EthicalDative

You Can’t Get There from Here

Posted on March 30, 2020 by JMN

Stacey Abrams at a Democratic National Committee gala last June to raise money for a program aimed at registering voters. Credit… Dustin Chambers/Getty Images.

“Opportunity definitely died on election night 2016 for federal court reform,” said Scott Greytak, a lawyer who worked at Free Speech for People… Now, he said, “All the energy and attention has been pushed down to the state and local level…”

… “There is more energy on democracy reform now than 10 years ago,” when practical, direct policies were mostly stopped in their tracks. “People realize we can’t get there with the democracy that we don’t have [my bolding].” (Dorian Warren, head of the nonprofit Community Change)

(Talmon Joseph Smith, “Legalized Bribery by Elites Is Here to Stay. Now what?” NYTimes, 1-25-20)

Let’s change where here is, then. Hope is there, closer to home.

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged Citizens United, election, language, rhetoric, society | Leave a comment

Compassionate Conservative

Posted on March 28, 2020 by JMN

A woman offering a prayer at a church in Milan. Credit… Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times.

A column in The Times by Bret Stephens got POTUS’s attention recently. There is conjecture that it may have contributed to the “cure-worse-than-the-disease” propaganda that trumpets against efficient pandemic control.

My mom puts the groceries away and we sit down to talk on her patio, keeping our chairs far apart. She didn’t think much of my last column, in which I argued that we need to balance the public-health risks of pandemic against the risks of a global depression.

“I don’t remember your degree being in medicine or epidemiology,” she observes.

Stephens is a thoughtful, informed, and sensitive voice for conservatism. I sense that he is offsetting here what may have been his inadvertent contribution to fostering indifference to the virus’s potential toll on the more vulnerable segments of the population.

So I sit on my mom’s patio and listen. Not out of filial deference or compassion, but because deep down I know there’s usually more wisdom in my mother’s instincts and perceptions than there are in my clever (or not-so-clever) concatenations of facts, concepts and hypotheticals. And while I can’t hug her, I can at least try to honor her by paying close attention — as we should all of our elderly loved ones, now so vulnerable, never more precious [my bolding].

Stephens’s mother is a Jewish refugee born in Milan who fled Nazi control of northern Italy.

(Bret Stephens, “In This Emergency, Mom Knows Best,” NYTimes, 3-27-20)

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged coronavirus, language | 5 Comments

Upping the Steaks

Posted on March 28, 2020 by JMN

Chang at Momofuku Ko in 2012. Gabriele Stabile.

A streak of pluckiness, or at least a commitment to persist, as well as a capacity to think deeply and grow out of the shallows — these traits peek through David Chang’s glimpse into his personal tribulations and his sober take on the plight of his industry.

We’re still a conservative steak-and-potatoes country, and that bums me out. There’s less risk-taking. That’s OK if you want to be a craftsman, but there’s fewer people that want to do that, too.

What would the alternative to a steak-and-potatoes country look like? Every country has its staples.

That’s a great question. I guess for me it’s: How do we find openness? So much of my life is because of the hell I experienced as a kid. [Chang is a son of Korean immigrants. He grew up with three siblings in suburban Arlington County, Virginia.] A lot of it was like, as silly as it seems, Oh, Chang, you eat dog, or you eat poo, or your house smells. All of these things. What bothers me about steak and potatoes — and I love steak, I love potatoes, I love them together — is when people don’t want to try anything else. That myopic viewpoint scares me. If I learn to appreciate something, then it better allows me to understand someone else’s culture.

(David Marchese, “David Chang Isn’t Sure the Restaurant Industry Will Survive Covid-19,” NYTimes, 3-27-20)

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged coronavirus, cuisine, culture, David Chang, language | Leave a comment

The Ides of Texas Are Upon Ya

Posted on March 26, 2020 by JMN

[Dan] Patrick, who said he will turn 70 next week, said that he did not fear COVID-19, but feared that stay-at-home orders and economic upheaval would destroy the American way of life.

No one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that America loves for its children and grandchildren?’ And if that is the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick said.

