Dystopia to hope: New York Times columnist urges a shift in public mindset
Dystopian worlds have defined modern culture, through survival dramas like Squid Game to zombie-filled television shows. Some of today’s most popular stories imagine societies collapsed and filled with distrust and scarcity. Negative narratives have set themselves in everyday life. The same outlook appears in public opinion, according to New York Times journalist and best selling author Frank Bruni. Bruni delivered the James P. Elder Lecture on April 9 in Whitley Auditorium at Elon University. He talked about how pessimism has shaped Americans’ views of the country and their role within it, themes all relevant in his book “The Age of Grievance.”