Between 1905 and 1915, there were democracy-oriented revolutions in Russia, Iran, Ottoman Turkey, Portugal, Mexico and China. Who led them? Intellectuals. None lasted more than a few years. Why? “[B]ecause intellectuals overestimated popular democratic support and underestimated the challenges that democracy presented.”
Tag: 03.06.09
And Slate Explains Twitter For You (In A Meta Sense)
“Twitter is also extremely simple – so simple that it’s often tempting to describe it as something more than it is. Perhaps that’s why, in trying to capture Twitter’s potential, boosters compare it to known successes – search engines and social networks. The trouble is, neither comparison makes much sense.”
Harrison Birtwistle Says Music Is Not Funny
Avers England’s most eminent modernist composer, “I don’t see it as my role to do humour. I don’t even know if it can be done in music. There may be a few musical jokes but I think Rossini did them all.”
How The Media Could (Have) Battled Al-Qaeda
Louise Richardson: “[After September 11,] I would have asked the media to make films of every Jordanian, every Egyptian, every Muslim family who had come to the US to live a peaceful and positive life, only to have it blown to smithereens by al-Qaeda. And I would have broadcast the films all over the Middle East.”
Böll’s Papers Feared Lost In Cologne Archives Collapse
“For the best part of a decade, the heirs of German writer and Nobel prize laureate Heinrich Böll worked on hammering out a deal with the city of Cologne over the transfer of his private papers to the state archives.” The handover, encompassing hundreds of boxes, happened last month. “But his papers and unpublished works may have been lost for ever after the collapse of the archives building this week.”
Why Is Good Design Missing From Green Architecture?
“The field of architecture is experiencing a design crisis, with clients ranging from private owners to cities demanding that architects prioritize sustainability above all else — as if design itself were an obnoxious carbon-emitter. … [M]uch green architecture reflects a quality that Ford’s Edsel possessed: It looks like the future, but it doesn’t look good.”
Deep In Debt, Madison Rep Folds
“The Madison Repertory Theatre has officially closed its doors. ‘We are not going to be producing theater again,’ said artistic director Trevin Gay. Friday was his last day on the job. Madison’s premiere professional theater company since 1987 first announced dire financial trouble at the end of January. The Rep canceled the remainder of its season and did not renew space in Overture Center at the Playhouse.”
Bucking The Trend: Nonprofits Plan Staff Raises
“Unlike their counterparts in the corporate world, the majority of nonprofits in New York City are actually planning to increase salaries this year for their staffers, or at least keep them the same, according to the annual salary survey by Professionals for Nonprofits, a recruitment firm.”
Reality Killed The Television Star
“In these days of junk news, junk food, junk money and the junk self, authenticity in the realm of reality TV means adhering to Saul Bellow’s dictum of following a character not just into the bedroom but also the bathroom (and into rehab, the penis-enlargement clinic, the assisted-suicide facility, the dungeonous punishment pit).”
Minnesota Wild – An Opera Company Fights Recession By Being Adventurous
“Some opera companies around the U.S. have reacted to hard times by cutting back on their adventurous programming, but the Minnesota Opera is doing the opposite. It has launched a $5.5 million initiative intended to infuse the operatic repertoire with new works.”