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

[whip-lash.livejournal.com]

Eurodisney

American, opened in 1992, and notably not a financial success.

Asterix Park

Opened in 1989. I suspect that when this guy was a teenager in France, his observations were quite accurate. I'm sure the French use their incredibly long vacations, but having never lived in France, I couldn't tell you what they use them for. Before 1989, it probably wasn't theme parks.

As for French pop culture being "laughable" compared with US pop culture, obviously an artist who's been massively influenced by Lio, Dutronc, Brel, Gainsbourg (not to mention all the stuff currently going on in Paris, some of which I detailed yesterday) etc wouldn't agree with that at all.

That's fine. But as an American with a 1 year old, I can assure you that I wouldn't agree at all that he'd be happier growing up under the thumb of Chinese fascists.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

They're fascists now, are they? I feel it's one thing to say this about one's own side (as I do), and quite another to say it about a foreign bloc. I feel the need to quote Nietzsche coming on:

"Thus all states are now ranged against each other: they presuppose their neighbor's bad disposition and their own good disposition. This presupposition, however, is inhumane, as bad as war and worse. At bottom, indeed, it is itself the challenge and the cause of wars, because as I have said, it attributes immorality to the neighbor and thus provokes a hostile disposition and act."

Interesting, so as a westerner...

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting, so as a westerner, you are arguing that you can only argue negatively from a national perspective (i.e., I can call Britian fascistic, but not Palestine since I am not Palestinian) - a national negative dialectics?

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[(Anonymous)]

-- Joshua

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[mandyrose.livejournal.com]

Every time I hear someone call something "fascist", it reminds me of Rick from the Young Ones. Although, living in Columbus, Ohio, I often reflect on this city's "aesthetic fascism"--- does everything have to be grey concrete with a big Burger King advertisement on it? Does everyone have to be dangerously obese? When I use correct grammar when receiving my change at a gas station, must I be accused of being a "fancy city girl who reads books"? Does the fate of the universe depend on who wins the college football game? Oh, pardon me for going on--- I really must find a way to move somewhere else soon!

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[(Anonymous)]

I can certainly understand your frustration - living in Cleveland. Having lived and travelled to a number of cities, however, I have resigned myself to the fact that there will always be "aesthetic conflict" where ever I go. Doesn't make it any less frustrating, but it has helped me focus less on things I don't find interesting and more on the things in my immediate surroundings that are.

-- joshua

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[ex-newironsh15.livejournal.com]

But Ohio brought us Devo, which initially reacted against all of that. So don't be too hard on the place.

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[(Anonymous)]

Without a doubt. I am never down on what Ohio has contributed and is still contributing. There is unfortunatly a self-image problem with a lot of creative people in the region.

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[ex-newironsh15.livejournal.com]

I was kidding, mostly.

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[(Anonymous)]

Kidding about Devo? Pure nasty blasphemy. What next? That there is no Pere Ubu.

Re: Interesting, so as a westerner...

[ex-newironsh15.livejournal.com]

No, I mean, I like Devo, but make fun of Ohio all you want.

[whip-lash.livejournal.com]

They're fascists now, are they?

What would you call them? The government, I mean, not the people. They've combined corporatist economics with militarist government, illegal and forcible occupation of land against the will of its occupants, censorship, dictatorship, you name it and if Mussolini thought of it, the Chinese have it. Some of these complaints certainly also apply to America - but only some, and none to the same degree.

they presuppose their neighbor's bad disposition and their own good disposition

So they do. This does not mean, however, that your neighbor does not have a bad disposition and you a good one, or that you do not have a bad one and he a worse one.

This way of thinking should be suspect, but it is not automatically wrong. And if having examined the facts you find that the Chinese are indeed fascists, as you should, then have the guts to speak truth to power.

[diggets.livejournal.com]

Ask the Tibetans whether the Chinese are fascist.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

From dictionary.com:

fascism (FASH iz'm)

"A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism."

Sounds to me more like China than any other government on earth, with the possible exception of North Korea.

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

> authority under a dictator
Who is the dictator in China?

> stringent socioeconomic controls
A defintion of Fascism that fits Stalin's USSR, but excludes those free-market enthusiasts Mussolini and Pinochet? Hmmm.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

"Who is the dictator in China?"

Whoever happens to hold the reins at the moment. How did Jiang Zemin come to be in power? It wasn't the result of free, fair and open elections; it was because an elite committee at the helm the one party (which has excluded all rivals from power for the past 57 years) put him in power, just as it has done since Mao. While he may not have the absolute control that Stalin or Hitler enjoyed, he still more closely fits the definition of "dictator" than 95% of the world's leaders.

"stringent socioeconomic controls"...

Yup. From unfair trade laws that penalize imports to China, to massive shifting of State capital from the affluent cities on the east coast to the largely undeveloped regions (pretty much the entire western half of the country), China's top, few financial decision-makers can do whatever they want with the public purse. Some of this has been benign, but the individual Chinese citizens and small businesses have no say in how their taxes are spent, and there is no external oversight of spending. Again, not as stringent of socioeconomic controls as Stalin or Hitler, but far more so than most Western countries. It may be a free market for income, but it's hardly free for how the State's cut is spent.

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

But ah, you aren't American or Israeli, so you can't presuppose their bad disposition... Unless! - let's make it all into one country, in a sense - Angrael - so now you can presuppose all you want "till the Sudanese come home."