The Aspen Institute

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Leading Its Way to Santa Barbara

by Amélie Dieux

On a beautiful morning not long ago, the Aspen Institute held a meeting at the Santa Barbara Club. The institute’s ex-vice president, Charlie Firestone, was on hand to cheerily meet and greet the attendees and introduce the panel, before diving into the meeting’s rhetorical raison d’être; might the storied think tank find in Santa Barbara a future outlet for its mix of enlightened leadership and non-partisan dialogue on society’s most vexing issues?

Dr. Samuel Kimbriel, MPhil and PhD in philosophy and politics, was the guest of honor, and helped lead the discussion. He is the author of Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation – and the founding director of the Philosophy and Society Initiative program at the Aspen Institute. With the assistance of the institute’s West Regional Director Ryan Fleury, Dr. Kimbriel discussed the topic: Should a Society be Structured More Around Freedom or Meaning?

The nuanced nature of this subject truly lends itself to the Society of Fellows created by the Aspen Institute, an international nonprofit organization founded by Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke in 1949. Created in the wake of World War II and ultimately based in Washington, D.C., it was in the heart of lovely Aspen, Colorado, that this institution began its journey. After 74 years of difficult and conscientious work, the organization today boasts a network of 15 different partnership locations around the world – an international presence whose conferences and programs fortify the institute’s mission to culturally collaborate around addressing modern society’s most pressing issues. The Aspen Institute inspires global leadership, collective action, and a broad reframing of our relationship to society as it continually betters itself, even as we better ourselves individually.

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The institute has more than 45 programs whose collective goal is to promote “a free, just, and equitable society.” Programs mentioned in Dr. Kimbriel’s remarks include Aspen Words, Science and Society, Aspen Digital, the Energy and Environment Program, and many more on a variety of sometimes counter-intuitive topics like sports, food, finance, youth, education, and business.

For example, the “Aspen Institute Education & Society Program” inspires educational leaders to take action and emphasize equity for students of various ethnic backgrounds, as well as families from financially strained environments. The program also asks participants to consider how best to redirect modern educational priorities, so that focus more attention on safety and building trust within the system.

The Aspen Words Program seeks collaborative solutions through the institute’s literary center, where writers are inspired to connect and share stories with communities – both local and global – while being guided and assisted by leading lights of the literary realm. The Aspen Words Program compels a clearer understanding and appreciation of up-and-coming generational perspectives on the whole, illuminating humanity’s inherent complexity through the sharing of literature.

And for those wanting to explore alternative energy resources, the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program asks creative thinkers to review, study, and share –nationally and internationally – various sustainable energy approaches of great value to the planet, on both an individual and societal scale. For example, decarbonizing various global transportation systems could reduce the consequences of fossil fuels, affording a more sustainable lifestyle overall as our ecosystem is restored to a healthier and more manageable balance.

The Aspen Institute provides a value that is crystal clear to anyone dearly invested in change, and in making a measurable impact on the world. By providing a platform for boldly promoting an exchange of nourishing ideas and profound conversation, the institute incites purpose-driven dialogue between people who are similarly motivated, but of widely varying backgrounds. The institute seeks to enrich the world with meaningful and positive impact through its many influential and empowering initiatives – both close to your home and across the globe.

The meeting of the Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows at the Santa Barbara Club featured Dr. Kimbriel opening with an intriguing topic for discussion; that of the tension between Freedom and Meaning as competing core concerns when building out a society; “Should our freedom or our meaning lead us?”

The attendees were of various backgrounds and ages – a mix which provides

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