BeaglePirates2 - The Monday Morning Memo

The Beagle Attacks a Galleon
An illustration by Howard Pyle
for “The Fare of a Treasure Town”
in Harper's Monthly Magazine, 1905.

“So whenever ‘I’ takes over from a place that should be about ‘we,’ you get catastrophe. Now, Tim, look at this catastrophe. And I’m surprised not more people have noticed it. Two of the countries that have done worst in the world in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 have been the two most individualistic societies in the world today, the United States and the United Kingdom. The United States, far more infections than anywhere else, far more fatalities than anywhere else. Britain, a terrible record of fatalities per million of the population, and a terrible record of economic collapse.

Now you ask yourself why these two countries, which were the greatest defenders of liberty in the 20th century, Britain and America, have become the worst at dealing with a catastrophe like coronavirus. And the answer is they have too much ‘I’ and too little ‘we.’ It is the countries that maintain that balance, like South Korea, like Taiwan, like Singapore, like New Zealand, like Germany. Those are the countries that have coped really well.”

- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in conversation with Tim Ferris

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