09.04.17 – Page 2 – ArtsJournal Wayback

The End Of Nations And Rise Of The City-State

“This is the crux of the problem: nation-states rely on control. If they can’t control information, crime, businesses, borders or the money supply, then they will cease to deliver what citizens demand of them. In the end, nation-states are nothing but agreed-upon myths: we give up certain freedoms in order to secure others. But if that transaction no longer works, and we stop agreeing on the myth, it ceases to have power over us. So what might replace it? The city-state increasingly looks like the best contender.”

We’ve Had The ‘Fake News’ Debate Before – In The Early Days Of Radio

Adrian Chen looks back at Orson Welles’s 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, the wildly exaggerated newspaper reports of public panic over it, and the anxieties behind the entire uproar, noting the parallels with today’s concerns over false reports spread via the internet.

Walter Becker Of Steely Dan Dead At 67

“Steely Dan sold more than 40m copies of nine studio albums, won four Grammy awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Their music – slick and catchy, with wry, observational lyrics – was all-pervasive for much of the group’s first period of activity, between 1972 and 1981.”

A New Director Has Revolutionized – Or Upended – Canada’s Shaw Festival

Tim Carroll is “preaching the gospel of ‘two-way theatre'” – expanding the company’s repertoire well beyond George Bernard Shaw and plays that debuted during his lifetime, presenting $5 late-night shows, doing “Secret Theatre” pop-up performances to which audiences are alerted by email on short notice.

All Eyes Are On The Met Museum This Fall…

“A lot has happened since Thomas P. Campbell, its director of eight years, resign ed under pressure in late February, but it’s not over. The most obvious questions are: Who will be the next director, and when will he — or, better yet, she — be appointed?”

Why John Ashbery Was The Most Influential Poet For His Time

“It’s a simple argument: a world that is complex requires a poetry that is complex; a world that is somewhat incoherent may actually demand a poetry that is itself incoherent; a world in which no conclusions apply may even revel in its inconclusiveness. To read a John Ashbery poem is to be scrutinized by it. It is less a recording than a recording device, a CCTV screen taking us in.”

We Still Have To Defend Free Speech? Here’s Why

“A 2015 Pew Research Center poll reported that 40 percent of millennials think the government should be able to suppress speech deemed offensive to minority groups, as compared to only 12 percent of those born between 1928 and 1945. Young people today voice far less faith in free speech than do their grandparents. And Europe, where racist speech is not protected, has shown that democracies can reasonably differ about this issue.”

The Internet Promised To Democratize News. Instead We Have Fake News. But We’ve Seen This Before

“The openness that was said to bring about a democratic revolution instead seems to have torn a hole in the social fabric. Today, online misinformation, hate speech, and propaganda are seen as the front line of a reactionary populist upsurge threatening liberal democracy. Once held back by democratic institutions, the bad stuff is now sluicing through a digital breach with the help of irresponsible tech companies. Stanching the torrent of fake news has become a trial by which the digital giants can prove their commitment to democracy. The effort has reignited a debate over the role of mass communication that goes back to the early days of radio.”

Tag: 09.04.17