The December 17, 2024
PinFeed Almanack
You're Better Than Me

  Respect has fallen out of favor, replaced by a toxic mix of envy, resentment,
  loathing and obsession. This idea occurs to me as I consider the waning of two 
  stars who lit the way for me:  Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Paul Krugman. 
  
  Paul retired his opinion column in the Times this week.  In it, he gave us a 
  thumbnail sketch comparing the mood of the country when he began his column in 2000, to the state of affairs today. It's not a pretty picture. 
  
  Misha danced classical ballet until the mid-80's, and continues to be active in 
  other forms of art as well as dance.  His intended legacy is the Baryshnikov 
  Arts Center, which sponsors both fine and performing artists. A Times profile 
  asks, is he the 'Last of the Highbrow Superstars?' 
  
  In 1980, the names Baryshnikov, Balanchine, Nureyev, Bernstein, Picasso,
  Horowitz, Olivier, Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Martha Graham, Beverly Sills, 
  Maria Callas, Luciano Pavarotti, were not just recognizable, they were household 
  names, invoked as metaphors for excellence.  How many composers, tenors, dancers, 
  artists, or stage actors (as opposed to movie stars) can you name who are 
  working now?  What changed?  Don't say the internet, it started long before that. 
  
  My sense is that the elite broke the contract.  Nixon, of course; child abuse 
  in the Church; Gordon Gekko; bad medicine; bad Evangelism; bad water; bad air; 
  bad wars; bad people in high places.  
  
  We got the message that you can't trust anyone, and you're better off 
  defying authority than respecting it, since they just want to get over on you. 
  
  So we dumped church, took our jobs and shoved them, refused to read anything longer than 140 characters, and plugged our ears with the simplest sounds we 
  could find that made us feel good. How could anyone acknowledge that anyone 
  is better than anyone else, let alone better than Yours Truly?  Or is that 
  Mine Truly? 
  
  Not to say that all of life was better in 1980, it wasn't.  But having the 
  grace, or wisdom, to admit that there are experts who know stuff I don't, 
  that there is art that is worthy of the effort to comprehend it, that there 
  may be flaws in the hierarchy that demand fixing, yet the hierarchy itself 
  has value, these admissions give our lives meaning and structure.  Without 
  respect for excellence, we revert to something less. 
  
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