My last few articles are about how fear is driving so many aspects of business and the world we live in. This is an argument over how AI doomerism is impacting our world, our business, our governments and how doomerism is wrong and preventing some of the best of what is to come.
On the night of October 17, 2026, a Palestinian flag went up over the Monument à la République in central Paris. The French flag it replaced came down with a crowd cheering below. A car was already burning nearby. By midday the French authorities had counted around 140 protests across the country and more than 32,000 people in the streets. Hundreds were arrested. The town hall in Marseille was breached. The tourist office in Lyon was set on fire. The protests had started weeks earlier over teacher shortages and crumbling school buildings. Roughly 200 schools had been blockaded by students demanding adequate staffing.
