 masterpieces. Our contributions are just as memorable. It’s true. We’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and, doggonit, people like us!
The National Gallery helped to soothe and lift our spirits and rekindle our national pride.
For sizzling jazz at bargain basement prices you can’t beat HR-57. To see video of a jam session at HR-57 click the image.
Washington has the power to uplift you because it is not just the seat of our national government. In addition, it offers a rich cultural mélange. The city is home to more than 50 museums, five national libraries, 130 professional theatre companies, and literally hundreds of live music venues.
Washington has a particular penchant for jazz. Outside of New York City and New Orleans, no other American city embraces jazz so enthusiastically. In the District of Columbia itself there are more than 40 jazz clubs. In the surrounding metro area there are 30 more.
But before heading out for an evening of jazz we had to eat. So we tucked into dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill. Literally across the street from the White House, the Old Ebbitt Grill was established in 1856 as a boarding house and was home to many presidents before they took up residence in “the people’s house”. The restaurant moved several times and wound up at its current location in 1983.
As the sun set on the Treasury Building there was no settlement in the debt ceiling crisis. We hoped it didn’t portend the sun setting on the country.
The Victorian interior has many fine touches evocative of a Washington saloon of the 19th century, including a marble staircase, carved glass panels, taxidermied animal heads (supposedly from Teddy Roosevelt) and a mahogany bar, a replica of the original bar where many a future president rubbed elbows with the citizenry.
The Oyster Bar at the Old Ebbitt Grill is renowned for its array of exceptional oysters and award winning wines, and it was the oysters we were there for. We ordered a selection of seven oysters from along the east coast and were not disappointed. The Rocky Points and East Beach Blondes were fine, but the Wellfleets and Matunucks were outstanding.
After we dined we headed uptown. Most Jazz enthusiasts know Blues Alley, long acknowledged to be DC’s premier jazz venue, but HR-57, a small BYOB club in the H Street Corridor/Atlas District, provides a passionate and authentic experience at a price that’s hard to beat. For an $8 cover charge ($11 if you BYOB) you can sit there all night without spending another cent and feast your ears on performances by young up and comers, blowing and thundering their way through renditions of Coletrane, Davis and Dizz.
 It leaves a person conflicted.
We landed there on open mic night and the earnest dedication of talented people to their craft, one that went largely uncompensated, and one designed to give more than it took, was a welcome antidote to what we had seen earlier in the day and bolstered our pride in the drive and ingenuity of Americans.
On our first day in Washington we had seen wealthy and powerful men speaking to no one in a chamber designed for debate so they could get their faces on camera and get reelected. We had seen a Treasury Secretary flustered and foul-mouthed, not at all self-possessed, about to enter a meeting that would prove to be the first round in a dangerous game of chicken that nearly took the country over the brink. We had seen American tourists eager to believe that the city and the country belonged to them. And we had seen Chinese tourists who seemed to know better.
In the name of security, we had seen commonplace items, cameras, pens and notepads, prohibited from public buildings, buildings that supposedly belonged to us. We were told to record nothing and keep silent. And everywhere we saw cameras watching us.
And then we were told we were living in a democracy.
We saw a lot of people trying to fool themselves and we saw a lot of people willing to help them do it. But we also saw beauty, grace and charm. We saw passion and authenticity and commitment to an ideal.
We saw the underlying qualities that make America great.
And we saw the bitter crust that has developed on top of them.
We were conflicted. And it was only our first day in Washington.
The Berlin sociologist Andreas Reckwitz on the class issue in the corona crisis, the strengthening of the state – and the side effects of the exit restrictions.
Mr. Reckwitz, in times of crisis, sociology is more in demand than ever to provide guidance. How do you rate the social and political reactions to the spread of Sars-CoV-2?
First of all, it is striking that the current crisis quickly created an enormous need for comment. In the digital age, crises in society are commented on and processed in real time. The crisis intensifies in discourse. The self-commentary of our condition gives the impression of a fundamental break.
For sociologists, however, the question arises to what extent such an event actually translates into a long-term structural change and to what extent it does not. The state of emergency is just not a permanent or normal state.
Nevertheless, the collective experience of these days seems to be a historic turning point – after the pandemic, the relevant debates suggest, nothing will be the same as before. Her colleague Eva Illouz, for example, recently pointed out in the “Suddeutsche Zeitung” the fragility of the social order that we usually take for granted. How does the corona crisis affect society’s self-awareness?
Of course, in large crises the fragile and contingent character of a social structure is always evident, which was also the case in the financial crisis in 2008 or after September 11, 2001. I would like to bring some sobriety into the excited debate.
What we are currently experiencing is basically a case of government risk management – certainly a particularly far-reaching and also global risk management: the risk is an exponential spread of the infection. Governments are developing risk minimization strategies, not least thanks to scientific support.
In your most recent work “The End of Illusions” you prophesied the transition from unrestricted liberalism of the past three decades to an embedding liberalism. The state is currently showing its muscles, in Germany the “black zero” is off the table for now. Does the current major crisis have the potential to act as a driving force for socio-economic change?
In any case, it has the potential for a change in the state and government policy. From the 1980s to the 2010s, the political paradigm of dynamic liberalization dominated: it was about deregulation and de-bordering, of markets, of individuals, of mobility – globalization was being pushed. The state often withdrew and its control options were reduced.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, however, there has been a growing awareness that certain government regulatory tasks are necessary, for example when it comes to providing infrastructure or securing social standards, housing, transport and health.
It is very likely that the pandemic will give this renaissance of the state a boost: in the long term, the state must provide for an appropriate health infrastructure, but also regulate the dynamic events of world society. That would be embedding liberalism. As an alternative, however, the danger of an authoritarian state that cuts fundamental rights is also visible.
To what extent has the austerity policy of recent years been made responsible for privatizations and austerity measures in the field of general interest for the violence with which the Corona crisis is scourged, for example, in a country like Italy?
In the wake of neoliberalism, we have seen a great deal of privatization in many countries, and the associated streamlining of health systems as a result of returns. Commercialization in this area has meant that the emergency care of the population is not sufficiently available in many societies.
At the moment there is a mantra-like reference to the systemic relevance of repetitive activities from the service sector. In addition to doctors and virologists, nurses, suppliers and cashiers are the heroes of the hour. There is also a lot of clapping from balconies. Will we experience an economic and symbolic appreciation of previously disadvantaged professional groups in the long term?
In any case, one can observe that the previously invisible activities suddenly become visible in the crisis. A polarized post-industrialism is generally characteristic of the contemporary economy: 75 percent of the employed work in services, but within this sector the knowledge work of the highly qualified contrasts with the simple services of the low-qualified – academic class here, service class there.
The normalization work of simple services, those that take care of care, security, cleaning, transport and food supply, is almost invisible to society as long as the ‘normal state’ works. Now that it is up for grabs, it becomes clear that society depends on it. It remains to be seen whether this will pay off in the long term – symbolically or materially – for the groups concerned.
Hoarding pasta and toilet paper has quickly become an international symbol of radical selfishness. At the same time, we also experience a lot of help and solidarity. How does the crisis affect social cohesion?
Two patterns become clear: one is the experience of collective consciousness – everyone is affected. This also leads to solidarity support, in the ‘neighborhood’, in the neighborhood. Such a collective consciousness is typical for a state of emergency – which has so far still been organized in an orderly manner. You will see if there is anything left of it.
The second pattern: some people can