This just in: it really ticks people off when you mess with whatever they perceive as holy. I’ve been reading about the demonstrations around the world against U.S. use of the Koran as an interrogation prop at Guantanamo. Newsweek published an article on May 9 charging that interrogators tried to psych out Muslim prisoners by …
In the past few weeks I’ve had a remarkable number of experiences that lead me to reconsider some principles that once seemed rock solid. The through-line I want to write about today has to do with a particular dialectic: for now, let’s call it “inside/outside” or “exclusion/entitlement,” but it will take more than two words …
A good friend visited last night from New York. He’s thoughtful and well-informed, so I always enjoy talking about social issues with him. As in so many political conversations these days, it wasn’t long before we got around to blowing each other’s minds with the surrealism of everyday public life. Starting with the baffling case …
Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) starts Saturday night. I love it that the central metaphor of Jewish spirituality is liberation from slavery, and that the holiday that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt turns on symbolic re-enactment of that liberation. For me, the greatest opportunity for growth lies in the elimination of chametz from one’s life during …
Years ago, I read an extremely woo-woo book whose author, the late ethno-botanist and psychopharmacologist Terence McKenna, posited time as a spiral descending toward a point of convergence in December of 2012, when the nature of reality would be radically transformed in some way impossible to predict. His theories were based on the Mayan calendar, …
On Tuesday night I watched Daniel Anker’s new documentary on the cable channel AMC, Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and The Holocaust. It’s not scheduled to rerun at this point, but look for repeats in months to come. It depicts the way self-censorship takes hold, borne along by commercial considerations (e.g., reluctance to offend German movie ticket-buyers, …
The news of the world is so instantaneous, multifarious and bizarre that it provides corroboration for almost any mood. Maybe it’s just my temperament, but when I feel disgruntled, instead of looking at my own choices, I am often tempted to lay it off on man’s inhumanity to man, and the news usually gives me …
A few days ago, Americans for the Arts (the largest national nonprofit arts advocacy group) announced it was merging with the Arts & Business Council (a group promoting business support for the arts). Americans for the Arts is itself the product of a merger about a decade ago between the National Assembly of Local Arts …
Two stories in this week’s papers about shocks to the cultural establishment have had me wondering whether to entitle this edition of my blog “Chickens Coming Home to Roost” or “I Told You So.” Do I get a merit badge for resisting temptation? (I obviously don’t deserve one, because the previous sentence proves I can’t …
When you hear the term “cultural policy,” do you have a sudden and irresistible urge to leave the room? Please give me five minutes to tell you why you should care instead. Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is an essential agency of international cooperation. Through it, nations agree to honor each …