The underlying theme of “Freedom: Art as the Messenger” was that a natural alignment exists between artistic and libertarian priorities, attitudes and approaches to the world. Artists were entrepreneurs, working independently to create something of their own free will and bringing it to the market where someone else was free to decide what they thought it was worth—a pure form of free trade in which government had no business or purpose. – The Baffler
Tag: 07.19
Forgotten How To Read? Utility Fights Pleasure
Many of us who fell in love with reading at a young age then have to adapt to reading for utility – extracting information to serve some purpose. Then we forget how to read for pleasure. How do we find our way back? – LongReads
New Study: 54 Million Americans Sing In Choruses
The number of Americans singing has increased over the past decade, with more than 54 million adults and children participating in choral groups today . More than one in six Americans over the age of 18 sings in a chorus. The percentage of Americans singing today has increased over the past decade, up to 17% today from 14% in 2008 . – Chorus America
Speakers Of Endangered Languages Find Model For A Comeback
“As thousands of languages around the world are threatened—hundreds of which are in the United States—Indigenous communities are learning from the successes of the Māori and the Hawai‘ians. Revitalization has proved to be as dynamic as the communities who undertake it: fluency, intergenerational learning, and engagement with a deeper understanding of cultural contexts and traditions are just some of the aspects of language revival.” – Emergence Magazine
Rethinking Hipster Culture – What It Says About Our Time
The grand consensuses of modern life online—the politics of approbatory or condemnatory agreement—keep culture from renewing and reinventing itself. When hipster lost its edge and went mainstream, we entered a period of aesthetic and moral stagnation. This wasn’t hipster’s fault, and—dear god—hipster was never going to save us. It is simply what happens when we defang the subversive element in culture, even the stupidly subversive. – Hedgehog Review
The Success Problem: Is Your Happiness Dependant On It?
“Problems related to achieving professional success might appear to be a pretty good species of problem to have; even raising this issue risks seeming precious. But if you reach professional heights and are deeply invested in being high up, you can suffer mightily when you inevitably fall.” – The Atlantic