Excerpt From 'The Big Shift'

We seem to have lost the essence of the human project centered on the generative impulse to pass on life's lessons to future generations. As Harvard Medical School scholar George Vaillant argues, "Biology flows downhill." It is human nature to focus on the well-being of future generations. That's part of true maturity, of accepting limits. We're also endangering the parallel impulse, what might be called the American project, the responsibility to make things better for future generations. That has always been the immigrant dream for America. It is a cornerstone of the American Dream, the belief that one's children should have it better than we do. … Back to Article