Yes, the legacy institutions are shrinking. But thousands of small players in music, publishing, and the arts are powering a new golden age of artistry.
Is it possible anymore to go to a movie, play, dance performance, read a book or watch something on Netflix without a political or LGBTQ message? Sports have been ruined too. Can I just be entertained without having to endure a woke message?
Have you ever heard of GAC tv? The CEO of Hallmark Channel left to start GAC. It's wholesome and no...they don't show same-sex couples. You had to see the backlash especially against Candace Cameron Bure- who has a stake in the channel. Why do people care so much. There are probably thousands of shows and hundreds of channels that show same-sex couples. Why can't there be ONE channel that is traditional? They won't rest until every show checks all the correct boxes.
Because they, like the Red Guards and Khmer Rouge and every shitty collectivist movement before them, believe that they are in possession of sole moral truth, and therefore other viewpoints cannot be allowed to exist.
Some do, some don’t. No one is going to call John Wick woke.
Perhaps it’s time for the MPAA to rate wokeness along with suitability for age watching. Frankly, I agree with you—I don’t care to be triggered to outrage when I watch a movie or read a book either. The probably won’t do that, though, since it would almost certain,y lead to a decrease in the box office.
The old Judeo-Christian theology was embedded into mainstream art as well. Once Nietzsche killed God, the 20th century tried to abandon the sacred for a while and imbue mass entertainment with secular, liberal materialism. That didn't work though, since "he who dies with the most toys... still dies". Now that we've latched onto postmodernist intersectionality as our theology, our entertainment is filled with holy victims, racial guilt, and sex as a sacrament.
My point is that art, mass entertainment and popular culture always reflect whatever a society views as sacred. You want to "not endure a woke message"? You might as well be a Medieval peasant asking to not endure sermons.
Fortunately, Nietzsche was wrong. That God guy is still around, and still offering us another way. His way includes not only sin, but something postmodern wokeness is utterly devoid of: forgiveness
It may be too soon to get confident, but there seems to be an uptick in attendance at church, and we have new members joining slowly but steadily. The messages of love, forgiveness and reconciliation have meaning in a world gone crazy.
You can get confident NC I’m finding the same thing in my community. Not so much of love, forgiveness or recon but more of just coming back to connect to the community, a more warm and fuzzy feeling of “I’m home” I’ve missed all of you. That for me is what it’s all about, and many young people to getting married and wanting to have kids it’s really great may it just continue!
Not sure that Nietzsche killed God but observed the hypocrisy and corruption that was turning people away and causing a dangerous pendulum swing away from the good parts of religion as scientific thought took off during the enlightenment. Not sure I’m right about his role.
It does seem to me that we are living through an ancient human story. Its pace is amplified by technology but the theme is the same.
The elite commit to unfalsifiable beliefs, anoint themselves the sole arbiters of “truth,” and self-righteously take the reigns of power. They’ll crush and as needed kill those in the way of achieving either utopia or earthly salvation.
Their delusions eventually cause their fall and cast humanity back into dark ages. What’s new is humanity can actually destroy itself now. The phy-ops world we inhabit is reflects this.
The west has been under attack from without and within. Our enemies recognize and fear mutual destruction and use our freedom against us in hopes we will implode. We may.
If you haven’t read it, check out CS Lewis’ the abolition of man. He foresaw our current situation. Maybe something there helps us find our way out.
Nope it’s done and dusted they are all Uber woke, however Disney not doing so well on the woke stage at the moment, they going to have to do some serious thinking.
I miss the day when people were paid to separate the wheat from the chaff. The tsunami of mediocrity enabled by social media is not only worthless but send people backward.
Great point - in my opinion, the “tsunami of mediocrity” as you phrase it, is more a consequence of a struggle-free society, to which social media contributes mightily. The modern world is built on comfort, where any kind of adversity is something to be avoided. The problem here is that any growth process, whether creative or otherwise, requires adversity. Little adversity breeds mediocrity and stagnancy.
While I agree that our current society has rotted a lot of minds, I look at it like this... Can I do anything about it? Well, not really. I can't convince everyone to put down their smartphones and start reading books. Sadly.
So what can be done? Well, all these smartphone/social media addicts who can't think for themselves aren't competition. If I work my ass of I have a better chance of succeeding in this world versus if I was facing an entire society of hard working, clear thinking, success orientated individuals.
That's just my interpretation anyways, trying to put a silver lining on a crappy situation.
At first glance, this seems sensible. Then you quickly realize that in a (supposed) democracy, all the zombies can vote to take everything you've earned away from you. Look around.
They can vote to take everything away from you - or they can just cancel you. Being a “hard-working, clear thinking, success oriented” individual is just white supremacy anyway.
Excellent! You are right. We should always be taking care of us and ours. Very few can change the world. And you are right again, that for those of us hard-working smart folks, there is less competition.
What you CAN do is make sure that your college or university retains in its core offerings the teaching of the liberal arts and the development of western-European society from the 1500s to the present.
See, Durant, Kevin, above. Our demise began when leftist Democrats and then woke Democrats took over the institutions of academia and the arts. And turned them into lunatic institutions.
I would refrain in using Kevin as a reference, Bruce. If I were you. He's a cynical conservative who uses caricature and condescension to bludgeon a point. You normally do not. Be more thoughtful, more open, because I know you are..
Of course, you can tell me to F*** Off. And I'll probably deserve it.
I like Kevin, Bruce, you and most of the people who post here. They run the spectrum of conservative posters. I wish we had more people thoughtful posters on the left but so far all we have attracted are left wing nut cases who scream, "Trump, Trump, Trump!" They don't want to debate what is going on in our country. They just want to scream snarky remarks.
I get carried away (rant) but I try to stick closely to history and facts. It upsets me to see what was once a wonderful state, California, being shoved down the toilet by the left. It upsets me when Democrat mayors allow their cities to be burnt to the ground by a bunch of Marxists thugs and defund the police like they do in Oregon. It upsets me when hard core left wing judges and DAs don't prosecute criminal thugs. It upsets me that we have a senile, corrupt president and an incompetent VEEP. So, through my frustration, I and many other conservatives go off the deep end because we think and I believe rightly so, our country is intentionally be driven to hell in a handbasket.
Thanks, Cat. I couldn't agree more. I'd add that my blood boils when I see our Country's history and mores mocked and denigrated by fools and cretins. When I see the white race demonized and degraded by out-and-out racists and religion mocked by bigots and satanists. And, yes, I too, go overboard sometimes in musing about secession or armed resistance. Because the left is an evil destructive and malign cult that keeps pushing us and will never cease doing so. Like the self-destructive scorpion of the fable - "it's in their nature."
You tell me. When one can predict your actions based on fealty to woke progressivism, it's either in your nature or your true nature has been masked by this evil cult.
I guess all I could possibly add (and I can include myself in this as well), is that at times the volatility of the message gets in the way of its content. One of the very few things in my life that I've learned is that when there's anger, it is anger which responds. Either for or against.
How true. Also it is impossible to express tone of voice through print. For example, if we were having a beer together and you called me a no good ignoramus, based on context, I would probably buy you another beer.
That attack tracks back to the 1960s and the rationalization of mainstreaming those who clearly resided outside of the mainstream of societal thought and behavior.
It may take half-a- a century to undo the damage that has been done in the name of "liberalism".
Exactly, JP. The writer of the essay laments that there is so little demand for cultural product made by people including robots. The unsaid reason is that ninety per cent of it is crap. Where are the editors? Where are the gatekeepers?
We used to have camembert. Now we have Cheez Whiz.
Garbage is in the eye of the beholder. Gatekeepers are censors. Both the far left and far right want misinformation gatekeepers. Who determines what is misinformation? For a brief period of time the Dems had a misinformation board in the Dept of Homeland Security run by a glassy eyed, idiot, nut. Fortunately, they shut it down.
Very sick group of people who want control of America and ultimately their cabal to control the world. They like old fashioned terrorists cells just waiting to pounce at the moment they have pounced it’s up to decent Americans how to fight back!
Not only in America, but the whole freaking world. Who decided that these elites were the chosen ones? I watched this 16min video of the World Government Summit. Where Klaus Schwab is speaking to these world leaders. Saying that we're in for a rough time.
America is _full_ to bursting with the culturally blind. Producers and admirers of "alternative cultures", raised and fed on similarly stupid, crass stuff, are equally blind but have slightly different but no more worthy senses of taste.
My dream job! (Although maybe it causes you to hate reading?)
I feel like now a days I am very suspicious of new books published because a lot seem to be published because of the authors race/sexual identity and not necessarily because they’re good writers.
Which really really annoys me because I just want a well written book.
That's a charming oxymoron. I quite like it. But mediocrity, being mediocre, "fetters" itself by nature. It's certainly a feature, not a bug. I recommend you patent "unfettered mediocrity" or at least put it on a T-Shirt before someone else does. Or maybe the entire sentence: "The mark of wokedom is unfettered mediocrity."
When you're asked what it means, as shall often happen, you have a world of options for your attitude in replying-- coy, uncertain, decisive, etc.
The phrase makes me recall the lyrics to the pop song, "Short Skirt, Long Jacket", by the band "Cake".
I'm not sure that U.S. society really peaked on 20 July 1969 but I do recall that on that Sunday I was watching, like millions of other Americans, as the astronauts made their moon-walk. And I don't dismiss it as some hoax. I recognize it for the fact that it was.
I did not intend to sincerely make light of the very real social decline in American society. I've watched it--if not longer than you have, then very probably nearly as long as you have-- and I sincerely deplore it. But I also know that, where social decay and decline is concerned, every nation and every people at all times are subject to it. The U.S. has a rightly stunning set of achievements in a great many respects. But throughout those triumphs the many wonderful things about the U.S. have never come without their part in mediocrity elsewhere in the social scene.
My crystal ball is out for repairs so I'm unable to look into the future and say with confidence that America's triumphs are all in the past.
What I can say is that at this stage of my life, I've seen more already than I'm likely to see in the time I have left.
I have no apologies to make to anyone for my opinions here. I'm a native-born American citizen and grew up there. If I don't have the right to speak and write frankly about the state of U.S. society, good and bad, past and present, then that's even more reason for real shame and regret.
Ever? That's tricky! But of those I've read in recent years:
Shoshana Zuboff's Age of Surveillance Capitalism (I wrote about it for the Times Literary Supplement), it's a long read but really eye-opening about what Silicon Valley is doing.
David Gran's Killers of the Flower Moon (there's a movie coming out soon).
And if you like animal cats, Abigail Tucker's The Lion in the Living Room is fascinating.
Zuboff's book is like the last few pieces of a puzzle. It brings the image into full life and explains so much of what has transpired in the world over the past decade. All the major tech companies have been vacuuming up every bit of data imaginable while offering you "free" services - KNOWING you would never read their terms of service. It started over 10 years ago, but people still aren't aware of just how powerful GOOG, FB, AAPL, MSFT have become because of it.
