Optimism moves east

[imomus]

The story so far: As Angrael turns into a paranoid alliance of embattled security states lashing out with ever-increasing violence against the very people who control their energy resources, dragging the West ever deeper into a vicious circle of hatred, reprisals against civilians, and the erosion of all legitimacy, any tender-minded and optimistic view of our future slips away into a bloody sunset.

Is it really just ten years ago that we were talking about long booms rather than mid-flight explosions? Our prosperity was going to continue and increase, and we were going to use our wealth to help the poor. Everybody was going to love us. Our children would grow up in a world that was getting better.



This diffuse, warm sense of well-being wasn't just a side-effect of the MDMA tablets everyone was taking back in the 90s. It was related to a sense that world trade talks (the same ones that have just collapsed at Doha) might bring global justice, that information technology was going to raise educational standards and democratize knowledge, that a new post-industrial economy was going to complement bricks and mortar business, and that the 21st century, just on the threshold, would be a wonderland where lifespan would increase and diseases be defeated thanks to gen-tech.



The images on this page show some short-lived kids' bookstore in groovy, optimistic 1990s London, Paris, Berlin, New York or Tokyo, don't they? It went out of business in 2001, didn't it, replaced by a store selling black, beige and cream clothes and fallout shelters? Actually, no. This "haven for little imaginations" is Kids Republic, a childrens' bookstore in Beijing, China. It's just opened.

The optimism, tender-mindedness and benign curiosity apparent in this store (something about its spirit and design reminds me of Oto Kinoko, the sound store in Kyoto I blogged about excitedly earlier this year, only to find it had already closed down) represent everything we in the West have lost in the last ten years; lost because of our clumsy response to 9/11 and Angraeli realpolitik. Who, in the West, would have children now? But it's nice to know that, somewhere, optimism about the future is still intact.

In 30 or 40 years, the Chinese kids in this photo will be running the world. It's hard to imagine them making a worse job of it than we've done.

Comments

[ex-newironsh15.livejournal.com]

I've read that before, but I think it's an oversimplification to say that it's just the Dobson crowd having kids, when it's also poor-ish people, no-future materialists, the daytime TV watching set, etc. People facing an uncertain and increasingly lonely future, giving themselves both a cause and a distraction. I don't necessarily approve of this. What kind of people will the "gloom babies" grow up to be?

Countering one generalization with several others probably isn't the most enlightened thing but I'm going to be quiet now.

[la-aquarius.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I'm naive or old-fashioned, but I still believe in having children, for a number of reasons, and having a distraction and a cause aren't among them.

I still believe in the continuity of life (one does not have to be religious to believe in this, although I am); I still believe in making it possible for another human being to experience all this, which I feel, despite all this "gloom", is ultimately worthwhile.

And I still want to be a provider at some point, and not just a parasite (someone raised me, after all). Not just in terms of ideas and material, but in straightforward, physical ways: providing shelter, clothes, comfort from bad dreams, etc.

None of this, of course, excludes adoption, which I've always thought is a good and positive thing (even before Brangelina made it trendy!).

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think anybody is more "gloomy" than the liberals right now. Take today's post, for instance.

I think most liberals would qualify as "no-future materialists." When religion died off after the enlightenment, those liberals had a void of purpose in their lives. They quickly found it by adopting revolutionary doctrines. They said, in effect, if there's no afterlife, we need to hurry up and create heaven on earth. Unfortunately, all the revolutionary doctrines turned out to be discredited in the 20th century.

What are God-less people left with to hope for? There is still some hope that electing Democrats to office will save the world, as if they weren't fallible people just like the rest, but mostly all we have left is the pursuit of wealth and fame. This is reflected in the pro-capitalist nihilism of Vice Magazine and the indie mindset in general, as well as the preponderance of reality shows making stars out of average everyday idiots. Now, I'm more or less a "non-believer," or a deist, so this is not a criticism, but a legitimate question for all of us to consider. Why are we having children when life is meaningless?

It's just interesting to me that the same group of people who were so eager to get rid of religion -- which gave people a non-material purpose to life, a destination, a light at the end of the tunnel -- are now wondering why most people are mindless capitalists now.

-henryperri

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, we could fill that void with religion, but those are precisely the sort of people we're fighting in the Middle East right now.

[mandyrose.livejournal.com]

I happen to be liberal AND religious.

[mandyrose.livejournal.com]

I wonder when we'll understand that the human mind, human socialization skills are not capable of engineering a governance system for SO MANY PEOPLE (although money has been working as a substitute for this), that compassion is the only thing we could all potentially agree on, the only thing that will work.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

What are God-less people left with to hope for?

opium

What are God-less people left with to hope for?

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

Art

pure and simple

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

What is it that you need to make your life meaningful? Is it an after life? How many lives would make you happy?

Having children (if that's something you want) can add meaning to your life. Pass on your ideals to them. Teach them that they should leave the world a better place then when they came in to it.

Teach that to yourself if you don't want kids.

Being obsessed with religion and your after life can be a bit self cenetred.

Breathe deeply. Step outside. Someone needs you.