Category: ideas

In much the same way that conventional wisdom in the Arab world tends to view “America” as a monolithic place speaking with a single, domineering voice, Westerners have begun to discuss “the Islamic world” as if such a thing could really be reduced to a simple set of ideas and actions. By extension, “Islamic art” is often seen as monolithic and single-minded, when the truth is far more complex. “It’s a political story, an ancient and universal one, about how an image, and almost any image will do, once it is fused to cultural identity — Islam, in this case — can end up being used as a weapon.”

The residents of the tiny town of Bennett, Colorado, have no desire to be held up as a national example of religious extremism and ignorance. But ever since an elementary school teacher in the town was suspended for showing a video version of the opera Faust to her class, the backlash against the town has been swift and severe. “Tensions can be found in many of Colorado’s smaller communities as development pressures and population growth cause friction between longtime residents and newcomers, who often have differing backgrounds and values. These differences sometimes explode in cultural clashes.”

“Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it’s slowed everything down, paradoxically. We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you’re on to the next thing. It’s harder to feel like you’re accomplishing something.”

“Movies can envision the need for social change, but it is unclear that they can help bring it about. They are better at pointing the way to a different, happier, more fulfilling life. Not the least interesting thing about the hopeless love dramatized in ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ which garnered eight Oscar nominations last week, is how many social hopes it has inspired.” Still, those hopes might not translate. “Movies can take on the great social problems of their time, but they may be the least effective — or appropriate — medium for solving them.”

“As the first images of a massive destruction at one of Iraq’s holiest shrines began coming in yesterday, it was hard not to think of the building, rather than what it stands for. How old was it? What was the architecture like? Was this another loss, like the Bamiyan Buddhas, needlessly destroyed by the Taliban? Is its destruction equivalent, say, to the bombing of St. Peter’s in Rome, or Chartres Cathedral? The mind grasps for an easy equivalence… Unlike so many images of terrorist destruction, the calculated demolition of the shrine in Samarra captures the ‘was’ and ‘is’ with rare power.”

“Paris, for Americans, has for two centuries embodied something other, and simpler. For two centuries Paris has been attached for Americans to an idea of happiness, of good things eaten and new clothes bought and a sentimental education at last achieved. To Americans, Paris suggests the idea of happiness as surely as an arrival in New York suggests hope and Los Angeles, in literature at least, hopelessness.”

“We live in an age addicted to newness. It is a core attribute of any successful person or product in our consumer society. The whole economic system in the developed world depends on our continuing desire for new things that we often do not need. Do you remember the Innovations catalogue? How long has being new been a way of saying something is good in art? When did this quality take on a life of its own apart from being beautiful or thought-provoking?”

What would they be? “In the past few years, voters nominated a number of manmade sites, and the 77 top vote-getters advanced. They were narrowed to 21 in January by a panel of world-famous architects (seven of them). Results will be announced Jan. 1, 2007. The only remaining U.S. site in the top 21 is the Statue of Liberty, though at least the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building and Mount Rushmore made the list of 77 finalists. Even so, it’s an interesting glimpse at which of humankind’s architectural accomplishments still have the power to inspire.”

“When educated people emigrate, they leave with skills and experience crucial to solving their countries’ critical problems. The migration of doctors leaves poor countries (and eventually other global population centers) subject to the ravages of highly communicable diseases. Public services are deprived of trained personnel, and countries lose revenue from some of their highest-earning taxpayers. Sending countries also lose educated citizens who otherwise might play key roles in developing responsive governments and organizing civil society, often resulting in political instability and regional conflict.”

Mathematical proofs are getting so complex, they’re becoming difficult to verify. “I think that we’re now inescapably in an age where the large statements of mathematics are so complex that we may never know for sure whether they’re true or false. That puts us in the same boat as all the other scientists.”