George Scialabba is the author, most recently, of For the Republic: Political Essays.


"In the arts, as throughout the middle class," William Deresiewicz writes in The Atlantic, "the professional is giving way to the entrepreneur, or, more precisely, the 'entrepreneur.' ? Now we're all supposed to be our own boss, our own business; our own agent, our own label; our own marketing, production and accounting departments."

The subjection of everyone and everything ? or, more precisely, of the 99 percent and our concerns ? to the disciplines of the market is neoliberalism, today's reigning ideology. How will the "new paradigm" of the "creative entrepreneur" reshape the artistic vocation? Is "the displacement of depth by breadth" a sign of cultural health or cultural decline? Deresiewicz speculates, anxiously and astutely.