why be here????? There is hope, there can ALWAYS be hope, there must be hope!!! I came close to losing all hope once and it was so sad and scary, but thankfully for friends, family and me, I pulled it together and have hope again. We can have a positive part in our todays and tomorrows, if we work, work, work at it. It takes effort, interest , creativity and just rolling up sleeves, taking heads out of the sand, get involved, care, share, hope. This is what we owe ourselves and our children and so on...... Life is a gift, full of challenges it's what we do about our challenges. We can do so much more together people, it's time to focus on the things we have in common on this planet and move forward, put aside the bickering and selfishness, let's work, sacrifice, give a darn about others and we will have a good today and future. God bless us all ! Reach out to anyone without hope and help them any way you can, it does matter!!!!
Not optimistic? Are you kidding? I'm having a field day with all you saps. I'm doing better than I ever did! And it just keeps getting better! HAHAHA
I hope you can find true hope for yourself.
Ahhh the words of Fareed Zakaria for Americans to live by... a man that dumped his native India to seek riches as guru to the liberal elite and pontificate to the American masses what it means to be American. Clean out the filth back in India Fareed Zakaria the children of your masses live in sewage filled squalor oblivious to India's elites as you..
He's from Pakistan, ya loon.
We are all going to die. Amen.
Speak for yourself.
Yeah,Fareed Zakaria member of secret society enjoying riches is telling us how nice it is.
Fareed is FOS. He's a socialist. All socialists are FOS.
Just look at Western Europe.
until the american people get sick of the disgraceful condition of the failing country and elect a president america will slowly move toward a major collapse.....
We have a president.
Try to keep up.
lol! No kidding....
These comments are getting more and more ridiculous.
Yes, change and progress should be embraced. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
That was a truthful and beautiful speech!
Well said, I enjoyed your view and agree, those graduating today are facing the most incredible possibilities any generation could imagine.
Don't worry USA has good control of world oil.You can drink oil.
I love all of this feedback, because I see that only a few people get the fact that what we experience in life, whether it is poverty, politics, economy, war, a terrible experience or many of them, it is up to us as one person to change the many things we see. We can only do that by starting with ourselves, and also by not being so judgemental of those around us and knowing that if we want people to be "Perfect" then they can do so the day after we do.
absolutely... it starts with the individual.
Fareed, I don't usually agree with you. But this is one of the most positive, enlightening and refreshing opinion columns I have read in a long, long time. Thank you.
Strangely enough, I find myself agreeing with Fareed Zakaria. I might disagree with him in almost all policy positions, but I couldn't agree more with "This country has its problems, but I would rather have America’s problems than most any other place in the world". Spot on! God bless the USA!
What optimism can you have when all Zakaria preaches is for the US to keep spending itself into oblivion, like the Greeks, the British, the Italians, the Spanish, and the French - and California.
Are you nuts?
As I said, I don't agree with what Mr Zakaria preaches as solutions for the US but I agree that the US has much to celebrate and to look up to. Despite Mr Zakaria and Obama's best efforts we will never be a Greece or a Spain. California is a different matter, although the US is much more than California.
spending itself into oblivion, ....................
Since Reagan, but you waited until Obama to complain about it.
Fernando...do you honestly believe the POTUS wants us to be in the same economic shape as Greece or Spain? Come on.
The last time we had to "search for optimism" in America was when Jimmy Carter was president. I voted for him. I never voted for another liberal Democrat.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. It doesn't create hope. It doesn't create optimism. It doesn't even create economic justice. It creates malaise. Plain and simple.
Malaise.
Republicanism creates fear, hate and division.
But it works because they always blame it on the Democrats.
Divide and conquor.
So being open-minded and accepting is a mental disorder? On what planet?
Of course this is all to be attributed to the obama administration . Am i correct liberal loonitics ? ( I know its misspelled ,so stuff it ).
Swallow this.
BUT THAT'S ALL TRUE. You are nothing in the business life if you do not have a wide and alternate look at things. Only a handful of people make money on what they believe. You make only a few changes in paralle with your beliees in the corporate world. The whole world is a parrallel stage of structures. But in general, when the whole world is evaluated in century basis. Albight! it is improving.