The new Cormac McCarthy double set THE PASSENGER/STELLA MARIS (fiction) should put you squarely inside American reality. A little clarity on what's driving it can be found (non fiction) in Edward Edinger's commentary (short read-deep end) on C.G. Jung's AION. Feeling bold AION itself.--Enjoy.
Today, your advice leads millions to subscribe to an animated series featuring a family composed of a factory worker, his wife, Marge (who has blue hair), their son Bart and daughter--the smart one of the family--Lisa.
Given a choice betwen
a) reading Homer's Illiad and Odyssey
or
b) watching The Simpsons
or
c) doing nothing,
the vast majority of Americans would prefer to do either b) or c).
I was a bit thrown off by your reference to my advice leading millions to subscribe to something..? I thought my comments only enjoy a humble couple ok likes here and there… ☺️
But then I checked what Simpson was (I head the term, but I really don’t know what it is - the small perks of being an immigrant je he je ). And gosh what a sardonic irony! His name is Homer. I never could have imagined such a twist, even in my wildest dreams. And my dreams are pretty wild.
Last time I had a laugh this good was over ten years ago when I was picking up a breast pump at a maternity store in Palo Alto and learnt that the brand name is “Medela.”
I was literally rolling around the counter screaming: Medela!! For a breast pump??!! you gotta me kidding me!! And the shop assistants just blank stared at me.
Nobody knew what Medea is…. And now this, Homer is a Simpson. Madonna! What a tragicomedy.
American culture. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry. There's more irony where that came from. The Simpsons' creator, a man by the name of Matt Groening ( American, b. 1954) --you would be very hard-pressed to find a more original unreconstructed Liberal-(Woke-avant-l'heure) type. Homer guzzles Duff (brand) beer, watches television and is generally totally self-absorbed and hoplessly incompetent; but he loves Marge and has a lovable, endearing simplicity. The whole cast of characters are equisitely drawn and almost perfectly capture so much that is pathetically stupid about American cutlure. I don't personally like Groening at all --he's surely long since become a multi-millionaire or billionaire by now. But I liked and watched this stupid animated series despite myself.
Re: ..."the small perks of being an immigrant je he je"....
And how! I envy you for the fact that you could find these things mystifying. Don't lose that. It's a wonderful thing to be able to regard American culture as an outsider, a visitor, looking on at something strange.
Until I get some romance back in my life, i am not paying to read about someone else's!!!! of course living in the aging expat community that I do, romance comes with both of us leaning on our canes and discussing our ailments - but you have to start somewhere.
No - i decided to make my remaining years reallychallenging by moving to Mexico when I speak not a word of Spanish and have to deal with broken sidewalks and dog remains--and there is a lot of both. But it keeps dementia at bay and I don't have to do word games on the NYT to do so.
Mexico IS creativity and art. Some of the best people in the world. It value's family and human connection and its psyche is close enough to the earth. Good for you!!
“Disney or Universal Music Group or Fox Corp. But they pursue the exact opposite approach. They are the most cautious and risk-averse players in the whole culture ecosystem”
——————————————————-
Disney is pushing Marxist ethnic conflict theory, child sexualization, and conversion therapy, while Universal Music Group is pushing Satanism, gangbanging, and sexual depravity.
They are not cautious *at all*. They are just Democrats and thus people who aren’t psychopaths find what they produce repulsive.
The problem with our institutions, of all types, is that they are run by Democrats, who are all soulless pagan scumbags. That is the problem.
I'd like to say good-bye to all of you who take time to write thoughtful comments, which I have enjoyed tremendously. I need a break from the FP, which often depresses me. Those of us who love this country and have been miserable during the Biden administration, as well as during the Covid fiasco, need some positive essays to read. Most here continue to frustrate me. I realize that is the state of the union but still...I only think each of us should make at the most 2-3 comments as the bloviating nature becomes a turn-off (for me). I realize this is still a great place to express ourselves and have reaction to those expressions, but sometimes it is too much. Take care all!
I'm the same way. My mind has been racing lately and I'm constantly crying. I feel like the world is on fire around me. For all of my friends who move to red states, I feel they're just delaying the inevitable. My oldest son (21) told me to put down my phone and social media because it affects me too much.
I am sorry you are feeling this way, enough to cry. I can tell you that we spend time in two red states--Montana and Arizona-- and at this point, they are much better places to live. California is really in a sorry state. Take care.
Why would you do that to yourself? It's like being addicted, you know it's gonna kill you, but you rationalize it with not today. When I start to get that feeling of despair everything is turned off. I go and do something that I enjoy. Gardening and volunteering, always helps me.
Good choices they take your mind of all the bad and generally lift the sprits. Although when I do volunteering I become desperate when I get home it’s really unhealthy to see all the despair and know there is very little light at the end of the tunnel.
Understand how you feel. Take care of yourself. TGIF is generally funny. Be thankful for what you have and have experienced - we've had a good ride; it may not be over. Crazier things have happened! Let the world surprise you. :-)
Considering blue states/blue counties produce 72-73% of the U.S. GDP, you should just say "Thank you" and be on your way. You sleep under the blanket of others, then question the manner in which they provide it.
Yeah that’s where most of the people not paying there fair share are located. So if Democrats actually wanted them to pay their fair share they could just raise state taxes since they control those states. But they don’t do that which makes it almost seem like they are full of shit.
Regardless, I think we should raise corporate taxes nationally to 60% so that everyone can see that tax revenue actually goes down when you do that and also that it is not nearly enough to pay for our existing suite of communist programs.
Plus, if we raise corporate taxes to 60%, or even just 45%, the economy will collapse and the corporations will then have to fire all of their make-work Democrat employees who don’t produce anything and who are turning the corporations into state-owned fascist enterprises.
What is your desired corporate tax rate and how much additional revenue per year do you think that will produce?
Telling you that your child will live a life of suffering because your jackass utopian ideas will have incurred $50 trillion in debt by the time he’s a taxpayer is not “wishing ill”, you unrepentant psychopathic liar. It is, obviously, as you know, me simply explaining to you that you’re dumb and your child will suffer as a result of your stupidity.
I'm sorry. In America, you get rich because you work hard, follow the rules, engage in good behavior/ ethical morals (school, no kids before marriage, don't complain etc.)
If you don't - you wind up poor. That's why it happens.
There is equal access to opportunity for EVERYONE in America. Lol. I'm sorry. Didn't you get the memo/go to orientation?
I just realized early on that America it's nothing more than a geographical land mass on which you can utilize the capitalist system to gather as many individual resources as possible.
There IS an entire world outside of the Trump dichotomy. A beautiful world full of colors that aren’t Red, Blue or Orange.
Also I’m not for getting rid of institutions, just for having a multitude of other options and letting the legacy institutions flounder under their own ineptitude.
Change my mind about two institutions that are the epitome of my argument and likely be sucked dry by entitled Boomers by the time I’m eligible for them? Doubtful since I’ve been preparing for their demise by providing my future self with other options.
(Obviously, I am not accepting criticism on the practice of lumping people together into groups, from Democrats, whose core strategy is lumping people together into groups. At least ‘Democrat’ was something they picked.)
By “founding fathers” are you referring to the slavery enthusiasts who stole the land this illegitimate rapacious racist country was built on, that needs to be returned to its rightful owners, and who wrote the fundamentally evil white supremacist documents that need to be discarded and rewritten so that we can transform the United States into a project pursuing equity collectively?
The reason Adolf Hitler used the term ‘The Big Lie’ repeatedly and used an *attack on a government building* by his political opposition, The Reichstag Fire, as propaganda tool was because Adolf Hitler knew that there are always a lot of people like you.
I can’t stand Hannity or Ingraham but Tucker gives lefties plenty of opportunity and air time to embarrass themselves. Some of his best shows are when he has real liberals like Greenwald on and they expose the real threats to our democracy.
I have to admit though, my favorite show is Gutfeld!. He’s almost single-handedly keeping comedy, one of our greatest cultural institutions, alive. And every night he thanks democrats and the MSM for an endless supply of material
Yeah and also the permanent government in Washington DC is 95% Democrat and 5% Max Boot so it doesn’t matter what Fox pushes there is zero actual risk.
I’m 79 years old. I’m up everyday at 5:00 for coffee, the home delivery of several newspapers, and then my iPad access to various platforms and news outlets. I wanted to congratulate you on writing the most exciting article I’ve read in a long time. I plan to reread it several more times today, make myself notes for follow-up, share your article with friends, and then subscribe. Congratulations again, great job!
I think these are inversely proportional. The theme of the 20th century was using technology to improve society’s shortcomings. The theme of this century will be the need for humans to resist the excesses brought about by those very same technologies.
It's funny you say that. I was reading Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism the other day, and in the beginning, he mentioned that movie. I haven't watched it, but now I might need to.
As a subscriber to The Free Press, I am proud to be a part of this populist movement. Unfortunately, with so many choices to pick from, on Substack alone, there are not enough hours in the day to subscribe and engage them all. Some of us do have to work. The mismatch between purveyors of art and information and consumers is telling however. How are you going to build a growing population of knowledgeable fans/consumers when education is lost to woke ideology that villifies icons of art and science as unworthy of study or appreciation because they are all old white men? Unless and until we reverse the illiberal trend of judging people by their immutable characteristics and/or against standards that did not apply generations ago when they lived, we will not advance culture, art, or science. Vive le Substack! Rick
We're slowly recapturing the American national dialogue. (Without Substack and independent subscription journalism the Twitter revelation's wouldn't have happened.) The Republican party is (for now at least) malleable. Maybe in the near future American elected political representation "by subscription". Truth is transformative and seems to be directly connected to whatever the force informing the fact of human existence is. The LIE depends on the distortion and suppression of truthful human reality and damage's the evolution of consciousness and the human race. The war is and has always been on consciousness.
I like this and while I expect the "whatever source" you reference is a higher being I think it likewise applies to earthly forces. Please forgive my liberty with your phraseology but I think truth is transformative and should be directly connected to the modern forces informing the facts of human existence. Your comment distilled for me why I found the suppression on social media sites that profess to be and/or are regarded as public squares so chilling. Of course my chill was likely informed by that other force.
Hours After Trump Announces Upcoming Visit to East Palestine, FEMA Reverses Course and Will Support Ohio Community
The announcement by President Trump with his intent to visit East Palestine next Wednesday, followed moments later by a reversal announcement from FEMA stating they will now offer support to East Palestine, do not seem coincidental.
Trump is the ultimate influencer. MAGAites love him, Donkeys hate him. But everyone has an opinion and everyone jumps when he says or does something. He would be wise NOT to run for Prez. A loss takes him out of the game forever.
I agree with much of what Ted writes here, we really are in the golden age of culture. Culture has always been spoon fed to us and it was incumbent on the consumer to seek it out...now it is easier than ever to find it.
