A time for reflection

A time for reflection
By Shashi Tharoor
"The Hindu", Online edition of India's National Newspaper
July 02, 2006

The Aspen Institute's Festival of Ideas is like a good high school with spectacular scenery and no exams.

AS you read these words, I should have escaped to Aspen, Colorado, as I've done for the past few summers to enjoy a rather untypical week of reflection. Not that I have such a thing as a typical week: life at the United Nations has for some time involved more than my fair share of ups, downs and unpredictable in-betweens. But it's precisely the frenetic pace of my daily existence — governed by the interminable tyranny of meetings and deadlines, the insistent clamour of the telephone, incessant streams of visitors and inescapable social obligations — that prompted me to start accepting an annual invitation to the very expensive, very tony resort in the Colorado mountains where every other visitor is rich or famous (or think they are). Aspen's not the most likely spot for impecunious writers or international civil servants (and I'm both). But the Aspen Institute's campus at the pleasantly laid-out Aspen Meadows is one spot in town where beautiful ideas take precedence over beautiful people. Where on earth, for instance, could you run into a former American President (Bill Clinton), the founder of Amazon.com (Jeff Bezos), the President of Harvard University (Larry Summers) and a Nobel laureate in Literature (Toni Morrison), holding forth on the things that mattered most to them last year? Answer: Aspen, of course, because that's where the Aspen Institute held the country's first Festival of Ideas.
A gathering of minds

That's right, a festival of ideas. Not a technology seminar, not an investors' conclave, not even a Renaissance Weekend (a policy-wonk gabfest made famous by the Clintons' attendance some years ago), but a gathering of minds doing what minds are supposed to do. I was there.
Of course, impressive minds are all very well, but the Aspen experience wouldn't be the same without the important people. Stumbling over former Cabinet Secretaries at breakfast (and addressing them by their first names, helpfully displayed on the outsize nametags everyone sports around their necks). Conversing at the coffee breaks with the likes of the inventor of Google, a clutch of Nobel Prize-winning scientists and at least one real live Queen. Hobnobbing (at a reception at one of the multi-million dollar mansions strung out across the valley, with views as spectacular as the guest lists) with folks whose personal assets exceed those of half the member governments of the United Nations. Tapping the brains of national-security experts at lunch, arguing on a panel with the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in the afternoon, and discussing politics over dinner with pundits you've only ever seen on TV. You can't afford to get used to this.
Of course, there's a lot to be said for spending a week in sylvan surroundings musing on the great ideas of human civilisation. You can even learn a few things. Bill Clinton saying that politicians in America need to speak more with the kind of people who may never vote for them. Colin Powell talking of the need to curb the hubris, and the volume, of his country's international pronouncements. The Christian evangelist pastor Rick Warren (author of the best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life) sermonising on evil and confirming a Jewish questioner's incredulous query: "Are you saying I'll go to hell because I'm not a Christian like you?" Harvard theologian Peter Gomes observing, "I don't have any problem with God. I do have a problem with religious people." San Diego brain scientist V.S. Ramachandran, a TamBram with a disarming taste for Indian literature, explaining that the number of possible brain states exceeds the number of elementary particles of the known universe. Entrepreneurial innovator John Doerr predicting that by 2050 there will be 400 more cities of 10 million people or more, demanding clean water, pure air and affordable energy — demands that he said would drive technological innovation in all three areas.
Not everybody in Aspen was a genius, or even an expert. A lot of the attendees had come to acquire ideas, not to impart them, and had paid through the nose for the privilege. For others, who were there to speak and to listen, just being part of the exchange was enough.
Useful too
Once in a while the ideas turn out to be useful: legal scholars and activists flocked to a panel on the Supreme Court the day Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her resignation, and dozens of pens started scribbling when bio-tech guru William Haseltine said Tamiflu was the best possible way of staving off an avian influenza epidemic. But this wasn't an occasion for stock tips or even picking future presidential candidates from the several on display. After a point the ideas became ends in themselves: you go to enjoy hearing them, rather than in order to be enlightened. It was like a particularly good high school, with smart classmates, spectacular scenery and no exams. That's why I'm back this year.