Heroes

A few months ago I suddenly wondered where have our heroes gone? Or at least where are the heroes that stand up and do the right thing regardless of the negative effects that might have on them. Most CEOs seem to care more about their own income than integrity, which in the introduction of terms like “enshittification”. I noticed this after reading Investing Between the Lines by L. J. Rittenhouse. In the book, the author argues that integrity is associated with outstanding long-term investment results. So with the book in hand, I have gone through about one hundred shareholder letters and found only three that satisfied the basic criteria from the book. Also TV and movies seem to be full of mostly dull characters that mostly care about not stepping out of line. Or what would be the modern equivalent of Die Hard? It seems like most things become duller, blander, and more average. And from the politicians I’m currently missing a strong positive story for where we should be going. It seems to be mostly against things. Against Israel, against climate change, against capitalism, and even against the West.

But luckily I was wrong. There are still many heroes. I was just not looking in the right places. There is "Billboard" Chris Elston who stands in cities with a billboard open to have a discussion with anyone who disagrees with his billboard. There is Douglas Murray who sat opposite from Joe Rogan and criticized Joe for not pushing back hard enough against holocaust deniers. (Also credits to Joe Rogan for not cutting that out or deciding to not publish the podcast.) And there are historians like Stephen Kotkin who stick to their history knowledge even while many people probably try and have tried to cancel them. There are also Niall Fergusson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Konstantin Kisin, John Anderson, Louise Perry, and many others.

These people are, I think, heroes. They don’t have everything right, but they are willing to have open discussions. They also do not try to alter history or force everyone to conform to their ideas. This post is me saying thanks to these people.