On the 250th anniversary of arguably the greatest experiment by man to rule himself, we can sometimes get lost in the cacophony of dreadful news that permeates most of our media devices.
It is very natural that we line up behind our “side” and blame every terrible thing on the other “side,” from foreign bombing, climate change, high gas and grocery prices, and the never-ending culture wars of the day. Yes, there are some terrible things happening in the world today, but there has never been an era in the history of mankind where that wasn’t the case.
As a lifelong libertarian, I’ve had the honor of blaming everything on both sides and thinking that if the world didn’t have a mass epiphany that included embracing free-market economics and total respect for the choices of others, we would all go to hell in a handbasket.
For twelve years I was in elected office and all I saw were people consumed by gaining power over others to dictate how to live their lives. Since leaving public office, I have been back in the private sector crisscrossing the country, which has filled me with optimism about our future.
I have been pleasantly surprised by meeting people from every corner of the globe who seem to collectively dream of avoiding traffic jams by flying right over them. Yes, I’m talking about air taxis or eVTOLs, which stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Some people call them flying cars. American companies like Joby, Archer, and Beta have raised billions of dollars, attracting engineers from all over the world. Dozens of other startup companies are also competing to get a foothold in the new industry. Say what you will about AI data centers, there is literally no one who enjoys spending hours in traffic every day. It is remarkable just how many brilliant people are working to solve that problem.
Representing a startup company that makes extremely efficient electric motors, I have attended over a dozen trade shows and symposiums in the last two years. In places like Detroit, Chicago, Virginia Beach, and Atlanta, I have gotten to know top engineers and CEOs from companies like Boeing, Airbus, Sikorsky, and Honeywell. Some of the younger ones had just graduated from MIT, Caltech, and Georgia Tech.
As I have grown to know many of these innovators, I realized that they all felt part of something much bigger than their own country’s political ambitions. An aspiring, newly minted PhD from Nepal had more in common with an Iranian-born head engineer from one of the big eVTOL companies than one of his own countrymen. The light that turned on in the colonies in 1776 has continued to burn even brighter and helped illuminate even the darkest, most repressed areas of the world since. Satellites now allow anyone anywhere to communicate with anyone else on the planet.
Many of these aerospace and electrical engineers are some of the youngest and brightest minds, and it seems like they all share the same zest for improving our human existence. If that sounds familiar, it’s exactly what happened 250 years ago when some of the world’s boldest and brightest minds met in Philadelphia and signed our Declaration of Independence. The reason we call the conflict the Revolutionary War is because it caused a revolution in the pursuit of happiness. Anyone could attain it, if they were just free to dream and act on that dream.
If you have any doubts about how good things can be and are, then step out of your comfort zone and engage with some of the truly impressive members of the upcoming generation. Step out of the echo chamber and dream about what happens when two or more people who have been trained to solve problems (gravity, thrust, harmonics, etc.) collaborate to make everyone’s life better.
Maybe the most important benefit to come out of flying cars is that we will no longer have to listen to talk radio stuck in traffic on a hot day demonizing the other tribe. Could road rage disappear?
On this Fourth of July, I for one think that the state of our union is strong and our place in the world as the bastion of intellectual freedom and ingenuity remains at the forefront of human endeavor. Let’s raise a glass in a toast to those brilliant and courageous signers and soar into the future.
Jeff Hewitt previously served as mayor of Calimesa and on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.