About Rod D. Martin
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by Patrick Cox
October 16, 2017
Where’s my flying car? The question has become a meme of disappointment regarding unfulfilled predictions of scientific and technological progress. At least as far back as the 1870s, futurists have been dreaming of vehicles that could be driven and flown.
In fact, we have solutions right now. Safe road-ready vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) craft could be built today. Technology could also solve the air traffic control problems that flying cars would create. The biggest hurdle has been meeting the nearly impossible legal requirements such vehicles are subject to.
To solve that problem, we’ll need a major societal transformation. And we’ll get it.
Whether or not you and I live to see that day depends on another change. I’m talking, of course, about the attitudes about anti-aging biotechnologies.
Granted, it may seem that progress is slow, but dramatic changes are going on behind the scenes. Scientists are making breakthroughs into the processes of aging that are almost unbelievable. At the same time, the institutions that influence public policy are slowly changing. At some point, gradual change will become sudden.
Hollywood Reaches a Tipping Point
Change is happening all around us. Perhaps the best current example is the crisis playing out in Hollywood.
Admittedly, I’m not Hollywood’s best customer. I’m more likely to play first-person-shooter video games than watch TV. I go to only a few movies each year, and usually regret it. But I did do a stint in Hollywood a couple of decades ago, so the industry interests me.
A producer with a string of major hit movies was working on a script about the IRS. He wanted a policy economist involved in the project, and I found myself working on the Paramount lot.
A mere cog in the entertainment machine, I wasn’t invited to parties with Harvey Weinstein. But I did know a lot of insiders… and I heard a lot of stories.
Every business has a gossip network, but Hollywood is unique. A whole industry exists simply to satisfy public demand for details about the private lives of celebrities. Those who work with and around those stars are probably even more interested. And they talk to one another.
That’s why I’m skeptical of claims by the well-connected that they were ignorant of things even low-level studio employees knew about. A more likely explanation is that they rightly feared a lawsuit if they broke the code of silence. At the very least, they faced retaliation by the Hollywood image machine.
A few brave people, like Courtney Love, spoke out about Weinstein, but they suffered professionally for it. Now that Weinstein’s predations are finally exposed, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has expelled him.
It won’t solve Hollywood’s image problems because it doesn’t address concerns about the systematic exploitation of underage actors. Those are the stories that really disturbed me when I was in the “biz.”
The industry’s defenders would like us to believe that these stories were made up by former child actor Corey Feldman. That’s a hard line to sell, though, because director Roman Polanski has admitted to the rape of a 13-year-old and is accused by others. Polanski is still a member of the academy and is defended by recipients of its Oscar awards.
What are we supposed to make of all this?
Clearly, it’s confirmation of Lord Acton’s axiom: power corrupts. People who can deliver or end careers worth hundreds of millions of dollars have a lot of power. Not only can they do things that would get the rest of us thrown in prison, they engender an army of extremely wealthy defenders.
It doesn’t seem to be working anymore. The movie industry is suffering its worst-attended summer movie season in 25 years.
I think we’re seeing a cultural tipping point. The entertainment business has always seen itself as occupying a higher moral sphere. Yes, most of its product is salacious and trivial. Yet, there are times when it produces works of “art” that justify the industry’s enhanced self-image. Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films, more than any other studio, filled that role.
That’s over. Hollywood’s reputation has been seriously and permanently harmed.
Creative Destruction Will Win Out
It’s not just the entertainment business that is losing its luster. In the last generation, public confidence in banks, media, big business, Congress, the presidency, religious organizations, and the medical system have fallen significantly. Exceptions are the military, the police, and small business.
The Gallup poll that I just cited didn’t ask about academia and academic science, but these groups are also suffering from self-inflicted wounds. Primary among them is the reproducibility crisis.
What we’re seeing is creative destruction at work. Successful industries and institutions fight desperately to maintain the status quo. Innovation is resisted and demonized.
Eventually, innovation and market forces win out. The old order falls, often quite suddenly, and a new one evolves organically.
We’ll get our flying cars.
Rod is one of our nation’s leading minds. He’s smart, original, and very committed—a combination that one rarely finds.
Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.
Rod Martin is the kind of dynamic leader who has the knowledge, ability and experience to lead us successfully into the 21st Century. His vision for America is compelling.
Rod Martin literally wrote the book on excellence. Humble yet brilliant, a man of love and compassion, with penetrating clarity he illuminates the world around us, and we are both stirred and enlightened.
Rod Martin is a born leader and an outstanding political mind. Anyone who takes him on is going to have a serious fight on their hands.
Rod Martin is a man of uncommon vision and character. Ever since I first worked alongside Rod in the early days of PayPal, I’ve been struck by his powerful vision for the future. Rod understands the intersection of technology, politics and culture in a way that few others do.
Rod Martin wears with uncommon grace an uncanny ability to link his vigorous faith to the practical challenges of both the business world and the political arena. Yet the respect he shows for others carries a warmth and modesty that are both too rare among those who are strong advocates of feisty positions.
America badly needs more leaders who really get the future. We need more Rod Martins.
Rod Martin is a modern day philosopher-statesman. He is a capitalist intellectual, a conservative iconoclast, a gentle adversary and a kind prophet. He inspires us towards a fresh national vision built upon the original founding principles.
Rod Martin is not only effective and efficient, but he is also perceptive, wise and gracious. He gets things done. He is a great friend and a great ally.
Rod is one of the sharpest, most gracious men I know, and one of the most gifted political thinkers today. His ability to analyze issues and communicate thoughtful insights on them have earned him the respect of people across the political spectrum.
I am proud to have been Rod Martin’s friend for a quarter century, and I can tell you that he is one of the finest men and most outstanding leaders in our church and in our country today. He has a knack for turning everything he touches to success.
Rod Martin is a cornucopian entrepreneur and eutropic thinker whose influence radiates through an array of companies, institutions, movements and churches. A renaissance American, he is also a prolific friend of freedom and faith around the globe.
If Rod Martin represents the next generation of leaders, America has nothing to worry about.
A leader and a servant, in public life and in private, Rod Martin strides at the top of his profession, and has nowhere to go but up. He is in the truest sense of the word ‘outstanding’.
Rod Martin is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished thought leaders today. He is a wonderful mentor, a humble role model, and a deep inspiration for the next generation of scientific innovators and entrepreneurs.
Rod’s achievements pale beside his character and his brilliance. He sees what others can’t. He leads when others won’t.
Rod Martin is one of America’s finest young minds.
The future of technology is the future of America. Rod Martin sees that future clearly, and also sees how to shape it for the betterment of all. He is firmly rooted in the traditions of faith and patriotism that have made America great. That’s why he has made, and will make, so many outstanding contributions in so many areas.
