Ep. 376: The Lincoln Protocol

Back in 2008, in the early days of my writing career, when I had just published two books and my newsletter was still new, I published an essay with an anachronistic title. It was called, Would Lincoln Still Be President if he had email? I actually want to load this newsletter essay up on the screen here for people who are watching instead of just listening. Here it is from my Calnewpart.com website. I'll be honest, Jesse, my main motivation at the time, I remembered this clearly, was I just wanted an excuse to use this meme, which I thought was funny.

For those who are just listening, it basically shows on one side of the picture there's a guy with reading glasses and a typewriter, and it says research paper on a handwritten side above his head. And then on the other side, there's a sign lit up with bulbs that's labeled the internet, and under it is a a dinosaur and a woman in a bikini wearing birthday hats with a birthday cake and fighter jets flying behind them. I remember at the time I thought that was funny. But if you uh if you look at the actual article, if you look at the actual content of this post, I was making an essay, or an argument rather, in this essay back in 2008, that perhaps many of the heroic figures of time past would have had a hard time being as impactful in our current world because of all of the distraction we now face because of the internet. Now, I mentioned email in the title of that 2008 post, but if I was to, you know, rewrite that today, I would have to also mention, you know, would Lincoln have been president if he had had not just email, but smartphones and social media and AI and online mobs and streaming entertainment and video games and mean culture and so much more.

At the end of that article, I asked the following question. I say this. History's greatest figures have been those who are willing to put in those long, hard hours, a difficult focus on the difficult questions of their age. Do we have that ability in us today?

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