Some contemporary memes'n'things that sum our times
My thoughts: the responsibility of artists + Daily Mail dumb-assery as sad collapse symptom
OK, some thoughts and updates that build on themes we’re into here. Shall we chat?
Also, how many of you are based in Canberra and will be there December 17-20? Pending family guff (some of my brothers and my sister are organising a “surprise” early birthday thingo…which they keep roping me into…because: eldest sister…) I may be able to do a meet-up. Keen?
The role of the artist in a war
The wonderful Australian business icon Sam Mostyn sent me the grab below from Hilary Mantel’s A Memoir of My Former Self after seeing me on The Project on Friday and reading my rants on the responsibility of people in the public eye. I think it’s brilliantly apt and ties into the Sydney Theatre Company’s current furore, which has exposed how awkward and clumsy we are with knowing when and how artists should speak out. (Gosh, we are getting so many things wrong, aren't we!)
The novelist - or artist - should produce a couture response. Indeed.
Creatives (novelists, artists, actors and influencers) throughout history have spoken out - mostly controversially and progressively - on big issues. They have pushed intellectual and cultural boundaries and provoked new mindsets. But, and here’s the important subtlety, they have tended to do it artfully and via mediums that work for their particular expression.
In the age of shouty social media, creatives are expected to speak out on these very limited platforms. Which are not conducive to artfulness. I agree with Mantel. Creatives should not do “fast fashion” soundbites. They are often not good at them. And such cheap contributions rarely add anything to the landscape. More than this, they mostly result in destruction, not creation. Creatives’ contributions should be discerning, and encourage discernment; they should lead us to better thinking and be accompanied by context.
Shall we leave creatives to create as they see fit?
PS Here’s The Project clip from Friday.
For anyone who missed it, I posted my notes from the segment here:
The community here had a good chat in the comments thread about the panel’s line of questioning, and the response from the public on The Project’s IG page. Much irony abounded.
PPS An interesting counterpoint to the Congressional hearings into anti-semitism at US college campuses
writes that the hearings this week saw college presidents hauled over the coals for students’ statements about the Gaza/Israel conflict. It all went horrifically. But White argues that the set-up was impossible. The college reps were expected to give short answers (yes or no) to complex questions. It’s an important, broader point: We must stop demanding dumb answers to hard questions.The Daily Mail has a dumb crack
It’s great to be home and have the Daily Mail run no less than three inane articles about me in a week.
I’ve got to know the formula over many years of their bullying: Pick up on one line from an interview and turn it into a loud headline; insert clickbait image (preferably one where the subject looks unhinged or fat/ugly/compromised); then copy and paste the content of every article they’ve ever written on that person without bothering to update or check if the original data was correct. I will forever be a multi-millionaire TV host in their files.
In reference to the first article, above, I did not write a pro-Palestinian post; the example they point to in the nonsensical article doesn’t mention Palestine or Gaza. Nor did I get “slammed” by outraged Aussies. Between the three articles, I could probably count 20 non-truths.
Here’s my take: There’s no point getting outraged or bothering to correct their misinformation. I have previously tried to contact their “office” to point out inaccuracies. They explicitly don’t supply a contact number, address or email, anywhere. I connect with the “journalists” via their Linkedin. I’ve never had a response. They just…don’t. Respond. It’s a tactic.
The best thing to do is feel very sad about the phenomenon and put energy into not being distracted by the insanity of it. And never click on one their links. Ever. We have better work to do. Fluent bullshit, chaos creation and noise are all symptoms of a culture not coping with the complexity it orchestrated.
“Bugger off”: 2024 vibes
I saw this meme below and thought that this indeed will be the vibe for the coming year. But it worries me. How about you? When everything is too much, our primal response is to separate and to “other”.
But I wonder, should we rise above our base tendencies and keep trying to cooperate, even in (especially in) the face of hate and a lack of “loving well”? Cooperation and “each other” might be all we have left, in final wash-ups. Or do we order others to bugger off? We need to conserve our energy.
I guess the sweet spot is to love well ourselves and to steer our energy away from the hate, quietly, rather than issuing edicts to others. Loud edicts won’t cut it.
Young people expect differently
It’s been a regular topic here - how young people will cope with a collapsing future. In one of his collapse explainers, the late Michael Dowd points out that we have only ever experienced an upward trajectory on the bell curve of civilisational lifespans. Things have, in the main, grown, got materially better, expanded (just ask Stephen Pinker and his crew). This has been our expectation, and so the idea of collapse or decline is unfathomable, as well as terrifying. Future generations will, by contrast, only know decline, much like folk who lived through the Dark Ages. That will be their expectation.
Our civilisation is currently arriving at the upper peak of the curve and about to tip down the other side into decline. So young people today will be in the unique position of having lived some of their lives going up, but the bulk will be experienced in a kind of plateau-flop. This will look like confusion, chaos, inconsistency etc. This will be their (and our) reality and expectation (in time). I see signs of this adjustment already:
And for some fun: The Dating App bro
This Daily Shouts chronicling A Day in the Life of the Guy Who Harassed You on a Dating App paints a horribly accurate picture of one very distinct kind of single dude - the guy who desperately wants connection, but only knows how to take the entitled route, working to the storyline that women should be chasing him and frothing to hear his hot takes.
The final line/diary entry:
5:45 p.m.
I regain consciousness and drive home. I quietly boil eight hot dogs for dinner while doing zero introspective work. Another perfect day! ♦
OK, so I’m going to keep posting until the end of next week, then I’ll be taking two weeks off. I’ll suspend everyone’s payments in this time. I don’t think this is Substack protocol. But I don’t want to charge for services you don’t get. Cool?
Sarah xx
I rarely comment on social media about anything because I think other people are so much more articulate than me so why just repeat what has been more eloquently said? But I am engaged with the world while sure that it doesn't have yo be about me. I NEVER click on a Daily Mail link. It is one of my life purposes to starve them any way I can. I try to like and follow people who are interesting and honest about their world views and make me challenge mine. Currently feeling overwhelmed by the horrors being visited on people by murderous and psychotic thugs and their enablers but 2024 I will still turn up and bear witness and send as much money as I can afford to courageous NGOs and others who bravely put themselves out there while I stare down impending penury in my retirement. I am happy to keep paying my modest subscription to your substack. I am pretty sure that you will continue to be engaged and ready to share with us when you have taken the time to reinvigorate mind and body. Thanks for all the calls to be more thoughtful and engaged.
Hi Sarah! A free subscriber here, which is why I missed the conversation around the Project interview on your Substack last week and I'm now way late to this party. I just watched the clip now, and as a thirty year old Austrian who moved from Germany to Sydney a few years ago, your observations around the Australians‘ inability to „hold the multitude“ of global issues resonates deeply. I love Australia for many reasons but find myself missing the conversations I used to have with people (not only close friends) in Europe - around what is happening in the world and how we want to navigate it all. Despite the problems Australia is facing - like the housing and climate crises that were mentioned - these issues aren’t discussed among my community, even though many of them are directly affected by it. On the other hand, many people I know in Europe are living very comfortable lives by any standard, but there is still a deeply rooted culture of conversation and engaging with the world beyond one’s own immediate reality. Anecdotal evidence of course, but I could really relate to what you said in the interview. Thank you for that!