Great piece, by Lindsay Zoladz, on what is probably the greatest pop album of all-time; and another terrific one, by Steven Hyden, on the deeply idiosyncratic career that followed said greatest album.
Words Matter
These are extremely important points that must be firmly asserted, ad infinitum if necessary (at present, it's obviously, urgently necessary), and more world leaders should follow Macron's lead in explicitly rejecting the casual use of "nationalism" as an innocent, interchangeable synonym for "patriotism." It is not; even without "white" as a prefix, nationalism is an ideology (not a mere sentiment, like patriotism) that directly motivated many of the most horrific acts of the past century. It is true that the meaning of some terms blur over time: most people today probably cannot explain the difference between a "democracy" and a "republic," there is no real correspondence between these two ancient political forms and the present-day Democratic and Republican parties, and the word "liberal" carries totally different connotations in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, respectively. But nationalism –– like fascism, communism, and imperialism –– still always refers, in essence, to something very specific, and deeply sinister, even if its manifestations have varied across time and space.
These are extremely important points that must be firmly asserted, ad infinitum if necessary (at present, it's obviously, urgently necessary), and more world leaders should follow Macron's lead in explicitly rejecting the casual use of "nationalism" as an innocent, interchangeable synonym for "patriotism." It is not; even without "white" as a prefix, nationalism is an ideology (not a mere sentiment, like patriotism) that directly motivated many of the most horrific acts of the past century. It is true that the meaning of some terms blur over time: most people today probably cannot explain the difference between a "democracy" and a "republic," there is no real correspondence between these two ancient political forms and the present-day Democratic and Republican parties, and the word "liberal" carries totally different connotations in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, respectively. But nationalism –– like fascism, communism, and imperialism –– still always refers, in essence, to something very specific, and deeply sinister, even if its manifestations have varied across time and space.
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