I spoke about America 3.0 at the Oak Park Public Library last night.
The event went very well. We had about thirty people attending, including blog pals onparkstreet and Bruno Behrend. That’s considered a good turnout for one of these things, apparently. I spoke for about 40 minutes and we had at least 45 minutes of lively Q&A, with lots of further face to face discussions after I left the stage. OPPL has rating sheets they pass out after these author events, and all the ones that were handed in gave me 5 out of 5 stars. Nice.
After the event a bunch of us adjourned to the Friendly Tap, whose motto is: “You are a stranger here but once.” They had an open mic night going on. One of the musicians played a very nice version of Wichita Lineman. Another fellow told me he played Neil Young covers, but he did not know my favorite Neil Young song, Barstool Blues. I told him I expected him to know it next time!
Also, special thanks to one of two weekly papers in Oak Park, the Oak Leaves for an interview with me published the day before the talk at OPPL: Oak Park author looks ahead to America’s next incarnation. An excerpt:
Q: Why do you believe we are entering into a third phase of American life?
A: The United States went through a massive economic transition once already. We transformed ourselves from a primarily rural, agricultural country into an industrial country, in fact an industrial colossus. We call the America of the Founding Era, America 1.0. We call the Industrial Era, which is ending, America 2.0.
The new technology, of which the Internet is just the first step, will lead to economic change of even greater magnitude. We call the coming political and economic order America 3.0, to emphasize how massive this change really will be, at least as big as the biggest change we have previously experienced.
The interview is a nice, short synopsis of the book.
Finally, big thanks to Augie (pictured above) from the excellent Centuries and Sleuths bookstore for having copies of America 3.0 available for sale and autographing. I was happy to see he sold every copy he brought to the event. He’s on Madison in Forest Park. Check out his store if you are in the neighborhood.