Consider Jackie O. Born into privilege then treated like an American princess, she had the sort of upbringing, and what we once called "breeding," that has become nearly obsolete. It's now only glimpsed faded and yellowed in dowagers living out their days in blue blood Long Island or places like Kennebunkport. That kind of demeanour and cheerfully oblivious point of view couldn't survive the cable news/YouTube/Instagram era. Too much exposure. Too much overall cheapening of the culture that rubs off on us all. But Jackie O is venerated all over Grand Central Station (where this image appeared) for having saved it. After the debacle of the original Penn Station's destruction, rich and cultured people sprang into action to save what was left of New York's elegance. Thank God. I thought of my mum when I saw this photo and the dates underneath. She was of the same era but lived in a violently different world. A story she tells (and my Dad used to repeat often) was that during the War she would hide pieces of bread under her pillow in fear that there wouldn't be enough left for tomorrow. Her family was not ever in imminent danger of starving but food rationing was a real thing. Jacqueline Bouvier probably never worried about skipping a meal but there's a lot of evidence that in adult life she had a conscience. This seems to be in short supply among the super rich in this new and improved United States. Or is this a distortion of history? Of course the past is bursting with conscienceless robber barons and industrialists, but there's an undertone of Christian charity (no doubt distorted by Frank Capra films and golden-hued nostalgia) that seems missing now. Or outdated. In the 80s "greed is good" was meant to be a social critique that then became a slogan for upward striving. In the cacophony of all that remorseless ambition, something has been drowned out.