The Great American Malaise

An observation. There are few interesting and new political ideas, and few innovative works of imaginative literature. Politics and literature are both on a decline; political and literary genius are increasingly rare. American politics and literature share several features: reduced horizons and aspirations; conformism, institutionalism, and careerism; cronyism. Big systems ruled by greedy if useful idiots keep out dissent, or even mere difference. An elite degree, an elite network, and right-thinking are the ways forward and upward; eccentrics and originals need not apply.