What a great speech! Fareed Zakaria has the ability to blend data and history in a very conversational manner. I like intellectuals who remain comprehensible! Empowering to know that we carry in our cell phones more computing power than the space ship which went to the moon! America is no doubt a great place to live, dream and succeed. I also liked how Mexico swiftly responded to the H1N1 virus outbreak, something that would have possibly caused 4 million deaths only 50 years ago. Maybe we humans are getting it together.
Minhaj Arifin
Author of
How Desis Became The Greatest Nation On Earth
Is this guy dreaming or what? This guy is looking at a different world than I am. I couldn't disagree more with his outlook of the world.
Well then maybe you need to change your outlook.
Reality is only how you choose to view the world.
Once in a while a great commencement speech will be given; this in my humble opinion, is one of those rare practical commencement speeches, ever!
Baloney.
Besides my personal opinion that everything Fareed writes is at least quite good, most of it superb, he addresses the very noticable fact that news reporting needs to go away from it's current negativism oriented view. That off course should not mean to avoid writing about bad stuff when it happens, but we should keep a certain balance ...otherwise that negativity it is like a contagious desease that spreads everywhere. And off course he is very right on this topic... look at history and see the big picture, despite terrible things that happen everywhere (which happended always but we would never have learned about it without todays technology) never ever have so many people lived under democratic governments, and at least at a certain level of security and stability that was never there in earlier times. A long road ahead of course, but we have come quite far, we should keep that clearly in mind.
A commencement speech to a bunch of (mostly) rich, privileged young adults...many of who will go on to work on Wall Street earning unjustifiable incomes, all the while, screwing the working people of America. That's just geat (rolling eyes). I think Bill Gates had the right idea about dropping out of Harvard. Nothing to see here, and nothing to learn of value. Move along, and if it initially doesn't work out for the Harvard grad, never fear, mommy and daddy will get you the connections and financial backing you need to succeed. Something most other college grads can only dream about.
They give the same upbeat addresses everywhere.
He also spoke at Duke's commencement.
Take a chill pill.
the best reason for optimism is an election and then a new president
New president will bring nothing new, only new ways of making people fool.A president elected by getting money from others during election can only work for those who have given him money.
And you think Obama is laying golden eggs that he then cashes to run his campaign?
Everything will be fine after we remove every Tea Party member from congress.
Hard to move forward when you face a brick wall.
Romney fills you with optimism? That's funny.
Or do you belong to the ridiculous "Anyone but Obama" camp?
It's so horrible having a person of color in the White House!
That was sarcasm, btw.
Good article. But what worries me is the deficit spending that is taking down Europe. Unfortunately, we here in America are addicted to deficit spending. Now with a debt of 100% of GDP, the optimism needs to be tempered by reality.
I was born in 1959, and seriously doubt the average life expectancy of people born today will exceed or even meet the average life expectancy of people born when I was regardless of increasing medical technology. Technology does not offset obesity, which has become a serious health issue and which is certain to reduce life expectancy significantly.
Then, dont become obese.
Problem solved.
i'm so sorry Fareed, but the long emergency has begun and theres nothing that you or anyone can do to stop this long slide into the 18th century. our grandchildren will live in a world unrecognisable to us, if they are the lucky and the strong.....but first a deep breath before the plunge....
Omg. Seriously? Why not just go jump off a bridge then?
You're ridiculous.
And whiny.
The US is in the crapper, It doesnt have the means to support the amount of people it takes in anymore. Like when was the last time anything was made here?
newsflash: the manufacturing sector is actually exporting things now.
I'm so exhausted by you gloom and doom people.
Predictions are surly frevolous as the universe is neutral and balanced by the realms of the infinite possibilities (Every Nano Second). We are all neutral and all are instrumental to totality. Life is involuntry experience
I maintain that no one can predict anything exactly, as long as the total computation is still in progress!
Interesting as always, Mr. Zakaria. The section on peace was especially intriguing. Wish our military budget reflected this reality. But still, very interesting and enjoyable article. Thanks!
Dec 21 2012 isnt gonna make things anybetter ;/ Doomsday NOOOOO!