(Jamie Knodel, “Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggests he, other seniors will be willing to die to get economy going again,” nbcnews.com, 3-24-20)

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged coronavirus, language, rhetoric, Texas | 2 Comments

“Porous, Promiscuous Phenomena”

Posted on March 26, 2020 by JMN

Rosalía performing in Madrid in December. Credit… Juanjo Martin/EPA, via Shutterstock.

Jorge Carrión’s article was translated by Erin Goodman, and appeared in the NYTimes on January 26, 2020, entitled “Rosalía and the Art of the Remix.”

Rosalía is new to me, but personal and professional ties to Catalonia and Spain incline me towards her, the more so in view of her absorption of flamenco into her style.

Rosalía, whose full name is Rosalía Vila Tobella, was 13 when she first became spellbound by the music of Camarón de la Isla — a legendary Spanish Romani flamenco singer. She went on to spend a decade training with the flamenco virtuoso, José Miguel “El Chiqui” Vizcaya, before releasing “Los Ángeles,” which she described as “it’s flamenco and it’s not.” The vocal-driven concept album, which melds traditional styles with modern influences, propelled the genre forward.

Carrión pushes back cogently on purists and appropriation-criers who scold artists for straying from norms or crossing cultural boundaries. “Cultural crossover is not limited to Spanish artists,” he writes, calling it “[these] porous, promiscuous phenomena.”

Artistic expression cannot be limited by geopolitical borders nor copyright. Many of today’s artists are aesthetic nomads. Their work embodies, whether intentional or not, the intersection of art and globalization — the remix. No material, rhythm nor narrative can escape the remix because craft and imagination do not belong to one singular community, and nothing that is human is alien.

“Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.” I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me. I remembered the saying from college Latin, but I needed Google to remind me that it’s Terence.

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged Catalunya, flamenco, language, music, Rosalía, Spain | Leave a comment

“Doesn’t Not” Don’t Mean “Yes”

Posted on March 25, 2020 by JMN

Due to social distancing, there were only two dozen or so reporters in the White House press briefing room. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has publicly corrected or qualified presidential assertions about the coronavirus threat on multiple occasions. Trump was asked why Fauci was absent from Monday’s lengthy press briefing.

Trump said: “I was just with him … he’s at the task force meeting right now.” Does he agree with you about the need to reopen the economy soon? Trump: “He doesn’t not agree.”

(David Smith, “Trump’s push to shorten coronavirus shutdown proves the captain is flying blind,” theguardian.com, 3-23-20)

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged coronavirus, language, rhetoric | Leave a comment

Living in Interesting Times

Posted on March 24, 2020 by JMN

This essay by Ai Weiwei, published in the NYTimes on January 13, 2020, was translated by Perry Link from the Chinese. (“Capitalism and ‘Culturecide’,” NYTimes).

I learn here that Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was a poet who was banished for 20 years to Xinjiang, a “vast northwest area in China,” for having expressed himself too freely through his poetry.

It’s noted that Xinjiang is the home of the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group. About a million Uighurs have been sent to “‘re-education camps’ where they have been forced to denounce their religion and to swear fealty to the Communist Party of China.”

It’s also noted that numerous multinational corporations have factories in Xinjiang. They include Volkswagen, Siemens, Unilever and Nestlé.

Supply chains for Muji and Uniqlo depend on Xinjiang, and companies such as H & M, Esprit and Adidas use Xinjiang cotton… VW builds its cars in China, including the Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley and Lamborghini brands under its umbrella. It has shown that it sees the future of German industry to be in China.”

Some two months after this essay appeared, we cower advisedly from what a careless president calls “the Chinese virus,” while much of what we consume is made in China — including vital generic drugs. The CEO of VW has said he knew nothing about the Uighur camps, though Ai Weiwei asserts otherwise. Supply chains that move food and medicine globally are groaning from disruption. We live in interesting times.

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged Ai Weiwei, China, coronavirus, language, miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Hugs, Not Slugs. Now Bugs!

