Keen On America

• All Sparta, No Athens: The Decline and Fall of Empires

  Whither America? It’s the question that the Swedish writer Johan Norberg examines in both a recent Washington Post op-ed as well as his new book, Peak Human. What we can learn from history’s great civilizations, Norberg argues, is that they decline when they turn inward, away from both the outside world and innovation. “All Sparta, no Athens”, as he puts it. So what does that tell us not only about Trump’s America but also Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China? And what should we make of Europe, which is neither Sparta nor Athens? And when compared with China, Russia and Europe, Norberg’s vision of the American future seems relatively sunny. So maybe, with or without MAGA, the 21st century really will be the American century. * MAGA doesn’t fit any traditional conservative or liberal framework. It’s a radical ideology built around a strongman who has no patience for democratic process, rule of law, or compromise—precisely the institutions that classical liberalism and genuine conservatism have always sought to protect.* Declining empires are the most dangerous. Russia is “all Sparta, no Athens”—a society that builds barracks rather than innovation, extracts resources rather than creates wealth, and fears any neighboring democracy that might give its own people ideas. Putin may sense this is his last chance to rearrange the world order.* China’s split personality may doom its long-term prospects. Deng Xiaoping borrowed from Athens—openness, experimentation, “crossing the river by feeling the stones.” Xi Jinping has reverted to Sparta—centralized control that can build electric vehicle factories fast but stifles the strange surprises that drive real innovation.* America’s saving grace may be its constitutional limits. The courts are the only branch doing their job right now, striking down unconstitutional overreach one case at a time. Republicans know there’s life after Trump—and after two centuries of championing the Constitution, they can’t simply throw it aside.* Europe is Rome without the military power. The EU’s great idea—an open continent that experiments with different solutions—is undermined by a Mandarin class in Brussels that insists on standardizing everything. That’s why great European startups keep moving to California.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

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• Where Does Abundance Come From? How to Reinvent a Fairer Future in our AI Age

  I’ve spent this week in Washington DC where most people seem suspicious and sometimes even downright hostile about the future. Especially the supposedly “abundant” AI future being built in Silicon Valley. So where is this abundance going to come from? Some optimists, like The Great Progression’s Peter Leyden, believe there’s an emerging coalition of smart technocratic elites who will construct a more efficient state to engineer a new progressive era. That Was The Week’s Keith Teare, however, is suspicious of this kind of new New Deal, arguing that reform from above is, by definition, flawed. That’s all very well. But then, if the future isn’t going to be built by a new kind of smart government, then where’s it going to come from? The defiantly anti-top-down Teare believes, without much evidence, that it will somehow percolate up from what he calls “the masses”. I’m not so sure. Do we really want to trust our AI future to a vengeful digital mob?1. The Policy Gap is Real – But No One Knows How to Fill It Keith Teare identifies a critical void: while AI and automation may create unprecedented wealth, there’s no coherent framework for ensuring that abundance benefits everyone rather than concentrating in the hands of tech monopolists. Both left and right lack a practical manifesto for this transformation.2. Innovation Will Happen – Distribution Won’t Keith Teare argues that technological progress and wealth creation are inevitable, driven by curious entrepreneurs and scientists working through the night. What doesn’t happen automatically is the flowering of society or the reallocation of resources. That requires something more than market forces alone.3. Government as Currently Constituted Can’t Lead This Transformation Despite Peter Leyden’s call for “state capacity,” Teare remains deeply skeptical that bureaucratic governments can play a progressive role. He sees them as enemies of innovation, prone to regulation and rule-making rather than enablement. He prefers Trump’s hands-off approach to Democratic regulatory instincts.4. The Bottoms-Up Revolution May Be Inevitable When pressed on alternatives to government action, Keith Teare suggests people power rather than state power will drive change. As AI displaces workers, those made unemployed will demand society provide them a living standard – creating pressure for transformation that could be peaceful (as Marx predicted for wealthy America) or disruptive.5. Some Tech Leaders See Beyond Their Own Pockets Contrary to cynicism about Silicon Valley greed, Keith Teare points to Elon Musk’s vision of money becoming irrelevant under true abundance and Sam Altman’s WorldCoin project as evidence that at least some technologists can imagine distributing wealth beyond their own fortunes. Whether these visions are “childish fancy” or prophetic remains the debate.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