I'm stupidly happy...Everything's fine...I'm stupidly happy... My heart pumping wine...I'm stupidly happy...with idiot grin...I'm stupidly happy...It's surely a sin...
I will start feeling more optimistic as soon as I see more Made in USA products and less Made in China ones.
This can only happen by stopping the strategy of oil looting and concentrating on your own business.
Perfectly said.
don't tell the republicans. They will find a way to make it sound really bad.
Too late.
He is babbling like a fool. No content. Highly overrated individual and overpaid. His speaking fee is $75K to dish out junk like this...
My personal observations were that the GOP seeing they had nothing for a candidate in 2008 did their best the tank the economy and financial markets so they could turn over a wreck of a country and blame it on the incoming administration. Ever since the GOP stonewalling of anything and everything in Congress has attempted to destroy the country and it economic footing. Wake up GOP you are shooting yourselves in the testicles and wondering why you are in pain!
Americans can think in an optimistic as they are not being killed.I don't think people in Africa and Afghanistan are optimistic.
Then why don't you stop killing each other, Einstein?
Sorry. Einstein was Jew.
Didn't mean to offend your bigotry, you a ho le.
Yes genius but we are not talking about people in Afghanistan or Africa are we?
your article compels me to want to respond. i sit here thinking about profound insightful phrases that express how important i feel the message you bring is to all americans. unfortunatele the sensationalistic media conditions us to always see the glass as half empty and draining rapidly. there is so much negativity in the media that we forget to see the forest and not just concentrate on one tree. so rather than attemt to write something profound in my comments to you, i have concluded that the best response that i have for you is "thank you" for reminding us all to see the forest. i think that you are brilliant in your analysis.
The advancements in technology and medicine are very encouraging. However, for Americans, the news isn't great since many of the gains in the third world countries are being offset by losses in the U.S. and Europe, further made worse by idiotic globalist treaties, like the Kyoto Treaty that allowed unrestricted carbon output by India and China. This resulted in China building dozens of new coal plants and becoming the world's top carbon emitter while losing thousands of workers due to mining accidents. Though, China's one child policy is also probably resulting partially in it's ascent. When parents have one child in a culture like China that values education, it's going to crush the dumb culture of the poor in the U.S. with 5 kids on public assistance. Also, it's naive too say that immigrants have a "fierce love for America". At the low-end immigrants from Mexico are here for economic opportunities and typically send money back to family in Mexico and their allegiance was quite clear in the Mexico vs. U.S. soccer game in Los Angeles where the U.S. team was booed.. On the top end, there is Eduardo Saverin who emigrated from Brazil and then renounced his U.S. citizenship in time to avoid paying millions in U.S. taxes.
Optimism? Not for Kashmiris
NEW YORK: Renowned Indian activist and novelist Arundhati Roy has decried the silence of the international community over the continued “brutal Indian occupation of Kashmir” and said Kashmiris should be given the right to self-determination.
“Kashmir is one of the most protracted and bloody occupations in the world — and one of the most ignored,” she told a large audience at the Asia Society during a discussion on “Kashmir — a case for freedom”.
Under the Indian military rule in Kashmir, Ms Roy said, freedom of speech was non-existent and human rights abuses were routine. Elections were rigged and the press controlled.
She said the lives of Kashmiris were made miserable by gun-totting security personnel who harassed and terrorised people with impunity, adding that disappearances were almost a daily occurrence as also kidnapping, arrests, fake encounters and torture. Mass graves have been discovered and the conscience of the world remains unstirred……
The apathy towards Kashmir, especially in the western world, Ms Roy said, was because of their pursuit of commercial interests in India where they were more eager to “sell their goods than human rights”……..
Optimism?... Not for Christians in India !!!
New, More Dangerous Hindu Extremist Groups Emerge in India
Christians concerned as rightwing factions splinter to form militant outfits.
PUNE, India, October 29 (CDN) — After more than a decade of severe persecution, India’s Christian minority is growing increasingly concerned over the mushrooming of newer and deadlier Hindu extremist groups.
Gone are the days when Christians had to watch out only for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, which are closely linked with the most influential Hindu extremist umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). With voter support faltering for the RSS’s political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), moderate and extremist sections within the Hindu nationalist movement are blaming each other, and militant splinter groups have emerged.
