New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-11)

november11–24, 2019 | newyork 65

might engender—would not have seemed so
strange to a medieval peasant. (Once you
explained, you know, what an algorithm is.)
And as the internet bewitches more everyday
objects—smart TVs, smart ovens, smart speak-
ers, smart vibrators—its feudal logic willseizethe
material world as well. You don’t “own”thesoft-
ware on your phone any more than apeasant
owned his allotment, and when your carandyour
front-door lock are similarly enchanted,youcan
imagine a distant lord easily and arbitrarilyevict-
ing you—with the faceless customer-servicebots
towhomyou’dpleadyourcasebeingaspitiless
and unforgiving as a medieval sheriff. TheFinan-
cial Times’ Izabella Kaminska suggeststhat,
within the “frightfully medieval problem”ofthe
sharing economy’s quasi-feudal control ofitscon-
tractors, there’s “potential for the returnofthe
guild structure”: Rideshare drivers, for example,
might someday create an independentcreden-
tialing body to ensure portability of dataand
reputation across the “borders” of “landholders”
(that is, Uber and Lyft), just as craftsmenmight
haveuseda guildmembershiptodemonstrate
theircredentialsearlyinthelast millennium.
Where wouldthisfeudallyarranged,spiritu-
allychargedlayerofmagictake ourpolitics
andculture?We couldlooktoourpresident,
whowieldspowerlikeanabsolutist kingora
dodgypopeandwhospeaks,asmany observ-
ershavenoted,like a GreekherooranAnglo-
Saxonwarlord—thatis,inthebraggadocious,
highlyrepetitivestyleoftheepicpoetrychar-
acteristicoforalcultures.
Paradoxically,theephemerality—andsheer
volume—oftextonsocialmediais re-creatingthe
circumstancesofa preliteratesociety:a worldin
whichinformationis quicklyforgottenandnoth-
ingcanbeeasilylookedup.(Like Irishmonks
copyingoutAristotle,GoogleandFacebookwill
collectandsort theworld’s knowledge;like the
medieval Catholicchurch,they’llrigorouslycon-
trolitspresentationandaccessibility.)Under
theseconditions,memorability andconcision—
youknow,thesamequalitiesyoumightsay make
someonegoodat Twitter—willbemore highly
prizedthanstrengthofargument,andeffective
politicalleaders,forwhomthefactualtruthis
lessimportantthantheperpetualreinscription
ofa durablemyth, willfocus onrepetitive
self-aggrandizement.
Allthis,ofcourse,willhappenagainstthe
backdropofdisaster:a ruinous,volatilenatural
world,alienandunpredictableinitsforceand
violence.Weatheris becomingmore difficultto
forecast, andtheeffectsofclimatechange have
thrownintodoubttheexhaustiveknowledge that
madetheworldfamiliarandgovernable.Nature
appearstousinannihilatingstorms,ragingfires,
andepicfloods,a literalmanifestationofour
earthlysins.Stuckina preliteratefugue,ruledby

simonists and nepotists, captive to feudal

lords, surrounded by magic and ritual—is it any

wonder we turn to a teenage visionary to save

us from the coming apocalypse? —MAX READ

The Charter-School

Movement Will Decline

“The bubble has burst, and you

are going to see a real decline

in the growth of charter schools.

Wearestartingtoseea real

pushback from states in terms

of charter schools taking

away money from neighborhood

public schools, public

schools that are governed

by communities.”

—CAROL BURRIS,

executive director of the Network for Public Education

Sobriety Will

Seem Rational

DRINKING ITSELF IS ON the rise (especially

binge drinking among women), but so is a new

kind of sobriety. It’s not affiliated with AA, and

while it’s designed for everyone, it’s especially

aimed at “gray zone” drinkers: people who might

not think they have a huge problem but who

nevertheless wonder if their lives might be better

without booze, people who might think, Well,

I’m not an alcoholic, but this can’t be the best way

to live. Author Annie Grace has been a propo-

nent of this approach, and before her, the British

self-help writer Allen Carr spread a similar

message, breaking down and debunking the

things we think we love about alcohol. (It doesn’t

really make anyone calmer, braver, or more cre-

ative, for instance, and ultimately it prevents

people from being those things. It was also eye-

opening for me to realize the extent to which

alcohol companies profit off people messing up

their lives.) I’d have rolled my eyes at this five

years ago—drinking is fun, there’s nothing to

debunk—but then it did become mostly unfun

for me, at which point I read Carr’s book (Stop

Drinking Now), and it remains the closest thing

to a miracle I’ve experienced.

I’m glad for my own drunken path to sobriety,

and I like my life, although it’s nice to imagine a

world in which I stopped drinking sooner, got

bored of it sooner, realized the things it was keep-

ing me back from sooner. In that idealized world,

I’d have gotten married and had kids at a younger

age instead of freaking out now in the second half

of my 30s. But that’s okay. —EDITH ZIMMERMAN

AUG 28

Governor

Gavin Newsom

announces

controls on

California

charter schools.

SEP 01

National

Recovery

Month begins.