toweringflat

I, for one, hope that Alain de Botton is right that 2009 will become best known as the year that the western world (and some of its followers?) welcomed and even heralded the redefinition of 'wealth' and happiness.

Botton's article in the latest issue of Monocle (a collector's item when you consider how 2008 is ending and how this will affect the opening of 2009) opens with his saying:

"I believe 2009 will be the year when the question of how society should be arranged will cease to be an idle, abstract topic, dwelt upon by ivory-tower-intellectuals after a few glasses of wine, and will instead enter the workday mainstream with a vengeance."

And then he goes on to add the following commentary on the transition of western culture from a flock of CNN ingesting sheep to a more politically sensitive beast:

"Everyone will become a political philospher; and all of a sudden, some of the great issues facing our world will be up for grabs. It will be a frightening, exhilerating time. Expect to see record numbers of people reading political blogs, attending classes in political theory and turning once again to Karl Marx, Adam Smith and John Ruskin."

And later on Botton incites John Ruskin because his definition of 'wealth' (contrary to stereotypical images of investment bankers hoarding bonuses) involves growing wealthy in kindness, curiosity, sensitivity, humility and intelligence - a set of virtues he referred to as life". A far cry from the house, SUV, purse and watch wielding patrons of status that many of us in the West have become. I, like Ruskin, hope that I can begin to forget all of the trappings I have been inculcated into during my lifetime. I want to lapse into an amnesia which obliterates my selfish gene so that when I wake, it is  to a blue sky which makes me feel alive and human once again. Are we so far gone that we don't see we have become Romans punch drunk on our own wealth mythology?

May 2009 usher in the year of the honest man and the generous woman. As Pentagon Principal, Paula Scher, explains in her own Monocle contribution, 'the seriousness of the times demands serious dialogue. We need teachers, not demagogues, we need reason without apparent bias, and we need to be called to action by self-evident truths and not blind faith or what's in the leader's gut. The times will make (or break) the man'. Obama is one positive step in the right direction, and a presentation last night by Canadian Malcolm Gladwell on his latest book, 'Outliars' opened to a packed theatre auditorium confirming the fact that many of us are hungry, even starvin, for some honest, intelligent truths.

 

Another year and another fantastic MIT conference that I am missing. This year's Futures of Entertainment 3 is quickly approaching on November 21st and 22nd in Cambridge, Mass. This year's themes include Consumption and Value, Wealth, Value and Social Production, Making Audiences Matter, Social Media, Global Flows and Global Deals, When Comics Converge, Franchising, Extensions and Worldbuilding. I for one continue to hope that I will one day make it to one of their content packed programmes.

For more information please go  here.

To say that I am delighted that Obama is the new President of the United States is an understatement.  I awoke at 6 AM GMT, checked the online version of the International Herald Tribune, and swooned. Rob's first rhoughts turned to blood; unsollicited, he offered up his services as a body guard so that a repeat of the Kennedy assassinations is impossible. I told him vegans don't really seem ferocious enough for that kind of line of work.

And all I can say is welcome back America. We've missed you.