Eno Rocks
Marc sent me this Time Europe essay by Brian Eno.
I find myself wanting to cut and paste the whole thing. Here are some samples:
Surely this isn’t the America that anyone dreamed of; it’s a last resort, nobody’s choice. It’s especially ironic since so much of the best new thinking about society, economics, politics and philosophy in the last century came from America. Unhampered by the snobbery and exclusivity of much European thought, American thinkers vaulted forward — courageous, innovative and determined to talk in a public language. But, unfortunately, over the same period, the mass media vaulted backward, thriving on increasingly simple stories and trivializing news into something indistinguishable from entertainment. As a result, a wealth of original and subtle thought — America’s real wealth — is squandered.
This narrowing of the American mind is exacerbated by the withdrawal of the left from active politics. Virtually ignored by the media, the left has further marginalized itself by a retreat into introspective cultural criticism. It seems content to do yoga and gender studies, leaving the fundamentalist Christian right and the multinationals to do the politics. The separation of church and state seems to be breaking down too. Political discourse is now dominated by moralizing, like George W. Bush’s promotion of American “family values” abroad, and dissent is unpatriotic. “You’re either with us or against us” is the kind of cant you’d expect from a zealous mullah, not an American President.
[snip]
Too often, the U.S. presents the “American way” as the only way, insisting on its kind of free-market Darwinism as the only acceptable “model of human progress.” But isn’t civilization what happens when people stop behaving as if they’re trapped in a ruthless Darwinian struggle and start thinking about communities and shared futures? America as a gated community won’t work, because not even the world’s sole superpower can build walls high enough to shield itself from the intertwined realities of the 21st century. There’s a better form of security: reconnect with the rest of the world, don’t shut it out; stop making enemies and start making friends. Perhaps it’s asking a lot to expect America to act differently from all the other empires in history, but wasn’t that the original idea?
There is a lot more and it’s well worth reading.
I thought of something else… In past bleats, Lileks has often expressed his admiration for Eno’s music, and Eno has just written a piece that Lileks might view as anti-American (a la John Le Carre). I wonder if Lileks will skewer one of his idols in the same manner he has skewered others? Or if he does post about it, will he just focus on the part about the withdrawal of the left from politics?
