"To paraphrase the late, great Prodigy, there are wars going on outside no one is safe from. They are cultural, political, racial, class-based, and literal. It's increasingly difficult to shake the feeling that across multiple fronts, I'm on the losing team. It is equally difficult not to be overcome by the anxiety that these battles might be marching through my neighborhood and up to my front door any day now."
"In an effort to preserve my sanity, I made the decision to "unplug" a couple weeks back-no news, no social media updates of egregious political dereliction and moral turpitude. My best friend since age 13 visited from Hawaii for my birthday, and we set about immersing ourselves in art. We started with a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Art on Saturday morning, where we were immediately greeted by white banners hanging ceiling to floor, one of which declared:"
"It was especially grim to see such a sign, part of an installation that went up in 2023, given that the museum had recently been accused by members and employees of violating its own policy of political neutrality when it recently hosted a private fundraiser for a Republican politician. That was around the time President Trump attended an AI and energy summit down the street from the museum, at one of the local campuses."
A sense of multiple, overlapping conflicts—cultural, political, racial, class-based, and literal—creates persistent anxiety and a feeling of being on the losing side. To protect sanity, news and social media were abandoned and time was spent immersed in art with a longtime friend. A visit to the Carnegie Museum of Art revealed large white banners from a 2023 installation whose messaging felt hollow. The museum faced accusations of violating political neutrality after hosting a private fundraiser for a Republican politician near a Trump-attended summit. The banners read as antiquated markers of capitulation, leaving a sense of witnessing a lost fight.
Read at Defector
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