I’ve written before about Rutger Bregman, who was described in a New York Times interview over the weekend as “something of a professional optimist.”
Bregman has a new book out titled “Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference” — an effort to “meet the current moment by redirecting self-interest into social good,” as the Times puts it.
He also is cofounder of the School for Moral Ambition, which seeks to help as many people as possible devote their careers to some of the most pressing challenges we face.
Bregman says that in the move from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era, “You had figures such as Alva Vanderbilt — a fascinating character who was this very decadent woman, incredibly rich, but later in her life, after she divorced her Vanderbilt husband, became a radical suffragette and one of the main financers of the women’s rights movement. She reminded me of MacKenzie Scott, who divorced Jeff Bezos and now is one of the most morally ambitious philanthropists in the U.S.”
Bregman says: “Someone said this to me recently: If you are watching the news right now and you’re not terrified for yourself because you have some savings or a nice job, then you are the person who needs to stand up.”