Monday’s Trailheads

From the Fourth Estate to Digital Fragmentation by Itxu Diaz "It is also not easy to know the sources or the origin of information. As the profiles of what used to be a conventional journalist have become blurred, those who spontaneously turn to reporting do not understand the value of journalistic deontological principles, or are even unaware of them. When Roger Scruton wrote “An Apology for Thinking,” he was denouncing the specific case of censorship he had suffered after a decontextualized interview in the New Statesman—but, as is always the case with the British philosopher, he was also denouncing the new censors who today work on the Internet fabricating cancel campaigns:" "We in Britain are entering a dangerous social condition in which the direct expression of opinions that conflict—or merely seem to conflict—with a narrow set of orthodoxies is instantly punished by a band of self-appointed vigilantes. … We are being cowed into abject conformity around a dubious set of official doctrines and told to adopt a world view that we cannot examine for fear of being publicly humiliated by the censors, this world view might lead to a new and liberated social order; or it might lead to the social and spiritual destruction of our country." Martin Scorsese Is Here to Amuse You by Kyle Smith "In “Gangs of New York” (2002), the filmmaker’s sense of humor flares up like the flames on the roof of a building hit with stray fireworks. Two fire crews arrive, only to start fighting each other. They fight to get in the buildings so they can rob them, then rob a neighboring building that isn’t even aflame. Narrating events, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Amsterdam Vallon notes, “The municipal police fought the metropolitan police. The metropolitan police, they fought the street gangs. There were 37 amateur fire brigades and they all fought each other.” Life is a struggle to out-cheat all others, even among the nominally benevolent such as firefighters and police." "Amsterdam’s list of combatants echoes another narrator’s world-weary observation in another Scorsese film: Sam “Ace” Rothstein’s litany of well-justified mistrust in “Casino” (1995). On the earthly plane—Las Vegas—“Everybody’s gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye in the sky is watching us all.”" "That eye in the sky isn’t God (it’s a security camera), but it might as well be; it’s a hint of the perpetual Scorsese tension between the celestial frame and ugly reality, or between the all-seeing, all-judging silent power above and puny humanity, forever teetering on the edge of damnation." Why I Still Stand With the 1 Percent by Frank Miele "You would think that 250 years of prosperity and success would make the case for staying the course. America was never built on equality of outcome. It was built on equality before the law and the belief that success was something to admire, not resent. The American Dream does not promise that every citizen will become wealthy. It promises only that every citizen has the freedom to try." "The moment we abandon that principle – the moment we divide Americans permanently into oppressors and victims, exploiters and exploited – we cease to be a republic of citizens and become a nation of competing grievances." "That road has been traveled before. It never ends where its advocates promise." "And that is why, 15 years later, I still stand with the 1 percent."