When I was a kid growing up in Boston, we would go down to Newbury St and hit a shop called Mystery Train (I think that was the name) where they carried all types of music you couldn’t get anywhere else and we would drop $20 or $30 on CDs with cool cover art, just to see if we could stumble on something we liked.
Now, I go to Spotify and have an infinite number of Mystery Train stores at my fingertips.
Hell, personally, Substack has helped me reconnect with writing, which was a passion of mine before life got in the way, and I had lost connection with for decades (shameless plug- be sure to check out Gordon Comstock’s Plant here! https://www.gordoncomstock.com/)
I slightly disagree with Ted’s point about the demand side. There is a TON of demand...it’s just highly fragmented which makes it challenging for any one content producer to get traction...at least that’s the story I tell myself about my Substack 😂
I've yet to publish an article here, but planning out my blog led me to a group of writers who met on the social media platform Minds and regularly meet on Discord to share work and critical feedback. I'm dipping into writing in a way I've never done before and exchanging lots of ideas with interesting people. The results of that process will eventually be here on Substack.
There's a certain segment of the Free Press audience so indulgent in doom and gloom that they won't see or hear anything else. There's never been more opportunity for creativity, and the need to refine the masses into better consumers is nothing new.
Well said. I found the article uplifting and showing a great future opportunity for the arts/artists. May it pull us away from obsessing over politics that get us nowhere but in a fight.
I see a fair amount of things to be doom and gloom about In this environment, but I think submersion in the creative culture may be a work-around for me. And I think there is something to be said for the loss of creativity that some are bemoaning the loss of, I like the idea that my own tastes can curate what I partake in. Sort of kidding a lot of frogs to get to the prince. Prior to mass production of music for example lots of people played music for the love of it, not for the potential payout.
I find Spotify’s algorithm terrible. It’s recommended mixes are just recycled versions of other playlists I have created. I rarely like songs they add to my playlists. I don’t use it to discover new music and that’s a shame.
American “culture”. The people who like it get exactly what they deserve. The last time I tried to read a fiction book it was full of woke bs. I find it even in non-fiction, too. We mostly watch old movies now because new stuff is terrible. And comedy is never funny, except Dave Chapelle.
I’m a visual artist and most shows anymore are about some sort of diversity, equity blah blah blah. That’s how the art and artists are described and chosen. Oh and everybody thinks they’re a special genius/victim and we should buy their work and/or class.
I have a hard time seeing how anyone with a liberal arts background could honestly believe we are in a cultural boom right now. I don’t even think the Pirate Wires people really believe ai-generated art is all that great.
Don’t get me wrong; appreciate FP airing this perspective. Just seems ludicrous to me. Other than an arguable golden age of videogames, hard to think of any brilliant, lasting cultural creations of the last few years. Lots of quantity, sure. But quality is what we traditionally value in this sphere. A bajillion YouTube uploads or self-published novels doesn’t move the needle much for me.
Yeah, I agree. I would rather have quality over quantity. I don’t have time to wade through a million artists or authors to find the few well written self published books.
But reliance on someone else to do it is what has produced the scenario whereby what to like is being dictated to us. All of the arts presented to us by mass media have arguably been captured.
The entire psyop is dedicated to the creation of fear, depression, anxiety and confusion. The problem's confronting us are as much pathology as politic's. The megalomania and narcissism of the puppeteer's behind this mal reality is revealed by their necessity to LIE and obfuscate about their part in the real cause and effect human damage they engender and their ability to completely deny their personal responsibility for it.
What did Honest Abe say? "You can fool part of the people some of the time, you can fool......."
You don't have to wade. Art transcend's time. ( I've been re-reading Hemingway.) It's there. Make the connection and the one will lead you to the next.
("...I like the way you walk I like the way you talk...my...")
Agreed. I think the main point the author makes, maybe unintentionally, is that we are in a Cambrian explosion of CONTENT. That’s true, as far as it goes. But I think we are saying that content does not equal culture, let alone art.
Agreed, John. I was not agreeing with the article and then it got worse when I came across that AI monstrosity of Drake by Rembrandt that the writer wants to promote as an example of the new 'booming' culture of uploaded art, You Tube nonsense and thousands of daily new songs we should be interested in.
But that rare gem is out there. And arguably done as in days of old for love of the art or inability to curb the impulse to create it. I like that. I am turning off corporate content and going on a treasure hunt.
I get that. But back in the day (I'm dating myself I know..) there was FM radio and alternative stations to vet the music for us. Art galleries revealed artists they thought were promising. A novel didn't make it out there unless it passed reams of publishing layers first (of which I know first hand, none of my short stories ever made it..). I won't see a film unless reviewers who I respect like it. And I think most people do that.
Yes, that rare gem is out there. But I'm too intolerant to weed through the thicket of bad and mediocre to find it. I'm old school, I want someone else to do that..
Those were exciting times. In part because they were new and a lot of them were standing up to "the man". But once corporate interests saw the potential for profit they became mainstream. And that is true of the popular music industry too. Not to mention what video did to popular music. Ditto film and television. I suppose what the author is lamenting is the inability to scale. Sounds like Shark Tank to me.
Thank you for one of the most informative, data-driven Substacks I’ve read about our Culture. Most adults, I believe, are discerning consumers of the arts and will seek out and support excellent work. As a former museum docent, I was often asked by visitors to simply avoid the Contemporary gallery. They wanted to see beautiful art that was exceptionally executed and awe inspiring, not paint thrown on a canvas. In the new world you describe, the former gate keepers no longer hold the keys to the kingdom.
I'm not sure that counting self-published books and song and video uploads as art or culture is valid. Surely a fraction of them count as such. Insane quantities of self-published content in and of itself increases entropy.
I worked in book publishing (actual indie publishing - a small, traditional independent royalty-paying press that took no money from authors), and in that context engaged with many authors and other publishers and held many self-published books in my hands - I wouldn't have bought let alone read most of them. Even some I did buy and whose content was solidly worth it often left something to be desired in the way of editing or formatting, etc. Which is to say, I believe there are gems amid the entropy, but they're hard to find, which is one facet of hindering audience development.
It also brings forth the reality that art in its raw form might not be all that shiny. The process of developing and editing (music, books, etc.) is an important one. That digital publishing has enabled individuals to bring their own books and music (games, etc.) to life without the blessing of a "gatekeeper" is liberating and beneficial on one hand, and it drives so much entropy and poor-quality content (which some people are consuming) on the other.
I think the percentage of artists who can capture a purely digital audience effectively is incredibly small. So yes, the numbers of followers are exorbitantly large, but the number of people with such followings is small. It's not really any different from how pop culture has always worked. There are only so many Ed Sheerans and Stephen Kings, etc. I tend to think in-person audience building has to come first (which is hard and daunting), and it can be supported or expanded digitally. And one thing about digital audiences is that the platforms are always changing the algorithms, so that what worked last year might not work today. The audience one has captured on some platforms might not see the content they produce tomorrow. It's fleeting. Right now YouTube and TikTok might be dominating, but new platforms will spring up, and it will divide attention further. Nothing digital can be counted on. And perhaps nothing in-person can be counted on either, but it changes more slowly. And if, as an example, an audiences' favorite bookstore or music venue goes out of business, they'll be willing to shift to another.
I don't think we should be dazzled by insanely large numbers (of self-produced content or consumption thereof). I still care about quality and meaning. (And my kids still read actual books). I choose to spend my attention on content I find merited, and I don't bother with the rest.
Yeah, I hear that. It's a lot like pop music. The big publishers want to bet on books for the masses, which means formulaic and singular, usually. I've certainly read some great popular books (Where the Crawdads Sing, for example), but I avoid most of them, to your point. The classics never disappoint. And some awards don't disappoint, like Pulitzer. And I tend to like the books I read published by Scribner (old and new).
I rarely read a book published after 1980. Most of what I read was published 70 to 200 years ago. Nonfiction published in this century I sometimes read, psychology or political science. But for fiction, why would I want to read a first-person narrative, overly minimized, with a dozen intentional sentence fragments per page, and written in the past tense as a parlor trick to make the writing seem more immediate—when I can read Proust, Dante, Pushkin, Joyce, Mailer, Chekhov, Faulkner, Bellow, S. Lewis, Pynchon, Homer, D. Johnson—to name a few.
Philosophically I speculate that is because writers of the past took it seriously, and considered what they were writing and how. I think of Hemingway agonizing over virtually every sentence he wrote. Today you get a cookie for typing 50K words (NaNoWriMo). Getting published (by self or another) is the end goal, it has little to do with the value or quality of the content.
I've been writing my entire adult life (some freelance journalism but mostly unpublished essays, and I even have a crappy unpublished novel). I was recently talking with another writerly friend, to whom I commented that nothing new can be written. Everything worth saying has been said. I suspect this is why it's such a balm to read older works. The wisdoms are prominent in older works and there's little point in reinventing the literary wheel. The more I read the more I realize what I write/have written isn't new, but merely echoes of the past. I keep writing but I don't need to publish it or share it. I write for me, for the joy; I don't need a cookie.
You're dead on about past writers taking their time and agonizing over every word, which is what I do with my stories and novels (unpublished—for now), though it could be part of the reason why I am so often crippled when writing.
It used to be writers would take three to ten years to write a novel, depending on other responsibilities, sometimes one year, if they had a grant, or writing novels was their primary income.
Nowadays people write a book in six months, hire a hackneyed editor for a couple of hundred dollars, and self-publish. Voila! They’re a writer. I laugh.
Maybe everything that can be said has been said. However, I disagree that that is a reason to avoid publishing or writing another novel. Think about how many writers in the early 20th century wrote adaptations of The Odyssey and countless other works. Even then, 100 years ago, many novels were influenced by other works, but without knowing they were, few people would actually notice.
Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it.
A Rodin exhibit visited our museum a few years ago. The energy emanating from the stone transformed the exhibit hall. In the hand's of the Master stone became food and nurture. That power reside's and resonate's within us all. The artist simply reminds us of the fact.
About the only thing I take away from this is the Mooch’s book did well ( even though or maybe because she didn’t write it herself) and romance novels are popular.
There’s a guy name Mr Beast whose every video has his mouth open.
There is such a thing called bandcamp but I have no idea what it means and I haven’t the desire to find out.
And that the only metric of artistry seems to be how much one gets paid for it.
Meanwhile the disaster in East Palestine Ohio continues to be ignored even at the Free Press. Much better to junk up the mind with YouTube articles or whining about the clutter than investigating the chicanery of the railroads and BlackRock.
Ooooh. Yeah. Mentioned by Nellie in a paragraph or two. But I guess that’s in keeping with the drive by hit and move on of todays essay amiright?
Nowhere was it discussed that the RRs bailed on a town meeting, or Pete Buttgag is more concerned about the race of construction workers, or that the cars were loaded incorrectly or the lack of track maintenance or that Black Rock is a big investor in that RR, etc etc etc.
But Nellie mentioned it in her compendium so it’s all good in some peoples world.
