Too few good men and women
BY ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 12/31/20 9:30 AM ET
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Greg Nash
There are always those who will rise to the occasion no matter the circumstances. These men and women set new standards by doing remarkable things and by pushing our conception of what’s possible. Why can’t we increase the number of “remarkable” people from a few to many? Furthermore, what’s getting in the way of creating more pathways to success?
Recently, I was watching “The Men Who Built America” on the History Channel, a six-hour, four-part miniseries that focuses on how five self-made men helped to transform the United States into a global superpower. Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford were titans of their respective industries, continuously innovating and revolutionizing society.
Yet in 2020 — and earlier, frankly — we seemed to have strayed away from that type of drive and ingenuity. While the founders of today’s digital giants have created multibillion-dollar companies, some of what has happened in the digital space has done more harm than good for our society. At times, society seems to be set back by digital innovation: From the way we see each other to the way we communicate, hostility is at an all-time high and much of it occurs online. Unlike the great men of the past who created things from which people benefited in positive and lasting ways, that is no longer the standard today. Those who create today aren’t like those of yesterday, who prioritized the good of the masses. Make no mistake, while they were all very competitive, they were also principled men and most concerned with benefiting the common good.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/532058-too-few-good-men-and-women/
