The narcissism of Kanye West

We live in an age of liberation, in which we are told endlessly by some that freedom of speech, taken to its furthest boundaries, is the crowning achievement of democratic culture. And freedom of speech, alongside freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of (or from) religion, freedom of the press, of movement, of assembly and to legal equality, all safeguard human dignity, personal autonomy, and the ability to participate meaningfully in civic life. But what if one of the clearest signs of civilisational decay is precisely that the right to say anything is now used most energetically by people with nothing worthwhile to say?

‘Ye’, formerly known as Kanye West, a man I am told was once a cultural innovator of some sort, now presents himself as one such cautionary tale. This is a man who has mistaken notoriety for relevance and offence for originality; a man so intoxicated by grievance and notoriety that he has now released a track titled Heil Hitler, a crude, adolescent chant of racial slurs and fascist glorification masquerading as music.