Daniel Shugrue

“Now we must ask whether the internet has created an asymmetric technology risk for democracies that authoritarian governments can counteract more readily than the republican form of government that Franklin’s words urge us to protect. The answer is probably yes. Digital technology has created a different world, and not always a better one.”
― Brad Smith, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

“Not faith but moral behavior is the essence of all religion.”
― Amos Elon, The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933

“Composing for money was held in no shame, and the public concert spread throughout Europe. Wealthy countries that did not groom their own composers, such as England, imported them from outside with lucrative offers. Handel and Haydn were their two most notable imports. British conductor Roger Norrington said of Handel: "[the Messiah] was written for money ... he was a commercial composer; if he were alive today, he'd be doing jingles for”
― Tyler Cowen, In Praise of Commercial Culture

“Many compositions cannot be comprehended without special training or many hours of repeated listening. Even highly educated consumers who enjoy modern art and read James Joyce often find Elliott Carter and Pierre Boulez to be puzzling or perhaps even painful to listen to. Composers of contemporary "classical" music have not made the headway that their peers in literature or painting have enjoyed. Contemporary music, depending on genre, is either the most or the least popular of the these three arts.”
― Tyler Cowen, In Praise of Commercial Culture