None of the writers are anywhere near E Pal. Give them a chance to do some research, like proper journalists. You want titillating, outrageous, instant - and WRONG claims, go for it....elsewhere.
In this week's Matt and Walter wrap up,Walter commented that one didn't have to go to EPAL now to report on it. Any trip through EPAL or other towns like it,shows what has happened to these hollowed out towns leaving the poor to fend for themselves. This doesnt require a lot of research - it requires getting in your car ,driving through some of them and asking the people who live there what life is like for them. Let us not wait for disaster to hit before doing THAT kind of feet on the ground research.
None of the writers CARE about East Palestine. None of the writers here, none of the main stream media who are supposed to deliver news, you know the first telling of history, are there, with the exception of Fox.
The MSM want to minimize E Pal because it is a shit show and they have handled it horribly (just like everything else). I am confident Bari et al will provide something useful in due time. Patience is a virtue.
Patience? You mean like the people there in Ohio, whose health, families, livelihoods , livestock and other animals are threatened, are being told to be ‘patient’?
The media have no trouble inundating us with stories, assumptions and spin on events they choose to amplify. This event just doesn’t satisfy their criteria for reporting or persistent amplification.
You're right. Journalists don't care about East Palestine because it's basically in the boondocks. As a guest on Bill Maher last night said bluntly - if this thing happened near NYC the story would be everywhere..
Most of these mediocre giants are institutionally woke, to the point where even woke audiences are sick of the obvious pandering. Take for example the recent productions from Disney such as “The Proud Family”, which attacks white fragility (so-called), as well as last year’s “Lightyear” with a pointless gay scene and the atrocious “Little [Black] Mermaid” remake. None of these has done well. One more such major failure and I would question Disney’s viability to survive.
Then there is Disney’s political activism which has angered millions of conservatives. The online forums are full of people promising to never attend a Disney park again. Talk about trying to destroy your core market!
The platforms like youtube and tiktok are monopolistic and censorious. Something better has to come along that allows more freedom of expression. Substack is a step in the right direction, as is Musk’s newly liberated Twitter. But the overall cultural stranglehold still exists. Maybe some day, people will be willing to venture out of their Big Tech crib and experiment more boldly.
The Hundred Years War was the result of Gutenberg's Bible. The sudden expansion of consciousness the technology created in serfdom scared the sh't out of the monarchal ruling elite. The soul numbing psyop we're experiencing is the fight back response of modern criminal financier's and pay to play politician's (the monarchy) whose machination's have been made transparent to reality by the new consciousness created in the modern jump in tech and communication world wide. The world has entered an entirely new Aion and the fight we're facing is the repression of its attendant consciousness. The vision, resource's and possibility for a bright human future are everywhere. The purpose of the psyop is to convince you they're not.
The war is and has alway's been on consciousness. Art is a reflection of the human transcendent and consciousness. In the same way plantation owner's were fearful of literacy in slave's, world criminal finance fear's open communication, free thought and the exchange of idea's among a free citizenry. Hence the assault on on American civil liberty, the anti-human sterility of the "woke" psyop and the well financed push to overturn the American Constitution. The tactic's being employed are the same as those used by Mao, Stalin and Hitler but the end result is aimed at the establishment of a kind of world totalitarian financial monarchism. (Eat bugs-Own nothing and be happy.
I agree "..the overall cultural stranglehold still exists..." but the WIN is in being able to say it because what you can't say own's you. Western Culture is powerful and alive. It is the soul numbing manufactured LIE of the psyop blocking its light. Art is the ultimate conspiracy of soul's. Join the conspiracy.
'The Little Mermaid' remake is "atrocious"? How do you know? It hasn't even been released yet and you couldn't possibly conclude that it hasn't "done well". I'm not a fan of a lot of what Disney is doing, but c'mon.
I should have said "is not likely to do well". I'm basing that on hundreds of comments across multiple forums by people outraged at the casting decision. Hans Christian Andersen, the guy who created the story, described her as: "Her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea" and the illustrations were similarly of northern European-like creatures.
Now in principle I don't care from skin color, but to take a widely known and beloved European fairy tale and cast a black person as the lead, purely for diversity purposes, is stupid. A lot of us are saying the same thing here. Let alone the fact that Halle Berry is somehow just wrong for this part. Too old, not a great actress, not dynamic.
I can almost promise you, this thing is going to bomb. It's already being ridiculed. "He's dead, Jim."
I include myself as one of those 20% who’s constantly on YouTube. I’m going to school for computer science, but the majority of my education (from programming languages, to mathematics, and even Greek/Hebrew) has been through “YouTube University”.
It is VERY good when you need to fix something complex and want to avoid thrashing around. I never work on anything nowadays without reviewing an online video first. My 84-year-old brother said he'd like to have an old Daisy Model 25 air rifle like he had as a boy. I found one, reviewed a YouTube video on how to rebuild it (harder than you would think), slipped in an extra-powerful spring like his had in the 'forties, and violà. Quick and painless. It's death on ground squirrels now.
Yes YouTube is a useful tool. But wait until Google decides your Daisy BB gun is a manifestation of white privilege and takes down that content. We need to starve that beast.
I grit my teeth every time, but it's the only game in town so far. Rumble is coming on fast, and I always try to look there first. There is an article about the resignation of YouTube CEO, or whatever she is, and it said that YouTube was absolutely strangling itself with Woke.
A friend now makes most of his income from YouTube. He's a real renaissance man and does mostly farm-related videos, but also does metal casting, machine-shop videos, etc. He did a video on the ballistics of skipping bullets on water at his farm pond and they demonitized almost every one of his videos.
YouTube is my university. YouTube is like a tire iron, used correctly it's a wonderful tool. Used incorrectly, well you get a bunch of brain stew and bright red goo.
I read through most of that, and it was interesting to me that he seemed to conflate "culture" with some level of imagistic or artistic consumerism. He certainly didn't define culture, or what its proper purpose is.
And he didn't point out that most pop culture seemingly has little interest in the purpose and point of life OTHER than consuming things in various ways.
For my own purposes I defined "culture" many years ago as "An evolving but relatively stable system for the creation and distribution of meaning, truth, power, and wealth."
It seems to me no one asks what the meaning of life is even as a joke any more. Most Americans live in a forever Present filled with colorful lights, loud noises, blatant sexuality, superficiality, and ridiculous politics based on even worse moral philosophy.
Is it possible anymore to go to a movie, play, dance performance, read a book or watch something on Netflix without a political or LGBTQ message? Sports have been ruined too. Can I just be entertained without having to endure a woke message?
Yes, you seek out individual creators who aren't directed by corporate executives. That's what this article is about.
I thought this article was about the slow death of humanity. Maybe I should read the entire piece.
Nah.
Slowly at first. Then, all of a sudden.
Have you ever heard of GAC tv? The CEO of Hallmark Channel left to start GAC. It's wholesome and no...they don't show same-sex couples. You had to see the backlash especially against Candace Cameron Bure- who has a stake in the channel. Why do people care so much. There are probably thousands of shows and hundreds of channels that show same-sex couples. Why can't there be ONE channel that is traditional? They won't rest until every show checks all the correct boxes.
Because they, like the Red Guards and Khmer Rouge and every shitty collectivist movement before them, believe that they are in possession of sole moral truth, and therefore other viewpoints cannot be allowed to exist.
We have to fight back we can’t let them dominate like they have been.
Oh, right, you think individual creators won’t produce woke crap.
Some do, some don’t. No one is going to call John Wick woke.
Perhaps it’s time for the MPAA to rate wokeness along with suitability for age watching. Frankly, I agree with you—I don’t care to be triggered to outrage when I watch a movie or read a book either. The probably won’t do that, though, since it would almost certain,y lead to a decrease in the box office.
They will, the minute we start viewing, and it gets the audience that the author is talking about
The old Judeo-Christian theology was embedded into mainstream art as well. Once Nietzsche killed God, the 20th century tried to abandon the sacred for a while and imbue mass entertainment with secular, liberal materialism. That didn't work though, since "he who dies with the most toys... still dies". Now that we've latched onto postmodernist intersectionality as our theology, our entertainment is filled with holy victims, racial guilt, and sex as a sacrament.
My point is that art, mass entertainment and popular culture always reflect whatever a society views as sacred. You want to "not endure a woke message"? You might as well be a Medieval peasant asking to not endure sermons.
Fortunately, Nietzsche was wrong. That God guy is still around, and still offering us another way. His way includes not only sin, but something postmodern wokeness is utterly devoid of: forgiveness
Beautifully stated, on this Sunday morning.
It may be too soon to get confident, but there seems to be an uptick in attendance at church, and we have new members joining slowly but steadily. The messages of love, forgiveness and reconciliation have meaning in a world gone crazy.
You can get confident NC I’m finding the same thing in my community. Not so much of love, forgiveness or recon but more of just coming back to connect to the community, a more warm and fuzzy feeling of “I’m home” I’ve missed all of you. That for me is what it’s all about, and many young people to getting married and wanting to have kids it’s really great may it just continue!
We had NINE babies baptized this morning!
Overall, I agree with what you say here.
Not sure that Nietzsche killed God but observed the hypocrisy and corruption that was turning people away and causing a dangerous pendulum swing away from the good parts of religion as scientific thought took off during the enlightenment. Not sure I’m right about his role.
It does seem to me that we are living through an ancient human story. Its pace is amplified by technology but the theme is the same.
The elite commit to unfalsifiable beliefs, anoint themselves the sole arbiters of “truth,” and self-righteously take the reigns of power. They’ll crush and as needed kill those in the way of achieving either utopia or earthly salvation.
Their delusions eventually cause their fall and cast humanity back into dark ages. What’s new is humanity can actually destroy itself now. The phy-ops world we inhabit is reflects this.
The west has been under attack from without and within. Our enemies recognize and fear mutual destruction and use our freedom against us in hopes we will implode. We may.
If you haven’t read it, check out CS Lewis’ the abolition of man. He foresaw our current situation. Maybe something there helps us find our way out.
Not at the moment, no.
But you might be amazed at how many people share that sentiment with us.
This idiocy can't be killed off like an unwelcome weed. It has to die off, spend itself, naturally.
Don’t forget climate. We made the mushroom zombies in The Last of Us
I’m still watching it but I almost turned it off after that stupid 3 minute segment at the beginning
Nope it’s done and dusted they are all Uber woke, however Disney not doing so well on the woke stage at the moment, they going to have to do some serious thinking.
I miss the day when people were paid to separate the wheat from the chaff. The tsunami of mediocrity enabled by social media is not only worthless but send people backward.
Great point - in my opinion, the “tsunami of mediocrity” as you phrase it, is more a consequence of a struggle-free society, to which social media contributes mightily. The modern world is built on comfort, where any kind of adversity is something to be avoided. The problem here is that any growth process, whether creative or otherwise, requires adversity. Little adversity breeds mediocrity and stagnancy.
While I agree that our current society has rotted a lot of minds, I look at it like this... Can I do anything about it? Well, not really. I can't convince everyone to put down their smartphones and start reading books. Sadly.
