Megan McArdle: Escape from New York
This week on Unsupervised Learning author and Washington Post columnist (and former blogger) Megan McArdle join Razib for a wide-ranging conversation reflecting on our reemergence after the year and a half ordeal of COVID lockdowns, rising violent crime rates, defunding policing, and the preposterous genetic distribution on Trantor, capital of Isaac Asimov’s Galactic Empire.
An urbanite who has spent her life in the US’s own imperial capital cities - New York City, where she grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, and Washington D.C., where she now lives - Megan sees a functional law enforcement system as being a prerequisite to urban living. She, like Razib, is old enough to remember when crime and cities were synonymous, and they reflect on the murder spike of the last few years and how it might drive changes to the current pattern of gentrification.
Throughout the conversation, they come back to the theme of generational reference points bracketing our experience and expectations – whether in young children for whom COVID lockdowns represent the majority of their remembered experience or Zoomers who can’t recall a time where network television created a shared narrative reality.
Megan McArdle: Escape from New York
If you were reading zerohedge in late 2019, you would have bought masks. The signals were unmistakeable.
Great Chat. Only one thing I want to comment on. You talked about the level of civic discord and political disagreement. But I think your perspective was age limited. To me the nadir of civic discord was 1968. Well before you Gen Xers were born.
That year had a presidential campaign with 3 candidates, one of whom was the Dixiecrat George Wallace. A presidential Candidate, Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated. So was a Civil Rights icon, Martin Luther King, Jr. There were serious riots (no one called them mostly peaceful) after King was assassinated. There were major riots at the Democrat Political Convention in Chicago.
The year also featured the Vietnam War which was in a very hot phase (Tet Offensive). Almost 17,000 US soldiers died there that year. There were enormous anti-war demonstrations, especially on College Campuses. Several colleges suffered student take-overs.
The intersection of the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements created very deep rifts in society. I don't think that any issues on the table today are that profound, nor are the reactions that violent.
I don't think the country is in a good place right now, but a lot of issues that take up a lot of band width are just not that serious. Transgenderism? Give me a break.