Chapter 11: What is “The Work” of Breaking the Zero-Sum Game?

We live in a time of bouleversement. A recent cover story of Time Magazine¹ suggested that 2015 was another 1968 — a year of ineluctable change. During the 50th annual Super Bowl game’s half-time show the following year, pop star singer Beyoncé performed a radical new song, “Formation,” simultaneously invoking the Black Lives Matter movement of today and the Black Panther movement of yesterday. A year after Time’s cover story appeared, a major trade press published Witness to the Revolution, an oral history of a pivotal 12 months in this country, from 1969 to 1970 — a time of social upheaval and political disturbance during which “America lost its mind and found its soul” (Bingham, 2016). These sorts of mainstream publications and events are representative of the current zeitgeist.²