So what can be done? Well, all these smartphone/social media addicts who can't think for themselves aren't competition. If I work my ass of I have a better chance of succeeding in this world versus if I was facing an entire society of hard working, clear thinking, success orientated individuals.
That's just my interpretation anyways, trying to put a silver lining on a crappy situation.
At first glance, this seems sensible. Then you quickly realize that in a (supposed) democracy, all the zombies can vote to take everything you've earned away from you. Look around.
They can vote to take everything away from you - or they can just cancel you. Being a “hard-working, clear thinking, success oriented” individual is just white supremacy anyway.
Nah, only if you don't pay attention. You can buy assets with your earnings that either won't be taxed in this life or will be in the distant future.
Excellent! You are right. We should always be taking care of us and ours. Very few can change the world. And you are right again, that for those of us hard-working smart folks, there is less competition.
What you CAN do is make sure that your college or university retains in its core offerings the teaching of the liberal arts and the development of western-European society from the 1500s to the present.
It's important stuff.
See, Durant, Kevin, above. Our demise began when leftist Democrats and then woke Democrats took over the institutions of academia and the arts. And turned them into lunatic institutions.
I would refrain in using Kevin as a reference, Bruce. If I were you. He's a cynical conservative who uses caricature and condescension to bludgeon a point. You normally do not. Be more thoughtful, more open, because I know you are..
Of course, you can tell me to F*** Off. And I'll probably deserve it.
Cheers.
I like Kevin, Bruce, you and most of the people who post here. They run the spectrum of conservative posters. I wish we had more people thoughtful posters on the left but so far all we have attracted are left wing nut cases who scream, "Trump, Trump, Trump!" They don't want to debate what is going on in our country. They just want to scream snarky remarks.
I get carried away (rant) but I try to stick closely to history and facts. It upsets me to see what was once a wonderful state, California, being shoved down the toilet by the left. It upsets me when Democrat mayors allow their cities to be burnt to the ground by a bunch of Marxists thugs and defund the police like they do in Oregon. It upsets me when hard core left wing judges and DAs don't prosecute criminal thugs. It upsets me that we have a senile, corrupt president and an incompetent VEEP. So, through my frustration, I and many other conservatives go off the deep end because we think and I believe rightly so, our country is intentionally be driven to hell in a handbasket.
So cut us a little slack.
Thanks, Cat. I couldn't agree more. I'd add that my blood boils when I see our Country's history and mores mocked and denigrated by fools and cretins. When I see the white race demonized and degraded by out-and-out racists and religion mocked by bigots and satanists. And, yes, I too, go overboard sometimes in musing about secession or armed resistance. Because the left is an evil destructive and malign cult that keeps pushing us and will never cease doing so. Like the self-destructive scorpion of the fable - "it's in their nature."
Your BEST POST TO Bruce between the two of you America is in good hands!! TG
How is allegiance to an Ideology in anyone's "nature"?
You tell me. When one can predict your actions based on fealty to woke progressivism, it's either in your nature or your true nature has been masked by this evil cult.
Fair enough, Lonesome.
Point made.
I guess all I could possibly add (and I can include myself in this as well), is that at times the volatility of the message gets in the way of its content. One of the very few things in my life that I've learned is that when there's anger, it is anger which responds. Either for or against.
How true. Also it is impossible to express tone of voice through print. For example, if we were having a beer together and you called me a no good ignoramus, based on context, I would probably buy you another beer.
My first smile of the day..
LP your BEST POST EVER!!!
I find him amusing and bitingly sardonic.
I'll certainly agree that he can be amusing, when I'm in the mood. Though I don't think he finds me that way..
lol
You're just such an earnest, nice guy. Don't change.
Ahh..
I raise my gin and tonic to you..
(Please don't judge me, I know it's early..)
That attack tracks back to the 1960s and the rationalization of mainstreaming those who clearly resided outside of the mainstream of societal thought and behavior.
It may take half-a- a century to undo the damage that has been done in the name of "liberalism".
Exactly, JP. The writer of the essay laments that there is so little demand for cultural product made by people including robots. The unsaid reason is that ninety per cent of it is crap. Where are the editors? Where are the gatekeepers?
We used to have camembert. Now we have Cheez Whiz.
Actually it's worse than that. 99% of what's out there is garbage..
Garbage is in the eye of the beholder. Gatekeepers are censors. Both the far left and far right want misinformation gatekeepers. Who determines what is misinformation? For a brief period of time the Dems had a misinformation board in the Dept of Homeland Security run by a glassy eyed, idiot, nut. Fortunately, they shut it down.
Or, did they? The State Department is funding all kinds of NGOs and think tank's, that are more than willing to censor for them.
Very sick group of people who want control of America and ultimately their cabal to control the world. They like old fashioned terrorists cells just waiting to pounce at the moment they have pounced it’s up to decent Americans how to fight back!
Not only in America, but the whole freaking world. Who decided that these elites were the chosen ones? I watched this 16min video of the World Government Summit. Where Klaus Schwab is speaking to these world leaders. Saying that we're in for a rough time.
https://youtu.be/cdybenbfjxe he says he who controls the technology, controls the world.
"Garbage is in the eye of the beholder."
That's "our problem", then, right there.
America is _full_ to bursting with the culturally blind. Producers and admirers of "alternative cultures", raised and fed on similarly stupid, crass stuff, are equally blind but have slightly different but no more worthy senses of taste.
I like the idea of not being spoon fed by the megalithic "entrrtainment" industry.
Book critic here. We try!
My dream job! (Although maybe it causes you to hate reading?)
I feel like now a days I am very suspicious of new books published because a lot seem to be published because of the authors race/sexual identity and not necessarily because they’re good writers.
Which really really annoys me because I just want a well written book.
Looks like you're going to spend much of your life annoyed. The mark of wokedom is unfettered mediocrity. It's a feature, not a bug.
"unfettered mediocrity"
That's a charming oxymoron. I quite like it. But mediocrity, being mediocre, "fetters" itself by nature. It's certainly a feature, not a bug. I recommend you patent "unfettered mediocrity" or at least put it on a T-Shirt before someone else does. Or maybe the entire sentence: "The mark of wokedom is unfettered mediocrity."
When you're asked what it means, as shall often happen, you have a world of options for your attitude in replying-- coy, uncertain, decisive, etc.
The phrase makes me recall the lyrics to the pop song, "Short Skirt, Long Jacket", by the band "Cake".
"I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity,
Who uses a machete to cut through red tape
With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass"...
It's actually not funny. It's destroying us already. U.S. society peaked on July 20, 1969.
I'm not sure that U.S. society really peaked on 20 July 1969 but I do recall that on that Sunday I was watching, like millions of other Americans, as the astronauts made their moon-walk. And I don't dismiss it as some hoax. I recognize it for the fact that it was.
I did not intend to sincerely make light of the very real social decline in American society. I've watched it--if not longer than you have, then very probably nearly as long as you have-- and I sincerely deplore it. But I also know that, where social decay and decline is concerned, every nation and every people at all times are subject to it. The U.S. has a rightly stunning set of achievements in a great many respects. But throughout those triumphs the many wonderful things about the U.S. have never come without their part in mediocrity elsewhere in the social scene.
My crystal ball is out for repairs so I'm unable to look into the future and say with confidence that America's triumphs are all in the past.
What I can say is that at this stage of my life, I've seen more already than I'm likely to see in the time I have left.
I have no apologies to make to anyone for my opinions here. I'm a native-born American citizen and grew up there. If I don't have the right to speak and write frankly about the state of U.S. society, good and bad, past and present, then that's even more reason for real shame and regret.
I mostly review nonfiction, and it actually makes me appreciate reading because I spend so long analysing authors' styles and choices.
What are the top two non fiction books you’ve read? (Shamelessly getting book recommendations over here)
Ever? That's tricky! But of those I've read in recent years:
Shoshana Zuboff's Age of Surveillance Capitalism (I wrote about it for the Times Literary Supplement), it's a long read but really eye-opening about what Silicon Valley is doing.
David Gran's Killers of the Flower Moon (there's a movie coming out soon).
And if you like animal cats, Abigail Tucker's The Lion in the Living Room is fascinating.
Thanks for info going to check them out.
Zuboff's book is like the last few pieces of a puzzle. It brings the image into full life and explains so much of what has transpired in the world over the past decade. All the major tech companies have been vacuuming up every bit of data imaginable while offering you "free" services - KNOWING you would never read their terms of service. It started over 10 years ago, but people still aren't aware of just how powerful GOOG, FB, AAPL, MSFT have become because of it.
Shoshana Z.!!! (My girl!!)---Feed those soul's and hug those babies.
The new Cormac McCarthy double set THE PASSENGER/STELLA MARIS (fiction) should put you squarely inside American reality. A little clarity on what's driving it can be found (non fiction) in Edward Edinger's commentary (short read-deep end) on C.G. Jung's AION. Feeling bold AION itself.--Enjoy.
I think it’s a good place to get recommendations I have found some good reads on this site. I shamelessly gave up Oprah’s book choices years ago.
There is a wealth of world literature out there for ya! Start with Homer.. ☺️
Today, your advice leads millions to subscribe to an animated series featuring a family composed of a factory worker, his wife, Marge (who has blue hair), their son Bart and daughter--the smart one of the family--Lisa.
Given a choice betwen
a) reading Homer's Illiad and Odyssey
or
b) watching The Simpsons
or
c) doing nothing,
the vast majority of Americans would prefer to do either b) or c).
I was a bit thrown off by your reference to my advice leading millions to subscribe to something..? I thought my comments only enjoy a humble couple ok likes here and there… ☺️
But then I checked what Simpson was (I head the term, but I really don’t know what it is - the small perks of being an immigrant je he je ). And gosh what a sardonic irony! His name is Homer. I never could have imagined such a twist, even in my wildest dreams. And my dreams are pretty wild.
Last time I had a laugh this good was over ten years ago when I was picking up a breast pump at a maternity store in Palo Alto and learnt that the brand name is “Medela.”
I was literally rolling around the counter screaming: Medela!! For a breast pump??!! you gotta me kidding me!! And the shop assistants just blank stared at me.
Nobody knew what Medea is…. And now this, Homer is a Simpson. Madonna! What a tragicomedy.
American culture. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry. There's more irony where that came from. The Simpsons' creator, a man by the name of Matt Groening ( American, b. 1954) --you would be very hard-pressed to find a more original unreconstructed Liberal-(Woke-avant-l'heure) type. Homer guzzles Duff (brand) beer, watches television and is generally totally self-absorbed and hoplessly incompetent; but he loves Marge and has a lovable, endearing simplicity. The whole cast of characters are equisitely drawn and almost perfectly capture so much that is pathetically stupid about American cutlure. I don't personally like Groening at all --he's surely long since become a multi-millionaire or billionaire by now. But I liked and watched this stupid animated series despite myself.
