This month's Harper's Index is chock full of interesting and disturbing facts, but a few stood out to me. I learned that lots of people dislike or hate modern art and think Michelangelo's David is pornographic. And—in news that nobody could possibly find surprising, given that, as Michael Sendrow posits, "Americans might be narcissistic not by birth, but rather by birthright"—a tenth of folks surveyed believe they could sculpt their own replica David. And, get this—somehow 25% of people surveyed believe they could replicate Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat. People really do think highly of themselves, don't they?
And yet, they think so little of others—almost half of the U.S. adults surveyed believe that companies should use facial recognition software to track employee attendance, and a quarter believe that software should be used to track how often employees take breaks. From Harper's July Index:
Portion of U.S. adults who say they dislike or hate modern art: 1/5
Who consider Michelangelo's David to be pornographic: 1/5
Who say they could probably replicate the sculpture themselves: 1/10
Who say they could probably paint Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat: 1/4
Percentage of U.S. adults who support the use of facial recognition software to track employee attendance: 45
To track how often workers take breaks: 25
Sometimes, people really disappoint me. Read the rest of July's Index here.
