Bread — and Circuses?
Arles, on a July evening in 2022
Quote of the Day
”Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”
- Clay Shirky (in Here Comes Everybody)
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
The Decemberists | January Hymn
Long Read of the Day
How to solve a problem like Elon Musk
Peter Geoghegan on why European democracies need to start taking action against foreign interference.
That elections should be protected from outside interference is a core principle in many modern democracies. In Britain, foreign donations are prohibited. It’s the same in the United States, France, Ireland and numerous other countries.
We are, however, quickly discovering the limits of the rules and regulations that are supposed to protect our democracies.
Especially when the foreign interference is coming from a multi-billionaire who has complete control over a social media platform where many voters get their information.
Few realised it at the time, but Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter/X in 2022 has given him an unrivalled power to influence politics. His increasingly erratic attacks on governments and public institutions are fast becoming the biggest driver of the news agenda.
Politicians are being forced to react…
Good piece by a great journalist. Time to think about using the Online Safety Act to regulate Musk’s abusive tweeting on Twitter/X
Books, etc.
Shapiro picked up an abused-looking iPhone from his desk. “You’re talking to someone who has only owned a smartphone for a year—I resisted,” he said. Then he saw that it was futile. “Technology in the last twenty years has changed all of us,” he went on. “How has it changed me? I probably read five novels a month until the two-thousands. If I read one a month now, it’s a lot. That’s not because I’ve lost interest in fiction. It’s because I’m reading a hundred Web sites. I’m listening to podcasts.” He waggled the iPhone disdainfully. “Go to a play now, and watch the flashing screens an hour in, as people who like to think of themselves as cultured cannot! Stop! Themselves!” Assigning “Middlemarch” in that climate was like trying to land a 747 on a small rural airstrip.
James Shapiro, an English professor at Columbia, talking to Nathan Heller in “The End of the English Major”
My commonplace booklet
A cautionary tale for Wall Street from China
From Stella Yifan Xie in Nikkei…
China has issued a directive to the country’s brokerage firms as it aims to change perceptions of its flagging economy: monitor speeches by top economists and fire them if necessary. Chief economists at Chinese brokerages must “play a positive role in interpreting government policies and boost investor confidence,” the industry watchdog Securities Association of China (SAC) told its members last week, according to the state-run financial newspaper Securities Times. However, if the individuals have “repeatedly triggered reputational risk over inappropriate commentaries or behaviors” within a certain period of time or caused “major negative impacts,” the company shall “severely deal with the person until termination of employment,” said the notice, without elaborating on the definition of inappropriate comments. The order marks a fresh attempt by Beijing to rekindle confidence and hasten growth by avoiding negative takes on the world’s second-largest economy. But some analysts and economists are concerned that censorship would only deepen the public’s frustration over the economy’s sluggish performance and increase the risk of policy missteps. One Chinese economist at a bank received an internal warning in recent months, in part for making public comments on the economy, Nikkei Asia learned. … At the annual economic work conference last year, Beijing urged officials to promote the “bright theory” of the economy, as it battled against a property market meltdown and slumping stocks. The country’s top intelligence agency warned the public against those who “denigrate China’s economy through false narratives.” Negative commentaries and articles about the state of the economy have vanished from Chinese media.
This should be interesting to some of the free-booting Tech capitalists fawning upon Trump. The First Amendment might come back to bite them when they seek to redact Wall Street analysts’ reports that are critical of their companies!
Linkblog
Something I noticed, while drinking from the Internet firehose.
Jimmy Carter Says Best Part of Heaven is He Will Never See Trump
From Andy Borowitz…
HEAVEN (The Borowitz Report) — In a wide-ranging interview on Thursday, former President Jimmy Carter said that the best part of Heaven “by far” is the knowledge that he will never see Donald J. Trump again.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for the gift of eternal life,” he said. “But an eternity without Trump is the greatest gift of all.”
Carter said that he was “far from alone” in appreciating his Trump-free existence, adding, “Nelson Mandela just said the same thing.”
Asked if he had seen Trump on cable news criticizing his sale of the Panama Canal, Carter responded, “We don’t have cable news up here. I’ve heard it’s on nonstop in the other place.”
Seen and/or heard
In a friend’s guest bedroom.
This Blog is also available as an email three days a week. If you think that might suit you better, why not subscribe? One email on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays delivered to your inbox at 6am UK time. It’s free, and you can always unsubscribe if you conclude your inbox is full enough already!