Dr. Jack Goldstone

So the little successes, the good stories, the places where people are actually living better lives and making other people's lives better, when I get to encounter those in the course of my research and have a chance to tell people about those, that's really the only thing keeping me going.

Human beings are basically wonderful.

We can be wonderful.

I'll say this.

It's fashionable now to paint Democrats and progressives as horrible, woke people and MAGA conservatives as bigots or whatever.

I don't believe any of that.

I've traveled back and forth across this country.

I've traveled around the world.

Most people just want to live in peace, have a family, have a job that gives them some security and something to look forward to.

And they're not naturally inclined to hate other people.

That has to be fanned and brought out.

And it only comes when they feel that they've been let down or betrayed.

So I'm kind of distressed at that, but I do still have a lot of faith in people.

I love the stories of people who are succeeding, building a business, building a community center, reaching out.

We're all good people at heart, I like to think.

If things break the right way, we'll all get better and move forward as a society.

Now is not a good time.

Probably a lot of bad stuff to go through and that we have to deal with.

Revolutions are tiring.

Revolutionary times, and we talked about this as scholars, revolutionary times are intense.