As Nitsuh Abebe wrote recently in New York magazine, "In music, punk remains what the critic Frank Kogan calls a "Superword" — a term whose main purpose is for people to fight over what it should mean," adding, "It's a concept like "freedom" or "the one true Church" or "real Americans": to invoke it is to advance a vision of what it entails, and duke it out with competing visions".
The question is, "Succeeding at what, and for what purpose?" Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, describes a "disaster capitalism" that exploits disasters and catastrophic events of all kinds to advance "a vision of a ruthlessly divided" world.
In fact, the opposite is taking place: disasters have become the preferred moments for advancing a vision of a ruthlessly divided world, one in which the very idea of a public sphere has no place at all.
An emerging organization, the Farmer Pirates Cooperative, has acquired 35 parcels of vacant land for agricultural use to advance a vision of co-operative wealth generation, autonomous living and the reclamation of vacant houses and buildings.
King pays righteous respect to lesser-known label bosses such as él's Mike Alway, whose wonderfully bizarre roster (including the Klaxon 5 and Louis Philippe) was more influenced by Jenny Agutter than JG Ballard, but he could and should have advanced a broader vision of independent music than this collection of already canonised giants.
Every detail perfectly advances a vision of American aspiration at a time of economic collapse and midlife crisis: just two floors below a gleaming condo in the desert that speaks for the virtual future that the Saudis (and Americans) are counting on is another room where 25 foreign laborers are squeezed into a tiny space, exchanging blows over a discarded cellphone.
The National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development advances a vision of holistic services for children from conception to age six, founded on close collaboration among government institutions that serve women and children.
The guide aims to channel the collective energies of religious communities to advance a shared vision of a future free of violence against children.
While this was, unsurprisingly, one of the most controversial issues discussed at this summit, participants agreed that there is an urgent need to advance a shared vision of what the learning outcomes of education should be and how they should be measured.
