David Brooks is writing about collectivism today--a topic that snuggles in nicely with recent conversation here. The article, frankly, puzzles me. On one hand, he appreciates the Asian tendency to see context over individual items, and declares that when collectivist nations like China and Japan get money and industry, they create not just an economic event, but a cultural one. On the other, he ends the article with the nasty word "autocrat," and seems downright dismissive of the "microbes" that could cause a person to see the world in terms of relationships between things. It's as if he can't imagine a democracy leading people who care more about the whole than the individual members... and never heard of Japan's total economic revolution in the eighties, which was not autocratic, and sent Americans scurrying to consultants who promised to teach corporation-as-holistic-organism.
I declare it all good food for the mill. A conservative writer is pushing for the next cultural moment, and looking to a technically conservative ideal that steps away from the Great Western Individualism Experiment to do so. But this technically conservative ideal has been either growing or festering in the lifestyles of zazen-sitting, yoga-classing, i ching-consulting, go-letting liberals like myself for a decade or more.
Discuss.
In other news, I saw the Louise Bourgeois show at the Guggenheim yesterday, which was dissonance-inducing. She's such a gigantic hero of mine, but I am deeply irritated by her work. And I have been trying to write about my own intellectual interest in good rigging, but can't seem to get over some serious rhetorical hurdles, like talking way too much about Richard Serra and Mark diSuvero. Or just lapsing into gassy prose about why I make art that is only interesting to me. It's all an excuse to show some amazing pictures of something heavy being lifted badly. I should be honest about that, and either show them or not instead of teasing myself and you.
If it was me, I'd probably just post the pictures under the following headline:
Some Amazing Pictures of Something Heavy Being Lifted Badly
Posted by: Michael Konrad | August 12, 2008 at 05:51 PM
I know, I know. But it still stings my ego, and I feel bad for the guy with the truck.
Posted by: deborahfisher | August 13, 2008 at 07:59 AM
It's so nice to have you do all of the research for us. It makes our decision making so much easier!! Thanks.
Posted by: MBT Online | July 15, 2011 at 05:24 AM