No match for history

The paralysis of the present.

14 Nov

John Frederick Kensett

Daisy Alioto on our hardest Dirt Prompt yet. Plus, a list of what we’re reading.

When we had our lifetime subscribers select the latest Dirt prompt, the winning choice seemed as easy and breezy as past hits such as “worst song ever” and “gas station order.” The prompt: “Which piece of media (music, film, painting, etc.) best captures our present moment?” 

I sent it to a carefully cultivated list of dirtlings and waited. And waited. It turns out that the “present moment” is not something that can be articulated in 30 seconds when one’s ability to define the zeitgeist is on the line. It was, in other words, an intimidating prompt to answer.

Eventually, I was able to coax some additional participants (and for those that answered quickly, we appreciate you as well). That desire to get it right—or fear of getting it wrong—perhaps that says more about the present moment than the prompt itself. — Daisy Alioto

2Hollis's music... to hold contradictions so naturally--rage/nothing, hope/sadness, fem/masc, electronic/acoustic--is the cultural imperative.  

What to do with the present moment when we are told that the past isn't what we thought it was?  

Roberto Bolano's By Night in Chile (2000) anticipates, if not this moment, the moment we will look back and remember what we were doing when we saw the clouds on the horizon. It is a deathbed memory of what dies in darkness, of what we do and do not do when confronted with what is being done in our name.

In Bolano’s 1970s Chile, a priest and professor, Father Urrita, remembers being buttonholed for coffee by a shady businessman who confronts him in the street “as if he had known me all his life.” 

Father Urrita knows something is off. The man, Mr. Raef, flatters him, saying that he has recommended the priest for a “delicate mission” in Europe. At this first meeting, Father Urrita protests. He tries to refuse. But ultimately, he takes the job. When he returns from Europe, he’s complicit. Mr. Raef et al. convince him to take yet another job, teaching The General and his junta about communism—to collaborate, as it were, informing upon himself, his colleagues in Chile, and their movements. 

As we can, we take refuge in escapism, or in perfectionism, our noses to whatever grindstone. The future is fragile. Tomorrow is no guarantee. 

Uritta on his deathbed tells himself that, “An individual is no match for history,” and he’s right. As we can, we take refuge in escapism, or in perfectionism, our noses to whatever grindstone. The future is fragile. Tomorrow is no guarantee. 

So while it is tempting to celebrate the grand gesture (One Battle After Another), perhaps it should be the personal, parochial battles—of O Agente Secreto (2025), I’m Still Here (2024), and, yes, By Night in Chile—that we consider as we wonder where we are being taken. Where are they taking us, these monsters who rule the present moment?

Conner O’Malley’s Pipe Rock Theory skit comes immediately to mind. It somehow manages to both critique and contribute to the conspiratorial nature of the times. Just another example of everyday absurdity. 

In 2015, The New York Times released a video/article on D'Angelo meeting with former Black Panther Bobby Seale in Oakland, California during D'Angelo’s tour for his album “Black Messiah.” You can see the joy and admiration they have for each other as they discuss their contributions to political protest. Seale reminisces on the Black Panther party and how they tried to implement social programs (similar to what mayor elect Zohran Mamdani is trying to implement in New York with accessible childcare and transportation). For D'Angelo, it was the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri that compelled him to release his protest album “Black Messiah,” named after a term J. Edgar Hoover used to describe any black leader who could rise up and upset the status quo.

I’m still mourning D’Angelo’s death in October 2025. We are watching our country go through a full force Red Scare: We see a rise of anti-intellectualism and misinformation; we see the spirit of Hoover rise through our government. But as I listen to the “Black Messiah,” I have hope for the future.

“It’s about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen,” D'Angelo writes in the liner notes of the album. “Black Messiah is not one man. It’s a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.” 

We see a rise of anti-intellectualism and misinformation; we see the spirit of Hoover rise through our government.

David Rudnick (and friend)

my friend kate says conner o malley

which i think is pretty fair

'This is America' by Childish Gambino... have you guys seen it?

[Editor’s note: We all saw it]

Probably Loops, a serialized walking audio mystery through Prospect Park: loopsprospectpark.com

But I will think up another

I could probably make a good argument for the Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

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