Part 9: Whew!
The event was overwhelming. I listened to more than 15 hours of speakers, and the interaction between members of the audience was equally intense. Attendees had tremendous access to the presenters as well. I cornered several to get more insight into their ideas, or feedback on concepts they hadn't addressed. I asked Li Lu about the conflict between buying goods from China in spite of knowing that some were made by prisoners and sweatshop workers. His response was that although these methods of producing goods are clearly horrible, openness to markets is the only solution he sees to destroying the regime. Ira Glasser changed my vote for president (I won't say in what way). And seeing Gov. King talking one-on-one in a small room to his constituents made me want to up and move back to Maine.

I can't recall ever, in my life, having even a tenth of the intellectual stimulation at any one setting as I did over the three days of the conference. The ideas I left with I'm still chewing over 10 days later, and will most likely continue to reflect on for the rest of my life.

The advantage of hearing people speak about the ideas which they are spreading around the planet in the flesh is hard to overstate. The streaming video available offers a good taste of that. It's one thing to read Ira Glasser's defense of the Bill of Rights; it's another to hear him and see him. Joy, for instance, presents in a humorous, monotone, and rigidly ideological manner, but his ideas shine through his presentation in an even stronger way than reading his words on the printed page.

It's not celebrity worship, but it shows how the power of ideas gets filtered through charisma and personality. It's part sales pitch, part strength of idea. And these ideas summarized and expanded on in just a few hours over a weekend will continue to influence thought in the United States and around the world for generations to come.

Read more by Glenn Fleishman.