BUFORD HIGHWAY, IN SUBURBAN ATLANTA, HAS LONG BEEN A PLACE WHERE IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS COULD START BUSINESSES AND GET AHEAD. THEN THE PANDEMIC HIT. BY MATTHEW SHAER W H E N T H E V I R U S C A M E F O R T H E A M E R I C A N D R E A M November 8, 2020 November 8, 2020 11 Screenland Snowed Under By Sam Anderson / 15 Talk Greta Thunberg By David Marchese / 18 The Ethicist A False Negative By Kwame Anthony Appiah / 20 Studies Show After You By Kim Tingley / 22 Eat The Lutèce Onion Tart By Gabrielle Hamilton 24 Hard Times By Hanif Abdurraqib / The patient, sorrowful optimism of the American folk masters Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. 30 When the Virus Came for the American Dream By Matthew Shaer / Buford Highway, in suburban Atlanta, has long been a place where immigrant entrepreneurs could start businesses and get ahead. Then the pandemic hit. 38 Why Societies Fall Apart By Ben Ehrenreich / Unchecked disease, economic ruin and climate crises have led to the ends of civilizations before. What can we learn from the study of collapse? Copyright © 2020 The New York Times 6 Contributors / 8 The Thread / 14 Poem / 18 Judge John Hodgman / 48, 49, 50 Puzzles / 49 Puzzle Answers Photograph by Kristine Potter for The New York Times Behind the Cover Kathy Ryan, director of photography: ‘‘Th is week’s cover story, by Matthew Shaer, focuses on how the coronavirus pandemic has aff ected the American dream, particularly in the state of Georgia. Buford Highway, shown on the cover, is home to many immigrant-owned restaurants and businesses that are now strugg ling to make ends meet.’’ Photograph by Nicole Craine for Th e New York Times. 4 The folk musician Gillian Welch at her home in Nashville. Page 24. 6 11.8.20 The magazine publishes the results of a study conducted online in March 2020 by The New York Times’s research-and- analytics department, refl ecting the opinions of 2,250 subscribers who chose to participate. Dear Reader: Is Aromatherapy Real? Contributors Kenji Aoki is a Japanese photographer based in New York and specializing in still life from a geometric and analytical perspective. He is a regular contributor to the magazine. Ben Ehrenreich is the author most recently of ‘‘Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time.’’ His 2013 article in the magazine about the West Bank became the basis of his book ‘‘The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine.’’ Kristine Potter is an artist based in Nashville whose work often explores masculine archetypes as well as the American landscape. She was a 2018 Guggenheim fellow and the winner of the Grand Prix Images Vevey, 2019/2020. Matthew Shaer is a writer at large for the magazine and a recent Emerson fellow at New America. He previously wrote a feature about how cities make money by fining the poor. Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, an essayist and a cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His forthcoming book is ‘‘A Little Devil in America,’’ to be published next March. For this issue, he writes about the musicians Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. ‘‘I was very interested in thinking through closeness and collaboration in a time when many people are distant from each other,’’ Abdurraqib says. ‘‘I found it particularly fascinating that these seasoned artists would return to old songs — their own and the songs of others — in an attempt to regain their footing after a tornado partly destroyed the safe haven of their recording studio right as the pandemic descended on their lives.’’ ‘‘Why Societies Fall Apart,’’ Page 38 ‘‘Why Societies Fall Apart,’’ Page 38 ‘‘Hard Times,’’ Page 24 ‘‘When the Virus Came for the American Dream,’’ Page 30 ‘‘Hard Times,’’ Page 24 Kenji Aoki Ben Ehrenreich Kristine Potter Matthew Shaer Hanif Abdurraqib Editor in Chief JAKE SILVERSTEIN Deputy Editors JESSICA LUSTIG, BILL WASIK Managing Editor ERIKA SOMMER Creative Director GAIL BICHLER Director of Photography KATHY RYAN Art Director BEN GRANDGENETT Features Editor ILENA SILVERMAN Politics Editor CHARLES HOMANS Culture Editor SASHA WEISS Digital Director BLAKE WILSON Story Editors NITSUH ABEBE, SHEILA GLASER, CLAIRE GUTIERREZ, LUKE MITCHELL, DEAN ROBINSON, WILLY STALEY Assistant Managing Editor JEANNIE CHOI Associate Editors IVA DIXIT, KYLE LIGMAN Poetry Editor NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Staff Writers SAM ANDERSON, EMILY BAZELON, RONEN