America the Beautiful?

The promise from our amber waves of grain…

The nation we live in has taken a sea to shining sea emotional and existential beating of late.

Far too many people are experiencing an unwelcome condition -- an unprecedented level of uncertainty about the future. We begin to ruminate in our inner hearts, have we have lost our way? Have we depleted our legacy values and diminished the collective sense of pride in our democracy as a free-thinking and open society? Is America’s Golden Age in the rearview mirror? Are we subtly in decline like the corrupt Roman Empire that fell from grace once before??

For context it’s helpful to look back at our genesis story -- the Great Upheaval, an apt historical description of tectonic shift when our nation was established as the world’s first true democracy. You’ll find a theme threaded throughout – our founders’ enlightened focus on respect for freedom of choice and individual pursuit of happiness aided by a new telemetry on government that’s designed to be of the people, for the people and by the people. In its era, this was an extreme, disruptive and ‘revolutionary’ concept. It sent chills and shockwaves through royal house dynasties around the globe. For thousands of years governments were controlled by monarchs and emperors, not citizens, who were generational beneficiaries of often despotic wealthy family control. In turn they exerted hegemony over everyone else. Two centuries later, most of the worlds’ governments are now guided by some form of democracy, a sort of back-handed acknowledgment that our grand experiment is worth keeping.

What’s happened to the “shining city upon a hill”, our America, as glowingly described by Ronald Regan in his 1989 farewell address to the nation?

In fact, we remain a gleaming, bright beacon for humanity if you pause to consider what we benefit from that flows in the veins of our national DNA.

Reflections on the promise of America writ large

When you start out on the right foot (freedom vs. restriction, oppression or repression), you have an opportunity to redefine how the world around you operates. Yes, we’ve made monumental mistakes with slavery and how the indigenous nations here were unfairly and violently manipulated during our awkward developmental history. That said George Washington and those that followed did not morph into Kings or Emperors. We are the first society to create a wide pathway of opportunity for people to better themselves without regard to class, or family heritage, social status or inherited wealth. In more recent times, while shamefully late, race barriers have begun to dissipate. Just remarkable when looked at in context of the world in recorded history of rigid social strata, widespread discrimination and dynastic rule.

A recent study on the current global milieu of economic progress charted the widening gap of productivity and growth between the USA and its original heritage allies in Europe. One report characterized Europe as an ‘industrial museum’ whose progress momentum slackened following World War II. A slowing of novel innovation may be partially responsible.

We find ourselves in America today as the most creative, dynamic, resourceful, inventive country on earth -- one that isn’t burdened by legacy and handcuffs forged on exclusionary privilege bestowed by historical family pedigree. Sure, we have neo-classes of wealth and a form of aristocratic privilege here. But there’s no locked gate, no tangible barrier that operates to restrict or bar a path to rise above our station. There may be hills to overcome but they are mostly social or temperament rather than legal impediments.

The freedom we enjoy exists in real terms and operates in the background to help us invent, to think, to create, to solve without regard for impenetrable legacy or tradition. It has spawned the incredible and growing list of achievements we experience in technology, energy, food, fashion, entertainment and lifestyle. We have the most efficient food production system on earth that works to provide abundance at the lowest cost per capita of any nation. Our transportation systems, while certainly not without flaws, are among the very best.

Our universities are the most sought after around the world, helping explain the vast influx of foreign students who come here to take advantage of what we offer academically.

Our society encourages and supports invention, innovation and new thinking that will ultimately improve and change life as we know it.

• The impact of AI will be sorted out here
• Exploration of Mars by humans will begin here. This will spawn other new technologies
• New quantum computing capabilities will be explored in Chicago’s backyard

There is so much to be thankful for that we take for granted. Perhaps our slow roll to adopt green solutions and embrace an environmentally sound future is one of our most poignant deficits. The denial we see play out so routinely with respect to the presence and impact of climate change and our complicity in it is not a proud moment.

Nonetheless as we begin 2025 it is time to take stock and realize for all the ups and downs, news cycle tragedies and uncontrollable events around us, we are in a position to execute on our dreams. Failure along the way is merely our wisest and most effective teacher, so we move on with greater clarity on how to navigate the complex business world around us.

Please join me today in a moment of thanks for all we have and will have, for the opportunity to turn our ideas into business realities. To create new forms of added value that hopefully the marketplaces around us will embrace. Happy to be here.

Thanks for your continued readership and time. We value it, and you, greatly.

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Bob Wheatley is the CEO of Chicago-based Emergent. Traditional brand marketing often sidesteps more human qualities that can help consumers form an emotional bond.?Yet brands yearn for authentic engagement, trust and a lasting relationship with their customers. For more information, contact [email protected] and follow on Twitter @BobWheatley.