I heard Howard Gardner speak at PC Forum about his facinating theory that there has been a delcine in "societal trustees" in American society over the past few decades. Societal trustees are well known, trusted, respected "wise men" whom both average people and elites typically look to for guidance. I think he's right. The example of decline that I would have used is the modern day lack of a John Kennedy. Gardner does allude to another group of "wise men" closely associated with Kennedy [McGeorge Bundy, John Lindsay, Paul Moore, Elliot Richardson, and Cyrus Vance] but fails to point out how profoundly influential Kennedy himself was. The young people of today simply can't imagine how inspiring Kennedy was at the time, and how that lead to his being, for me at least, the ultimate societal trustee. The only thing that disappointed me about Gardner is that I wanted him to be an objective trustee as well. But apparently, he just couldn't help himse
"Anything you can't spell will never work." --Will Rogers