I don’t know if I buy it Sam. It feels like you may be over indexing on a few attention-grabbing people and ignoring the vast, vast majorities that pay no attention to this noise.
I probably am. I can feel myself getting a little hysterical here - Kriss sometimes has that effect. But at the same time I feel there has been a real shift in values during the Trump (and more broadly) internet era and feel like there is some kind of a coherent (and dark) ideology here.
“Clavicular is just as eloquent on political questions as male models have always been…” and suddenly I am seeing Zoolander plain as day, and laughing. Thanks Sam😊
It's pretty funny! To be fair, I think I had heard every line of the movie quoted at some point or other, but it's nice to see it all laid out in its original form!
I so agree, Sam, being much older than you and must quote your close from that perspective: "For people in my generation, who aren’t as shaped by these sets of dynamics, it’s possible to articulate different values — continuity with the past, humanism, a profound sense of egalitarianism, a constant drive towards greater personal integrity — and possible to hold to these no matter what, but, if this is the choice one makes, it’s likely to get ever more lonely."
The future is a slippery changeable mercurial creature. Your writing highlights the importance of staying connected to our young people, helping them develop good tools to manage their futures. Sliding the metaphorical wrenches and crowbars in through the closing doors.
Glad you did the connection to the techno futurists from Mussolini's days. One could stretch it back to the Russian nihilists Dostoyevsky depicted and but I wouldn't read more into the broken clavichord than the Kardashian clan. The all attract the attention, but they have nothing to say and will soon be replaced by another whim of insatiable profit-driven media. There are more important things in life. But thanks for a nice reflection. We're not old just a bit wiser...
Good point. I'm amazed at how much the Futurist Manifesto seems to the mood we find ourselves in now, but you're absolutely right that the Futurists didn't come out of nowhere.
Yeah. One might call it (now) The Narcissism of The Future. Kids now (Gen Z, probably Gen Alpha) generally as a generation don't seem interested in The Past in the way generations before them were. They're broadly also not too keen on free speech, America in general or the U.S. Constitution. I do think because we're on the brink of massive cultural change a la AI there is something to this argument, meaning that The Past could easily seem to young people today as if the whole point of it was simply to "upload consciousness," as you said, to get them to (bridge them to) AI. AI, then, will "do the rest." The rest being whatever comes next. We seem to be connected as humans a little less every year. In 100 years will people look back on 2026 and see it the way we look back on 1850 now? Very possible!
Yeah, I think young people basically just feel really good about being born in the era of AI and like that's the ticket that's going to vault them forward, while older people's knowledge becomes essentially useless.
Be fair. Encouraging someone to read Rememberace of Things Past in an excellent way to make them think everyone in history was an enormously dull and moribund waste of time.
At least I assume so, I couldn't get past the first chapter. Different strokes and all.
I suspect the editor put the writer up to that. The chance of Clavicular reading Proust is about the same as Proust becoming a steroid-guzzling, looksmaxxing runway model.
Where is the worker smiling at them from in the churn of hottakes enduring the present while working on a hundred years' question to answer? Like the primary conversation abt U. S. politics will include what the underclass was thinking at any given time? Among people with newsletters the kind of quest to wh I am referring is like 'am I entertaining the people or are we making instrumental reason look as inadequate as left to our own devices...". You donot expect the answer to come to you from outside but in dead air moments, out of contemplations. Are we machines that learn, is a famous another one. Another one will be for someone is her Dunbar number of people are real existents, are my trbe syncretists or maybe do they really need to make sacrifices of the past. The answers cost something other than money I guess.
God this is brilliant. Just back from a couple of nights with the grandkids. Was hipped to some more choice digislang and then watched them play Fortnight with dad... needless to say if you think you're old then you'd check me for my pulse cuz I am!
But honestly, my sense is this new world is fascinating. Hopefully the DNA will survive and this epic journey will continue.
As an (admittedly older) Gen Zer, I think many of my peers still value and try to hold onto "continuity with the past, humanism, a profound sense of egalitarianism, a constant drive towards greater personal integrity." It may be harder right now, but I truly believe that something of these values will always remain in the human heart. It's easy for older people to be like "kids these days," but I don't know if Clavicular is exactly representative of young people—he's just the sort of extreme person that people love talking about, especially on the Internet, which makes him seem more representative than he really is.
Agreed Ramya. I don't think Clavicular is representative. But there is something in the water, and I think these two profiles - even if dealing with extremes - speak to that.
I don’t know if I buy it Sam. It feels like you may be over indexing on a few attention-grabbing people and ignoring the vast, vast majorities that pay no attention to this noise.
I probably am. I can feel myself getting a little hysterical here - Kriss sometimes has that effect. But at the same time I feel there has been a real shift in values during the Trump (and more broadly) internet era and feel like there is some kind of a coherent (and dark) ideology here.
