“Tom Wolfe was no radical.”
capitalism
Posted inEditor's Pick
Seeing Beyond the Beauty of a Vermeer
“The violence of his era can be found in his serene masterpieces — if you know where to look.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Of Innocence and Experience
“Can anybody really say that socially reproducing the present state of things is a desirable goal? So, then, what do we dream of?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Battle for the Soul of Buy Nothing
“But Clark is as certain as ever that she and Rockefeller are on the right path in their decade-long quest to get people to buy less.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Edifice Complex
“Restoring the term “burnout” to its roots in landlord arson puts the dispossession of poor city dwellers at its center.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Disappearing Art of Maintenance
What do you do with a subway car that’s been operating 25 years longer than it was designed to? What do you do with a phone that’s only designed to work for three? In this thoughtful essay, Alex Vuoco suggests that we look to the make-it-last ethos as a course out of the increasingly wasteful […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Taking Stock
Rob Horning explores the term “creator” in this essay on labor, exploitation, and content production and consumption on the internet. “Creator,” like “creativity,” is essentially a null term that signifies nothing about one’s activity but instead marks one’s limitless availability — a willingness to make anything at all in one’s life into content for sale.
Posted inQuote Posts
The Complicated Capitalism of Plastics
“It might not seem like the right time to talk about plastics…But it is. And the world doesn’t have a moment to waste.”