Rivers is masterful here, detailing out of a single meeting - and with some humor - the architecture of expanding bureaucracy and a platform for corruption presented as responsibility. No wonder the public never gets invited into the discussion. New York State, for anyone who's been in a coma for the past twenty years, is riddled with corruption that's usually given a protective mask. Only the clumsiest athletes trip over the hurdles. Details are obscured, and officialdom tips its hat to transparency and public responsibility. Read this carefully. Read it twice. Let your imagination fill in the missing pieces.
One quick note: Rivers's bringing the David Kraut that once was into view is appreciated and with some sadness. The smartest man on Roosevelt Island never lived up to his towering potential, choosing to be a welcomed insider instead. The caricature he became, screaming and swearing as a Zoom participant in meetings, was a meltdown he brought on himself. Rivers reminds us of what a powerful, insightful, empathetic individual he once was.
You capture Rivers with precision, and I agree completely. She lays bare how one meeting exposes the architecture that keeps unequal bargains intact while the public is kept at a carefully managed distance. On Kraut, it is unfortunate that the loud and unmoored figure is what remains most remembered; Rivers’s account at least restores a human outline that has faded from collective memory.
Few ever do. The record still has to be made. The bargains and the managed distance do not require a large audience to keep operating; they only require that the few who notice keep naming what they see.
Rivers is masterful here, detailing out of a single meeting - and with some humor - the architecture of expanding bureaucracy and a platform for corruption presented as responsibility. No wonder the public never gets invited into the discussion. New York State, for anyone who's been in a coma for the past twenty years, is riddled with corruption that's usually given a protective mask. Only the clumsiest athletes trip over the hurdles. Details are obscured, and officialdom tips its hat to transparency and public responsibility. Read this carefully. Read it twice. Let your imagination fill in the missing pieces.
One quick note: Rivers's bringing the David Kraut that once was into view is appreciated and with some sadness. The smartest man on Roosevelt Island never lived up to his towering potential, choosing to be a welcomed insider instead. The caricature he became, screaming and swearing as a Zoom participant in meetings, was a meltdown he brought on himself. Rivers reminds us of what a powerful, insightful, empathetic individual he once was.
You capture Rivers with precision, and I agree completely. She lays bare how one meeting exposes the architecture that keeps unequal bargains intact while the public is kept at a carefully managed distance. On Kraut, it is unfortunate that the loud and unmoored figure is what remains most remembered; Rivers’s account at least restores a human outline that has faded from collective memory.
But is anyone paying attention?
Few ever do. The record still has to be made. The bargains and the managed distance do not require a large audience to keep operating; they only require that the few who notice keep naming what they see.
Yeah, and it’s too late to stop now.