Friday, April 10, 2015
Worth Noting: E.M. Cioran on the purposes of writing
I found this wonderful quote used as in epigram in Kurt Russell's new book I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son. It is from E. M. Cioran: "Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone."
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Worth Noting: Corinna De Fonseca-Wollheim on early music group Les Delices
In 3/15/2015 NYT, CorinnaDe Fonseca-Wollheim writes of how early modern music group Les Delices leader and oboeist, Debra Nagy plays a baroque oboe. The instrument allows her to shape more expressive notes than she could on a modern oboe. She writes, "One of the most delightful aspects of any performance by Les Delices is this exploration of the dramatic potential of pitch- how to curve, stretch or wilt a note in a way that's emotionally resonant."
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Worth noting: Karl Ove Knausgaard on American individualism
From the NYT Magazine (March 1, 2015) article, My Saga: Part One:
I had never really understood how a nation that so celebrated the individual could obliterate all differences the way this country did. IN a system of mass production, the individual workers are replaceable and the products are identical. The identical cars are followed by identical gas stations, identical restaurants, identical motels and, as an extension of these, by identical TV screens, which hang everywhere in this country, broadcasting identical entertainment and identical dreams. Not even the Soviet Union at the height of its power had succeeded in creating such a unified, collective identity as the one Americans lived their lives within. When times got rough, a person could abandon one town in favor of another, and that new town would still represent the same thing.
Was that what home was here? Not the place, not the local, but the culture, the general?
I had never really understood how a nation that so celebrated the individual could obliterate all differences the way this country did. IN a system of mass production, the individual workers are replaceable and the products are identical. The identical cars are followed by identical gas stations, identical restaurants, identical motels and, as an extension of these, by identical TV screens, which hang everywhere in this country, broadcasting identical entertainment and identical dreams. Not even the Soviet Union at the height of its power had succeeded in creating such a unified, collective identity as the one Americans lived their lives within. When times got rough, a person could abandon one town in favor of another, and that new town would still represent the same thing.
Was that what home was here? Not the place, not the local, but the culture, the general?
The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson and the Battle for the Great Society by Julian E. Zelizer
Zelizer tells the story of how the Great Society came to be in a few short years during the Johnson presidency. Zelizer aims to weaken the assumption that the Great Society came about largely because of the skills and stature of Johnson and his time. That, the Great Society was the culmination of the New Deal, coming about during a liberal high tide. Instead, the author maintains that Johnson was able to accomplish his ends thanks to a particular moment in Congress created by pressure brought to bear by various advocacy groups, most importantly, those associated with the civil rights movement.
Speechwriter Richard Goodwin came up with the term for all the various things Johnson wanted to do starting in the spring of 1964. He also fleshed out the vision in a speech Johnson delivered at the University of Michigan in May of that year:
"'[The Great Society] rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and reacial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness...The Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed'" (164-165).
Many of the things Johnson hoped to accomplish had been previously proposed but blocked by a long-lasting coalition of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans in the U.S Congress. However building on pressure created by various liberal interest groups, particularly civil rights groups, in 1964, Johnson began to pass a truly significant raft of legislation changing this country,
He started by passing a tax cut that Kennedy had pushed unsuccessfully. He finagled this by agreeing to a tight budget of 100 Billion as insisted upon by fiscal conservatives in Congress (namely Wilbur Mills of Ways and Means and Harry Bird of the Senate Finance Committee). But, the cuts were significant: the bill which passed cut tax revenues to 11 billion, reducing top rates from 91% in 1963 to 79%. The bottom rate was reduced from 20% to 14%,
Next came a landmark Civil rights bill which proposed eliminating segregation in public accomodations, limited literacy tests for voting, established the EEOC to investigate discrimination claims, Despite roadblocks encountered in the Rules Committee, a weeks long filibuster in the Senate, Johnson managed to pass this thanks to public pressure on Congress. He also worked closely with Everett Dirksen, the Senate Minority Leader, to craft a bill many Republican's could accept. Once Dirksen was on board, this provided the cover for many.
