The Disruptive Force of Individualism
As DisruptDC’s president, I was honored to participate in the 15th Annual Conference by Columbia University’s Center on Capitalism and Society which is headed by Edmund Phelps, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics. The conference theme was The Age of the Individual: 500 Years Ago Today. The gathering was held in New York City on October 31, 2017 — the 500th anniversary to the day of Martin Luther’s decision to post his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg Castle Church. Luther’s 1517 posting — to protest the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church, among other practices — launched the Protestant Reformation, one of the great disruptions of the modern era.
Some 200 participants attended the daylong conference, which featured lunchtime keynote remarks by Peter Jungen, the chairman of Peter Jungen GmbH and the Honorary Chair of the Center’s Advisory Board, on which I also serve. The dinner speaker was the prominent French economist, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, professor of economics at Sciences-Po in Paris.
I chaired a panel discussion on “Individualism, Humanities, and Education.” The speakers included: Peter Pazzaglini, Senior Scholar at Columbia’s Heyman Center for the Humanities; Mark Berner, CEO and Co-chairman of Telos; Rosa Hakakian, a award-winning writer and member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center; and Barnaby Marsh, founding partner at Saint Partners and former Senior Executive at the Templeton Foundation.
Wall Street Journal columnist James Mackintosh, who also chaired two panels at the Conference, wrote an excellent column about the Conference titled “What 500 Years of Protestantism Teaches Us About Capitalism’s Future.” More information about the conference and the Center on Capitalism and Society may be found on their website.
Finally, if you haven’t already read Ned Phelps’s excellent book, Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change (Princeton University Press, 2013), I highly recommend it. Mass Flourishing is filled with insights as to how we can restore innovation, productivity, and a general flourishing of the U.S. economy. As Professor Phelps puts it (on page 314): “… there is much rot in the once modern institutions.” Major structural reforms are clearly needed throughout our society, our government, and our economic institutions.
DisruptDC is extremely pleased and proud that Ned Phelps is also one of the early endorsers of our open letter calling for important structural government reforms, and we look forward to future collaboration toward a flourishing economy for all Americans.
