An Interview With Pete Peterson

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Because once you explain the magnitude of these problems, the obvious question is, What do you propose to do about it? And when you're asked what to do about it, there aren't any painless alternatives. One of them is to reduce the benefits, or reduce our energy consumption, or depending on which issue we're talking about. Or the other is to pay for it with increased taxes. And we've developed such an aggregated case of short-term-itis, and all gain and no pain, and all benefits and no cost, that in the current climate, if a politician suggests that you may have to increase revenues or you may have to reduce benefits, it's often not only considered politically incorrect, it's considered politically terminal.

L.G.: So my question is, Are you going to put, like, major dollars—you're an old advertising guy—into trying to try to change the public attitude? In other words, drive the discussion with advertising?

P.P.: Our objective is not to only change the attitude, but to increase the knowledge first, the understanding of what the problem is. Our foundation president is just starting, so if you think you're going to get me to lay out a specific program, forget it. There are a couple of things we already have in mind. I have been very impressed with what the effect of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was. And part of it, to be sure, was his presence, and part of it was the drama of the film—the polar bears, the ice caps, and so forth. I have authorized Rory Kennedy and her partner, Liz Garbus, to prepare a film proposal for us that takes some of the themes of my book Running on Empty and tries to dramatize them. Your question is right on, on how difficult it is. If all we try to do is put out relentlessly a bunch of statistics, in a cold form, there may be a few policy wonks that say, "Gee, I had no idea," but that's difficult.

L.G.: You've probably had enough of wonks.

P.P.: Yeah. If having creative people can dramatize these issues and create the video counterpart of the polar bears and ice caps and so forth, it might make a difference. The one thing we're going to do most certainly is explore conventional filming. Then there's a whole new world of Facebook and MySpace, and the whole video internet world.

L.G.: Are you on Facebook or MySpace?

P.P.: Not yet.

L.G.: So I can't friend you on Facebook yet?

P.P.: Not at the moment, but I hope you will be able to.

L.G.: How often do you go on the internet?

P.P.: I don't personally. That's one of the problems.

L.G.: So when I get email from you, you've dictated it to someone?

P.P.: Yeah. It's through the office. But I'm not so obsolete about the information age that I haven't heard of the internet and Facebook and MySpace. We're going to have a huge drive (we've got some experts already), saying, If you've got plenty of financial resources and you wanted to do something highly innovative on the internet [that] may involve some partnerships—the primary firms in the business—how would you do it? And I would say to them, ‘I don't want you restrained by the fact that it's a startup and it's going to cost $100,000 or something. Just give us some really dynamic ideas.’ The young are going to be a special target. I don't believe that the young are masochists, that they have consciously decided that they don't care about their economic future or the country's future. I just don't believe that.

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