In the United States, culture and art have long gone hand in hand. As American culture can be thought of as our national persona, American art generally follows as an expression of that character. In the past, culture was the driver of art. Today, however, art often seems to be driving culture–perhaps into the ground….

Commentary Notwithstanding the recent disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are still very fortunate by the standards of all previously existing human populations. Those, however, are not the standards by which we judge our own condition: instead, we compare it with some ideal normal, a perfection, which never has existed and never will exist….