The Future Starts With Us by Gordon Brown review
Global crises are tightly linked to how we treat each other at the local level, argues this optimistic book
TL;DR
- Gordon Brown's new book connects global crises with declining civic engagement and community fragmentation.
- He uses new polling data to suggest voters crave a return to a more stable, orderly past, despite voting for change.
- The book argues that addressing economic grievances and increasing positive social interactions can combat populism.
- Brown proposes strengthening civic ties as a way to build trust, leading to more effective international cooperation on issues like climate change and global poverty.
- The author suggests that "dying high streets" and "rogue superpowers" are interconnected parts of the same global unravelling.
- Brown shifts focus from large-scale economic solutions to the importance of starting small at the neighborhood level.
- He acknowledges the difficulty in reviving the "muscular, worthy" kind of civic engagement that requires significant volunteer effort.