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• The Zakaria Paradox: Fareed Zakaria on the Triumph of Reactionary Politics in Our Revolutionary Post-Industrial Age

  Call it the Zakaria paradox. We live in revolutionary times, the CNN host and Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria explains, and yet it’s the reactionary MAGA politics of resentment that is currently ascendant. It’s this paradox that laces Zakaria’s 2024 book, Age of Revolutions (just out in paperback), a narrative that traces the history of liberalism from the 17th century revolutionary Dutch Republic to today’s reactionary age of populist strongmen. The Trump playbook is clear, Zakaria notes: “the Chinese Are Taking Your Factories, the Mexicans Are Taking Your Jobs, the Muslims Are Trying to Kill You.” So how should progressive liberals, in our age of TikTok and OpenAI, respond with a more optimistic, forward thinking message about our revolutionary times? What is Fareed Zakaria’s escape from the Zakaria Paradox?1. Trump’s Genius Was Sensing the New Republican Base Trump was the only candidate in 2016 who abandoned the Reagan formula (free trade, balanced budgets, interventionist foreign policy) and recognized that the Republican base had become white working class voters deeply resentful of globalization, immigration, and cultural change.2. We’re Living Through a Long Backlash, Not a Moment Zakaria argues that massive technological and economic transformations—from industrialization to today’s AI revolution—always trigger prolonged cultural and political backlashes. Trump’s re-election confirms we’re in this for decades, not years.3. The Dutch Revolution Invented Modern Individualism Painters like Vermeer and Rembrandt revolutionized Western art by depicting ordinary people and daily life rather than religious subjects—marking the birth of individualism that defines modern liberalism. To understand revolution, look at art, not just politics.4. TikTok Is Enlightenment Liberalism on Steroids Our fragmented, personalized media landscape represents the logical conclusion of individual autonomy and choice. But this creates a “hole in the heart”—people miss the certainty of faith, tradition, and community that pre-modern life provided.5. Liberalism’s Biggest Threat Comes From Both Sides Zakaria warns that illiberalism threatens from the reactionary right (Deneen-style restrictions on women’s rights, immigration) AND from the progressive left (DEI ideology, extreme socialism). True liberals must hold the center and resist sacrificing liberal values to achieve political goals.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

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• How American Eugenics Fueled Nazi Euthanasia: Psychiatry's Forgotten Complicity in the Holocaust

