Winning the Future, One Listserve at a Time

I went to sleep wondering how this whole Win the Future thing from President Barack Obama's State of the Union address was going to work. In my inbox this a.m., a link with the solution!

Winning the future means joining an email list! And possibly tweeting something!

But wait, I think that means I already won the future when I signed up for Newt Gingrich's email list at American Solutions for Winning the Future, the website connected to his 2005 book Winning the Future (what else?).

Man, winning the future is harder than it looks!

More ways to win the future throughout history—and probably more email lists to join—from Reason Contributing Editor Dave Weigel. 

Comments

[J sub D]

Winning the future doesn't mean squat unless we beat the future's point spread.

[SugarFree]

$50 on the past by 15.

[joshua corning]

from Reason Contributing Editor Dave Weigel.

What what what!?!?!

Is Dave coming back!?!?!

or is this just a title you guys gave him when he left?

[joshua corning]

Also what is that tent icon next to Weigel's name in the slate article?

Do all writers at slate get that or is it Weigel specific?

If it is Weigel specific what does it mean? It it a big tent? Does it signify a circus?

Inquiring minds need to know.

[Dave Weigel]

It's a Big Tent, a "political circus" tent, the tent in which I hide the skulls of my enemies -- up to the reader, really.

[Zeb]

What is "winning the future" even supposed to mean? And will it be more effective than "building a bridge to the 21st century"? (Did that bridge ever get guilt, or did we just have to wait around for the 21st century to come to us, I can't remember?).

But what I really was wondering during last nights speech was whether it might be possible to win the past with the technology of the present.

[CoyoteBlue]

Would Patton and Stonewall Jackson be able to win the Battle of the Bulge if the Nazis had laser cannon from the future?

Would Cleopatra have seduced a cyborg JFK?

[Yes to both]

But only if Chuck Norris helped. And he would, because he (probably) hates Nazis.

As for Cleopatra and cyborg JFK, I think it would be mutual.

[Lith Ping]

"Winning the Future" means we get to do an endzone victory dance, and the cheerleaders throw themselves at us, and everyone else (LOSERS!) has to live in the past.

I'll go walking out . . .

[Pro Libertate]

I won the future from a Nigerian minister years ago, via e-mail.

[Full Metal Trousers]

I prefer to fight the future.

[Publishers Clearing House]

You may have already won the future? c'mon, send it in!

[Trespassers W]

with each of us committing to the work necessary to bring it about

Translation: if we need to bump up the marginal tax rate to 100%, with reasonable food and housing expenditures deductible, you'd be cool with that, right?

[DocBrown]

i just got back from the future. we lost. Biff won. you shouldn't have bought that sports almanac marty.

[Scooby]

The new slogan comes with an appropriate Three Letter Abbreviation: WTF.