Re: ..."the small perks of being an immigrant je he je"....
And how! I envy you for the fact that you could find these things mystifying. Don't lose that. It's a wonderful thing to be able to regard American culture as an outsider, a visitor, looking on at something strange.
I have become very selective with my reading matter
Do you really? Or do you measure each work against the bizarre standards of wokedom?
Why the unprovoked hostility?
It was simply a question.
Well.....perhaps informed by your previous postings. As well as the known censorship of your industry. Or do you reject that oppressive groupthink?
genuinely curious what in my "previous postings" makes you think I'm "woke".
I have to be honest she doesn’t strike me as being woke
Simply an impression. If you're not, apologies.
Until I get some romance back in my life, i am not paying to read about someone else's!!!! of course living in the aging expat community that I do, romance comes with both of us leaning on our canes and discussing our ailments - but you have to start somewhere.
No - i decided to make my remaining years reallychallenging by moving to Mexico when I speak not a word of Spanish and have to deal with broken sidewalks and dog remains--and there is a lot of both. But it keeps dementia at bay and I don't have to do word games on the NYT to do so.
Mexico IS creativity and art. Some of the best people in the world. It value's family and human connection and its psyche is close enough to the earth. Good for you!!
“Disney or Universal Music Group or Fox Corp. But they pursue the exact opposite approach. They are the most cautious and risk-averse players in the whole culture ecosystem”
——————————————————-
Disney is pushing Marxist ethnic conflict theory, child sexualization, and conversion therapy, while Universal Music Group is pushing Satanism, gangbanging, and sexual depravity.
They are not cautious *at all*. They are just Democrats and thus people who aren’t psychopaths find what they produce repulsive.
The problem with our institutions, of all types, is that they are run by Democrats, who are all soulless pagan scumbags. That is the problem.
I have a feeling the author would find paintings on velvet artistic genius.
And sometimes it is.
I'd like to say good-bye to all of you who take time to write thoughtful comments, which I have enjoyed tremendously. I need a break from the FP, which often depresses me. Those of us who love this country and have been miserable during the Biden administration, as well as during the Covid fiasco, need some positive essays to read. Most here continue to frustrate me. I realize that is the state of the union but still...I only think each of us should make at the most 2-3 comments as the bloviating nature becomes a turn-off (for me). I realize this is still a great place to express ourselves and have reaction to those expressions, but sometimes it is too much. Take care all!
I'm the same way. My mind has been racing lately and I'm constantly crying. I feel like the world is on fire around me. For all of my friends who move to red states, I feel they're just delaying the inevitable. My oldest son (21) told me to put down my phone and social media because it affects me too much.
As a red-stater I fear your son is right.
Please don’t say that Lynne, the Ref states are all we have left!
I am sorry you are feeling this way, enough to cry. I can tell you that we spend time in two red states--Montana and Arizona-- and at this point, they are much better places to live. California is really in a sorry state. Take care.
Why would you do that to yourself? It's like being addicted, you know it's gonna kill you, but you rationalize it with not today. When I start to get that feeling of despair everything is turned off. I go and do something that I enjoy. Gardening and volunteering, always helps me.
Good choices they take your mind of all the bad and generally lift the sprits. Although when I do volunteering I become desperate when I get home it’s really unhealthy to see all the despair and know there is very little light at the end of the tunnel.
I have no idea what you mean.
My life is full.
Understand how you feel. Take care of yourself. TGIF is generally funny. Be thankful for what you have and have experienced - we've had a good ride; it may not be over. Crazier things have happened! Let the world surprise you. :-)
Thanks, PatriotD, appreciate your comment and advice. The world has been surprising me for a long time.
🥲🥲I understand enjoy the serenity 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Well said!
"Disney is pushing Marxist ethnic conflict, child sexualization, and conversion therapy."
Lol.
Maybe it would save everyone time if we all just assume your response to everything is “lol”.
What can I saym Your consistentlt stupid pablum makes me laugh.
But...PLEASE provide evidence as to why I should take your ignorant, insipid moral panic about Disney seriously?
"The problem with our institutions, of all types, is that they are run by Democrats, who are all soulless pagan scumbags. That is the problem."
Is it an actual problem if they're imploding due to their own mismanagement and intentional inability to innovate?
I mean, yes, cornered animals are dangerous and it’s a problem if institutions implode, especially if they all implode at the same time.
Simultaneous implosion is only possible when the institutions are centrally controlled. Break up the monopoly.
Don’t corner the animal, starve it
Considering blue states/blue counties produce 72-73% of the U.S. GDP, you should just say "Thank you" and be on your way. You sleep under the blanket of others, then question the manner in which they provide it.
Yeah that’s where most of the people not paying there fair share are located. So if Democrats actually wanted them to pay their fair share they could just raise state taxes since they control those states. But they don’t do that which makes it almost seem like they are full of shit.
Regardless, I think we should raise corporate taxes nationally to 60% so that everyone can see that tax revenue actually goes down when you do that and also that it is not nearly enough to pay for our existing suite of communist programs.
Plus, if we raise corporate taxes to 60%, or even just 45%, the economy will collapse and the corporations will then have to fire all of their make-work Democrat employees who don’t produce anything and who are turning the corporations into state-owned fascist enterprises.
What is your desired corporate tax rate and how much additional revenue per year do you think that will produce?
(you won’t answer this)
Well, when you're done wishing ill will upon my child, maybe you can go find that Planned Parenthood info/evidence I've been asking you for?
Blue states/counties/cities produce 72 -73% of U.S. GDP.
If it weren't for them, you'd be living in a hole in the ground, picking your dingleberries and and drinking your own urine.
Not paying their fair share? Lol. You contribute nothing. Red States contribute nothing. Welfare states.
But...feel free to go with your Sam Brownback/Kansas plan. Worked out well.
Telling you that your child will live a life of suffering because your jackass utopian ideas will have incurred $50 trillion in debt by the time he’s a taxpayer is not “wishing ill”, you unrepentant psychopathic liar. It is, obviously, as you know, me simply explaining to you that you’re dumb and your child will suffer as a result of your stupidity.
Yes. Wealth is a great measure of ethical and moral values. The elites are proud of you now.
I'm sorry. In America, you get rich because you work hard, follow the rules, engage in good behavior/ ethical morals (school, no kids before marriage, don't complain etc.)
If you don't - you wind up poor. That's why it happens.
There is equal access to opportunity for EVERYONE in America. Lol. I'm sorry. Didn't you get the memo/go to orientation?
I just realized early on that America it's nothing more than a geographical land mass on which you can utilize the capitalist system to gather as many individual resources as possible.
That doesn't describe Hunter Biden's wealth.
Or Bernie Maidoff's
Or better; don’t corner THAT animal, find an easier one to work with.
Lol.
Yeah...blue states/cities/counties generate 72-73% of U.S. GDP.
Seem to be doing just just fine regarding innovation and management. You should be grateful.
There IS an entire world outside of the Trump dichotomy. A beautiful world full of colors that aren’t Red, Blue or Orange.
Also I’m not for getting rid of institutions, just for having a multitude of other options and letting the legacy institutions flounder under their own ineptitude.
Change my mind about two institutions that are the epitome of my argument and likely be sucked dry by entitled Boomers by the time I’m eligible for them? Doubtful since I’ve been preparing for their demise by providing my future self with other options.
Be careful Brandon doesn’t get his grubby paws on your future self before you do
So, what do you think about Democrats?
I’m a huge fan!
😂😂
(Obviously, I am not accepting criticism on the practice of lumping people together into groups, from Democrats, whose core strategy is lumping people together into groups. At least ‘Democrat’ was something they picked.)
“One of the poor people put his boots on Nancy’s desk inside the temple and the deer don’t have Kevlar vests!!”
😂😂😂
(that guy is now literally in prison for a decade)
By “founding fathers” are you referring to the slavery enthusiasts who stole the land this illegitimate rapacious racist country was built on, that needs to be returned to its rightful owners, and who wrote the fundamentally evil white supremacist documents that need to be discarded and rewritten so that we can transform the United States into a project pursuing equity collectively?
The reason Adolf Hitler used the term ‘The Big Lie’ repeatedly and used an *attack on a government building* by his political opposition, The Reichstag Fire, as propaganda tool was because Adolf Hitler knew that there are always a lot of people like you.
You do realize that you're shouting into a vacuum.
At least allow me my hobbies!!!
Wow. Someone finally defined the Founding Fathers accurately.
Apparently wearing a neon green shirt does make you smart.
Big Lie? Might want to talk to Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham about that. Fox News knows there's always people like you.
Hopefully...Dominion will bankrupt that cesspool.
I can’t stand Hannity or Ingraham but Tucker gives lefties plenty of opportunity and air time to embarrass themselves. Some of his best shows are when he has real liberals like Greenwald on and they expose the real threats to our democracy.
I have to admit though, my favorite show is Gutfeld!. He’s almost single-handedly keeping comedy, one of our greatest cultural institutions, alive. And every night he thanks democrats and the MSM for an endless supply of material
There is plenty of good comedy going on, but it’s stand up. Comedy movies are completely dead.
I like all the internal memos and Tucker texts that have been released recently with the Dominion lawsuit.
For sure, Fox News is pushing its own version of extremism. I don't worry about them as much, because they aren't big in entertainment.
Yeah and also the permanent government in Washington DC is 95% Democrat and 5% Max Boot so it doesn’t matter what Fox pushes there is zero actual risk.
I know I wound up explaining communism to useful idiots on the internet. Sad!
Not when "preserving the Republic" is done by subverting the principles on which it was founded.
That is not a response. Nor does it accurately reflect what I said. Critical thought matters.
Nah. Reflects it perfectly.
Says the AI.
I’m 79 years old. I’m up everyday at 5:00 for coffee, the home delivery of several newspapers, and then my iPad access to various platforms and news outlets. I wanted to congratulate you on writing the most exciting article I’ve read in a long time. I plan to reread it several more times today, make myself notes for follow-up, share your article with friends, and then subscribe. Congratulations again, great job!
This is the kindest comment I’ve read in a while.
Yeah it was but remember he has 79 years of wisdom you can’t buy that!
Only technology is progressing. Humans are regressing.
I think these are inversely proportional. The theme of the 20th century was using technology to improve society’s shortcomings. The theme of this century will be the need for humans to resist the excesses brought about by those very same technologies.
Haha... Sad but true. Soon 80% of people are going to be like those "humans" from Wall-E
It's funny you say that. I was reading Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism the other day, and in the beginning, he mentioned that movie. I haven't watched it, but now I might need to.
It's a great movie, give it a go
Or perhaps technology is just far outpacing the slow evolution of humans.
Yes, I'm sure that’s it.
