My Generation, by Justin E. H. Smith
Horizons have shrunk. Novelists and filmmakers seem far more at home with dystopias than with the possibility that the world might get better. The institutions that once fuelled our shared imagination have, for different reasons, given up, leaving public intellectual culture recycling old ideas, while much of politics has drifted into nostalgia.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
These incidents of “political correctness,” amplified by right-wing media, whipped up hatred of elites out in Real America. The culture wars raged on, as bloody-minded and durable as the Thirty Years’ War, a full-employment program for pundits of every type. Some worried about a generation of ultra-sensitive children coddled by ultra-indulgent adul
... See moreGeorge Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
As someone who had spent several years on American campuses, all of these ideas rang familiar to me. They echoed the sixties’ revulsion to military strength, the romance with developing societies, and the questioning of American primacy. Regarding the Middle East, in particular, one could discern the reverberations of Edward Said’s Orientalism, whi
... See moreMichael B. Oren • Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide
One response is to deny this and double down on American nostalgia, rolling out Top Gun: Maverick and electing people born in the 1940s forever. This is what the US establishment is currently doing, hanging on for dear life to the postwar order, denying that any change is underway — and thereby refusing to gracefully adapt.
Balaji Srinivasan • The Network State: How To Start a New Country
Obviously ideas have always gained and lost popularity throughout history. But I think it’s fair to say the conditions that disrupt the so-called arc of progress have intensified beyond comprehension. Mass media’s emphasis on images and appearances has shifted the political discourse to a facile imitation of its former self.