I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Another excellent piece, Mike. The patronage of the Medici’s and even the robber barons centuries later does not seem to be coalescing into the current tech mindframe embracing a system of patronage of the arts and creativity. It’s troubling. However, humans are imperfect, and strive to create, have a need to create. That nature of imperfection is what will set us apart and save the human contribution to creativity. It is precisely our imperfections and unique interpretations of nature and human relationship that I believe will set us apart in our creative works, even as we begin to use AI in our creations.
Authoritarians always attack the arts first: our public libraries, our public broadcasting, the Lincoln Center, IMLS funding. Individual artists. I don't see any Medici around the USA in 2025. Check with Russell Vought. I am advocating for all these sources of public art/literature/free speech/freedom of thought here in my county. To county commissioners who will vote on our county budget June 4. With my MAGA house representative. My state House and State Senate. My Board of Elections. My county Library Board. A lot. June is PRIDE month. Go support your public library's books, displays, everything about the pluralism of the people you live around. We have to start where you can actually talk with the decision makers in your life.
This is an invaluable post that by right of its incisive insights deserves a wide distribution. As this:
"The Renaissance began in Florence not because the city had the most advanced technology or the largest population, but because it created a delicate balance between innovation and wisdom, prosperity and civic virtue, individual achievement and collective benefit. As we stand at our own historical inflection point, facing challenges that dwarf those confronted by any previous generation, the stakes could not be higher. We possess tools more powerful than the Medici could have imagined, but we risk creating a more stratified and authoritarian society than any they knew."
Unfortunately, at very few such inflexion points in history have humans en masse, much less their governing bodies been perceptive enough to engage in proactive planning. I am hoping that, given our hard-earned promotion of education and especially higher education during the 20th and 21st centuries, we might be better prepared than generations past to do so. As more than one pundit has observed, perhaps it is true that while the arc of history bends slowly, it bends toward justice. Until my dying day I will act in support of this observation.
Really loved this, Mike -- it's funny, I've actually been watching Stanley Tucci's new show and the ideas you're talking about are kind of in the background of what he's talking about, especially his visits to Tuscany. Really, really thought-provoking.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Another excellent piece, Mike. The patronage of the Medici’s and even the robber barons centuries later does not seem to be coalescing into the current tech mindframe embracing a system of patronage of the arts and creativity. It’s troubling. However, humans are imperfect, and strive to create, have a need to create. That nature of imperfection is what will set us apart and save the human contribution to creativity. It is precisely our imperfections and unique interpretations of nature and human relationship that I believe will set us apart in our creative works, even as we begin to use AI in our creations.
Authoritarians always attack the arts first: our public libraries, our public broadcasting, the Lincoln Center, IMLS funding. Individual artists. I don't see any Medici around the USA in 2025. Check with Russell Vought. I am advocating for all these sources of public art/literature/free speech/freedom of thought here in my county. To county commissioners who will vote on our county budget June 4. With my MAGA house representative. My state House and State Senate. My Board of Elections. My county Library Board. A lot. June is PRIDE month. Go support your public library's books, displays, everything about the pluralism of the people you live around. We have to start where you can actually talk with the decision makers in your life.
This is an invaluable post that by right of its incisive insights deserves a wide distribution. As this:
"The Renaissance began in Florence not because the city had the most advanced technology or the largest population, but because it created a delicate balance between innovation and wisdom, prosperity and civic virtue, individual achievement and collective benefit. As we stand at our own historical inflection point, facing challenges that dwarf those confronted by any previous generation, the stakes could not be higher. We possess tools more powerful than the Medici could have imagined, but we risk creating a more stratified and authoritarian society than any they knew."
Unfortunately, at very few such inflexion points in history have humans en masse, much less their governing bodies been perceptive enough to engage in proactive planning. I am hoping that, given our hard-earned promotion of education and especially higher education during the 20th and 21st centuries, we might be better prepared than generations past to do so. As more than one pundit has observed, perhaps it is true that while the arc of history bends slowly, it bends toward justice. Until my dying day I will act in support of this observation.
Really loved this, Mike -- it's funny, I've actually been watching Stanley Tucci's new show and the ideas you're talking about are kind of in the background of what he's talking about, especially his visits to Tuscany. Really, really thought-provoking.