As a subscriber to The Free Press, I am proud to be a part of this populist movement. Unfortunately, with so many choices to pick from, on Substack alone, there are not enough hours in the day to subscribe and engage them all. Some of us do have to work. The mismatch between purveyors of art and information and consumers is telling however. How are you going to build a growing population of knowledgeable fans/consumers when education is lost to woke ideology that villifies icons of art and science as unworthy of study or appreciation because they are all old white men? Unless and until we reverse the illiberal trend of judging people by their immutable characteristics and/or against standards that did not apply generations ago when they lived, we will not advance culture, art, or science. Vive le Substack! Rick
We're slowly recapturing the American national dialogue. (Without Substack and independent subscription journalism the Twitter revelation's wouldn't have happened.) The Republican party is (for now at least) malleable. Maybe in the near future American elected political representation "by subscription". Truth is transformative and seems to be directly connected to whatever the force informing the fact of human existence is. The LIE depends on the distortion and suppression of truthful human reality and damage's the evolution of consciousness and the human race. The war is and has always been on consciousness.
I like this and while I expect the "whatever source" you reference is a higher being I think it likewise applies to earthly forces. Please forgive my liberty with your phraseology but I think truth is transformative and should be directly connected to the modern forces informing the facts of human existence. Your comment distilled for me why I found the suppression on social media sites that profess to be and/or are regarded as public squares so chilling. Of course my chill was likely informed by that other force.
As Dylan says: "...trust yourself..."
Some would say that is my problem.
Hours After Trump Announces Upcoming Visit to East Palestine, FEMA Reverses Course and Will Support Ohio Community
The announcement by President Trump with his intent to visit East Palestine next Wednesday, followed moments later by a reversal announcement from FEMA stating they will now offer support to East Palestine, do not seem coincidental.
Well well well.
Trump is the ultimate influencer. MAGAites love him, Donkeys hate him. But everyone has an opinion and everyone jumps when he says or does something. He would be wise NOT to run for Prez. A loss takes him out of the game forever.
Agree, and he cannot win.
keep telling yourself that 🤣
Well put and I agree.
See, Trump does support the Palestinians 😉
That’s funny 🤣🤣🤣
And this has to do with culture and entertainment how?
It was funny Lee
I agree with much of what Ted writes here, we really are in the golden age of culture. Culture has always been spoon fed to us and it was incumbent on the consumer to seek it out...now it is easier than ever to find it.
When I was a kid growing up in Boston, we would go down to Newbury St and hit a shop called Mystery Train (I think that was the name) where they carried all types of music you couldn’t get anywhere else and we would drop $20 or $30 on CDs with cool cover art, just to see if we could stumble on something we liked.
Now, I go to Spotify and have an infinite number of Mystery Train stores at my fingertips.
Hell, personally, Substack has helped me reconnect with writing, which was a passion of mine before life got in the way, and I had lost connection with for decades (shameless plug- be sure to check out Gordon Comstock’s Plant here! https://www.gordoncomstock.com/)
I slightly disagree with Ted’s point about the demand side. There is a TON of demand...it’s just highly fragmented which makes it challenging for any one content producer to get traction...at least that’s the story I tell myself about my Substack 😂
I've yet to publish an article here, but planning out my blog led me to a group of writers who met on the social media platform Minds and regularly meet on Discord to share work and critical feedback. I'm dipping into writing in a way I've never done before and exchanging lots of ideas with interesting people. The results of that process will eventually be here on Substack.
There's a certain segment of the Free Press audience so indulgent in doom and gloom that they won't see or hear anything else. There's never been more opportunity for creativity, and the need to refine the masses into better consumers is nothing new.
Well said. I found the article uplifting and showing a great future opportunity for the arts/artists. May it pull us away from obsessing over politics that get us nowhere but in a fight.
Artists are exactly what our culture lacks.
I see a fair amount of things to be doom and gloom about In this environment, but I think submersion in the creative culture may be a work-around for me. And I think there is something to be said for the loss of creativity that some are bemoaning the loss of, I like the idea that my own tastes can curate what I partake in. Sort of kidding a lot of frogs to get to the prince. Prior to mass production of music for example lots of people played music for the love of it, not for the potential payout.
Newbury Street
I'm fighting the nostalgia.
Newbury Comics. But it's a chain now, trying hard to stay hip.
I find Spotify’s algorithm terrible. It’s recommended mixes are just recycled versions of other playlists I have created. I rarely like songs they add to my playlists. I don’t use it to discover new music and that’s a shame.
I rely on local teens—they have time to scour and share the golden nuggets.
Plus teens aren't yet in the groove, but are still rolling around the upper reaches of the pinball machine of life.
American “culture”. The people who like it get exactly what they deserve. The last time I tried to read a fiction book it was full of woke bs. I find it even in non-fiction, too. We mostly watch old movies now because new stuff is terrible. And comedy is never funny, except Dave Chapelle.
I’m a visual artist and most shows anymore are about some sort of diversity, equity blah blah blah. That’s how the art and artists are described and chosen. Oh and everybody thinks they’re a special genius/victim and we should buy their work and/or class.
I feel like our “culture” is just sad. Very sad.
I have a hard time seeing how anyone with a liberal arts background could honestly believe we are in a cultural boom right now. I don’t even think the Pirate Wires people really believe ai-generated art is all that great.
Don’t get me wrong; appreciate FP airing this perspective. Just seems ludicrous to me. Other than an arguable golden age of videogames, hard to think of any brilliant, lasting cultural creations of the last few years. Lots of quantity, sure. But quality is what we traditionally value in this sphere. A bajillion YouTube uploads or self-published novels doesn’t move the needle much for me.
Yeah, I agree. I would rather have quality over quantity. I don’t have time to wade through a million artists or authors to find the few well written self published books.
But reliance on someone else to do it is what has produced the scenario whereby what to like is being dictated to us. All of the arts presented to us by mass media have arguably been captured.
The entire psyop is dedicated to the creation of fear, depression, anxiety and confusion. The problem's confronting us are as much pathology as politic's. The megalomania and narcissism of the puppeteer's behind this mal reality is revealed by their necessity to LIE and obfuscate about their part in the real cause and effect human damage they engender and their ability to completely deny their personal responsibility for it.
What did Honest Abe say? "You can fool part of the people some of the time, you can fool......."
You don't have to wade. Art transcend's time. ( I've been re-reading Hemingway.) It's there. Make the connection and the one will lead you to the next.
("...I like the way you walk I like the way you talk...my...")
Art is a lost art.
That word is thrown around too freely nowadays. Like anxiety and OCD, “art” has been misused so much that people have forgotten what it is.
If you’re nervous, worried, or have butterflies in your tummy, you have anxiety issues.
If you’re well organized, you have OCD.
If you self-publish a 30,000-word romance novel that could be revised into 10,000 words, you’re a writer.
If you use Canva to make a banner for whatever, you're a graphic designer.
If you’re mercurial on rainy days, your bipolar.
If you make a 30-second video of yourself in pajamas opening an Amazon box, you’re an artist.
Exactly
Agreed. I think the main point the author makes, maybe unintentionally, is that we are in a Cambrian explosion of CONTENT. That’s true, as far as it goes. But I think we are saying that content does not equal culture, let alone art.
The word content makes me feel icky.
You’re my hero!😉
Agreed, John. I was not agreeing with the article and then it got worse when I came across that AI monstrosity of Drake by Rembrandt that the writer wants to promote as an example of the new 'booming' culture of uploaded art, You Tube nonsense and thousands of daily new songs we should be interested in.
Yep. Back to Steely Dan.
But that rare gem is out there. And arguably done as in days of old for love of the art or inability to curb the impulse to create it. I like that. I am turning off corporate content and going on a treasure hunt.
I get that. But back in the day (I'm dating myself I know..) there was FM radio and alternative stations to vet the music for us. Art galleries revealed artists they thought were promising. A novel didn't make it out there unless it passed reams of publishing layers first (of which I know first hand, none of my short stories ever made it..). I won't see a film unless reviewers who I respect like it. And I think most people do that.
Yes, that rare gem is out there. But I'm too intolerant to weed through the thicket of bad and mediocre to find it. I'm old school, I want someone else to do that..
:)
Those were exciting times. In part because they were new and a lot of them were standing up to "the man". But once corporate interests saw the potential for profit they became mainstream. And that is true of the popular music industry too. Not to mention what video did to popular music. Ditto film and television. I suppose what the author is lamenting is the inability to scale. Sounds like Shark Tank to me.
Thank you for one of the most informative, data-driven Substacks I’ve read about our Culture. Most adults, I believe, are discerning consumers of the arts and will seek out and support excellent work. As a former museum docent, I was often asked by visitors to simply avoid the Contemporary gallery. They wanted to see beautiful art that was exceptionally executed and awe inspiring, not paint thrown on a canvas. In the new world you describe, the former gate keepers no longer hold the keys to the kingdom.
I'm not sure that counting self-published books and song and video uploads as art or culture is valid. Surely a fraction of them count as such. Insane quantities of self-published content in and of itself increases entropy.
I worked in book publishing (actual indie publishing - a small, traditional independent royalty-paying press that took no money from authors), and in that context engaged with many authors and other publishers and held many self-published books in my hands - I wouldn't have bought let alone read most of them. Even some I did buy and whose content was solidly worth it often left something to be desired in the way of editing or formatting, etc. Which is to say, I believe there are gems amid the entropy, but they're hard to find, which is one facet of hindering audience development.
It also brings forth the reality that art in its raw form might not be all that shiny. The process of developing and editing (music, books, etc.) is an important one. That digital publishing has enabled individuals to bring their own books and music (games, etc.) to life without the blessing of a "gatekeeper" is liberating and beneficial on one hand, and it drives so much entropy and poor-quality content (which some people are consuming) on the other.
I think the percentage of artists who can capture a purely digital audience effectively is incredibly small. So yes, the numbers of followers are exorbitantly large, but the number of people with such followings is small. It's not really any different from how pop culture has always worked. There are only so many Ed Sheerans and Stephen Kings, etc. I tend to think in-person audience building has to come first (which is hard and daunting), and it can be supported or expanded digitally. And one thing about digital audiences is that the platforms are always changing the algorithms, so that what worked last year might not work today. The audience one has captured on some platforms might not see the content they produce tomorrow. It's fleeting. Right now YouTube and TikTok might be dominating, but new platforms will spring up, and it will divide attention further. Nothing digital can be counted on. And perhaps nothing in-person can be counted on either, but it changes more slowly. And if, as an example, an audiences' favorite bookstore or music venue goes out of business, they'll be willing to shift to another.
I don't think we should be dazzled by insanely large numbers (of self-produced content or consumption thereof). I still care about quality and meaning. (And my kids still read actual books). I choose to spend my attention on content I find merited, and I don't bother with the rest.
Yes! I’m no editor, but read more than the average person (which isn’t saying much now a days I suppose).
I find even a large majority of published books to be routine and boring. If it’s got 30k reviews on Amazon, I’m probably not going to like it.
Yeah, I hear that. It's a lot like pop music. The big publishers want to bet on books for the masses, which means formulaic and singular, usually. I've certainly read some great popular books (Where the Crawdads Sing, for example), but I avoid most of them, to your point. The classics never disappoint. And some awards don't disappoint, like Pulitzer. And I tend to like the books I read published by Scribner (old and new).