Claiming to be breakaway factions of the RSS, new groups with even more extreme ideology are surfacing. The Abhinav Bharat (Pride of India), the Rashtriya Jagran Manch (National Revival Forum), the Sri Ram Sene (Army of god Rama), the Hindu Dharam Sena (Army for Hindu Religion) and the Sanatan Sanstha (Eternal Organization) have launched numerous violent attacks on Christian and Muslim minorities
Fareed Zakaria FYI has Masters from Yale and a PHD Harvard. Let's call it the way it i, very smart guy at times scary smart. This isn't at all about religion yet more so about opinion. Zakaria's opinion is a educuated one at least. I recommend if you listen more than move your lips you would better understand what he is saying. Sometimes the truth does hurt.
If what he said was truth, you'd be right. It isn't, and you're not. And truth isn't the only thing that hurts. Sometimes BS hurts more, as evidenced in Fareed's nonsense.
Very inspiring speech, Zakaria. It's good to pat ourselves on the back for our accomplishments occasionally. At the same time, the future faces great challenges, possibly greater challenges than we've ever faced.
Perhaps the greatest of all is the extremely rapid advance of technology. 100 years ago, humanity was using horse drawn carriages and living in farm communities. Now, we drive hybrid cars and live in dense cities. We can only wonder what the next 100 years will bring and what we take for granted today will be entirely replaced by 2100.
We also can't discount the frequency of global tragedy. We got lucky that H1N1 wasn't more aggressive, and we got lucky that the Great Recession seems to have had a soft landing, this time. However, we can be confident that such tragedies will recur over the next 100 years, including recurrences of the Chinese flu and Great Depression. We have to hope the younger generation will be adequately ready to deal with such challenges.
Dear Fareed,
you are the best.
huggles
N in Ca
Beautifully and wisely said by you Fareed, especially in the last paragraph, congrats.
Dear Fareed,
I still loved the optimism of this address. I was there. Remember me, YOu spelled my name wrong and corrected it with a flourish. I have been struggling for a way to begin my book on creativity, and you gave me the anecdote.
Also thanks for the pix: YOu look handsome and I look like some one old enough to be your mother!
Wait! I am old enough to be your mother, She must be SO proud of you.
Best wishes RosIE
In the past I have experienced little joy in Mr. Zakaria's musings...this one is quite the exception. Bravo!
https:// vimeo dott com/16724719
Fareed sounds like Voltaire's Candide – that we live in the best of possible worlds. The point is, there exists the Law of the Conservation of Trouble. By the time they have driven the enemy out, humans start to quarrel with the neighbours and when that is done they start to think their house should be painted, and after that they look in the mirror and want plastic surgery. When that is too expensive, they hit their children, then feel guilty and fiercely start to read some old religious book, start hating others, after which you get war etc. It is not a bad idea to have some feel-good messages from time to time, but don't overdo it. My advice to graduates: You cannot sit still, you have to be on top of things, because you can lose your savings, your house, your jobs, get mugged, get arrested for political ideas or worse. Your parents cannot do anything about all that, you're on your own now.
brilliant, well said
Hello Fareed,
I like your article and I watch your program frequently, I just have to say this whatever bad West is doing in rest of the world, if God is there one day it will come back...and I think it will be soon.
Thanks
I am optimistic that America will return to common sense. This is the lesson my generation learned after we elected Jimmy Carter. Now it's this generation's turn.
And I don't think they're that stupid.
Optimism is centered around Obama joining Jimmy Carter's "one and done club"
Yes! Let's hope so.
Fareed Zakaria is the best Harvard could do for its commencement speaker? Seriously?? And the above is a MODIFIED version? Good grief, what a self-absorbed bore. If this is what they call wisdom nowadays, we're all in deep caca.
make USA one party government "GOP" and no body dare like fareed ever deliver such speech because Jesus never taught optimism -God bless USA!
People love to be negative. It plays into their ego to criticize. They feel superior when they point out what other people are doing wrong. Of course, they have an innate bias that everything they think or do is the best way to do it, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. I'm guilty of this in this very post. But my point is I think we should recognize this in ourselves–be heedful–and not be fooled by our own minds.