Public pressure was key. According to pollster Louis Harris, Americans were opposed to the filibuster by a margin of 3-1. They were in favor of "civil rights by two to one"(114). Zelizer recounts, "The public accomodations section of the bill, which was the heart of the measure, received the strongest support from the public, a result of the moral and political pressure applied by the civil rights movement and the strong support from organized labor, religious organizations, and the news media." There was a dramatic shift in public opinion in a scant two years, with opposition to Johnson's version of civil rights going from 50% in the fall of 1963 to 21% in the spring of 1964. It was signed into law in the East Room of the White House on July 2, 1964.
In August of 1964, Johnson passed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to combat poverty through federal grants to local community agencies working on these issues. After a huge landslide victory for Democrats in Congressional elections in the Fall of the year, Johnson went on to pass legislation establishing Medicare in the summer of 1965. Again, he worked closely with Wilbur Mills from Ways and Means to craft legislation that could be passed. He was also aided by the many changes the new Democratic majority made to House rules which had previously been used to obstruct legislation; the 21 day rule allowed committee chairmen to insist the Rules committee send legislation to the floor within 21 days. On July 30th, 1965, Johnson signed the bill at the Truman library in a nod of respect to the former president who had originally proposed a national health plan in 1949. Tapping Social Security funds, the bill provided hospital coverage for all seniors. Part B provided coverage for doctors care, using general income tax funds. Using state and federal dollars, Part C expanded Medicaid to cover larger segments of the poor.
Again working closely with Dirksen, Johnson signed a voting rights bill with teeth in August of 1965. It's effect was immediate and long lasting. Within months, "almost 250,000 new African Americans were registered"(220).
Much of the pressure to pass the bill was owing to the horrible events which unfolded in Selma in the spring of the year. Conversely, after the rioting of 66 and 67 (Watts, Newark, Detroit), the Johnson White House found it difficult to pass civil rights legislation focused on housing in 1966. Changes in the composition of congress in 1966, political pressure to address ballooning federal deficits (Johnson proposed a budget of 172 billion in 1968), hindered the Johnson administration's push for more Great Society legislation.
Yet, even though the window of legislative opportunity was short-lived, approximately two years, Johnson and congress achieved an enormous amount, forever altering the political and social landscape of the nation.Poverty declined from 26% to 16% between 1967 and 2012 (320). Medicare vastly improved access to health care. According to Zelizer, In 1963, 20% of Americans had never seen a physician (320). By 1967, only 8% had never seen a physician. In 2011, nearly a third of Americans are covered by either Medicaid or Medicare. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 made big changes to the electorate: 41 % of eligible African Americans were registered to vote in 1964. That figure rises to 60.3% in 1968 (228). In the Deep South, the transformation was even greater: in 1964, 6.7 percent of eligible African Americans were registered to vote. By 1967, that number rises to 59.8%.
We think in terms of presidents accomplishing things, not congresses. LBJ has been especially lionized thanks to Robert Caro's wonderful biography. But, Zelizer reminds us "how the work of grassroots activists and changes in the power structure of Congress enabled a liberal president to fulfill his grand legislative ambition-the creation of a second New Deal that would complete the work of Franklin Roosevelt, expand the welfare state, and extend the full rights of citizenship to
African Americans and the poor. The conditions in which these achievements were possible existed only for a short time. When these conditions changed, the great period of liberal legislation was ended by a resurgent opposition, but the achievements of the period were never overturned and have remained irrevocable"(10).
Speechwriter Richard Goodwin came up with the term for all the various things Johnson wanted to do starting in the spring of 1964. He also fleshed out the vision in a speech Johnson delivered at the University of Michigan in May of that year:
"'[The Great Society] rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and reacial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness...The Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed'" (164-165).
Many of the things Johnson hoped to accomplish had been previously proposed but blocked by a long-lasting coalition of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans in the U.S Congress. However building on pressure created by various liberal interest groups, particularly civil rights groups, in 1964, Johnson began to pass a truly significant raft of legislation changing this country,
He started by passing a tax cut that Kennedy had pushed unsuccessfully. He finagled this by agreeing to a tight budget of 100 Billion as insisted upon by fiscal conservatives in Congress (namely Wilbur Mills of Ways and Means and Harry Bird of the Senate Finance Committee). But, the cuts were significant: the bill which passed cut tax revenues to 11 billion, reducing top rates from 91% in 1963 to 79%. The bottom rate was reduced from 20% to 14%,
Next came a landmark Civil rights bill which proposed eliminating segregation in public accomodations, limited literacy tests for voting, established the EEOC to investigate discrimination claims, Despite roadblocks encountered in the Rules Committee, a weeks long filibuster in the Senate, Johnson managed to pass this thanks to public pressure on Congress. He also worked closely with Everett Dirksen, the Senate Minority Leader, to craft a bill many Republican's could accept. Once Dirksen was on board, this provided the cover for many.