Admit I am old and a snob. It was always clear to me that there is culture and then there is mass culture.
Thanks for the Scribner input. I like to read books. I think it is a tactile thing. But I am disappointed in my purchases more often than not.
I rarely read a book published after 1980. Most of what I read was published 70 to 200 years ago. Nonfiction published in this century I sometimes read, psychology or political science. But for fiction, why would I want to read a first-person narrative, overly minimized, with a dozen intentional sentence fragments per page, and written in the past tense as a parlor trick to make the writing seem more immediate—when I can read Proust, Dante, Pushkin, Joyce, Mailer, Chekhov, Faulkner, Bellow, S. Lewis, Pynchon, Homer, D. Johnson—to name a few.
Those people were artists.
Bellow. Too often overlooked.
Henderson the Rain King and Humboldt's Gift. Tremendous.
Don't forget Augie March: a great novel, yet I did like Henderson a little more.
I read a lot of older literature as well. It's the best.
There is nothing comparable.
Philosophically I speculate that is because writers of the past took it seriously, and considered what they were writing and how. I think of Hemingway agonizing over virtually every sentence he wrote. Today you get a cookie for typing 50K words (NaNoWriMo). Getting published (by self or another) is the end goal, it has little to do with the value or quality of the content.
I've been writing my entire adult life (some freelance journalism but mostly unpublished essays, and I even have a crappy unpublished novel). I was recently talking with another writerly friend, to whom I commented that nothing new can be written. Everything worth saying has been said. I suspect this is why it's such a balm to read older works. The wisdoms are prominent in older works and there's little point in reinventing the literary wheel. The more I read the more I realize what I write/have written isn't new, but merely echoes of the past. I keep writing but I don't need to publish it or share it. I write for me, for the joy; I don't need a cookie.
NaNoWriMo: I don't know what this means.
You're dead on about past writers taking their time and agonizing over every word, which is what I do with my stories and novels (unpublished—for now), though it could be part of the reason why I am so often crippled when writing.
It used to be writers would take three to ten years to write a novel, depending on other responsibilities, sometimes one year, if they had a grant, or writing novels was their primary income.
Nowadays people write a book in six months, hire a hackneyed editor for a couple of hundred dollars, and self-publish. Voila! They’re a writer. I laugh.
Maybe everything that can be said has been said. However, I disagree that that is a reason to avoid publishing or writing another novel. Think about how many writers in the early 20th century wrote adaptations of The Odyssey and countless other works. Even then, 100 years ago, many novels were influenced by other works, but without knowing they were, few people would actually notice.
Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it.
A Rodin exhibit visited our museum a few years ago. The energy emanating from the stone transformed the exhibit hall. In the hand's of the Master stone became food and nurture. That power reside's and resonate's within us all. The artist simply reminds us of the fact.
About the only thing I take away from this is the Mooch’s book did well ( even though or maybe because she didn’t write it herself) and romance novels are popular.
There’s a guy name Mr Beast whose every video has his mouth open.
There is such a thing called bandcamp but I have no idea what it means and I haven’t the desire to find out.
And that the only metric of artistry seems to be how much one gets paid for it.
Meanwhile the disaster in East Palestine Ohio continues to be ignored even at the Free Press. Much better to junk up the mind with YouTube articles or whining about the clutter than investigating the chicanery of the railroads and BlackRock.
The East Palestine derailment was discussed in this week's TGIF.
Ooooh. Yeah. Mentioned by Nellie in a paragraph or two. But I guess that’s in keeping with the drive by hit and move on of todays essay amiright?
Nowhere was it discussed that the RRs bailed on a town meeting, or Pete Buttgag is more concerned about the race of construction workers, or that the cars were loaded incorrectly or the lack of track maintenance or that Black Rock is a big investor in that RR, etc etc etc.
But Nellie mentioned it in her compendium so it’s all good in some peoples world.
None of the writers are anywhere near E Pal. Give them a chance to do some research, like proper journalists. You want titillating, outrageous, instant - and WRONG claims, go for it....elsewhere.
In this week's Matt and Walter wrap up,Walter commented that one didn't have to go to EPAL now to report on it. Any trip through EPAL or other towns like it,shows what has happened to these hollowed out towns leaving the poor to fend for themselves. This doesnt require a lot of research - it requires getting in your car ,driving through some of them and asking the people who live there what life is like for them. Let us not wait for disaster to hit before doing THAT kind of feet on the ground research.
None of the writers CARE about East Palestine. None of the writers here, none of the main stream media who are supposed to deliver news, you know the first telling of history, are there, with the exception of Fox.
Reporting is dead. Journalists are a scam.
The MSM want to minimize E Pal because it is a shit show and they have handled it horribly (just like everything else). I am confident Bari et al will provide something useful in due time. Patience is a virtue.
Patience? You mean like the people there in Ohio, whose health, families, livelihoods , livestock and other animals are threatened, are being told to be ‘patient’?
The media have no trouble inundating us with stories, assumptions and spin on events they choose to amplify. This event just doesn’t satisfy their criteria for reporting or persistent amplification.
You're right. Journalists don't care about East Palestine because it's basically in the boondocks. As a guest on Bill Maher last night said bluntly - if this thing happened near NYC the story would be everywhere..
I don't give a rat's arse about NYC.
Most of these mediocre giants are institutionally woke, to the point where even woke audiences are sick of the obvious pandering. Take for example the recent productions from Disney such as “The Proud Family”, which attacks white fragility (so-called), as well as last year’s “Lightyear” with a pointless gay scene and the atrocious “Little [Black] Mermaid” remake. None of these has done well. One more such major failure and I would question Disney’s viability to survive.
Then there is Disney’s political activism which has angered millions of conservatives. The online forums are full of people promising to never attend a Disney park again. Talk about trying to destroy your core market!
The platforms like youtube and tiktok are monopolistic and censorious. Something better has to come along that allows more freedom of expression. Substack is a step in the right direction, as is Musk’s newly liberated Twitter. But the overall cultural stranglehold still exists. Maybe some day, people will be willing to venture out of their Big Tech crib and experiment more boldly.
The Hundred Years War was the result of Gutenberg's Bible. The sudden expansion of consciousness the technology created in serfdom scared the sh't out of the monarchal ruling elite. The soul numbing psyop we're experiencing is the fight back response of modern criminal financier's and pay to play politician's (the monarchy) whose machination's have been made transparent to reality by the new consciousness created in the modern jump in tech and communication world wide. The world has entered an entirely new Aion and the fight we're facing is the repression of its attendant consciousness. The vision, resource's and possibility for a bright human future are everywhere. The purpose of the psyop is to convince you they're not.
The war is and has alway's been on consciousness. Art is a reflection of the human transcendent and consciousness. In the same way plantation owner's were fearful of literacy in slave's, world criminal finance fear's open communication, free thought and the exchange of idea's among a free citizenry. Hence the assault on on American civil liberty, the anti-human sterility of the "woke" psyop and the well financed push to overturn the American Constitution. The tactic's being employed are the same as those used by Mao, Stalin and Hitler but the end result is aimed at the establishment of a kind of world totalitarian financial monarchism. (Eat bugs-Own nothing and be happy.
I agree "..the overall cultural stranglehold still exists..." but the WIN is in being able to say it because what you can't say own's you. Western Culture is powerful and alive. It is the soul numbing manufactured LIE of the psyop blocking its light. Art is the ultimate conspiracy of soul's. Join the conspiracy.
'The Little Mermaid' remake is "atrocious"? How do you know? It hasn't even been released yet and you couldn't possibly conclude that it hasn't "done well". I'm not a fan of a lot of what Disney is doing, but c'mon.
I should have said "is not likely to do well". I'm basing that on hundreds of comments across multiple forums by people outraged at the casting decision. Hans Christian Andersen, the guy who created the story, described her as: "Her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea" and the illustrations were similarly of northern European-like creatures.
Now in principle I don't care from skin color, but to take a widely known and beloved European fairy tale and cast a black person as the lead, purely for diversity purposes, is stupid. A lot of us are saying the same thing here. Let alone the fact that Halle Berry is somehow just wrong for this part. Too old, not a great actress, not dynamic.
I can almost promise you, this thing is going to bomb. It's already being ridiculed. "He's dead, Jim."
Very insightful.
I include myself as one of those 20% who’s constantly on YouTube. I’m going to school for computer science, but the majority of my education (from programming languages, to mathematics, and even Greek/Hebrew) has been through “YouTube University”.
It is VERY good when you need to fix something complex and want to avoid thrashing around. I never work on anything nowadays without reviewing an online video first. My 84-year-old brother said he'd like to have an old Daisy Model 25 air rifle like he had as a boy. I found one, reviewed a YouTube video on how to rebuild it (harder than you would think), slipped in an extra-powerful spring like his had in the 'forties, and violà. Quick and painless. It's death on ground squirrels now.
Yes YouTube is a useful tool. But wait until Google decides your Daisy BB gun is a manifestation of white privilege and takes down that content. We need to starve that beast.
Exactly. Be the power.
I grit my teeth every time, but it's the only game in town so far. Rumble is coming on fast, and I always try to look there first. There is an article about the resignation of YouTube CEO, or whatever she is, and it said that YouTube was absolutely strangling itself with Woke.
A friend now makes most of his income from YouTube. He's a real renaissance man and does mostly farm-related videos, but also does metal casting, machine-shop videos, etc. He did a video on the ballistics of skipping bullets on water at his farm pond and they demonitized almost every one of his videos.
YouTube is my university. YouTube is like a tire iron, used correctly it's a wonderful tool. Used incorrectly, well you get a bunch of brain stew and bright red goo.
No, no, no. It's a "tar arn." Cain't you speak Southern? (See Lewis Grizzard for tales of the tar arn)
I try to get my southern dialect from Squidbillies tbh
how sad
How so?
I read through most of that, and it was interesting to me that he seemed to conflate "culture" with some level of imagistic or artistic consumerism. He certainly didn't define culture, or what its proper purpose is.
And he didn't point out that most pop culture seemingly has little interest in the purpose and point of life OTHER than consuming things in various ways.
For my own purposes I defined "culture" many years ago as "An evolving but relatively stable system for the creation and distribution of meaning, truth, power, and wealth."
It seems to me no one asks what the meaning of life is even as a joke any more. Most Americans live in a forever Present filled with colorful lights, loud noises, blatant sexuality, superficiality, and ridiculous politics based on even worse moral philosophy.
That was my take too. Is it art if it is not appreciated by the masses? I think it is.
Enjoyed your comment, Barry.
My own personal favourite is "something is art when enough people say that it is.."
Yours and mine definition of culture is no longer valid. Something else has replaced it. And it is not good news for western civilization.
https://www.city-journal.org/fictions-of-emancipation-exhibit-rejects-beauty-and-cultivates-racial-resentment