“Maybe Don’t Spray-Paint Stonehenge,” writes Tyler Austin Harper in the Atlantic, in response to “yet another example of environmental activism that produces more rancor over its means than focus on its message.”

Like Harper, I was also moved by the selflessness of a “…bystander who ran toward the protesters and tried to stop them, not knowing whether the canisters loosing orange haze were filled with something innocuous or sinister.”

It’s a blunt metaphor for what ails us more generally: the bystander is the middle, trying to hold the line, while extremists monopolize the conversation.

I can’t see the appeal of acting out. Legislation remains the means of change in our civilization, and the key to that is getting the votes—which, of course, requires presenting the middle with a clear and compelling call to action, preying on their own obvious self-interest. Ironically, while acting out might feel like the best way to preserve the fragile balance of life on this planet, the most effective means might just be building a better business.

Don’t take my word for it, consider this summary from the essay on solar power in the latest edition of the Economist:

According to the International Solar Energy Society, solar power is on track to generate more electricity than all the world's nuclear power plants in 2026, than its wind turbines in 2027, than its dams in 2028, its gas-fired power plants in 2030 and its coal-fired ones in 2032. In an IEA scenario which provides net-zero carbon-dioxide emissions by the middle of the century, solar energy becomes humankind's largest source of primary energy-not just electricity-by the 2040s.

The third season of Hacks (2021-present) was wonderful. May I recommend Hannah Einbinder’s comedy special, Everything Must Go (2024), as a delightful chaser. It is an absolute joy to watch people get better at what they do.