Bear in mind that he is delivering his speech to Harvard graduates, most of whose parents are at least One Percenters. People graduating from state or community colleges, or from high schools in places where jobs are scarce, have considerably less reason for optimism.
Mr. Zakaria is always such a refreshing voice of reason in an age where partisan blowhards and asinine circus barkers dominate our increasingly infantile public discourse, an age in which ignorance is celebrated as a virtue and reasonable people are demonized.
While I can't argue with the irrefutable facts he uses as the basis for his optimistic worldview, the world faces some intractable challenges, starting with seven billion mouths to feed and population growth exploding faster than mankind's ability to increase the production of food and clean water. Meanwhile, continued global economic growth remains almost wholly dependent upon dwindling natural resources that are becoming ever more expensive and technologically difficult to exploit.
Can we overcome these challenges? Of course. But the solutions will not be found in religion or politics, nor in the asinine rants of loudmouthed cable news and talk radio personalities, and certainly not on the trading floors of Wall Street. As always, it will be the great thinkers--the highly educated scientists and innovators of new technologies that will save our rear-ends. And as always, most of them will never be known to the general public, because they are too busy in their labs, workshops and R&D facilities to bloviate about their achievements on cable news.
I THINK TO MANY PEOPLEIN THIS WORLD JUST DON'T GIVE TO CRAP'S ABOUT ANYTHING,&I'M SORRY FOR SAYING THIS BUT EVERYBODY JUST SHUT THE F...CK & PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU!,NOT EVERYONE ELSE! THAT'S WHY WE HAVE WARS PEOPLE JUST DON'T CARE EXCUSE ME IF I'M WRONG & I'M SURE I'M STARTING A FIRESTORM HERE BUT WHO CARES, LEAVE ME OUT OF IT!.
Good point Shelly. Nobody really cares what you think.
I can tell you what NOT to be optimistic about – the Economy under Obama....
I too would be optomistic, IF the power structure, which is the people with the money, which equates to the 1%, finally the protestors have the numbers right, if the 1% who truly pull the strings at the mega corporations loosen up the purse strings, invest in their businesses, physically and through workers, as a way to increase corporate income, instead of firing workers to prop up profit projections one more quarter. You can basically say ditto on their personal front, though expanded far beyond the 1%, the top 10%, or 15%, which takes you down to about $100,000 in income a year, open up the purse strings and buy consumer durables, fix their houses, build new ones, hire help, and otherwise pump the economy with money they are sitting on.
In the US alone, as of over a year ago, the top 10% had pocketed a trillion in net worth increases in a decade, and corporations had banked a trillion dollars overseas to keep it from being taxed in the US.
The people, middle class and poor Americans, Chineses peasants or even the "middle class" factory workers who don't know if the factory will still be open next month, African villagers, Greek pensioners, etc. etc. will not be able to spend the economy into recovery, we don't have any money to spend. No incrases in wages in a decade, and recently, in the last year, income began shrinking for the US middle class.
If capital flow isn't changed, the economy is going no where with a bullet.
Notice, that is what it is doing.
I'm just guessing that you did not major in economics. Or math.
Well i guess Mr.Zakaria maybye there is hope for optimisvm.
..the freedoms American's have were hard fought with their very blood. Today, across the USA there a re millions upon millions upon millions of illegals taking jobs from unemployed Americans, our youth, our Vets. This is something that has not happened before. ..loop holes in our tax system whereas illegals claim up to 30 children cost America 4.2 billion, that's 10 million a day, which Americans pay, has not happened before. To maintain what was created by Americans we must reclaim our country from illegals AND corporations. ...look up NumbersUSA... register and reclaim your country.
Here we go again....scape goats, anyone?
Can we please have an intelligent discussion about REAL problems, or does everuything ultimately end in the same ol' same ol'? Immigrants, unions, gays, abortions, welfare moms....did I catch the biggies?
The 1% on Wall Street and those with secret bank accounts in the islands love it when their loyal surrogates (usually elderly religious people with little education and not much to show for a lifetime of work) bring up these proven "talking points". Are you all really that ignorant, to believe whatever Rush Limbaugh or those Fox Clowns feed you each day?
