The profound differences between Europe and the United States are, as Tony Judt has put it, "nowadays asserted with increased frequency and not a little acrimony on both sides of the Atlantic." I've often thought that we in the US squandered an opportunity, most particularly in the 1970's, to become a different country -- one more like Europe (or Canada).
Musical proof of that thought is this performance by Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street in 1972. It seems so alien to what could be produced now -- particularly on children's television -- that it's like the breathtaking, brilliant, but utterly foreign product of some lost civilization.
Comments