Laughter of Chinese students filled the room following Timothy Geithner’s statement that “Chinese assets are very safe,” reports the Times Online on the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s speech during his first visit to China. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. bonds worth $768 billion.
Trade barriers with China broke down in the last couple of decades leading to a massive deficit. The country of over a billion people upon whose backs the US built the railroads, exploited for cheap labor, and exoticized in film, media, and literature now appears to have an ace in their pocket and the U.S. by the proverbial balls. That’s the real ancient Chinese secret!
Although the U.S. has the perception of China to be a third-world country their standards of living are comparable to the U.S. statistically as illustrated by the following video from Professor Hans Rosling of Gapcast.
This video covers data captured before the collapse of the U.S. economy. Notably overall infant mortality rates in the U.S. are low because of an inefficient health care system with millions who have no coverage.
Meanwhile recent studies have shown that poor Americans are the country’s most charitable demographic, according to the Philanthropy News Digest. This is particularly noteworthy because these gifts are not tax deductible because they do not earn enough money to justify deductions.
As GM files for bankruptcy and the U.S. government takes control over the sinking ship what can possibly be done to help the economy bounce back?
I came across this video on one of my favorite sites Everything is Terrible and it reminded me how uncertain the future always is. It’s very unfortunate that excessive greed, poor lending policies, and over-spending behaviors culminated in the current economic crisis, but I think we need to remember to be cautious but not constantly in fear over things that are beyond my control.
I had brunch yesterday with my good friends Ed Westfield and Carol Pitts, and we were laughing about a conversation Ed overheard between two brokers:
“Hey, how was your day?”
“Good, the market seems to be leveling out. Flat is the new up!”
It seems that everywhere we turn there are mentions of the current economic crisis. I for one think it’s probably the best thing that could have happened to America in the long term because it’s given everyone an opportunity to evaluate values and behaviors that are ultimately self-destructive.
The Ecomonist’s recent cover story on Business in America is a poignant reminder that bailout money may ultimately lead to a tension between big government and big business. On the flip side Wired Magazine’s recent cover story on the New New Economy points to the internet to be a platform for a new form of socialism. Building upon concepts he laid out in The Long Tail Editor in Chief Chris Anderson paints a picture of an open horizon very similar to 19th-century conceptions of Manifest Destiny and the American frontier.
Somewhere between these two lenses the future will come into focus, and hopefully we’ll all emerge somehow more grounded, aware, and appreciative of life and what we have. And hey, why don’t Americans stop worrying about the economy here for a minute and apologize for messing up the economy of the entire world.
French philosopher Michel Foucault introduced the panopticon into academic discourse, which has come to represent internalized sense of fear that polices and shapes our behavior and emotions.
English philosopher and social scientist Jeremy Bentham first introduced the concept in 1785 of a prison where guards could observe prisoners without them being able to see watchful gaze (shown above). The mere thought that someone might be watching eventually instilled into prisoners the feeling that they were always being watched, in turn leading to obedience and control over behavior.
The panopticon, for Foucault, became a metaphor for the power relations that ultimately shape all conceptions of human nature. From birth to the grave, our perceptions, emotions, feelings – in short, every aspect of life – is irresistably embedded within a web of power relationships that is inescapable. French intellectuals pioneered a new form of criticism to liberate us from this labyrinthine maze of entanglements and turn contemporary social science on its proverbial head. Any conceptions of absolute truth fundamentally eroded and life, it seems, was on the one hand an illusory construct, while on the other full of limitless opportunity.
From the birthplace of such principles of absolute freedom now come the first laws to punish internet piracy. Seemingly innocuous on the surface – after repeated warnings for illegal downloads one can lose access to the internet for a period of time – the French have laid the foundation for a panoptical monitoring of online behavior. Placed into the hands of watchdog groups, third-parties now have the authority to monitor and an agency will be created to determine and police appropriate use of the internet.
Passed by a narrow margin, the agency will be the first of its kind in the world. As the FTC evaluates possible new laws to regulate social media marketing in the U.S. let’s hope this is not a portend for future restrictions of access to information.
Thanks to my friend Jennifer Green for drawing my attention to this story. Picture of Foucault below.
Last weekend I fortuitously watched the classic David Lynch film Dune and today I read a recent editorial in The Economist on the world’s water shortages. Dune’s inhabitants were equipped with suits that recycled fluids enabling them to survive for weeks in the open desert.
The thought intrigued me and made me think about what life would be on earth in 50 years, let alone 10,000. The Economist discussed the potential for a water shortage in the future, but for reasons we might not think.
It requires 15,000 liters of water to produce one kilo of beef, and the meaty diet of Westerners requires an average of 5,000 liters/day to sustain. The vegetarian diets of Africa and Asia by comparison require just 2,000. As economic conditions improve in these regions meat consumption increases dramatically – for example, the average Chinese person ate 20kg of meat in 1985 vs. 50kg today.
Moreover, in the future almost all of the 2 billion people added to the world’s population will be added to third-world cities, and city dwellers consume more water than their rural counterparts. There is also evidence that global warming is speeding up hydrolic cycles, or the rate at which water evaporates. This leads to increases in floods and droughts, which place great stress on water reserves, and accelerated melting of glaciers and ice caps that otherwise act as natural regulators of the global water supply.
All of this reminds me of how prescient Dune was regarding what life might look like 10,000 years into the future. My historian’s intuition tells me economics will dictate policy and lifestyle changes more than green advocacy, much like the clean car movement has finally got some legs with the impending collapse of the Big Three and high gas prices.
Thanks for visiting Think. Now. Yes. This is an evolving resource center dedicated to exploring ways in which we might view the current volatile economic climate to be an opportunity for change and a better future.
TNY combines the years of experience I have working with brands and agencies in the social media and experiential marketing space with my background studying new religious movements during my Ph.D. studies at Princeton. As I learned how to successfully move branded messages across social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, as well as blogs and forums I came to recognize patterns in online behavior that were strikingly similar to how religious movements spread.
Although seemingly incongruous when people get caught up in theological questions, as human institutions religions in many signify the oldest and most resilient forms of branding on the planet. From the dawn of civilization to the present religions’ success has been contingent upon their ability to continually adapt, co-opt new technologies, change messages, and evolve to meet the needs of their communities and stay relevant in ways that most companies can only dream.
As I sat on a beach in Tulum, Mexico (pic above) it occurred to me how their resiliency and relevancy has little to do with the compulsive obsession most marketers have with Return On Investment (ROI) and statistical models that inform most advertising decisions. In fact, historically most religions that followed the status quo became replaced by newer practices who better related to people in more relevant ways.
I think the current economic crisis can be viewed as the culmination of greed and self-interested views of the world that date back to the colonial impulse. We simply need a different way of thinking rooted in values of inclusion and sharing that are perhaps best exemplified by the type of behavior people exhibit online. The technology we refer to as “social media” has made it possible to build meaningful relationships based on common interests in ways that are unprecedented in the history of humanity.
Think. Now. Yes. is dedicated to providing the resources and inspiration to survive and band together so we can redefine our future. This is our moment, we will overcome.
