Eight years doesn’t seem like a long time but the world has changed dramatically in that span. I was 23 and fresh out of school with a head full of ideas and a heart aching to make its mark on the world. Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign clarion call became my personal mantra and his subsequent election victory promised to usher in a period of peace and prosperity.
Enter 2017 and the heady optimism of yesteryear has dissipated. In its place, a pervasive disquiet has gripped the world. An uncertain global economy, security and climate change issues, the rise of fundamentalism, and constant diplomatic rows between nuclear powers have thrust the world onto a knife’s edge. The Doomsday Clock, the symbolic barometer of the likelihood of a human-caused disaster is now two-and-a-half minutes to midnight, the closest it has been to the 12 o’clock mark of doom since 1953, when the United States and the Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs within months of each other.
But if there is anything we can learn from history, it is that the sky is always darkest before dawn. Humanity has been in this position before. While carbon waste poisons our environment today, the early 1900s saw the world threatened by an early form of pollution: horse manure. Cities that relied on horse drawn carriages were drowning in equine waste, causing dire health and sanitation problems. There was no solution in sight. Then the automobile was invented.
Here at AUGUSTMAN, we too have evolved with the times. If you haven’t yet seen the new issue in the bookstore with Justin Theroux’s handsome mug smiling at you, check it out in the short video above. After all, the modern man has changed with the shifting sands of times, moulded by society’s expectations and shaped by the world’s urgent needs. And it is only right that we follow.
The man of today is measured by moral courage. He is both masculine and a feminist, with tastes that run the gamut from exquisite to plebeian. He carves his own path but is not afraid to ask for help. He stands up for the weak and gives voice to the powerless. He is passionate and informed, a lover and a fighter. And he is the change he wants to see in the world. All of the qualities that the new AUGUSTMAN is.
Can we pull ourselves out of yet another global funk? Together, in suit and tie or sweatshirt and joggers, Yes We Can.