All that is solid, melts in the square

Marshall Berman takes a long, Marxist look at the cleaned up Times Square in Dissent. He marvels at the flickering lights, hangs outside the Condé Nast building, and analyzes screaming TRL-crazed teenagers that flock to MTV studios (including a lone Tupac supporter). Like any self-respecting leftist, he also gets hassled by the man outside of the Reuters headquarters. So he rightfully becomes angry with the foreign new service.

"[H]ere it was acting just like the many despotic regimes it covers so well around the world, regimes to which the British feel so superior, regimes that deny that their people are a public and deny that their city streets are public space."

See, who says that Times Square isn't edgy anymore? (Dissent)

-Michael Calderone