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We are stuck in the muck and sucked in by trash
By Wan Lixin |
May 8, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE term "muckraking" comes from raking the muck or manure, originally a harmless farming necessity. On April 14, 1906, US President Theodore Roosevelt made it a disparaging term, using it to describe sweeping and unjust charges of corruption against public figures and corporations.
In the cyber age, muck, whether raked or not, can go a long way.
A video clip of an adult woman relieving herself in a see-through elevator at a Metro station in Shenzhen - apparently recorded by videocam - has gone viral in recent days, generating disbelief, excitement, and reflections.
Many website operators have doubtless made their own pile by cashing in on the pile.
During our lunch break on Monday, when as a rule the latest gossip - chiefly from online - is exchanged, that clip was uppermost in some people's minds. Finally the "elevator incident" was blurted out, despite protests from someone who was still eating.
Modern technology has an knack of gratifying our hidden voyeuristic tendencies. We have lost our ability or courage to pry into the private lives of our neighbors, but that loss is more than made for by the explosive growth in our knowledge about the private lives of movie stars, models, sportsmen, or other celebs, thanks to ubiquitous paparazzi.
According to a national web portal listed in domestic bourses, sex goddess Gan Lulu is stripping again. Another well-known portal revealed that famous director, Zhang Yimou, has made his debut with his two sons and young wife, adding his wife got pregnant when she was only 19.
Strangely, when fed a diet of such unsavory stuff, many of those on the receiving end are craving for more.
Cut off from TV, Internet
Those who are disgusted, quite possibly the minority, are fighting against this enslavement by all-trash-all-the-time.
One of my colleagues chooses to be cut off from TV and the Internet at home, and finds his quality of life markedly improved.
He now has time to gossip with farmers in his neighborhood, practice tai chi and work on his calligraphy. He also finds time to think, and probably, to dream.
On Monday evening, my 10-year-old son was hard pressed by a school assignment requiring him to elaborate on his "China dream."
I did my best explaining to him how his dedication will help China become a more civilized nation where people can live with dignity, and can say no to bullies armed with powerful and seductive weapons.
He did not appear to be persuaded. Towards the end of our discussion, he asked: How can I have a dream if I cannot have enough sleep?
That night I felt compelled to let him go to bed at 10pm, without finishing all his homework.
More important: Do our online operators, newspaper editors, journalists, and artists have a dream? Or are they only concerned with price-earning ratios, advertising revenues, or clicks?
A well-known bottled water maker is suing the Beijing Times newspaper for 60 million yuan (US$9.7 million) over the paper's claim about the allegedly substandard quality of the water.
While the battle lasts, some other newspapers are raking in handsome revenues by extensively publishing the water maker's advertisements claiming that Nongfu Spring is superior in all of its quality measures in light of US FDA standards.
I never use bottled water if I can help it. Years ago, an IMD branding professor, who was also a consultant to a luxury brand of aquifer water, revealed to me that a bottled water brand represents the acme of successful branding: To think that a substance that can virtually be found aplenty nearly everywhere in the world can be made into an aspirational luxury.
Nor do I have much faith in journalism as generally practiced today. A few years ago a well-known TV producer aired investigative reports about a furniture brand's false claims of importing fine craftsmanship from Europe.
In the wake of the expose, as part of a public relations campaign, the former general manager of Beijing Times signed a 300 million yuan PR contract with the furniture maker. Following expose, the general manager was dismissed in January last year.
In the online age when eyeballs are money, scandals come and go. They create stir for a fews days, and then are forgotten. We never know if the war was really waged over water, lucre, or both.
In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," the muckraker is so intent on collecting manure that he could not see a celestial crown extended to him.
Today, an ordinary citizen can be so hooked by excrement thousands of miles away, that he or she forgets that there is still beauty in nature. We can even lie on the grass (if there is any), listen to the birds (if there are any) and gaze at the stars, if they're not obscured by pollution.
In the cyber age, muck, whether raked or not, can go a long way.
A video clip of an adult woman relieving herself in a see-through elevator at a Metro station in Shenzhen - apparently recorded by videocam - has gone viral in recent days, generating disbelief, excitement, and reflections.
Many website operators have doubtless made their own pile by cashing in on the pile.
During our lunch break on Monday, when as a rule the latest gossip - chiefly from online - is exchanged, that clip was uppermost in some people's minds. Finally the "elevator incident" was blurted out, despite protests from someone who was still eating.
Modern technology has an knack of gratifying our hidden voyeuristic tendencies. We have lost our ability or courage to pry into the private lives of our neighbors, but that loss is more than made for by the explosive growth in our knowledge about the private lives of movie stars, models, sportsmen, or other celebs, thanks to ubiquitous paparazzi.
According to a national web portal listed in domestic bourses, sex goddess Gan Lulu is stripping again. Another well-known portal revealed that famous director, Zhang Yimou, has made his debut with his two sons and young wife, adding his wife got pregnant when she was only 19.
Strangely, when fed a diet of such unsavory stuff, many of those on the receiving end are craving for more.
Cut off from TV, Internet
Those who are disgusted, quite possibly the minority, are fighting against this enslavement by all-trash-all-the-time.
One of my colleagues chooses to be cut off from TV and the Internet at home, and finds his quality of life markedly improved.
He now has time to gossip with farmers in his neighborhood, practice tai chi and work on his calligraphy. He also finds time to think, and probably, to dream.
On Monday evening, my 10-year-old son was hard pressed by a school assignment requiring him to elaborate on his "China dream."
I did my best explaining to him how his dedication will help China become a more civilized nation where people can live with dignity, and can say no to bullies armed with powerful and seductive weapons.
He did not appear to be persuaded. Towards the end of our discussion, he asked: How can I have a dream if I cannot have enough sleep?
That night I felt compelled to let him go to bed at 10pm, without finishing all his homework.
More important: Do our online operators, newspaper editors, journalists, and artists have a dream? Or are they only concerned with price-earning ratios, advertising revenues, or clicks?
A well-known bottled water maker is suing the Beijing Times newspaper for 60 million yuan (US$9.7 million) over the paper's claim about the allegedly substandard quality of the water.
While the battle lasts, some other newspapers are raking in handsome revenues by extensively publishing the water maker's advertisements claiming that Nongfu Spring is superior in all of its quality measures in light of US FDA standards.
I never use bottled water if I can help it. Years ago, an IMD branding professor, who was also a consultant to a luxury brand of aquifer water, revealed to me that a bottled water brand represents the acme of successful branding: To think that a substance that can virtually be found aplenty nearly everywhere in the world can be made into an aspirational luxury.
Nor do I have much faith in journalism as generally practiced today. A few years ago a well-known TV producer aired investigative reports about a furniture brand's false claims of importing fine craftsmanship from Europe.
In the wake of the expose, as part of a public relations campaign, the former general manager of Beijing Times signed a 300 million yuan PR contract with the furniture maker. Following expose, the general manager was dismissed in January last year.
In the online age when eyeballs are money, scandals come and go. They create stir for a fews days, and then are forgotten. We never know if the war was really waged over water, lucre, or both.
In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," the muckraker is so intent on collecting manure that he could not see a celestial crown extended to him.
Today, an ordinary citizen can be so hooked by excrement thousands of miles away, that he or she forgets that there is still beauty in nature. We can even lie on the grass (if there is any), listen to the birds (if there are any) and gaze at the stars, if they're not obscured by pollution.
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