Living in Spin...
So Monday was sort of a Social Consciousness day. At work I reread my copy of Stephen Lewis' 2005 Massey Lectures -
Race Against Time, and got a lot more out of it this time 'round. Last time was overwhelming. This time I had an open internet connection in front of me to look up references and definitions. The guy writes/speaks with too wide a vocabulary. I know that's a silly thing to say, but it's true - too many big words! (and as always, I start writing and speakig a bit like the book I'm reading. ARGH!) I think it's because he has been caught up in the UN for most of his life, and in his line of work there is a need for using that sort of language. It isn't unreadable, it works it's way inbetween perfectly understandable anecdotes or statistics. He will find the perfect phrase to describe his feelings, and the need for action, but it will be lost on something like 80% of the population. And then they might stop listening, or reading. Which is too bad. Because the book is fantastic, despite that. I think I've written about it before, it had just as much impact the second time, which had almost as much of an effect on me as hearing the guy speak. Anyone who wants to understand the state of the developing world, specifically Africa, should read this book. It's one long detailing of a string of disasters that are all feeding into each other, and of potential solutions, and unfortunate histories of inaction on the part of the people able to make those solutions happen. It's not completely a downer, theres some hope in there, but if it werent for the distraction of sorting through flowry language once in a while, I'm not sure it would be something I could have finished. Mebbe that's why he does it.
And then home from work, where I watched a movie Gord rented a couple of days ago - Thank You For Smoking. I'm still not sure what I think of that one. Totally aimed at making you root for the guy defending Big Tobacco. It does everything: humanises him by giving him a kid and wrapping you up in his difficult choices, He gets a measure of morals (of a kind) about what he does around his kid, he has a failed marriage (his wife Sleeps With The Enemy - a doctor who is big against smoking) and has affairs with beautiful women, the kid spouts pep-talk rah-rah to his dad (real make-your-heart-swell stuff), and oh yeah... I don't think anyone is seen smoking in the entire show. It's kind of crazy. No, wait, really crazy. I'm sure it's a send-up, but it's so slick and well done! Hehe. Interesting lines in there, too. My fav goes something like "Defending the poor downtrodden corporations. Abandoned by their own comsumers!"
Eeek, this post reads like a book report.
Race Against Time, and got a lot more out of it this time 'round. Last time was overwhelming. This time I had an open internet connection in front of me to look up references and definitions. The guy writes/speaks with too wide a vocabulary. I know that's a silly thing to say, but it's true - too many big words! (and as always, I start writing and speakig a bit like the book I'm reading. ARGH!) I think it's because he has been caught up in the UN for most of his life, and in his line of work there is a need for using that sort of language. It isn't unreadable, it works it's way inbetween perfectly understandable anecdotes or statistics. He will find the perfect phrase to describe his feelings, and the need for action, but it will be lost on something like 80% of the population. And then they might stop listening, or reading. Which is too bad. Because the book is fantastic, despite that. I think I've written about it before, it had just as much impact the second time, which had almost as much of an effect on me as hearing the guy speak. Anyone who wants to understand the state of the developing world, specifically Africa, should read this book. It's one long detailing of a string of disasters that are all feeding into each other, and of potential solutions, and unfortunate histories of inaction on the part of the people able to make those solutions happen. It's not completely a downer, theres some hope in there, but if it werent for the distraction of sorting through flowry language once in a while, I'm not sure it would be something I could have finished. Mebbe that's why he does it.
And then home from work, where I watched a movie Gord rented a couple of days ago - Thank You For Smoking. I'm still not sure what I think of that one. Totally aimed at making you root for the guy defending Big Tobacco. It does everything: humanises him by giving him a kid and wrapping you up in his difficult choices, He gets a measure of morals (of a kind) about what he does around his kid, he has a failed marriage (his wife Sleeps With The Enemy - a doctor who is big against smoking) and has affairs with beautiful women, the kid spouts pep-talk rah-rah to his dad (real make-your-heart-swell stuff), and oh yeah... I don't think anyone is seen smoking in the entire show. It's kind of crazy. No, wait, really crazy. I'm sure it's a send-up, but it's so slick and well done! Hehe. Interesting lines in there, too. My fav goes something like "Defending the poor downtrodden corporations. Abandoned by their own comsumers!"
Eeek, this post reads like a book report.