Category: ideas

What if you could take a pill and erase memories that were painful? “Some memories can be very disruptive. They come back to you when you don’t want to have them — in a daydream or nightmare or flashbacks — and are usually accompanied by very painful emotions. This could relieve a lot of that suffering.” Research continues. But there are skeptics…

Is there a “buy button” in the brain? A new study of the brain has scientists wondering. “Some corporations have teamed up with neuroscientists to find out. Recent experiments in so-called neuromarketing have explored reactions to movie trailers, choices about automobiles, the appeal of a pretty face and gut reactions to political campaign advertising, as well as the power of brand loyalty.”

To make a living as a scholar, you generally need to be associated with a college or university, and earn your keep by teaching. But there are a few professional scholars who prefer to be their own bosses, and work outside the constraints of academia. “Working from home offers advantages such as the freedom from papers to grade or departmental meetings to attend. The drawbacks tend to be financial.” Indie scholars also can have a hard time getting access to libraries, and grants to pursue their research can be hard to come by as well.

A series of short films designed to bolster the image of the U.S. in Europe has surfaced 50 years after it was first produced. “The 25 films were long hidden from Americans because of laws, now changed, that barred the government from using tax dollars to propagandize its citizens… By turns blunt and beguiling, menacing and mawkish, the films beg an overriding question: Why, with this experience behind it, has the United States failed so conspicuously since Sept. 11 to bolster its image in another region it seeks to transform, the Middle East?”

There’s just something about the color blue that seems to excite people. “Remember how cool it was when scientists declared the universe turquoise? What a letdown when they admitted their mistake and pronounced it beige instead. Interesting how a color can be traditional, exciting or electrifying as well. Despite its basic ordinariness as a primary color, blue often manages to be startling or unnatural… Similarly, blue is what stirs the hearts of collectors because, for whatever reason, blue has not been the go-to hue for most creators of things (unless you’re talking Smurfs).”

Quick, give an example of the ideal of beauty in the 20th century. Did you name a Mondrian painting, or Marilyn Monroe? There’s a good chance it was the latter (or some other movie star,) but what will art historians centuries from now have to say on the subject? “Art is no longer interested in providing an image of natural beauty, nor does it aim to procure the pleasure ensuing from the contemplation of harmonious forms,” and that’s fine for the avant-garde, but the divergence of art from the concept of physical beauty does mean that it is difficult to predict which aesthetic tradition will have real staying power.

Whatever happened to America’s old swagger, the visible confidence of a nation that could simultaneously project ultimate strength and ultimate benevolence? The national character these days seems to be pure, unadulterated fear, augmented by the violent rage that accompanies the experience of being trapped in a corner. “We are a population whose vulnerabilities and insecurities have become a central focus of our popular culture and our politics.” From books to films to television and beyond, we have become a culture of terrified victims, lashing out not only at the dangerous world beyond our borders, but at each other.

John Lennon’s counterculture, anti-consumerist anthem, Imagine, has already had its message bastardized by any number of commercial enterprises, and now, a new sneaker sporting lines from the song is selling for $60 a pair. But maybe the problem isn’t the money-grubbing marketers, but the song itself, which has always been more commercial pablum than true protest: “it rewards its listeners for piously imagining a better world rather than doing anything concrete to improve it. A form of emotional vanity, Imagine allows us to congratulate ourselves for simply having a conscience. No wonder it’s become pop’s favourite comfort blanket, invariably reached for in troubled times.”

How to explain the human obsession with the end of the world? It seems as if there have been doomsayers wandering the streets ever since humans walked upright, and these days, with the world in a constant tizzy, there is no shortage of prophets, filmmakers, and assorted crackpots ready to help you prepare for the End Days. “As impressive as the scope of world-enders’ thinking these days is its overwhelming detail. Everything from events in the Middle East to the technology of cloning has been worked into one end-times commentary or another.” The details serves to obscure the lack of evidence, even as it makes the scenario more real.

“Sitting in the shadow of the Capitol, on some of the most prestigious real estate in Washington, the new [Museum of the American Indian] has emerged with ambitions far greater than simply… becoming a Disney-style happy magnet for native peoples. It is a monument to Postmodernism — to a way of thinking that emphasizes multiple voices and playful forms of truth over the lazy acceptance of received wisdom, authority and scientific ‘certainty.’ Its successful completion is evidence that American Indians have emerged as perhaps the only minority group in this country to win a skirmish in the culture wars.”