A recent New York Times op-ed essay has been stuck in my mind for the past month.  Neal Gabler, scholar and author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, wrote an impassioned, mournful, yet ultimately resigned obituary for intellectual culture in America.  He illustrates a key paradox of our era, in that we can access a seemingly limitless amount of information, yet we do not take the time to process, to reflect, and formulate ideas that have real power to change the course of society.  He blames the usual suspects – the unpopularity of the essays, the lack of celebration for intellectuals, political punditry – but spends the most time excoriating twitter, labeling it “a form of distraction or anti-thinking.”  It’s hard not to see some kernels of truth to this argument.

 Gabler’s last sentence offers a fairly dark projection, but also a fitting call to action: “What the future portends is more and more information — Everests of it. There won’t be anything we won’t know. But there will be no one thinking about it.  Think about that.”  Well, I’ve thought about it, and I think that we need to return to reading books, reflecting on their ideas, and discussing them with others.  Books illustrate a particular thesis that an author would like to promote and offer space (way beyond a 140 character limit) to address multiple facets of an argument and other potential complications.  

The process of reading books and generating new ideas can also lead to tangible results.  One story in particular is from Bruce Karmazin, Executive Director of the Lumpkin Family Foundation, who read The Starfish and the Spider; The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom.  This book impacted the way his organization approached “support[ing] movements and creat[ing] systems change.  For example, in trying to support capacity building in the nonprofit sector in our region, rather than open a bricks and mortar nonprofit center that would provide a limited number of opportunities to relatively small number of individuals, we started an interactive website called goodWORKSconnect.org. GWC provides a platform for network building and sharing that empowers nonprofit leaders in their own development and connects them to others in their field.“

 Donors Forum will also be hosting an event series that will bring authors together with our community of grantmakers and nonprofit leaders to engage in a discussion about new ideas in the field.  Our first event will feature Jason Saul, who has recently written The End of Fundraising.  Join your colleagues at this event, and register by September 20^th.  See more details and register on our website. 

 -Allison Rosenthal, Member Services Associate

Photocredit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/albertogp123/5843032561/ via Creative Commons