(no subject)

[timelets]

“All of which exempts and frees you from every respect and obligation, and so you can say whatever you like about this history, without any fear of being attacked for a hostile judgement or rewarded for a favourable one.”

Miguel de Cervantes. “Don Quixote.”

Art liberates because it lets adults play with ideas, characters, and circumstances. We are free to discuss actions and gossip about imaginary personas without much fear of being right or wrong. It's social through and through. For most people, politics used to be the same: a game of idle chit-chat, an occasion to socialize and entertain make-belief plays about the world's powerful celebrities.

I'm afraid we're losing this ability for this kind of idle entertainment because politicians want social media followers with donations, not amused spectators. Even TV ratings are built on advertising revenue, which stimulates polarization and market segmentation. More importantly, remote politicians with their flawed decision processes are redistributing our rights, mostly through zero-sum logic, either real or perceived. We have to judge and be judged. There's very little safe playspace left for adults.

I want to hear from a new Cervantes. Or at least, new J.K. Rowling.