Readings:
Ligaya Mishan, “The Long and Tortured History of Cancel Culture”
Jayson Greene, “How Do We Live with Music by Problematic Artists”
Question: Ligaya Mishan, considering the present-day targets of cancel culture, finds it notable that “No longer is it acknowledged, however tacitly or subconsciously, that the scapegoat, whether guilty or not of a particular offense, is ultimately a mere stand-in for the true culprits responsible for a society gone askew (ourselves and the system we’re complicit in)” (5). Jayson Greene discusses how even the intensely private experience of streaming music by malefactors can produce a “panic of implication” in listeners, but instead of taking “arbitrary” actions to cancel or support the artists, he thinks that “Proximity to these bad dreams, and our refusal to divest ourselves completely of them, might help to remind us of the messy ways we are connected, even when we feel that we could not be more alone” (4).
In this essay you are going to investigate the concept of complicity. If Mishan criticizes cancel culture for not addressing the “true culprits,” how far would the adoption of Greene’s attitude, acknowledging “the messy ways we are connected,” be useful to diminish the conditions of cancel culture? Could you apply his approach, which is based on his engagement with music, to interactions in the larger society Mishan discusses? Explain the implications of your answer.