  Did American eugenics really fuel the murderous euthanasia programs of the Nazis? Yes, according to Susanne Paola Antonetta, author of The Devil’s Castle, a history of Nazi eugenics and euthanasia. According to Antonetta, pioneering American eugenicists not only influenced Nazi thinking—Hitler himself corresponded with them and praised U.S. sterilization laws in Mein Kampf—but the New York City-based Carnegie Institute proposed gas chambers in 1918 as one solution for dealing with what eugenicists called the ‘hereditarily tainted’ population. While Germany’s response was uniquely brutal, Antonetta argues that American psychiatric thinking provided the conceptual framework for deciding whose lives had value and whose didn’t. Moreover, the notorious Nazi Aktion T4 euthanasia program killed 300,000 people with neuropsychiatric disorders, yet it was never properly prosecuted by the Americans at Nuremberg and remains largely unknown today.1. American Eugenics Provided the Blueprint The U.S. passed sterilization laws in 1907—decades before Germany’s 1933 laws. Hitler praised American eugenics in Mein Kampf, American eugenicists taught in Germany, and the Carnegie Institute proposed gas chambers in 1918 for the “hereditarily tainted.” The conceptual architecture was Made in America.2. Action T4 Killed 300,000 and Was Never Prosecuted The Nazi euthanasia program murdered roughly 300,000 people with neuropsychiatric disorders in gas chambers built into asylums. Because Nuremberg only tried international crimes—not crimes against a nation’s own citizens—this program escaped proper legal reckoning and remains largely unknown.3. Doctors Could Say No—But Didn’t Some asylum doctors, like Carl Kleist, simply refused to participate in T4 and faced no punishment. This makes the complicity of other doctors—many of them idealistic, not monsters—more damning. The system allowed for refusal; most chose collaboration.4. Psychiatry Still Assigns Value to Lives Antonetta argues that psychiatry’s troubled legacy persists: rigid diagnostic categories inherited from German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, neurotransmitter theories that haven’t improved outcomes, and a system that still decides whose consciousness has value. The DSM itself was created by self-described “neo-Kraepelinians.”5. Neurodiversity Is the New Civil Rights Frontier From autism to schizophrenia, our public discourse about neurodiversity remains “relentlessly negative.” As CRISPR and gene editing become reality, Antonetta warns we’re facing the same eugenic questions—but now with the tools to act on them. We need more honest and nuanced conversations about different forms of consciousness before we start editing them out.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

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• Chris Matthews on Robert F. Kennedy: Ten Reasons Why Bobby Still Matters

  On November 20, 1925, Robert Francis Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. A hundred years later, Bobby might matter more than ever. Chris Matthews, longtime host of MSNBC’s “Hardball”, is already the author of one bestselling RFK biography, Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit. And today, to celebrate the centennial of his birth, the pugnacious polemicist has a new book about RFK’s abiding relevance. In Lessons From Bobby, Chris Matthews gives us ten reasons why Robert Francis Kennedy still matters. Matthews’ favorite lesson? Bobby’s willingness to concede defeat. After losing the 1968 Oregon Democratic primary to Gene McCarthy, Kennedy graciously acknowledged his loss and paid tribute to his opponent. Matthews argues this is essential to democracy. “The loser is the only one who can give credential to the winner,” he notes. “Without that, the American people always have doubts.” Yes, in November 2025, Bobby matters more than ever. 1. Bobby’s Vulnerability Was His Strength Unlike JFK’s aloof, almost royal demeanor, Bobby identified with victims rather than observing them from a distance. He “seemed to have identified with people’s troubles and thought of himself as one of the victims,” making him relatable in ways his more polished brother never was.2. Personal Experience Transformed His Politics Bobby’s commitment to civil rights deepened dramatically after his assistant John Seigenthaler was beaten nearly to death during the Freedom Rides in 1961. “Something turned in him,” Matthews notes—he realized someone close to him had been left to die in the streets, radicalizing his approach to racial justice.3. The Kennedys Became Liberals Strategically Neither Jack nor Bobby started as liberals. After narrowly losing the 1956 VP nomination, JFK realized “I got a lot of Southern support, but I don’t have any liberal support.” The Kennedys understood that power in the Democratic Party was liberal, so they “married” figures like Arthur Schlesinger and John Kenneth Galbraith to reposition themselves.4. Bobby Could Separate Good from Bad Matthews emphasizes Bobby’s ability to “granulate the good from the bad”—whether distinguishing corrupt labor bosses like Jimmy Hoffa from reform leaders like Cesar Chavez, or understanding how riots after King’s assassination could be both morally motivated and criminally wrong. This nuanced thinking set him apart.5. Conceding Defeat Defines Democracy Matthews’ most important lesson: Bobby’s gracious concession after losing Oregon to Gene McCarthy exemplifies democratic virtue. “The loser is the only one who can give credential to the winner,” Matthews argues, contrasting this sharply with Trump’s 2020 election denial and warning that without honest concessions, “the American people always have doubts.”Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

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