Det nya medelmåttiga

Vanessa Friedman, chief fashinon critic och fashion director på New York Times, anknyter till en kommentar som IMF-chefen Christine Lagarde nyligen fällde. Hon gav världsekonomin betyget: ”muddle along with subpar growth”. Den formuleringen har nu populariserats via Twitter till ”the new mediocre”.

Friedman ser sig runt i världen och finner att ”the new mediocre” kan appliceras på det mesta:

Consider, for example, fashion (admittedly, I am a fashion person so I would consider it, but stick with me). The reason for that feeling of déjà vu I had as I sat through fashion show after fashion show during the last ready-to-wear season and saw yet more “reinventions” and “homages” to 1960s rock chick dresses and 1970s flared trousers, 1980s power jackets and 1920s flapper frocks, and wondered, “How do I explain this lack of new ideas among so many extremely talented designers?” The new mediocre.

We get locked in a vicious cycle of same-old-safe-old. You see it in the endless fetishization of the sneaker, the vampire-meets-girl retreads and the obsessive fixation on yet another maybe-possible Clinton/Bush standoff. That’s a political drama at least we think we know.