Culture and politics are best thought of as intersecting Venn circles where the overlapping center is more spacious than the solitary spaces on either side. Are laws only political? Is C&W music only cultural? Of course not. Trump’s fly swats at national arts organizations while rebranding the Kennedy center in his political image are only the most recent, and blatant, examples of the two-sided coin of culture and politics. Mozart’s great divertissements reflected the political reality of classical musicianship. Perhaps spotting the wealthy patron in the corner of a great medieval painting demonstrates the inseparability of the arts and culture best of all.
a culture that values books will encourage advanced reading, but incentives like banning school uniforms if the all the students ace their tests will work better
Policy and government are products of culture. Literature and art presents and fortifies the culture, while politics operationalizes it. The important part is to operationalize the good parts of the culture, and change the bad parts of the culture. Without an overarching sense of values and a reasonably distributed allocation of resources which equalizes power, then governmental action and policies can go very much astray. This is a very difficult thing as cultural capital is not fairly distributed, and there are subcultures as well, which the dominant culture may disenfranchise. Welcome to the messy world of politics. But at the base of it is a shared culture that informs the traditionalist conservative and the Marxist alike.
This is a little salty, but you’re very detailed in citing your written sources— and yet! Here is this fascinating engraving, utterly sans citation!
Naturally, I can perform a visual search to find out where this comes from and (possibly) whose work it is, but as the author of this stack, it’s incumbent on you to cite all of your sources— even those that are “decorative”!
End PSA. I always enjoy your writing. And I’ll admit, as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to have more appreciation for David Brooks’ writing as well. His rather powerful line about circumstances is spot-on, and hints at the dangers of attempting to use policy to enforce morality.
has any book had as much impact on women as Roe v. Wade? has any book had as much impact on blacks as the civil-rights act? culture might cause whites (elite) to write these laws and court-cases, but the laws and open-borders are what actually help women and minorities
I read the Brooks article with a great sigh. Of course culture matters. but we dismiss money at great peril. His stat about Swedish people is absurd in its irrelevance.
Think of money in Bleak House. Dickens mocked the philanthropists who wanted to change the culture of the poor but not their conditions. Brooks in his Mets cap––his new means of relating to "folks"–– is such a rich target for satire. I wonder if he has ever directly helped someone in dire need of money.
I don’t think cash is the be-all and end-all. That said, you have to winder what the effect is if you know you’re part of an experiment or study vs. a legislative change like an expanded Child tax Credit, which is cash, or free childcare. It feels different if it’s a benefit for everyone. The wellbeing of people who win lotteries is not improved.
Poverty is also generational so even three years is not enough time to make a generational difference. America needs a better social safety net.
It’s sort of funny that Brooks decries social science but then quotes social science experiments to try to prove that cash doesn’t help very much.
culture creates politics--the great books led to the Warren Court--but the great books are only assigned in high school in countries with the first amendment. Chinese college, or Muslim college, is not equal to Anglo-Protestant college
Culture and politics are best thought of as intersecting Venn circles where the overlapping center is more spacious than the solitary spaces on either side. Are laws only political? Is C&W music only cultural? Of course not. Trump’s fly swats at national arts organizations while rebranding the Kennedy center in his political image are only the most recent, and blatant, examples of the two-sided coin of culture and politics. Mozart’s great divertissements reflected the political reality of classical musicianship. Perhaps spotting the wealthy patron in the corner of a great medieval painting demonstrates the inseparability of the arts and culture best of all.
a culture that values books will encourage advanced reading, but incentives like banning school uniforms if the all the students ace their tests will work better
Policy and government are products of culture. Literature and art presents and fortifies the culture, while politics operationalizes it. The important part is to operationalize the good parts of the culture, and change the bad parts of the culture. Without an overarching sense of values and a reasonably distributed allocation of resources which equalizes power, then governmental action and policies can go very much astray. This is a very difficult thing as cultural capital is not fairly distributed, and there are subcultures as well, which the dominant culture may disenfranchise. Welcome to the messy world of politics. But at the base of it is a shared culture that informs the traditionalist conservative and the Marxist alike.
This is a little salty, but you’re very detailed in citing your written sources— and yet! Here is this fascinating engraving, utterly sans citation!
Naturally, I can perform a visual search to find out where this comes from and (possibly) whose work it is, but as the author of this stack, it’s incumbent on you to cite all of your sources— even those that are “decorative”!
End PSA. I always enjoy your writing. And I’ll admit, as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to have more appreciation for David Brooks’ writing as well. His rather powerful line about circumstances is spot-on, and hints at the dangers of attempting to use policy to enforce morality.
has any book had as much impact on women as Roe v. Wade? has any book had as much impact on blacks as the civil-rights act? culture might cause whites (elite) to write these laws and court-cases, but the laws and open-borders are what actually help women and minorities
I read the Brooks article with a great sigh. Of course culture matters. but we dismiss money at great peril. His stat about Swedish people is absurd in its irrelevance.
Think of money in Bleak House. Dickens mocked the philanthropists who wanted to change the culture of the poor but not their conditions. Brooks in his Mets cap––his new means of relating to "folks"–– is such a rich target for satire. I wonder if he has ever directly helped someone in dire need of money.
What did you think of the Kelsey Piper piece
I don’t think cash is the be-all and end-all. That said, you have to winder what the effect is if you know you’re part of an experiment or study vs. a legislative change like an expanded Child tax Credit, which is cash, or free childcare. It feels different if it’s a benefit for everyone. The wellbeing of people who win lotteries is not improved.
Poverty is also generational so even three years is not enough time to make a generational difference. America needs a better social safety net.
It’s sort of funny that Brooks decries social science but then quotes social science experiments to try to prove that cash doesn’t help very much.
culture creates politics--the great books led to the Warren Court--but the great books are only assigned in high school in countries with the first amendment. Chinese college, or Muslim college, is not equal to Anglo-Protestant college