Enough with the low IQ babble! The news media needs to stop catering to idiots! No more "questioning" birther reports or engaging in yet another discussion about whether evolutiuon should be removed from science curriculum. Stop babying those who insist on being babies. We also need to stop talking about that bigoted ghost in the sky! There is no place for ignorance in public, and certainly not on the taxpayer's dime!
... scape goat if YOU are not affected by what is happening to the average American. ... and the AVERAGE AMERICAN will tell you they cannot find work.. and they will tell you that their neighborhood is overwhelmed by millions of illegals. Where do you live that you have not encountered the reality of the AVERAGE AmericanQ
Optimism means to look at reality and to deal with it. Common sense and a desire to be part of the good in this world will lead us forward, no matter what.
We may be in a global depression, but has life ever been better for this world's population than it is right now? Has there ever been a decade where this was a better world for all people than the current one?
The good old days were not good at all. Those who came before us had a much harder life, and much less to be thankful for. Our problem is not realizing that. We want more than we need, yet fear giving more than we must. A little more sense of community and a little less complaining could go a long way. We never had it so good.
...it sounds as though you are not in touch with what is going on...
The problem is that I AM in touch with what's going on. I gave elaborate reasons for my optimism, while you offered nothing but a bumper sticker slogan. Which one of us posseses the power of reasonable argument? Just saying NO isn't exactly a contribution to any discussion.
I am not going to ask whom you are supporting in November. That's clear.
I think you are a troll who sits in your moms basement and spouts nonsense. You grandiose views of the world and your intellect support my opinion. Stop. Please. You are embarrassing yourself.
But the world is not a safe place! We need to spend trillions more on our military. Russia is our number one foe. Long live the Cold War!
Sarcasm is wasted on the low IQ Tea Partiers. Unless you are serious, please don't joke about things that could be dangerous. Remember Palin's "cross hairs" remark? Innocent people died because a deranged man took it seriously.
We don't need a stronger military. Most of the trillions shoved down that rat hole end up in off shore accounts like Mr. Chaney and Mr. Rumsfeld. There are a few very rich Americans benefiting greatly from a "strong US Military". The rest of us will pay to our grave for this "secure America" aka "milked dry by clever business men". If you are a reader, intelligent and educated enough to know better, stop pretending to be one of the Fox News watchers.
Compare the Bible to the National Enquirer. I have read one of them from cover to cover. It strengthened my atheism. Guess which one I read. Warning: sarcasm would not be the way to go in your response!
Maybe you can think up some good social programs with all that money we waste on the military. After all you have the high IQ and you seem to be a pretty open minded sort.
I bet you are an old hipster and not some frustrated occupy college kid. Thanks for sharing your views. You make these comments a joy to read..
i've never read such a crock either in the article or response what idiots
These words from Mr. Zakaria are helpful to show us balance and persective when there is so much needless division and stress among us.
Uh. Don't be so quick to credit Fareed for the words. He's been known to borrow a phrase or two...
And the big "negative" in all of these positive things is that now we have to share limited resources a little more with the other 7 billion humans and the population keeps growing.
...as long as illegals are getting tax credits for children, in the USA or in Mexico, the population will continue to grow – the incentive for illegals is a years salary just for having kids... sound outrageous, insane, ... ask Harry Reid why he supports this.. and then go to NumbersUSA.. register and take action to stop this
The big population explosion we all feared back in the 1970s never rally happened. Remember the forecasts of doublling world population every 30 years? We're at 7 billion today, with an expected 10-11 billion by 2050. At that point the world population is expected to taper off and remain there.
How many children did your great grand parents have? Your grand parents? Your parents? You? Your children?
Get it? Nobody has as many children as their bodies will produce anymore. It's called planned parenthood. Are you in support of it, or against it? The future belongs to the rationalists. Anti-contraception ideology is a thing of the past. We won't have much of such thick-skulled foolishness from here on. 2012 is the last year for this sort of thing to be "popular".
No more doubling world population. No atomic annihilation either. Can you accept that, or is that going against some part of your specific vision for the future?
