e book, apparently in 1995, Gardner takes no notice of the changes that have occurred since Kennedy declared that the individual should not ask not what his or her country can do for him or her, but what he or she can do for his or her country. Today, even in 1995, the basic belief of the country and its individuals is, What can I get for myself before other people get it because there is only so much to go around. Such a belief is the stuff of which innovative individuals and societies are made, but the question is, what sort of innovation? What are the values on which that innovation is built? The values are materialistic, self-centered, and fear-driven. What would Gardner have to say about a country, in 1998, whose leader is forgiven for all sorts of immoral, or amoral, actions, simply because he is running an economy which allows a few people to make as much money as they can, while the bulk of the people continue to live from paycheck to paycheck? What would he say about a country which more and more ignores the plight of the poor and helpless? This is not the society or the individuals Gardener hopes to create with his "toughminded optimism."
Perhaps the key to what is wrong with Gardner's book is his comment about a young woman whom he overheard talking about the "state of decay" of the society and "everything in it." Gardner writes, "I must report that she did not seem even slightly decayed. But what of
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