Standing for America, &c.
On the national anthem before every concert; the Riyadh Comedy Festival; the evil of Russia in Ukraine; a glimpse of Seamus Heaney; and more
An article from Fox News begins,
Patriotism is taking the spotlight at the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital.
Patriotism? That sounds good. What gives?
The National Symphony Orchestra will kick off every show in its 2025–26 season by performing the national anthem in honor of America’s 250th birthday.
Huh.
“The National Symphony should be playing the national anthem,” Kennedy Center president Ambassador Richard Grenell said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
I see.
I like the national anthem (heaven knows). Every autumn, the New York Philharmonic launches its season with it. So does the Metropolitan Opera. We have heard the anthem from the Phil and the Met in recent weeks.
But the national anthem before every concert? That seems to me—something other than patriotism. More like display.
I’m not sure a self-confident nation needs to do that.
The anthem before every ballgame is traditional in our country. The anthem before every concert would be—is going to be—eccentric (frankly).
Let me adapt an old expression: Patriotic is as patriotic does. If you want to be patriotic, abide by national traditions, such as respect for the rule of law.
You know what I mean.
By the way, I have long thought of writing a book about national anthems: their history, their words, their music, their controversies. Other people don’t seem to be as interested in the idea as I am.
Which is par for the course, I can tell you!
One more thing, before I leave this subject: The people who are forcing the NSO to play the anthem before every concert—do they know the words of the anthem?
***
Recently, I have been asked, “What do you think about the Metropolitan Opera and its new arrangement with the Saudis?” and, “What do you think of the U.S. comedy stars who went to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival?”
About three years ago, I wrote a piece for The Dispatch about the Saudi golf tour—here. Everything I think, is embedded in that piece.
But I would like to recommend a piece by someone else: Jonathan Liew, of the Guardian. That piece is devastating, and sickening. It details some of the compromises that the comedians made to accept the Saudi dough and perform in Riyadh.
These guys (the comedians) pride themselves on “speaking truth to power” and being “edgy” and whatnot. Ha! That’s the biggest joke of all! One of them said, “The royals loved the show.”
Oh, I bet they did. There was nothing to offend the royal—i.e., the dictatorial—ears.
If you want to take the money, perform, and run, just do that. But please spare me any pretensions to a higher purpose.
You know what Pete Davidson (one of the comedy stars) said? “I see the number, and I go: ‘I’ll go.’” By “the number,” he meant the money offer.
At least that’s honest.
My problem—if problem it is—is that I have sat with many relatives of Saudi political prisoners: wives, brothers, sisters, daughters, etc. They would like some sort of attention, some sort of sympathy—a bit of human solidarity.
“How will it look to the boys in the camps?” That was a question posed by Vladimir Bukovsky, the late Soviet-era dissident. Free World governments have to conduct diplomacy with dictatorships. This is realism.
But they might pause every now and then, said Bukovsky, to ask, “How will it look to the boys in the camps?”
I believe that golfers, comedians, and others should do the same.
(They’re frickin’ rich anyway, you know.)
***
A friend and former co-worker sent me a wonderful postcard, showing a picture of Frederick Douglass and a statement by him: “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
Extraordinary man, Douglass.
***
The evil that Russia and its allies are perpetrating on the Ukrainians cannot be summed up in one story. But if it could, this might be it.
A man came home from three years in Russian captivity. Then Russian forces bombed his city, Zaporizhzhya, and bombed his house. His son was killed. He himself is in the hospital.
His sister-in-law said, “We don’t know if his legs can be saved. I said, ‘Three years in captivity, just to die here at home.’ They couldn’t save the boy. He was seven.”
***
North Koreans are fighting alongside Russians, and so are Cubans. Here is a story from RFE/RL (our combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty). How do Cubans wind up in Ukraine? RFE/RL reports on their recruitment, shining a light on dark corners.
***
Let us now visit a wonderful place: civilization. The Guardian carried a story saying that unpublished poems by Seamus Heaney, the late and great Irishman, are to be released. (Heaney won the Nobel prize in 1995.) I thought back ... to the mid-1980s.
Heaney came to my campus to meet with students and faculty, and to read his poems. He was impressive, I must say. (Great face: the kind of face an Irish writer should have.) (He looked like a movie actor, playing him.) I was a little star-struck.
In a podcast once, I asked George Will, “Have you ever been star-struck? Many have been star-struck by you, but have you yourself ever been star-struck by anyone?”
One person, he said: Isaiah Berlin.
(They met when Will studied at Oxford.)
***
I am going to quote Kevin D. Williamson, which I should not do, because the passage I will quote says something nice about me, but I wish to comment on it, so maybe I can be excused. The passage comes in a piece—highly interesting, and individualistic—titled “Why Snobbery Is Cheap.”
Here goes:
If you know any music snobs or movie snobs, then you may have observed that a snob is not obsessed with his own taste in music or movies—he is obsessed with your taste, with everybody else’s taste, and takes pleasure not from the things he enjoys but from heaping scorn on the things other people enjoy that he judges contemptible. People who actually know things and who have a genuinely cultivated critical sensibility tend to be the opposite of High Fidelity-style ranking-list snobs: My friend Jay Nordlinger, who is a classical music critic when he is not doing one of his four other jobs, is the least snobby person you will ever meet when it comes to music. A critic is interested in music—a snob is interested in what his choice of music says about him.
I will tell you what I told Kevin, after reading his piece: As I think about it, the best musicians I know tend to be very ecumenical.
***
A little language? Last week, I learned the word “rizz.” So-and-so has “rizz,” someone said. Wikipedia tells us that “rizz” is “an internet slang word defined as style, charm, or attractiveness.” This word “is likely short for charisma, and is often associated with brain rot.”
I have so much to learn.
***
If you care for a music podcast, my latest Music for a While is here.
***
“Ivan Klima, Czech Novelist Who Chafed Under Totalitarian Regimes, Dies at 94.” That obit was published in the New York Times. You know what those regimes were: Nazi and Communist, the double-whammy of 20th-century life. Klima titled his memoirs “My Crazy Century.”
I can’t help quoting from the obit:
“When I had to wear the yellow star, I felt that I was somebody who was hunted, an outlaw,” he once said. “The German children were shouting ‘Jew! Jew!’ at me, and the feeling I had was shame. From this point of view, I felt better in Terezin than in Prague because there the insults stopped.”
In his memoirs, Klima defined Communism as “a criminal conspiracy against democracy.”
One more passage, from the pen of Klima:
Anyone who has been through a concentration camp as a child, who has been completely dependent on an external power, which can at any moment come in and beat or kill him and everyone around him—probably moves through life at least a bit differently from people who have been spared such an education. That life can be snapped like a piece of string—that was my daily lesson as a child.
We who live in a free and democratic world are so lucky. So lucky.
Thank you all, and see you again soon.
"Everything I think is embedded in that piece."
You talked about this on The Remnant podcast. I thought both you and Jonah made reasonable points, but my gut was with you.
Also, my teenagers say "rizz" is over.
I was born in 1952. It seems like, when I was a child, almost every official meeting or event started with "The Star Spangled Banner". It seemed like it stopped during the political bitterness of the late Sixties, the race riots, the War in Vietnam, the assassinations, and the bombs. I like to hear our national anthem, regardless of whose idea it is.
I agree with everything you've said regarding the rich entertainers (a class that I consider to include pro athletes) sucking up to the Saudi despots. "We've established what you are. Now we're just haggling about the price.", a quote attributed to a variety of witty people would seem to apply.