I didn't watch any of yesterday's Live Earth concerts for varying reasons. One, I don't have cable television (which in and of itself is a very eco-friendly sacrifice we all could stand to make), so the idea of watching artists NBC deemed worthy of watching (what are the odds most of them were on Warners, or other subsidiary, label?)didn't really excite me enough to tune in. Two, the roster of artists didn't really excite me too much (Madonna? Red Hot Chili Peppers? Shakira? These people aren't total publicity whores, now are they?), nor did the Crowded House reunion. Three, I'm already aware of global warming, and anyone who isn't has their head buried in the sand too deep for this concert to reach, as you can't swing a cat by the tail these days without hitting a global warming opponent.
Now, I'm not saying global warming isn't a threat, it just seems hypocritical for private jet flying and SUV and limousine driving pampered rock stars with McMansions with heated pools to lecture to me about global warming. This sort of hypocrisy is akin to people who support the war in Iraq from the safety of their homes in the US, instead of taking up arms themselves. This is just more elitism from people who want us to do as they say, not as they do (because if we did, we'd all be screwed). You can't change the world if you can't change people, and left wing elitists need to change as much as anyone else.
11 comments:
I agree. I did see some musical numbers (I have satellite and it was on several channels) but there was too much masturbation. If they could just somehow turn all that jerking off into electricity. But I'm sure they all purchase "green credits" to heat their swimming pools. That makes them feel better about themselves, I'm sure. Relieves their consciences so they can get back to masturbating.
As noble as the idea of "Live Earth" was, I am sure the left will take all kinds of criticism for a lot of aspects of it. While the intent was to raise awareness of the global warming problem, which I do believe exists, the concerts could also provide a mechanism which the righties will use to make the movement look bad. What the performers have on their side is their "star power" in the entertainment industry, and in today's America, I think that will probably trump the right-wing spinners.
I tried to watch a bit of the concerts out of curiousity, but my wife said "I don't want to watch that!" Someone who looked like Billy Corgan was playing, and we couldn't really hear him over the sound created by our electric fans (we don't have air conditioning, so we have to have fans around the place... more wasted energy! Heh...) Like Billy Corgan usually does, this performed looked and sounded (from what I could hear) like he was trying to take a big shit.
Too much self-congratulatory "look at us" stuff going on for me to tolerate much of it, but I'm glad the event was staged. Like you, Lew and Nell, I wish it could have been done in as totally a "green" was as possible.
I had suspicions about this sort of thing way back when during the Clinton's campaigns, when they asserted that there would be money to be made in environmentalism. At that point I had to ask myself if environmentalism would really have much of a future... that is, if the focus of it became making money, not saving Earth.
Changing the subject here, I highly recommend Gore's most recent book, "The Assault on Reason". I have to say he is definitely presidential material in many ways... the things he says in the book about how the lust for wealth and power in America are poisoning our national debate make good sense.
Sadly though, good things like that will be overlooked if Gore should run for president again. The critics will point to things that don't add up, just as you have rightly done here, and reason be damned... those are the kinds of things that stick in today's political climate.
Excellent post!
I am hoping that one good thing comes of this - it becomes cool in the mainstream population to see recovery from our excesses. You are so right on the big celebs telling us what to do - maybe the boneheads who watched it, but not us - the choir.
...nor did the Crowded House reunion.
Crowded House reunion? How...exactly? Paul Hester (their drummer) committed suicide in 2005.
As for the concert, great publicity I suppose, but now let's all get back to actually doing something to deal with the environment and climate change.
I watched it and hoped like hell that it would make a few more people aware of what we need to do if we really want to make a change. If some young person saw that Madonna was on a show about saving the earth and that made that kid think for a moment about what he or she could do, then it was worth it.
I didn't see it as stars telling me what to do, I saw them bringing awareness to the problem.
Same here, PoP. I just wish it wouldn't have had to have consumed so much energy...
As for a Crowded House reunion, I would love to get to see them on tour. While they aren't necessarily one of my favorite bands, Neil Finn is one of my favorite singer/songwriters (his solo stuff and his DVDs are great, IMHO!) I had a choice of seeing Crowded House or Wilco, and opted for Wilco this time because I have seen Finn before.
i was on a road trip this past weekend and tried to tune in but all i heard was talking...no music!!
anyways -- you make some great points here!!
I think conservatives fear our 43rd president more than any democratic candidate in '08. I think they fear he may decide to run for reelection. (Talking about Al Gore here.)
As a result they'll trash him anyway they can. I think the "huge waste of energy" expended on his concerts this weekend was a talking point of the right.
The third time I heard it from a different source (NPR's Sat. morn Scott Simon), who was repeating the jumbo jets, stretch limos and all that electricity for those amps made me laugh. That's because Simon is a huge fan of baseball and we know the energy that consumes--w/o creating ANY awareness of the energy, global warming problems we're all up against.
(Oh a side note, thanks for the "impeach bush cheney because lynchings are illegal" quote. It made for a nice blog this morning.)
As for a Crowded House reunion, I would love to get to see them on tour.
Snave...I've seen Neil an crew live twice and they were great both times. Though, I'm a HUGE Crowded House/Neil Finn fan and may be a bit biased. When I heard that Paul Hester had committed suicide, I felt terrible.
We picked up some of the concert on Sirius Radio, and it wasn't music I'd personally want to listen to (If the Pussycat Dolls are today's answer to Bob Dylan, just shoot me now.). I didn't really get how any of it was supposed to save the planet. So, the participants/performers/whatever flew in from whereever they live, stayed in hotels, lugged their equipment around, did their musical thing, and ... that's Awareness? How stupid would one have to be not to be Aware already? And are those who can only have the blinders of ignorance torn off by the musical talents of, say, Madonna, really gonna help that much? Did everyone go home from the concert and start lobbying for stricter pollution controls or forest management or something? That might help...
Masturbation. Exactly. Neil kills me.
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