Fitzgerald Great Gatsby Explore the American dreams and bays between that promise and reality. The green beacon represents both the hope and unreachable nature of Gatsby’s dreams, as it shines across the water.
Almost a century later, this image fits into our own moments. It’s not as a promise, it’s useless. The light is shining, but the coast remains out of reach. Nick Caraway’s verdict is, “There are only people who are pursued, chased, busy and tired.” In the fall of 2025, the vision itself is at risk. It endures fear, consumes it in anger, and expels it through fatigue.
A much older story comes to mind. The Hebrew prophet Habakkuk wept and said, “Lord, how much will I cry for help, shall you listen? And will you not save?” He dared to hold God responsible for being despicable and violence not checked.
God’s reply: Take your position on the clock, clearly write your eyesight, “The runner may read it,” and wait that time, and live by faith. A proud collapse falls inward, but “the righteous man lives by faithfulness.” This is not a denial of despair, but a discipline within it. Instead of endless pursuits and fatigue, Habakuku is given something stable. Endure while the empire rises and falls. Jesus also ended the cry in the garden, not defeated, but rather screaming, “Nevertheless, not my will, but you were done.”
Gatsby was nervous towards a future that had not arrived, and his gaze was locked in a light that had promised everything but hadn’t delivered anything yet. That futility hangs in our day. Although we pursue it, the hollow world at its core is amazed by the signal that will never be resolved by substance. The green light remains, but it is no longer a beckoning. It reveals how easily adoration can turn into despair.
Habakkuk sketches another way: plain words, faithful living, careful vigilance. That pattern falls into four American crises.
First, political polarization and institutional collapse. The election was questioned, saying that the parliament was paralyzed, and civic institutions were neglected. God’s responsibility to write a vision clearly responsibly to the coded language and the culture of conspiratorial mist. Updates come from words that restore trust by dealing with it, not from slogans or secrets. You can’t kick Uncle Joe out of your family or wait for her neighbor to fall in love with her. What we are at odds is just as important as what we hold in common.
Second, economic inequality. Wages are stagnant, with debt balloons and pools of wealth at the top. Gatsby’s good fortune was the mi-kirō. A society built on illusions collapses just as easily. God’s words to Habakkuk are different. Righteous people live by faithfulness. In other words, a system that rewards stability rather than speculation – housing, wages to maintain, debts that can be repaid. Rather than lamenting the indelible capitalism, even that greed can draw insight in the service of justice. What matters is not agreement, but alliance: solidarity born from self-interest.
Third, the climate crisis. Fires, floods and heat waves hit the country, and political will stall. Habakkuk is told to stand on WatchPost. Today’s attention is scientific rigor, citizen accountability, and local preparation. Living through faithfulness is to act now. Then the world will remain inhabitable tomorrow. This requires humility to recognize our accomplice, including our own carbon footprint when posting online, while protesting AI control.
Fourth, the failure of national institutions without local renewal. Courts and Congress now flash yellow or red instead of green. What you win or lose in Washington is hollow without local commitment. Updates begin close to your hand. We talk to our neighbors and even those who are uncomfortable, as if our lives depend on it. Soon, shutdowns, or cyberterrorism can force the problem.
By judging other minds for ourselves, people understand disagreement by concluding that their enemies are stupid, prejudice, evil, or just nuts. Mere politeness requires us to continue the argument with words alone. Trump’s worst offense is less in his gift of insult than in his habit of wielding wealth and power to silence his critics.
The minimal act of listening and speaking becomes apparent to those that the court or the president never can secure. Updates begin in our town, our neighborhood, our workplace and our school. When citizens realize that despite our differences, we need each other for them. “Equality” with no differences is not equal at all.
These are not vague calls for patience, but concrete habits of the mind. Write clearly, live faithfully, monitor and speak locally. Gatsby’s Light warns against chasing the disappearing ones. Habakkuk’s vision stabilizes what we have to endure.
The green light still glows on the surface of the water. It’s hard comfort, but it allows us to bring us closer than before. It stands as a test: we learn to continue to pursue illusions, or at last to endure.
Notes and reading
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby (1925, many editions). It is now a masterpiece, selling less than 25,000 copies in Fitzgerald’s life, and has long been considered a failure. Habakkuk didn’t do that well.
Habakkuk’s protest and God’s reply find their echo in Gethsemane. Both the Prophet and Christ face silence with trust. Rather than resignation, I have the humility to endure and the confidence to live faithfully when I do nothing else.
Alexandra Hudson, A polite soul: a timeless principle to heal society and ourselves (2023). Hudson is the founder and director of Civic Renaissance, a community dedicated to reviving the public life of beauty, wisdom and wonder. She enjoys supporting celebrities like Francis Fukuyama, Jonathan Height and Tyler Cowen.
Irshad Manji, Don’t label: How to make diversity without inflaming culture wars (2020). Manji, the first Chatspa Award winner for Oprah Winfrey’s Boldness, founded the University of Moral Courage to teach people how to do the right thing despite fear. She is also involved in the University of Oxford’s initiative on global ethics and human rights.
Theresa Bejang, Mere politeness: the limits of disagreement and tolerance (2017). Restraint can withstand differences of opinion, but accusations of indifference often serve as weapons of persecution. “Tolerance” is oppressive and can be too polite to challenge..
Chaos, Updates, Catskill Eagle
Shana Tova!
Approx. 2 + 2 = 5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
