Grayed Out Mao

This shot -- from this morning's Reuters Editor's Choice -- seems a particularly eloquent visual commentary on how environmental crisis has begun to supersede (blanket?) other political concerns.  Weird twist, too, the photographer's name is Gray.

Reuters Editor's Choice (March 10, 2008)

(image: David Gray/Reuters. reuters.com. Caption: Pollution haze is seen behind a paramilitary policeman standing in Beijing's Tiananmen Square March 10, 2008.)

Comments

[gasho]

If this is really a photo showing smog, and not just an early morning mist -- then it's horrible. Either way, it's remarkable.

What does our world look like in the 21st century. What will it look like when our grand kids are adults? Will this same shot be 2 feet under water?

I don't know if I'm out of the loop, but recently I heard people saying that the summer olympics might have to be cancelled because the athletes won't stay in Beijing -- IS THIS TRUE?? I haven't been able to substantiate it with any other sources (but I haven't looked too hard, either).

[black dog barking]

There was electricity in the air today at the site of the Olympics in Beijing … well, okay, the residue of electricity.

[Cactus]

What a great photo to illustrate the troubles surrounding the Olympics. Since Spielberg pulled out of his part in the planning, others in the international community are expressing second thoughts because of China's refusal to deal with the Darfur genocide. Add to all the political haze the problems that China is having with pollutions of all kinds, and this might well be THE photo of the Olympics.

Or not.

[MonsieurGonzo]

fwiw, when TheWall = Iron Curtain fell, making Eastern Europe visible ~ i happened to be working with a group of (Democratic Socialist) scandinavians. Our ambition was to transfer sophisticated Linear Programming = resource optimization technology, as well as practical ‘know how’ from Jewish-American scrap recyclers : to European businessmen desiring to create a network of aluminium recycling plants of unprecedented scale, and profitability.

At that time, "recycling", though practiced to some extent by such large companies as ALCOA, Reynolds and ALCAN was not profitable; and had never received the necessary capital investment, thus ~ to achieve "economy of scale" by virtue of mass production Capitalist tools and techniques.

We actually began financing our endeavour two years prior to the fall of The Wall... by secretly importing Russian Ingot through a middleman in Switzerland to Norsk Hydro in Norway (circumventing ‘protectionist’ restrictions then imposed on Russian imports by the EU: Norway being a non-member of that bloc ;-) The Russians all carried 9mm automatics ~ their image of American Capitalists was then, and to some extent remains today ~ an ironic composite derived from our popular culture: you know, those old B&W "The Untouchables" television programs, and "The Godfather" = The American Saga = what businessmen are :)

So when The Wall fell we were among the first crop of Westerners to tour the East. My god, what a wasteland it was! Beyond any dystopia ever realized or imagined (Blade Runner, Brazil, etc.) by the West. . . Communism . . . is not a pretty story, folks.

Marx’s Vision of Sustainable Human Development :

“...well known ecological economist Herman Daly, for example, argues that for Marx, a “materialistic determinist, economic growth is crucial in order to provide the overwhelming material abundance that is the objective condition for the emergence of the new socialist man. Environmental limits on growth would contradict ‘historical necessity’....”

The problem, says environmental political theorist Robyn Eckersley, is that “Marx fully endorsed the ‘civilizing’ and technical accomplishments of the capitalist forces of production, and thoroughly absorbed the Victorian faith in scientific and technological progress as the means by which humans could outsmart and conquer nature.” Evidently Marx “consistently saw human freedom as inversely related to humanity’s dependence on nature.”

Environmental culturalist Victor Ferkiss asserts that “Marx and Engels and their modern followers” shared a “virtual worship of modern technology,” which explains why “they joined liberals in refusing to criticize the basic technological constitution of modern society.”

Another environmental political scientist, K. J. Walker, claims that Marx’s vision of communist production does not recognize any actual or potential “shortage of natural resources,” the “implicit assumption” being “that natural resources are effectively limitless.”

Environmental philosopher Val Routley describes Marx’s vision of communism as an anti-ecological “automated paradise” of energy-intensive and “environmentally damaging” production and consumption, one which “appears to derive from [Marx’s] nature-domination assumption.”

. . . The under-utilization of the human developmental and ecological elements of Marx’s communist vision is also reflected in the decision by some Marxists to place their bets on a “greening” of capitalism as a practical alternative to the struggle for socialism. ”

[Soprano]

One of the marathoners (who has asthma) pulled out this morning, just from the marathon. He said he could run a shorter race or two, but not the marathon, in air of that quality.

[jtfromBC]

MG, your bang-on and thanks to capitalism the grey days are increasing exponentially in China. I assume your familiar with Slavoj Zizek .

Modern-day China is not an oriental-despotic distortion of capitalism, but rather the *repetition of capitalism’s development* in Europe itself. In the early modern era, most European states were far from democratic. And if they were democratic (as was the case of the Netherlands during the 17th century), it was only a democracy of the propertied liberal elite, not of the workers. Conditions for capitalism were created and sustained by a brutal state dictatorship, very much like today’s China. The state legalized violent expropriations of the common people, which turned them proletarian. The state then disciplined them, teaching them to conform to their new ancilliary role. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3425/chinas_valley_of_tears

[MonsieurGonzo]

i wasn't, JT, so ~ many thanks for the good read. (a colorful derivative of the philosopher / psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, Michael et al).

[Charlie]

I visited most of the major cities of China for two weeks in the summer of 2004. During the entire two weeks, I only saw blue sky for one day while we were traveling in the countryside between cities. It wasn't raining or anything; the sky was just gray all the time. Sometimes the red ball of the sun would pierce through, but only occasionally.