“In 2007, 24 percent of the nearly 4 million digital songs available for sale through stores like iTunes sold only one copy each, and 91 percent of available tracks sold fewer than 100 copies each. The story is the same for the movie business, where, between 2000 and 2005, the number of titles that were purchased only a few times “almost quadrupled.” The Internet offers us a buffet of everything–and yet we’re mainly settling for the likes of The Love Guru and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.”
Category: ideas
What’s Wrong With Multiculturalism?
“There is something deeply inauthentic about the contemporary demand for authenticity. The kind of cultures that the Enlightenment philosophes wanted to consign to history were, in an important sense, different from the cultures that today’s multiculturalists wish to preserve. In the premodern world there was no sense of cultural integrity or authenticity. Modern multiculturalism seeks self-consciously to yoke people to their identity for their own good, the good of that culture and the good of society.”
Report: Referees Are Biased By Uniform Colors
A new study reports that “the colour worn by an athlete might affect the decisions made by referees. The team found that referees gave 13% more points to red competitors, even when the performances were exactly the same.”
Are Boomers “Drunk On Disappointment”?
According to a new survey, baby boomers are just about the whiniest, most dissatisfied generation in American history. And furthermore, past studies seem to indicate that they’ve been this way all along. “People born in times of cultural renewal tend to take an overt attitude of pessimism… They see their pessimism as a tonic that will wake up the world, then they just end up drunk on disappointment.”
The Art That Really Moves Us
“Bad writers and directors.. always want to offer us the easy way out–the lie that we’re superior to the characters on the stage or the screen; put another way, they create false, two-dimensional characters we can only feel superior to. It’s the genuine artists who bind us to great sinners like Lear and Othello–or more likely, in modern art, to petty sinners, who throw their lives away for pride or spite or else carelessly, without thinking about it, and then realize, too late, what they’ve done.”
Is The “LongTail” Really A Viable Strategy?
“Today we live in a world of ubiquitous information and communication technology, where retailers have virtually infinite shelf space and consumers can search through innumerable options. When books, movies, and music are digitized and therefore cheap to replicate, the question arises: Is a blockbuster strategy still effective?”
The Limits Of “Free” Speech On The Internet
“Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won’t eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you’ll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.”
Do Natural Disasters Actually Benefit A Culture?
“Some economists argue that hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, ice storms, and the like, despite the widespread destruction they leave behind – indeed, largely because of it – can spur economic growth. Rebuilding efforts serve as a short-term boost by attracting resources to a country, and the disasters themselves, by destroying old factories and old roads, airports, and bridges, allow new and more efficient public and private infrastructure to be built, forcing the transition to a sleeker, more productive economy in the long term.”
The Burden Of The Humanities
What does it mean to speak of the “burden” of the humanities? The phrase can be taken several ways. First, it can refer to the weight the humanities themselves have to bear, the things that they are supposed to accomplish on behalf of us, our nation, or our civilization. But it can also refer to the Ânear Âopposite: the ways in which the humanities are a source of responsibility for us, and their recovery and cultivation and preservation our job, even our Âduty.
Secret Of My Success? A Willingness To Grow
“Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a ‘fixed mind-set.’ Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a ‘growth mind-set.’ Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time.”