Tuesday roundup

Jay Nordlinger at NRO has a great piece on the politics of pronouns. A taste:

In Davos one year, I moderated a panel, and asked that each participant “say a few words about himself.” It crossed my mind to add “or herself,” but, in that split second, I thought, “No, everyone is grown up here. This is not Smith College. They know about English.” I was wrong. The first panelist was a woman — an anthropology professor — who said, “To begin with, I am not a ‘himself,’ I am a person.” The woman next to her — her partner, I believe — applauded, loudly, angrily, and alone. It was the sound of two hands clapping, so to speak. An incredibly awkward moment. And it taught me, or reaffirmed, that standard, or once-standard, English can be risky.

Dennis Prager's Townhall column today is called "A Guide to Basic Differences Between Left and Right". A Taste:

Economic GoalLeft: equality
Right: prosperity
Primary Role of the StateLeft: increase and protect equality
Right: increase and protect liberty
GovernmentLeft: as large as possible
Right: as small as possible
Family IdealLeft: any loving unit of people
Right: a married father and mother, and children
Guiding TrinityLeft: race, gender and class
Right: liberty, In God We Trust and e pluribus unum
Good and EvilLeft: relative to individual and/or society
Right: based on universal absolutes

Nicholas Pell at Reason on why Hamilton is a crappy musical. A taste:

Of course, shit music and feels-over-reals weren't the whole problem with America in 2016—and they aren't the biggest deal facing us in 2017, either. No, the worst thing about this present moment in time is the smugness with which zillionaires and their sycophants on the coasts piss all over anyone who does actual work for a living.

That's not just one of the main reasons that Trump won the election. That attitude makes for garbage art.

Historically speaking, you've got high art and folk art, each with their own set of aesthetic guidelines and measuring sticks. What's historically anomalous is commercial art—art that exists not due to the patronage of cultured elites or through the unrewarded efforts of the hoi polloi. It's art that exists to make money.

Art that exists to make money isn't a bad thing. A lot of the best music of the 20th century was commercial art. The Beatles are probably one of a handful of things anyone will remember about the 20th century in 500 years, a stunning example of commercial art as inspired genius. What's irritating, though, is when well-connected millionaires make art for the sake of signaling their moral superiority over the masses on the basis of their correct beliefs. Hamilton has become a sort of avatar of the Lena Dunham Democratic Party against the rest of the world, perhaps best displayed by the cast lecturing Vice President Elect Mike Pence (the closest thing to a Wal-Mart greeter they'll ever be in the same room as) about tolerance.

Tickets for Hamilton start between $179 and $199, with high-end tickets going for $849. Once they hit the secondary market (A.K.A. scalpers) you're looking at between $650 and $1500 on Stubhub. Is this because it's the best musical on Broadway? Or is it because Hamilton is this season's most fashionable way to signal liberal respectability and status among the One Percenters?

This isn't speaking truth to power. This is power telling the rest of us what truth is. There's nary a hint of self-awareness as those only vaguely aware of poverty and toil through a sociology textbook deign to lecture us little people about America's 'real values.' That's what's wrong with America in the current year.

And the Iranian government has put up a huge billboard in Tehran. to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the capture of the US Navy personnel.