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49. GLOBAL WARMING IS HOPELESS 4: CHINA, INDIA AND MASS MEDIA HYSTERIA - NEW APRIL 2008
Much of the article was written in that style of breathless hysteria attempting
to create a juggernaut-perception that the mass media usually adopts for China:
"....the globalized economic powerhouse that it's becoming. China's
twentysomethings are the drivers...grew 34% [it doesn't matter
what]...Starbucks...blogging....China's Me generation....globalization [any
writer not using the word at least once in such an article is shot]....'the more
we taste and see, the more we want.'...iPods...snowboarding [are you feeling old
yet? the writer wants you to]....party...bars...blog...new
boyfriend...mall...pricey....gleaming new [doesn't matter
what]....huge...young...'Work hard, play harder'....Me...swell
61%...swelling...happy...newly...doubled....stoking...booming....bigger, richer"
Uh-uh-uh-uh-uhuhuhuhUhUhUHUHOYESYESYES! (TIME, 11/5/07) Since almost
everything media is endlessmindless repetition and recycling-- the words
published about Britney Spears could fill ten Alexandria Libraries yet there are
oceans of words to come-- basically the same article's republished in TIME
STYLE AND DESIGN SPRING 2008: "....Bao Bao Wan, 26, as she caresses
her orange Hermes Birkin bag....new
generation...lifestyle....skintight...sleek....forging...shopping...partying....Me
generation...surfing...dizzying....booming....' I want to be a
brand.'...radical...'supertight'....Beijing...a party town....fashionistas....global....glittering...glazed....glossy
[use that dictionary!]...cutting-edge....communist-capitalist boom"! O BOOM ME
AGAIN TIME! That Gray Old Lady The N.Y. Times hikes up her
old skirt and whips her hair loose and she dances Cra-zy! about India! even
though the article's just about cricket!: "....lean, swift....fast...furious...Hinglish....brash....cheerleaders...sports
bras....cricket on Red Bull...'kamikaze'....'go for it'....'keep going for
it'...'abandon'....wild abandon....'Sponsors will drool'...'Bollywood'....aggressive....swagger...youth...moment
of abandon...topless....erupted"!!! ObandonmeyetoplessgogoforitN.Y.Times!
In three articles there's only one brief reference to climate change, as if the
celebration of giant nations getting drunk on fossil fuel-fueled
technocapitalism must continue without a thought. To think-- to connect-- is not
hip. It must be so. The writing is so schizophrenically at odds with the global
warming reporting in other parts of TIME and The N.Y. Times and so
much more emotional, so...ecstatically so...it must be that the more serious
reporting's a chore. Like giving to a beggar on your way to a rave. Yet China
and India are fueling their societies, their energy raves, China 70% with coal,
India about 55% with coal, the Earth-killer fuel. And their hunger-- all three
articles are fundamentally about hunger-- starvation-- millennia-old-- now
attempting to sate-- because they've watched the United States bloat, sate (yet
remain ravenous) and they want, they want....China's energy consumption's
expected to double 2003-2020 (which means quicker, China estimates are always
conservative), India's quadrupling 2008-2033...China's The Future Of The World--
over and over and over the media screams that at us (yesterday it was Japan).
They want our minds never to contest that. The future of the world is coal then,
apparently, the oldest, dirtiest, deadliest fossil fuel. The future of the
world's an ancient, creaking political system called tyranny. And the future
economic system of the world is a lawless Predator Capitalism, though much of
the West (not the U.S.) junked it generations ago. And celebrate that!
No wonder I'm not good at parties. Kill-joy writing darkly like this.
____________________________________________________________
"China's Me Generation", Simon Elegant, TIME, 11/5/07, 46
"Not Your Mother's China", Marion Hume, TIME STYLE AND DESIGN SPRING 2008,
60
"If It's Hip, Fast and Furious, Is It Cricket?", Somini Sengupta, The N.Y.
Times, 9/25/07, A4
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