..I guess nobody told Harry Reid.. because right now, illegals here in the USA get tax credits for kids ... and illegals will claim up to 30.. even kids in MX. sound like insanity? ... go to NumbersUSa.. register and put a stop to this!!
nonsense Fareed, nonesense! as an Iranian citizen who's ruled by a sacrosanct government, promoting backwardness for the past 32 years, your words never mean anything to me. I was under the impression that an American-Indian journalist of your stature should talk more sense in global terms... didn't do your assignment well this time, Fareed.
Now you will judge a commnetator by his ethnic background? Next you'll investigate him for communist sympathising?
Are there any grown-ups on the fringe of the Tea Party spectrum, or only blind sheep with their brand new (and unread) Bibles in one hand, and a gigantic American flag in the other? You are embarassing us as a nation. The entire world laughs at us, and you keep up the dog and pony show like you're some kind of roseo star.
Lincold did many extraordinary things for America. Holding on to the South may not have been such a blessing. The successionists now claim to be the patriots. Irony or sheer hypocrisy?
I sometimes wonder what Fareed is smoking and where I can get some.
if we were atheists, this wouldn't have happened
I for one would like to see someone tell it like it is. Tell these young people to go out and force a change. All Fareed is doing is promoting conformity and status quo. Nicely written though!
I'm sorry, but it's *very* foolish to not be realistic right now. It's one of the things this current generation in power is going to be criticized for when being written about for the terrible mistakes they've made. The inflation from QE4 is going to hit in January and the economy clearly can *not* handle that. And the debt and deficts aren't magical little unicorn-land fabrications that people make up just to have something to talk about; they're very very real and they *will* be paid for one way or another.
If you want optimism, start feeling optimistic when people stop lying about what the current situation truly is and start fixing it. We have nothing to fear but our own utter stupidity and the childishness of living in denial at the exact wrong time to be doing so.
Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future
http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html
Personally, it seems that Fareed Zakaria, is a shallow thinker ... Perhaps, he too, is a new world order advocate, with a specific agenda, much like our president ... The world is in a mess !!! ... The potential for catastrophe, not only exists, but remains a clear & present danger ... America, must lead the way ... However, this is impossible, without quality leadership ... We are sorely lacking in this area of expertise ....................
Great address. Inspirational and a necessary reminder. Makes being a journalist a worthy profession.
There is nothing more irritating than the lazy-mind of the uncompassionate optimistic, incapable of feeling sympathy for the billions of people trapped in the vicious circle of poverty, or the millions affected by the unlimited greed of the few working in the corrupted global financial system. The uncompassionate optimistic is incapable of seeing the suffering of hundreds of billions of animals treated and killed inhumanely to feed the lucky ones. The uncompassionate optimistic could care less for the thousands of species pushed to extinction through the pollution of our land and our air, the over-exploitation of our oceans, and the unstoppable cutting of our forests. Like the author of this article, the uncompassionate optimistic is incapable of seeing the suffering of others; therefore, they are incapable of providing meaningful solutions; they are only good in spreading the poison of their optimistic indifference.
Time for your meds.
nice article – didn't you get dizzy and lost while writing relativistic numbers, facts in history with absolute astonnishing insights?
Yes, the world is a better place than fifty years ago and during the middle age. But Caku (an american scientist) went through Europe with visions about the post-millenium age telling me as a young student, the progress is a train, if we don't jump on the train, we see genocide, poverty etc. There has been many train accidents since 1998. I don't like this view on different cultures! I think it is more important to decide in what direction scientific research should be go on, how to talk properly about facts and truth and non-facts and fiction and imagination and empiric evidence and how to saveguard our recourses: water, environment, mental health...You are right, the world community can manage a lot and probably that's the real progress in the next centuries!
Coming from a writer who is financially sound; a nice salary, home other amenities and very unrealistic. This article was written in a bubble. If Mr. Zakaria lived as most of the human population, he would have a completely different outlook.
Did it occur to you that FZ might not be the real author?
Why anyone would want to go back to the Bush years, I find has incredible amnesia. Obama was handed the worse mess in history and the fact that he has turned the country around at all is a miracle. Republicans don't cut government they just cut spending. Republicans love big government especially when they are in controlled.