Posted on March 24, 2020 by JMN

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador showing amulets that he says protect him from the coronavirus. Credit… Mexican Presidency/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

Hugging is the perfect symbol for Mr. López Obrador’s tropical populism. It portrays him as a warm man of the pueblo in contrast with the cold technocrats of what he calls “the mafia of power.” His slogan for trying to end the country’s drug war is “abrazos, no balazos,” or “hugs, not bullets.”

(Ioan Grillo, “Mexico, the Coronavirus and the Hugging President,” NYTimes, 3-23-20)

AMLO can’t catch a break. As he tries to smother narco-trafficking and femicide with hugs, a looming war on bugs — the coronavirus — now rears its head. Adding insult to irony, a gaggle of well-heeled Mexican skiers have trooped home from Vail infected with it.

On a positive note, a government social-distancing campaign has created a superhero icon named Susana Distancia, whose name is a play on “su sana distancia,” or “your healthy distance.” Ioan Grillo points out that Mexico has liabilities, but also assets, in the fight against the coronavirus.

Family networks are strong, making it easier to close schools. During recent natural disasters, I have witnessed great social solidarity… If cases of coronavirus infection do shoot up, as is likely, this solidarity could translate to help the distribution of food and support for affected families.

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged coronavirus, language, Mexico | Leave a comment

Calling Conservative Artists

Posted on March 23, 2020 by JMN

Piotr Bernatowicz, the new director of the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, says Polish art is dominated by the left. Credit… Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times.

Piotr Bernatowicz is the new director of a leading Warsaw art museum, the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art. For three decades it has exhibited Poland’s leading experimental artists and hosted work by “international stars,” according to this article (Alex Marshall, “A Polish Museum Turns to the Right, and Artists Turn Away,” NYTimes, 1-8-2020).

“Scythe” by Henryk Blachnio, from the exhibition “The Power of Secrets” at the Ujazdowski, running through March 29. Credit… Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times.

Mr. Bernatowicz says artists who do not “make work about fighting climate change and fascism, or promoting gay rights” are marginalized. He wishes to “promote artists who have other views: conservative, patriotic, pro-family.”

His plans are making the museum into another battleground in Polish culture wars that “pit liberals against the governing populist Law and Justice Party, as well as other conservative groups,” according to the article.

[Karol] Radziszewski posing in front of a self-portait from his series “1989,” in which the artist depicts himself as Cinderella. Credit… Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times.

… Some art world figures said it will be difficult to find enough right-wing works to show. “I don’t know what a conservative artist is,” Malgorzata Ludwisiak, the Ujazdowski’s previous director, said. “If it means painting like in the 19th century — a lady on a horse — well, it’s not contemporary art.”

Mr. Bernatowicz says, “I hope within the next seven years, the situation will change.” (He has been appointed for a term of seven years — “far longer than normal.”)

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged art, language, museums | 4 Comments

“Painter of Disquiet”

Posted on March 23, 2020 by JMN

Roberta Smith remarks that by a certain point in the show “it becomes clear why [Félix] Vallotton is not considered a first-rate painter. Perhaps he was excessively skilled with too many options at his fingertips.”

It struck me as a wry dilemma to have to cope with excessive skill, but perhaps I divine her point. She describes the Swiss painter and printmaker as “an intriguing, talented but slippery artist.”

“Self-Portrait at the Age of 20,” from 1885, shows the artist looking wise beyond his years. Credit… Musée Cantonal [?] des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne.

“Woman in a Purple Dress Under the Lamp” (1898). The woman was modeled by Hélène Chatenay, Vallotton’s companion of a decade. Credit…Hahnloser/Jaeggli Foundation, Villa Flora.

[The exhibition] reintroduces an artist who achieved early greatness in the relatively modest medium of prints and then either failed or declined to follow a single path in painting.

(Roberta Smith, “When He Was Good, He Was Breathtaking,” NYTimes, 1-6-20)

Side note: A substantial part of this article describes paintings that are not shown. It teases the reader and makes him wish the gorgeous verbiage were illustrated by its subject.

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged art, language, painting | 1 Comment