BERGMAN, TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER, C. J. CHIVERS, PAMELA COLLOFF, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, SUSAN DOMINUS, MAUREEN DOWD, NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, JAZMINE HUGHES, JENEEN INTERLANDI, MARK LEIBOVICH, JONATHAN MAHLER, DAVID MARCHESE, WESLEY MORRIS, JENNA WORTHAM Digital Art Director KATE LARUE Designers CLAUDIA RUBÍN, RACHEL WILLEY Deputy Director of Photography JESSICA DIMSON Senior Photo Editor AMY KELLNER Photo Editor KRISTEN GEISLER Contributing Photo Editor DAVID CARTHAS Copy Chief ROB HOERBURGER Copy Editors HARVEY DICKSON, DANIEL FROMSON, MARGARET PREBULA, ANDREW WILLETT Head of Research NANDI RODRIGO Research Editors RILEY BLANTON, ALEX CARP, CYNTHIA COTTS, JAMIE FISHER, LU FONG, TIM HODLER, ROBERT LIGUORI, LIA MILLER, STEVEN STERN, MARK VAN DE WALLE, BILL VOURVOULIAS Production Chief ANICK PLEVEN Production Editors PATTY RUSH, HILARY SHANAHAN Managing Director, MARILYN McCAULEY Specialty Printing Manager, Magazine Layout THOMAS GILLESPIE Editorial Assistant ALEXANDER SAMAHA NYT FOR KIDS Editorial Director CAITLIN ROPER Art Director DEB BISHOP Editor AMBER WILLIAMS Staff Editor MOLLY BENNET Associate Editor LOVIA GYARKYE Designer NAJEEBAH AL-GHADBAN Social Editor ALEXA DÍAZ Did not answer 45% No, plain air for me 2% 53% Yes, crank up the lavender 8 11.8.20 Illustrations by Giacomo Gambineri Cover typography by Nikita Iziev The Thread Readers respond to the 10.25.20 issue. RE: THE FED-UP CHEF Sheila Marikar profi led the chef Gagg an Anand. Fun article on a very eccentric guy. But something I notice with Indian-Amer- icans writing about India: Probably because of their background, they get a lot wrong. There’s always been fi ne din- ing in India, but it’s always been reserved for the traditional equivalent of folks who could aff ord the $400 price tag. Yes, the average Indian in New York may be used to the $9 buff et, but I would argue that’s not what the well-off in Bombay were used to, even in the ’60s. There have been culinary and restau- rant schools in India since at least the late ’50s (my mum went to one). The fact that most of this was unknown to Western din- ers, or even to the low-budget backpack- ers who’ve passed through the country, doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. Chris Mendes, N.J. Lots of respect for the talent and deter- mination this man possesses. But I really wish he wouldn’t use a woman who got up and left after his ‘‘You can’t go to the bathroom’’ monologue as an amusing anecdote. I guess it’s meant to lift him — the genius — up, while disparaging the person who somehow doesn’t appreci- ate it. But what he really did was exclude someone based on bodily functions. He was being extremely ableist, and he put someone in an embarrassing position in front of her tablemates. I know scores of women who plan their day according to where the accessible toilets are. Not everyone was born with — or got to keep — a perfect healthy body. Is that a reason they must make themselves. I have seen unspeakable cruelty, gut-wrenching sad- ness and inspiring acts of courage (by wit- nesses who testify against killers). I don’t know the best response to violence, but I know we can do better. Steve, Bethesda, Md. This is such a powerful essay. For the last fi ve years, I have been part of a recipro- cal-education class of men who are on death row, and I consider these men my colleagues and friends. Knowing them, I know that they are not their crimes — their crimes and their histories are more complex than any court proceeding or ready narrative about incarceration can describe. And yet, if anyone did to my daughter or my friends or family some of the things my death-row friends did, I’m confi dent I would not be able to hold space for their humanity and fl aws and off er forgiveness — much like the author cannot hold space for forgiveness of his mother’s rapist. I don’t think this is a contradiction though: This is why we have systems of justice and do not merely exert vigilante ‘‘justice.’’ And these systems clearly need serious and com- passionate reform if they are to support victims or perpetrators. Elizabeth, Ohio CORRECTION A picture caption in an article on Oct. 18 about free speech and online disinformation referred incorrectly to the pictured protest in Skokie, Ill. It was against a proposed Nazi march; it was not a counterprotest. A neo-Nazi group successfully petitioned to hold a march in Skokie, but held it elsewhere. Send your thoughts to