What do you call a man who joins the Merchant Marine on a whim, runs up big pro football gambling debts, and takes the Old Right view of FDR’s foreknowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? I’d call him an American.
Theodore DALRYMPLE
The selfie is perhaps the defining cultural artifact of our time. Me and the Mona Lisa, Me and the Pyramids, Me and the Colosseum, with the emphasis on the Me, of course; at least COVID-19 has put paid to all that for a time, as well as to little Greta’s public harangues, which somehow manage to combine the qualities of the zombie and the hysteric. Alas, it could all come back.
Anya PARAMPIL
Anya Parampil and Oliver Stone discuss the legendary screenwriter and director’s experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War; his films, including “Platoon” and “Scarface”; his work on Latin America; and his views on the demise of Hollywood.
What is it that motivates companies to sign up to virtue-signaling ad campaigns that have absolutely nothing to do with their product, and may even damage the bottom line?
This month, two well-known corporate brands made a giant leap of faith, jumping into shark-infested waters to swim against the powerful current of cancel culture. Shockingly, not only did they survive the death-defying plunge, but it appears they are being rewarded for their bravado.
Many contributors on this platform have rightly pointed out the two most perplexing developments within the United States this century that carry truly terrifying implications for the peace and stability of the entire world:
Can there ever be a true revolt that is led by the spoiled Children of the Élite? If so, what would such a ‘revolt’ mean in America? Well, 25-years ago, a prescient American cultural historian, Christopher Lasch, foresaw just such a revolution. He wrote a book – Revolt of the Élite – to describe how, already in 1994, he perceived what lay ahead: A social revolution that would be pushed forward by radical children of the bourgeoisie. Their leaders would have almost nothing to say about poverty or unemployment.
Patrick COCKBURN
President Trump is making plain the degree to which the country remains divided by the American Civil War. His threat to veto the $718bn Defence Bill if it renames military bases called after Confederate generals harks back to 1861. His stand highlights the bizarre way that the US military has named its biggest bases, like Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Hood in Texas, after Confederate generals like Braxton Bragg and John Hood who fought a war to destroy the US.
Due to the Black Lives Matter protests statues around the world of “racists” are being torn down, but why?
Right now, as statues across America and beyond are being defaced and/or destroyed by Black Lives Matter protestors it is a good time to reflect on who the heroes on our monuments should be and ask ourselves if we even need any of these pieces of brass and concrete at all in the 21st century. Why does seemingly every country on Earth bother with using public space for the secular worship of dead political and military figures? What point do monuments even serve?
