To the Editor:
Re “The Cultural Vibe Shift Is Just Beginning,” by Matthew Schmitz (Opinion guest essay, Sept. 15):
I believe that Ella Langley’s hit song “Choosin’ Texas,” as well as the current popularity of TV westerns, has little to do with race, politics or authenticity. Sometimes people like a song simply because it is a good song. I don’t like country music, I’m a liberal, I despise Texas politics and I like that song.
Most airtime on pop stations is devoted to breathy voices whining self-absorbed, trite lyrics to generic tunes. A few, like “Choosin’ Texas,” stand apart through beautiful vocals, interesting lyrics and catchy tunes.
Gen Z isn’t the first to adopt music, dance and TV genres from a past generation. Fashions have always come and gone, regardless of the political landscape. President Trump may control Congress, the F.B.I., the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, but — even while two-steppin’ on everyone who disagrees with him — he’s not dictating the latest fads.
As a Democrat, I think much of the party’s problem has been reading into every little thing and then overreacting. Sometimes a song is just a good song and an old-fashioned western is just a break from the modern world.
Liz Abel Salt Lake City
To the Editor:
Matthew Schmitz is correct about a real vibe shift regarding the popularity of rural culture, but he’s writing about rural culture from the perspective of an urbanite with ingrained stereotypes of the people who live rural lives.
Look underneath the hood of this vibe shift, and you realize that the rise of rural culture is happening within the larger context of increasing racial diversity and not in opposition to it. The rural perspectives coming from Beyoncé, Shaboozey and Chappell Roan are decidedly not the kind of folksy whiteness Mr. Schmitz associates with rural culture.
The population boom in the South and Mountain West is driven by Black and Latino people moving to these areas. Far from romantic depictions of rural life, the TV shows “Landman” and “Dutton Ranch” tell stories about climate change and capitalist machination in the Wild West.
Rural identity is not a monoculture of down-home whiteness, cowboys and trad wives. Its diversity and complexity are exactly why it has become such a rich ground of exploration for pop culture artists. Denying that does a disservice to rural America and the richness of their history and culture.
John Santos Washington
To the Editor:
Matthew Schmitz refers to authenticity as a motivator of some in this shift toward a sort of rural ideal. Authenticity is a loaded word, its meaning unique to each individual.
Having lived in both urban and rural worlds, I have learned that both worlds include truly authentic people — that is, people who have lived unique lives through both vision and chance.
The idea that rural places hold some sort of monopoly on authenticity is absurd. The history of rural and urban places is influenced by the flow of humanity that has passed through these places. A suit and tie won’t create an urban man; neither will pointy boots, a hat and the ability to line dance create a rural one.
Just ask any rural person who has witnessed the influx of urban people into the new subdivisions, where open space used to be. Or the urban people who witnessed the mass migration of rural people into urban places after World War II.
The outward appearance of humanity never seems to determine the lived experience. Real authenticity is found in that lived experience.
Mike Benefield Terrebonne, Ore.
To the Editor:
Matthew Schmitz offers ample evidence that country music and western-themed entertainment are popular. He offers virtually none for his explanation of why. Chart rankings, television ratings and the resurgence of line dancing do not show that audiences resent D.E.I. or identify with the grievances of straight white men. Nor does enjoying country music support the assertion that “the country continues to trend right.”
Mr. Schmitz’s own examples undercut his conclusion. Beyoncé, Shaboozey and Chappell Roan suggest that country’s popularity may reflect expanding cultural boundaries rather than a retreat into rural white identity. He has documented a cultural trend, overlaid it with his own conservative assumptions and offered the result as proof.
The Times is right to publish voices from across the political spectrum. But ideological diversity does not justify suspending ordinary standards of reasoning. Readers deserve arguments whose conclusions follow from evidence. This article mistakes vibes for causal analysis.
Jon Duffy San Diego
To the Editor:
The cultural vibe shift, according to Matthew Schmitz, annoys me. The fact that I’m about to turn 95 undoubtedly has much to do with mourning the lack of artists and composers such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Tony Bennett, Cole Porter and so many others.
Many of my fellow Americans, including former music lovers, are fretting over more important causes of angst, such as the impact of A.I. Yes, I loved Dolly Parton, but we should recognize that she was only one of many artists and composers creating popular (in every sense of the word) songs.
Laurie Levy Chicago
Class Warrior in the Oval Office
To the Editor:
Re “We’re in a New Era of Class Warfare. History Points to a Way Out,” by Kim Phillips-Fein (Opinion guest essay, Aug. 30):
Dr. Phillips-Fein writes, “Today’s class violence lacks logic; it seems only animated by revenge, resentment and despair.” Where did today’s working-class warriors get that idea?
From Donald J. Trump.
While campaigning in 2023, Mr. Trump declared: “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Perpetual grievance has been the driving force behind Mr. Trump’s MAGA movement.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol to “take back our country.” There they threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence, attacked law enforcement officers and damaged public property.
In the late 19th century, anarchists referred to their acts of violence as the “propaganda of the deed,” hoping to inspire others and start a social revolution. They sought the destruction of the government and the political order, very similar what we are witnessing under the Trump administration.
Steven S. Berizzi Norwalk, Conn. The writer is an emeritus professor of history and political science at Connecticut State Community College, Norwalk.
Elusive Happiness: Views From East and West
To the Editor:
Re “There’s Something Better Than Happiness,” by Mark Edmundson (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Sept. 7):
Mr. Edmundson’s tour of Western philosophers on happiness — which included Jeremy Bentham’s pleasure-seeking, Arthur Schopenhauer’s boredom, Simone de Beauvoir’s “being for itself” and Nietzsche’s “last man” — never really reaches the Buddhist tradition, which addressed this question more than 2,000 years before any of these thinkers.
Buddhism counsels neither recumbent pleasure nor restless striving. The Second Noble Truth locates suffering not in beaches or boredom but in craving itself — whether for sensory pleasure or for a project that proves one’s worth.
The Buddha’s Middle Way rejected both self-indulgence and the exhausting effort to become someone, urging instead equanimity — maintaining full engagement with life while releasing attachment to outcomes.
Long before existentialism discovered that “being in itself” is confining, Buddha taught that the self we are straining to complete, or escape, was the illusion causing our unhappiness all along.
Dushyantha Jayaweera Cutler Bay, Fla.
To the Editor:
Millions of people are struggling to survive in a society that deprives them of a living wage, adequate health care, education and housing security. And their numbers are steadily increasing.
Many lead a life of drudgery, working two jobs just to make ends meet.
They don’t have the luxury of idly contemplating a vacation in southern France, much less to ruminate on the nature of happiness and the lofty thoughts of worldly philosophers.
John Caton Oakland, Calif.
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