Public pressure was key. According to pollster Louis Harris, Americans were opposed to the filibuster by a margin of 3-1. They were in favor of "civil rights by two to one"(114). Zelizer recounts, "The public accomodations section of the bill, which was the heart of the measure, received the strongest support from the public, a result of the moral and political pressure applied by the civil rights movement and the strong support from organized labor, religious organizations, and the news media." There was a dramatic shift in public opinion in a scant two years, with opposition to Johnson's version of civil rights going from 50% in the fall of 1963 to 21% in the spring of 1964. It was signed into law in the East Room of the White House on July 2, 1964.
In August of 1964, Johnson passed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to combat poverty through federal grants to local community agencies working on these issues. After a huge landslide victory for Democrats in Congressional elections in the Fall of the year, Johnson went on to pass legislation establishing Medicare in the summer of 1965. Again, he worked closely with Wilbur Mills from Ways and Means to craft legislation that could be passed. He was also aided by the many changes the new Democratic majority made to House rules which had previously been used to obstruct legislation; the 21 day rule allowed committee chairmen to insist the Rules committee send legislation to the floor within 21 days. On July 30th, 1965, Johnson signed the bill at the Truman library in a nod of respect to the former president who had originally proposed a national health plan in 1949. Tapping Social Security funds, the bill provided hospital coverage for all seniors. Part B provided coverage for doctors care, using general income tax funds. Using state and federal dollars, Part C expanded Medicaid to cover larger segments of the poor.
Again working closely with Dirksen, Johnson signed a voting rights bill with teeth in August of 1965. It's effect was immediate and long lasting. Within months, "almost 250,000 new African Americans were registered"(220).
Much of the pressure to pass the bill was owing to the horrible events which unfolded in Selma in the spring of the year. Conversely, after the rioting of 66 and 67 (Watts, Newark, Detroit), the Johnson White House found it difficult to pass civil rights legislation focused on housing in 1966. Changes in the composition of congress in 1966, political pressure to address ballooning federal deficits (Johnson proposed a budget of 172 billion in 1968), hindered the Johnson administration's push for more Great Society legislation.
Yet, even though the window of legislative opportunity was short-lived, approximately two years, Johnson and congress achieved an enormous amount, forever altering the political and social landscape of the nation.Poverty declined from 26% to 16% between 1967 and 2012 (320). Medicare vastly improved access to health care. According to Zelizer, In 1963, 20% of Americans had never seen a physician (320). By 1967, only 8% had never seen a physician. In 2011, nearly a third of Americans are covered by either Medicaid or Medicare. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 made big changes to the electorate: 41 % of eligible African Americans were registered to vote in 1964. That figure rises to 60.3% in 1968 (228). In the Deep South, the transformation was even greater: in 1964, 6.7 percent of eligible African Americans were registered to vote. By 1967, that number rises to 59.8%.
We think in terms of presidents accomplishing things, not congresses. LBJ has been especially lionized thanks to Robert Caro's wonderful biography. But, Zelizer reminds us "how the work of grassroots activists and changes in the power structure of Congress enabled a liberal president to fulfill his grand legislative ambition-the creation of a second New Deal that would complete the work of Franklin Roosevelt, expand the welfare state, and extend the full rights of citizenship to
African Americans and the poor. The conditions in which these achievements were possible existed only for a short time. When these conditions changed, the great period of liberal legislation was ended by a resurgent opposition, but the achievements of the period were never overturned and have remained irrevocable"(10).
Monday, February 2, 2015
Worth noting: Colin Barret quote
Being interviewed in the New Yorker on his story "The Ways," writer Colin Barrett says, "'Voice' writing is all there is, to my mind. Taking “standardized” language and deforming it, beautifully. Certainly, with fiction, you have to be trying to do that at some level—your story or novel can be about anything, but one of its subjects has to be the operations and consequences of its own language, or it’s nothing."
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