Reclaiming the ‘commons’ - 75 Years of the Aspen Institute
“The American Dream depends on expanding the realm of the commons in our society:
the physical commons, the virtual commons, and the social commons in our daily lives.
This is the role of institutions today. And that is the role of Aspen above all.”
In his remarks for the Aspen Institute’s 75th anniversary gala, Walter Isaacson, former President and CEO of the Institute, reminds us of the importance of our mission, and why we gather: to make room for all voices, protect our shared, common ground, and keep alive the possibility of a good society. The ‘commons’, he argues, is more than land or libraries, it encompasses the space for open dialogue, the willingness to listen, and the courage to disagree - yet stay connected anyway.
As we continue our mission to foster remarkable leadership and global connection by sparking conversations that equip people to drive change, Isaacson’s call invites us to look again at what we hold in common, and what we must continue to hold together.
Walter Isaacson’s Remarks from the 75th Anniversary Gala -
28 July, 2025
We are gathered here to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Aspen Institute, founded in the aftermath of World War II to be America’s common ground.
A common ground of values and ideas.
The concept of “common ground” has always been part of humanity’s struggle to create a good society.
Its simplest manifestation was a physical space: the land that was designated as “the commons.”
In England during the time of John Locke, that was the land that the commoners – yes, that’s where the word “commoners” comes from – could all graze their herds.
When the first English settlers came to America, this space was embodied in towns, such as the Boston Commons and the Cambridge Commons.
Even the concept of private property, and the pursuit of property, grew out of the existence of common ground. John Locke in his Second Treatise – which we all studied in the Executive Seminar – declared that humans can create private property by combining their labor with things they take from nature.
But he included a famous limitation, known as the Lockean Proviso: only “where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others.”
The idea of the commons was not just about land. We also put certain basic goods into the commons, such as schools, libraries, police, and fire protection.
Benjamin Franklin set up in Philadelphia a “Leather-apron Club” of tradesmen and small business owners, which launched a street-sweeping corps, a widows pension plan, a volunteer fire and night watchman corps, a hospital, a library, and the Academy for the Education of Youth, which became the University of Pennsylvania.
The library had as its motto, “to pour forth benefits for the common good is divine.”
After World War Two, America and the world created a big bang of global institutions. The U.N. and NATO. The economic institutions that came out of the Bretton Woods agreements such as the IMF and the World Bank.
Also we established many non-government institutions to serve as a common ground for this who believed in the values of democracy and freedom – The Aspen Institute foremost among them.
(And at least we had a better name and locale than ones like the Pugwash Conference.)
Juxtaposed against the commons is the right, important for a healthy economy, also to have property that is private.
In Locke’s time, Parliament passed a series of laws that were known as the Enclosure Acts.
They allowed private owners to build fences and enclose some of the common land for their own use.
These enclosures led to more efficient production, even an agricultural revolution that greatly increased the nation’s wealth. But the practice of enclosures shrunk the commons.
Our system does, and should, give ample rewards to builders and entrepreneurs and those who work hard, take risks, and even just have good luck.
But by making sure there remains enough in the commons, we not only show our moral compassion to others less fortunate…
we also nurture the social bonds that temper resentments, political polarization, and populist backlash.
In America these days, we have a lot of goods and services we put in the commons: police and fire protection, libraries, some schools, some health care.
But there has also been a process of enclosure that has been eroding our common ground.
Michael Sandel calls this the “skyboxification” of America, whereby places and practices that used to be in commons are now roped off.
We all used to sit in the stands at Fenway Park and go through the same entrances, buying the same beer and soggy hot dogs. But now there are VIP entrances and skyboxes.
We have separate lines at airports. We have more neighborhoods that are gated. And the local public school is no longer the commons for kids of different economic backgrounds.
The same has happened with media and information and ideas. We go to our different cul-de-sacs online, dive down different rabbit holes on the internet, listen to different ends of the talk radio dial, and let algorithms turn our social media feeds into echo chambers.
The technology that promised to connect us found a better business model in dividing us.
This shrinkage of our commons has been accompanied by a related trend: the erosion of the core principle of the American Dream, which is that we should be a land of opportunity for all.
But for the past forty years, we have pursued economic policies based on a consensus belief in free trade, free markets, free movement of capital, and free movement of people.
This led to offshoring jobs, closing factories, and importing immigrants to do low-paying work and keep wages down.
Bob Steel and I talked about it on a walk during my last summer at Aspen, and I spoke about it at Ideas Festival that year.
Those of us who were part of the Davos-Washington-Aspen consensus celebrating globalized free markets and free movements were missing the resentments that were rising from those whose stake in the common ground was being eroded.
Indeed, this was a topic of a debate at our Fiftieth anniversary, which was reprised this week, between the Aspen Institute’s beloved Minnesota Twins, Michael Sandel and Tom Friedman.
Tom famously argued that the world was flat, as indeed globalization and technology was making it.
Sandel agreed that this would produce greater economic growth, but he warned that it could reap a whirlwind among those who were not part of the meritocratic elite, who were the main beneficiaries.
As usual in Aspen debates, both sides were right.
The globalized economy increased wealth, especially for the financial and educated elite, but it reduced the opportunities for those who used to have secure middle-class jobs.
It created an economy where people could buy a flat screen television very cheaply at Walmart on a Sunday night. But on Monday morning, they were no longer able to take the bus to a secure job at the Maytag plant.
Most importantly, you could no longer believe that your kids would be better off than you.
It used to be easy for Americans to climb the economic ladder.
Eighty percent of kids born in 1950 would go on to earn more, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than their parents had.
But for kids born in the 1980s, there was less than a fifty percent chance of achieving the same financial success as their parents.
Less than fifty percent. No wonder there was resentment and populist backlash.
That should lead us to ask, What is the purpose of an economy? To increase wealth? Yes, that’s good. Growth? Yes, also good. Individual freedom? That, too. But the purpose of an economy is also something deeper. Its purpose is also to create – and once again remember what Plato and Socrates taught us here -- a good society.
That requires nurturing the sense that we share common rights, common aspirations, common grounds. Democracy depends on this.
So on our 75th anniversary, we should reinvigorate Aspen’s mission to look at our actions through the lens of preserving common ground.
Stan McChrystal asked such a question here twenty years ago: In an era without universal military service, what institutions can instill a sense of shared patriotic service across class lines?
Our Media and Society program has been doing this since Charlie Firestone first invited me here thirty years ago, and which Vivienne Schiller has continued: how can we create news outlets, social media platforms, civil discussions, algorithms, and chatbots that seek to connect us to our common ground rather than inflaming our tribal resentments, engaging us through enraging us, and harvesting clicks through sensationalism?
Arne Duncan has done this, first as a Crown Fellow, then as Education Secretary, and now as a Chicago leader: How can we create schools that give every child a decent opportunity to be part of the American Dream?
It’s a task that Aspen young leaders like Sarah Usdin took up when they came to New Orleans after Katrina to create a new type of school system.
The American Dream depends on expanding the realm of the commons in our society: the physical commons, the virtual commons, and the social commons in our daily lives.
This is the role of institutions today. And that is the role of Aspen above all.
Let us think of the Aspen Meadows as a metaphor.
It is both a real and a symbolic common ground.
And for the next 75 years, we must continue to sow the seeds of the Aspen Meadows around our country and around the world.
