That is the case. I knew entire families in North Florida who had been on welfare since welfare had existed. They didn’t really understand nor care that it was intended to be something temporary.
And yes, they were all white.
Culture
World View
That’s the Windows on the World restaurant that was on the 107th floor of the North Tower of the WTC in NYC. Judging by the hair and lapels, that photo was taken between 1976-1978 (the restaurant itself opened in April 1976).
At that time, this would’ve been an extremely high end restaurant. In today’s money it would’ve cost at least $165 and more realistically around $200 per person to dine there. So of course these people were dressed up; this was something special to them. This would not have been their typical attire.
That said, I do tend to agree. I think we do owe it to others to not look like dumpster slime in public. This is one of the main reasons I always despised the Fat Acceptance movement. I firmly and fully believe that there is a duty to others to not go around looking like Jabba the damn Hut. And a duty to one’s self.
No Normal
How long did it take for things to go back to normal after 9/11?
Here’s the thing: it never went back to normal (as the currently most upvoted-comment also says in different words).
The 90s and the dreams gestated by the end of the Cold War all died that day. Nothing was the same after. Much freedom was lost by all Americans and the world became a far more dangerous, less trusting place.
Essentially, the terrorists won. Everyone else lost. Now we just accept ubiquitous surveillance and intrusions into every area of our lives. We do not deserve freedom because we did nothing to keep it.
But I remember how it was before 9/11 and it was better. Far better.
Full Sim
I think everything seems like AI and CGI to Gen Z; they do not believe even experiences they have themselves. They live in a full simulation world.
Eptly
I was considered pretty socially inept and clueless in my youth. As I’ve mentioned before, I find it exceedingly strange that Gen Z is now so socially incapable that even in my incapability were I that age again contemporaneous with them, I’d be in the top 10%.
That is not a good change.
Flipping
As with the below, the best novels about men are almost always written by women. It turns out that neither gender can see itself all that well.
See Middlemarch and Gilead for examples.
And the ur-example is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Lena
Elena Ferrante and the people who vouched for her.
I am 100% convinced that “Elena Ferrante” is a man. No one but a man can write about women so observationally and so lucidly (with rare exception).
I’ve read everything by “her” now in both English and Italian and it’s pretty darn clear that Elena is a man. Women never write about fellow women so unflinchingly but with such empathy — their natural intrasexual competition drive almost always gets in the way.
Gasping Nickelback
And that’s the answer. The social milieu changed completely. The last gasp of rock was in the late 1990s and early 2000s; rock died with Nickelback and Creed. To be clear, they were not responsible for its death, but rather were avatars of its last bare wisp of vitality, a withered plant in a desert of culture.
Rock-like forms continued, and some other good genres and sub-genres emerged, but rock qua rock was dead by 2005.
Old Cairo
I’ve been to that area. It’s a lot junkier and uglier except in a few places than that photo indicates. Its peak was in the 14th Century, and it shows. I’m glad I visited but it did not at all look like this, except a few Potemkin Village-type locations.
No Contact
I’m about the most asocial and anti-social person in world history and yeah, that is not healthy at all.
Wrought Copy
When you advocate for copyright in the modern age, you are advocating for artificial scarcity that is a deadweight loss to the entire civilization. I do not care what your “good” reasons are. Every argument you make ultimately reduces to prioritizing extortionate rent extraction from things that cost nothing to copy. Culture is a commons, and you are fencing it off so a middleman can charge admission at the gate. Call it what you want and cry all you want. It doesn’t matter. It’s still a tollbooth built on infinite abundance.
Rock 30
The US modern rock chart 30 years ago.
Some of those songs I don’t remember at all.
Of course, in August 1996 I was quite occupied being a paratrooper in the army. I believe I had just arrived in Egypt then so I was a bit disconnected from the music scene to be fair.
Best song on the list: “Angry Johnny” by Poe.
Worst song: “6th Avenue Heartache” by The Wallflowers.
I think “Tonight, Tonight” is the best-written song there, but I can no longer stand Billy Corgan’s voice so I could not choose that one. There are some great, great covers of that one, though.
Peaked
Yes, or perhaps Austria and more specifically Vienna 1900-1914. Also a good candidate.
The Future Past
In many ways, it was a better time. No tattoos on anyone in those pics (which is amazing), and inescapable surveillance capitalism had not yet occurred.
Open Door
It’s become stylish to criticize people like Steve Jobs, Quentin Tarantino, Joss Whedon or even Lena Dunham for being jerks and (sort of) bullies. Want to cancel them for their alleged transgressions. But here’s the thing: those people almost certainly would not have been able to produce the quality art and products they have sans those characteristics that supposedly condemn them.
And you can kind of tell the effects this has had by absence — because the quality of art has declined enormously since woke, sensitivity readers and cancellation became de rigeur.
You do not get all that far by not pushing too hard sometimes. There’s a reason Tarantino always manages to coax the absolute best out of his cast, and that Dunham crossed boundaries with her actors: she was attempting to get something true out of them. (I’m not a fan of Girls, but the bits I’ve watched there’s no denying it’s well-made and has a voice.)
Artists are always transgressive and should be so. We need those people. They will always be going too far, opening doors many people feel should be left closed. And that’s exactly what they should be doing.