This Week’s Cuttings
Noble intentions but this story seems counter-productive. You’d really hope for more than this. If these are all we have to cling to then these are grim times. (Ten reasons to be cheerful about 2023 (ft.com))
In the week there was a judicial boost for the European Super League, events in the US suggest the uneasy balance between sport and business is shifting again. As always the fans suffer to the benefit of who? “Consumers”?(MLS’s arrogant withdrawal from US Open Cup is about controlling Messi Mania | MLS | The Guardian)
It’s today’s equivalent of too much TV or obscene rap lyrics. Anxious parents turn to experts for answers. And the answer is…it’s hard to tell. (Is social media harming teens? A dive into the research cites risks but returns few hard answers (nbcnews.com))
Climate change and water rights isn’t just something that affects the developing world. It’s a very real issue in some of the wealthiest parts of the US. (The Fate of the West’s Water Crisis Rests With a 27-Year-Old — POLITICO)
All of which is further evidence that there is a need for a grown-up discussion about growth and economic development and just what the f%*& we’re going to do. Unfortunately we’re not getting it. Instead we get the familiar, re-heated ascetic puritanism. (The Relentless Growth of Degrowth Economics (foreignpolicy.com))
Another day, another manifestation of…what? Identity politics or culture wars doesn’t seem to cover it. It seems to be the breakdown of things, or their transformation or something. (The fight over what’s real (and what’s not) on dissociative identity disorder TikTok — The Verge)
Maybe it has something to do with this, if the direction of travel it indicates is correct. Are we going to become more and more divided and isolated or will there be some kind of reconsolidation. (In 2024, the Tension Between Macroculture and Microculture Will Turn into War (honest-broker.com)). It seems the business model of this new world isn’t stable. (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-26/spotify-s-billionaire-ceo-daniel-ek-has-a-broken-profit-record-to-fix)
You’ll need a strong stomach for this one, unless you like your humour as heavy-handed as possible. (The Postmodernist Drinking Song — YouTube)
