Goodbye to the days of ambient cultural liberalism

The ambient sound of most modern western art is liberalism. Or at least, liberalism after a fashion: while very few mass-market blockbusters that come out of America — whether in print, or on computer or television screens — have well-defined or coherent politics, they do tend to have a sort of background Muzak of liberal, democratic values. Like the elevator music itself, Muzak-liberalism lacks much of the thought and depth of actual liberalism. It’s why Barbie’s fictional “Barbieland” includes a president and elections. What issues these contests settle is left to the imagination of viewers, but free and fair elections are automatically assumed to be superior to the alternative. Muzak-liberalism also explains why many films, video games and TV episodes end with a scandal being broken in the press or presented to the mayor. Even in a time of self-doubt and pessimism in much of the western world, the pursuit of accountability via democratic institutions is seen as important. This ambie

The ambient sound of most modern western art is liberalism. Or at least, liberalism after a fashion: while very few mass-market blockbusters that come out of America — whether in print, or on computer or television screens — have well-defined or coherent politics, they do tend to have a sort of background Muzak of liberal, democratic values. Like the elevator music itself, Muzak-liberalism lacks much of the thought and depth of actual liberalism. It’s why Barbie’s fictional “Barbieland” includes a president and elections. What issues these contests settle is left to the imagination of viewers,