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I visited the Canadian Museum of Civilization over the past weekend. Previously I had taken a course in university on how history is used and presented by the public and in the public realm. One of the things we studied was museums and specifically we studied this particular museum. It was fine. Some things were of more interest than others but that is the nature of the beast. I was struck by a particular presentation in the First Peoples exhibit. A woman was talking about wanting to share her aboringinal culture and heritage with her children. She said that she wanted her children to experience old growth forests, nature, etc.
Old Growth Forest
The term 'old growth forest' struck me as being rather odd. 'Old growth' was serving as an adjective for forest which implies that it is trying to differentiate it from another kind of forest. To me it was differentiating between 'old growth' forests and 'new growth' forests. It struck me as being somewhat sad that we had deforested the planet so much that we had to develope a term to differentiate between two types of forests. At one time there was only one term for forest; forest. Don't get me wrong I think reforestration is vital and important, I just thought it odd that we live in a time that has to make that distinction.
Reforestation in Costa Rica
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I was flipping through the channels last night and came across a documentary on CBC Newsworld called Naked. The focus of the show was on "Nudity as a strategy for change - social and political activists shed their clothes for greater media attention." I guess its an intresting way to create buzz and attention for a particular group or problem but I wonder if its very effective. There seems to be some history to the notion of prostesting naked (warning: nudity conatined on linked website), going back to Lady Godiva. However I'm watching these two young women being interviewed and they are constantly interupting their message of protest against our oil dependent society and the war in Iraq, to heckle people who have stopped to stare at two completely naked young women in the middle of a public park.
Sex is a huge issue in our culture and those who are completely able to disassociate sex with nudity are seemingly rare. So here are these two women standing naked in public in an effort to have their message heard and are only being stared at. They were no longer pontificators for social change but the apple for the voyeur's eye. I found it absurd that they were upset by this. In my opinion, one would have to be incredibly socially naive to believe that they could stand outside naked and not be gawked at. In the end I think their nakedness detracted from their message rather than supported it. Perhaps I'm in the minority though.
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Just an update. I am continuing to write about utopia. The story and structure is evolving. It is quite the challenge trying to construct an entire society within one's head.
1 comment:
Hmmm - I didn't check the links (no time, no need), and note that the use of "old growth" seems appropriate, especially compared to terms like "organic", which was the default standard for thousands of years, but now has to be differentiated from "commercial" (and by no large leap of definition: contaminated) foodstuffs; but then, who'd buy the 'cheap stuff'?
I agree that nudity attracts attention, but of the wrong kind. I also know that people are wont to hear what they want to hear, that Machevelli was right - that bread and circuses will trump common sense 90some% of the time, a people that are fed and entertained don't trouble themselves to better things for others, especially if would cost them a significant portion of their own comfort (with the notable exceptions mentioned: those who were set on doing what was right, whatever the cost).
Alexis DeToqueville noted that "America is a great nation because it's people are inherently good". What does that say of today? what "power" does it indicate has been working to come to prominence? In spite of our supposed "christian" character, ol' Scratch is clearly running the show, and his minions are legion indeed.
I also wonder if social change is possible without individual change first. As was observed so long ago: we need to remove the beam from our own eye before attempting to remove the speck from our brothers. For my part, I know there is a lot more work to do on myself, and the best I can hope for is to be a light on a hill
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