Josh Cohen argues that because the American national psyche is so fixated on the superficial and ‘image’, the result has been a crisis of literary perception. This in turn has crucial cultural and political consequences.
Josh Cohen’s fascination with the struggle of being human is filled with curiosity and compassion. The rabbit holes he takes us down are thick with enlightening tales and thoughtful solutions for the battles in our minds.
As my virtual consulting room reminds me hourly, listening feels like a precious commodity at the moment, when our curiosity is perpetually drowned by fear. When the first lockdown began, it struck me that the new restrictions on our physical freedom were being mirrored in a kind of psychic restriction. The people I listened to would often sound locked down imaginatively, pinned to the spot by the force and immediacy of their worries.
And the pandemic hasn’t been the only thing menacing our capacity to listen. Toxic political divisions, stoked by demagogues and amplified in media bubbles, have turned those who think differently to us into the deadliest of enemies. The willingness and courage to listen to other voices can rarely have seemed in such short supply.
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