Michael Painter
Aug 25, 2017 · 3 min read

Mike’s (slightly) Cynical Rumination on Aspen (Ideas) 2017

Literally, “Maroon Bells”

Aspen is a study in contrasts. Make no mistake I love Colorado. Love skiing and cycling the best places. The natural setting in and around Aspen must be one of the most stunning on the planet. Independence Pass. The Maroon Bells (they are literally giant, perma-snow-dabbled 14,000 foot “maroon bells” I realized once I rode my bike up there). (Psst-Castle Creek valley is the better ride.) It’s true I had some incomparable early morning rides that rival any I’ve had anywhere. Then there are the omnipresent double black summertime green ski slopes looming over town. I would never turn down a ski trip there. No way.

And yet . . . that venue is problematic, isn’t it? The rich, our cute rich almost entirely white folk who congregate there, act as if they’ve commandeered this sacred place — as if they think they own it. They sure behave as if this place is theirs and theirs alone. As if. (Still if I saw one more skinny, late middle-aged white woman in stiletto heels and tapered jeans huffing around town my head was going to explode.) For those of us fighting for a better healthy future for all that venue has a tiny bit of dissonance. I couldn’t decide if it was ground zero for all that’s wrong with America or if it (the social scene not the natural setting!) was merely a sick symptom of what ails us.

I went to the last part of the Aspen Ideas Festival, dubbed Festival 2, because of the focus on Climate Change and AI (artificial intelligence not Aspen Ideas!). Standouts during this part of the conference included James Balog, a superb photographer chronicling the havoc we’re wreaking on our one and only planet (There is no planet B!). Ruth Gates, “the coral lady”, gave the best most coherent passionate defense of our planet I’ve heard. The Frank Bruni and John McWhorter exchange about left wing student campus fascists was a highlight. Joy Buolamwini, graduate researcher at MIT Media Lab and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, is a young black woman advocating for algorithm justice and someone to watch. Our tech pioneer soothsayer, Tim O’Reilly, rocked it Friday evening over wine with about 150 of us talking WTF (his upcoming new book, What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us?). Thursday evening, David Petraeus seemed brilliant, off-the-charts gung ho, but brilliant.

And then there was Elaine Chao.

I adored the town bike share.

Totally loved messing with the recycling Nazis guarding the refuse bins on the Aspen Ideas campus.

“Sir, everything you have there goes . . . in . . . COMPOST!!”

I’d say something like, “Ha! Incorrect! You missed the piece of foil!!”

It’s the small victories, you know.

I wish the participants hadn’t been 99.9999999999999% old, well-to-do white folks. In the session on violent college student snowflakes, Frank Bruni and John McWhorter kept referring to “white privilege” which was hilarious enough given the apartheid-like look of literally the entire audience.

One elderly, gentleman dressed in pastel yachting attire raised his hand and asked, “What is this ‘white privilege’ you keep mentioning? I’ve never heard of that . . . “

And Trump was everywhere — mostly as a verbal tick. In almost every session I found myself thinking, “Don’t say Trump. Don’t do it . . . just don’t, God, please . . . “

And every single time every speaker did.

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