What did Obama turn around? Was it the unemployment rate?
Reblogged this on Ms. Hyland's Class and commented:
This is unbelievably refreshing. We always hear such negativity, and it's nice to see a different take on the world and interpret the facts in a positive way.
Reblogged this on cindyriswantyo and commented:
I thought this is an intelligent and modest deliberation by FZ
Nice article, Fareed.
It reminds me of this monologue I once heard from a funny guy named Art Buchwald. He was very short, saying simply, “Remember, we are leaving you this perfect world. Don’t mess it up.”
Keep up the good work!
Who writes this stuff? Really.
Fareed,
Are you sure Art Buchwald said that? it sounds like something you might have said in the past. Seriously, Thanks for being such a great source of humor. I can't think about your plagarisim and not laugh.
Great topic on creating jobs in Germans and the Dutch, whose unemployment is 5%...This required the cooperation between the three section of the Economy: The Government, Schools and Business, however if Romney wants smaller Govenment this will never work in USA.
Has anyone really looked at what Mitt Romney was saying when he said " WE ARE FOUR YEARS CLOSER TO A NUCLEAR BOMB WITH OBAMA " What Romney is saying is that we might already be at war with Iran if he were the president!!!! This is very clear to me and to millions of other US citizens. Please while there is still time make this clear to every US citizen.
Bob Evermon US citizen born on a farm in Iowa.....
Facts show we are doing quite well in America, regardless of what Fox news reports. Seems the only time I hear people talking about how bad things are is on the news, is positive thinking now a vice in the "new" republican era?
Fareed committed PLAGIARISM!!!! He copied the work of other people and called it his own. Why is CNN putting up with him? If you're also outraged, please talk about his plagiarism on this forum!!!!
Reason for optimism; hardly. The only reason for optimism I see is that the world monetary market system is surely destined for failure and maybe we can provide a new model for moving forward economically and socially why are books hundreds of years old still a go to for economic theory with our science and know how it is possible in today's world for no one to go hungry. Now we have a chance to build based on our new technologies make a clean efficient planet that's safer provides goods for many and in which money is not the core of our society but rather relationship, and ,personal growth.
What a bunch of crap. What made the U.S. great was free markets, not government coercive action. Individuals working together without interference from state coercion is where all of this progress really comes from. Zakaria is a card-carrying member of the council on foreign relations, which promotes globalist, elitest control over the rights of free individuals
I learn to appreciate this country more each day. Looking at the rest of the globe and seeing there minuscule national issues which will never be resolved I realize the advancements that United States has made over the years. It is not doubt that US graduates are amongst the luckiest in the world and have a much brighter future than millions of others. This article makes me think about the large population of women in other countries like India and China. Women and children are deprived of the chance for education we receive here in the US. Each day my appreciation for education I receive in this country increases. People need to stop being ignorant and realize what and who this country is made of. Optimism is what has brought our country this far and is what allows us to grow each day. I appreciate your writing and courage.
Dear Fareed,
Sorry – I stopped reading in between, because of this overwhelming optimism,I couldn't stand! There is too much relativism in the opinion-makers from elite staff at universities. Some philosophers calls their view positivism – just going ahead, despite any outcry, the statistical facts are like a tank, crossing over little ants: in the name of progress, progress and progress! Even the absence of war, doesn't mean that there isn't an ongoing war with other means. You needn't hear a bullet... but to talk about peace in an over-silent road in Alleppo, is more than exaggerated, even cynical! So: every time has its problems and historical elite prattle, is worse nothing!
I want to tell you, that I personally don't mind, paying some money for good journalism and shows placed at itunes. So I also see the need of education and information – this all costs a lot of money and you need experience and talent. I can't afford your i-tune podcasts and extra-shows, because as a former-student with the status over-qualified, over-educated, too old for being a low-paid trainee in publishing-agencies and newspaper-editing, there is no money left! People ought to pay prices for newspapers, that are very interesting and fascinating, but as over-qualified some of them could write the articles themselves. But – they don't get any money, they even don't get a chance. So there are only a few writers and many articles and their intensive work is often also not paid enough, because it is so time consuming! So – my view used to be optimistic, but goes negative – more and more!