Comfort has won, and most formality is gone. But the freedom of informality comes at a cost. Formality is the bulwark against some of the nastiest human impulses, and acts as a vaccine against our most dangerous tendency: forming in-groups and out-groups. – Aeon
Category: ideas
The Difference Between European And American Intellectuals
The American writer—so goes the transatlantic stereotype—addresses the general public deliberately and democratically. Rapidly clarifying her argument and the research or experience behind it, she (over)emphasizes how little she takes this audience’s trust and attention for granted. By a contrasting convention, the European essayist makes his genre and theme seem almost accidental. – Public Books
How Our History Has Been Shaped By Plagues
“We don’t have to look far and wide to see how disease has challenged and shaped our increasingly cosmopolitan world. The modern epidemics of cholera, typhus, yellow fever, measles, smallpox, and polio, among a host of other infectious diseases, might have better prepared us for our current crisis—if only their histories were better remembered and their dead and injured duly honored.” – New Criterion
The Decline Of Novels, Poetry, Art… And Just About Everything Else?
The truth, sad or bad or however one wishes to characterize it, is that both contemporary visual art and contemporary poetry no longer hold anything approximating the central place in culture that they once did. Without anyone actually saying so, these once major branches of art have become of at best tertiary interest. A person who thinks himself reasonably cultured need no longer be responsible for knowing much, if anything at all, about either of them. – Commentary
The Privilege Economy
What separates Americans is not just income, but whole frames of reference: Cordoned off, the wealthy live in a world apart from the less-well-off, no longer sharing the same experiences. – The New Republic
Does The Pandemic Signal The End Of American Exceptionalism?
“It’s a reckoning that has stirred intense debate about health policy, inequality and partisan politics, but also extends beyond it, touching on history, values and national identity. And for some, the severity of the crisis — and the slow, disjointed government reaction to a danger warned about for months — has also upended their conception of the country, shattering the already battered idea of American exceptionalism, if not turning it on its head.” – The New York Times
How Will New York Change After The Pandemic Wanes?
Might there be a massive shift in the cultural zeitgeist – and might New York not be quite such a playground for millionaires, billionaires, and real estate firms anymore? If so, the arts will inevitably change as well, not just because of the coronavirus losses, but because of a possibly huge cultural move. – The Observer (UK)
Paris Without (Extra) People
Paris without tourists looks and feels different – and is a reminder of other traumatic times. “In this stage-set Paris, the monuments still brilliantly illuminated, it is easy to imagine an earlier time when the city streets were quiet: the German occupation. Photographs from that period show empty streets, solitary pedestrians, and grand monuments jarringly out of sync with the humiliated city. Like now, lines of grim-faced customers stretch from the few open stores.” – The New York Times
Baltimore Artists Reflect On Freddie Gray’s Death And The Tumultuous Times That Followed
In the protests that followed the death of Freddie Gray, who was in police custody, some artists (of all types) found inspiration and a platform for a country suddenly interested in Baltimore again. Here’s what they’re thinking and the kind of art they’re creating, five years later. – The Baltimore Sun
Why We Have The Makeover Urge From Quarantine
No one has actually studied mass makeovers during a prolonged global pandemic—we’re in uncharted territory here—but people like Christopher Oldstone-Moore think there’s much to glean from personal expressions of the past. – Wired