“Clavicular is just as eloquent on political questions as male models have always been…” and suddenly I am seeing Zoolander plain as day, and laughing. Thanks Sam😊
Finally watched Zoolander for the first time!
And…
It's pretty funny! To be fair, I think I had heard every line of the movie quoted at some point or other, but it's nice to see it all laid out in its original form!
You've made a very compelling argument. It's not funny and I agree.
Thanks Brian
I so agree, Sam, being much older than you and must quote your close from that perspective: "For people in my generation, who aren’t as shaped by these sets of dynamics, it’s possible to articulate different values — continuity with the past, humanism, a profound sense of egalitarianism, a constant drive towards greater personal integrity — and possible to hold to these no matter what, but, if this is the choice one makes, it’s likely to get ever more lonely."
Ditto on this, Mary. Seems to me these thing--the glue that has held together a shared commonality--are essiential.
Cheers. It's a tough feeling to just feel that the whole society is going in a really-not-great direction.
"Or: I Got Old." Love it. Welcome to the future.
Lol!
The future is a slippery changeable mercurial creature. Your writing highlights the importance of staying connected to our young people, helping them develop good tools to manage their futures. Sliding the metaphorical wrenches and crowbars in through the closing doors.
Thank you Cecilia
Glad you did the connection to the techno futurists from Mussolini's days. One could stretch it back to the Russian nihilists Dostoyevsky depicted and but I wouldn't read more into the broken clavichord than the Kardashian clan. The all attract the attention, but they have nothing to say and will soon be replaced by another whim of insatiable profit-driven media. There are more important things in life. But thanks for a nice reflection. We're not old just a bit wiser...
Good point. I'm amazed at how much the Futurist Manifesto seems to the mood we find ourselves in now, but you're absolutely right that the Futurists didn't come out of nowhere.
We need a new Great Awakening
It seems to me he's attempting to combine, as a performance artist, Traditional Form (Beauty), which means:
Beautiful things are harder to make than ugly things.
Form is more important than content.
+ Modernism as content:
Alienation
Dada (emptiness and irony)
Oikophobia (in this case a kind of disdain for the "squares")
Yeah. One might call it (now) The Narcissism of The Future. Kids now (Gen Z, probably Gen Alpha) generally as a generation don't seem interested in The Past in the way generations before them were. They're broadly also not too keen on free speech, America in general or the U.S. Constitution. I do think because we're on the brink of massive cultural change a la AI there is something to this argument, meaning that The Past could easily seem to young people today as if the whole point of it was simply to "upload consciousness," as you said, to get them to (bridge them to) AI. AI, then, will "do the rest." The rest being whatever comes next. We seem to be connected as humans a little less every year. In 100 years will people look back on 2026 and see it the way we look back on 1850 now? Very possible!
Yeah, I think young people basically just feel really good about being born in the era of AI and like that's the ticket that's going to vault them forward, while older people's knowledge becomes essentially useless.
Be fair. Encouraging someone to read Rememberace of Things Past in an excellent way to make them think everyone in history was an enormously dull and moribund waste of time.
At least I assume so, I couldn't get past the first chapter. Different strokes and all.
I suspect the editor put the writer up to that. The chance of Clavicular reading Proust is about the same as Proust becoming a steroid-guzzling, looksmaxxing runway model.
Where is the worker smiling at them from in the churn of hottakes enduring the present while working on a hundred years' question to answer? Like the primary conversation abt U. S. politics will include what the underclass was thinking at any given time? Among people with newsletters the kind of quest to wh I am referring is like 'am I entertaining the people or are we making instrumental reason look as inadequate as left to our own devices...". You donot expect the answer to come to you from outside but in dead air moments, out of contemplations. Are we machines that learn, is a famous another one. Another one will be for someone is her Dunbar number of people are real existents, are my trbe syncretists or maybe do they really need to make sacrifices of the past. The answers cost something other than money I guess.
God this is brilliant. Just back from a couple of nights with the grandkids. Was hipped to some more choice digislang and then watched them play Fortnight with dad... needless to say if you think you're old then you'd check me for my pulse cuz I am!
But honestly, my sense is this new world is fascinating. Hopefully the DNA will survive and this epic journey will continue.
Appreciate your optimism!
As an (admittedly older) Gen Zer, I think many of my peers still value and try to hold onto "continuity with the past, humanism, a profound sense of egalitarianism, a constant drive towards greater personal integrity." It may be harder right now, but I truly believe that something of these values will always remain in the human heart. It's easy for older people to be like "kids these days," but I don't know if Clavicular is exactly representative of young people—he's just the sort of extreme person that people love talking about, especially on the Internet, which makes him seem more representative than he really is.
Agreed Ramya. I don't think Clavicular is representative. But there is something in the water, and I think these two profiles - even if dealing with extremes - speak to that.
I’m so (blissfully) out of it here in Lisbon, I had to google this Clavicus Looksmaximus to find out WTF.
Sounds like he’s the current version of Tom Cruise's creepy character in Magnolia?