The article says that people need not just political engagement but contemplation, standing outside the present moment and communing with something beyond. But

The article says that people need not just political engagement but contemplation, standing outside the present moment and communing with something beyond. But is that a view that Americans now necessarily share? One concept that maybe has become quietly mainstream is materialism. (By that, however, I am not claiming that supporters of whatever American political camp are literally Marxists.) That is, any kind of moment away from present-day political struggles might be viewed as capitulation or as callously ignoring the plight of the oppressed. As a non-American, I get the impression that this is a growing trend from it appearing even on e.g. internet literature forums in the last few years: poets writing abstract work at a distance from the political concerns of the present and seeking a certain timelessness and glimpse of eternity (think T.S. Eliot in “Burnt Norton”) sometimes get called, by the Americans present, socially irresponsible and doing nothing for POC.