Rain Dance

Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
-- The Live Earth Web site

     Am I the only one who wonders whether rock and roll extravaganzas in the service of Great Causes might be exercises in grandiosity and futility? What I wonder especially: is this the only way we know how to respond to the difficulties that life on earth presents -- to engage a corps of professional narcissists to strut and pose in stadiums, affecting to wave their magic wands (or Fender Stratocasters) and make everybody feel better about a given problem (distress on the farm, disease in Africa, global warming....)? Can't we think of other, more meaningful things to do? Or are we stuck in a perpetually delusional rut of Woodstock-style symbolism, out doing a global rain dance instead of really changing our behavior?

     I'm not convinced that these big public service rock shows do much harm -- other than perhaps inflating our expectations and using too much electricity -- but this particular one galled me a little.

     For one thing, even though global warming is by definition a global problem, the notion of a global community as a permanent fixture of human history is, I think, a mirage. If there is any salient macro implication to the problems I term the long emergency, it is that the world will soon become a bigger place again; the great nations will soon retreat to their own corners of the world as they powerdown by necessity; and all the trade relations, cultural exchanges, and geopolitical conceits that have lately made the Earth seem like a big international hotel give way to much more local issues of sheer survival.

     There was so much about the Live Earth show that actually expressed what is worst about the current state of American culture: the obscene posturing of zillionaire celebrities, awarding themselves brownie points for the largeness of their concern -- even while, like Mr. Sting of the band called the Police, they buy-and-sell $20 million Manhattan condos, and burn god-knows-how many tons of Wyoming coal amplifying the bass runs to "Roxanne." And the flip-side of these celebrity pretensions, of course, is the disturbing fealty paid to them by the fans, as members of the public caught up in celebrity-worship are called. Obviously, the whole thing is a kind of self-reinforcing feedback loop spiraling up to ever worse grandiosity on the part of the celebs and ever more pathetic groveling worship of these fake gods by the fans -- until it becomes little more than an object lesson in the tragic limitations of the human condition.

    Looming behind the spectacle like some Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloon, is the puffy figure of Al Gore, who has managed to turn his journalistic accomplishment into something uncomfortably like a Nuremberg rally. I say this perhaps incautiously, not because I believe that Al Gore is a bad person, but because it could get to the point here in America, not far down the line, when a desperate public will beg some political leader to push them around, to tell them what to do, to direct their behavior in some purposeful way to save their asses. And these prancing, preening rock and roll celebrities may be paving the way, so to speak, for some corn pone American fascist to strut his stuff for an American audience worried about the growing darkness, and the falling needle on their car's gas gauge.

    The last thing we need now is the carefully packaged postures of concern from "stars." Al Gore could do a lot more good militating to get regular hourly passenger train service running between Nashville and Atlanta, or stomping his state, from Memphis to Chattanooga for swapping sales tax on regular merchandise for a higher tax on gasoline. Or, he could just put aside his pretensions for being a kind of global Wizard of Oz and just cut the shit and run for president of the US, where he might actually make a difference.

Comments

[Tangurena]

We've become so jaded that such extravaganzas are the only way to get the attention of the public. American movies can't simply tell stories, they have to continually one-up each other as they become more and more extravagant with bloodier violence, flashier special effects and so on. Hyperbole has become the norm to get past the numbness of our jaded times.

As for the "tragic limitations" I'm going to suggest that we're really devolving into virtual tribes, and that the "global village" was never more than a slogan.

[Stephen B]

I think one hopeful sign was all the questioning that went on about the environmental remediation for these concerts. It seemed more informed and a bit more in-depth than during environmental-themed concerts in the past. (I cannot personally verify this, however, as I didn't attend any of the events.)

I'm afraid that for now, a continuation of our celebrity worship as a model for mass communication is the best thing we have available.

The celebrities need to get real though about their CO2 and fuel throughput. Cutting a percentage of their use is a bogus yardstick. What more and more of we humans need to do is figure out what is a total permissable annual CO2 loading and divide it equally amongst all the humans. This ofc, isn't totally possible, but we ought to get a bit closer than having a mountain Hindu using 300 lbs of CO2 a year while John Travolta flies around in his old Boeing 707, contributing hundreds if not thousands of tons of CO2 each year. Ditto for the average US citizens contribution of so many tens of tons (whatever it is exactly, I don't know.)

[Dave]

The efforts to publicize the need to do something lessens the need for person to do anything. You simply feel better shouting "Do something !" And so it goes with the West burning up, drought popping up damn near everywhere and everybody shouting do something.
In addition to the rails how about a massive reforesting program damn near everywhere ? We are soon going to be required to this and the sooner we start doing this the sooner something will be done that ( like rail transport) we can do.

[asoka]

Now I really feel guilty. This weekend not only did I breathe, thereby contributing who knows how much CO2, I also enjoyed Sting singing Roxanne.

I am truly a bad person. I am beginning to doubt even Puritan CFN can save me.

[Peterbart]

It's all a question of motivating the masses to get with the program. Personally, I don't mind that this event gives the issue further publicity, as getting the word out is an essential part of the process. But it won't stick until people feel the pain in their wallets - we will only see the beginnings of real progress on the issue after oil prices move north of $100/barrel or more.

[TnMan]

Sadly, although I like the idea of him working at a local level, Al Gore became a non-entity in his home state long ago. This despite doing genuinely good things for us during his Senate days. If he had been able to carry Tennessee in 2000 the Florida debacle would have been irrelevant. Even Walter Mondale won his home state (just barely) in 1984 ( http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1984&f=0&off=0 )

[steveo]

I share these sentiments, however, to get support in Nashville, it might be nice to flutter your fanfare and Live Earth momentum. The cost of being a star is a sunken cost...these are the living externalities of our culture that we may as well use. As well, we may as well keep using some cars, since they still work. And we may as well get gourged for gas, since that's the system. What will suffer? The rest of the economy will suffer or rather temper a recession/depression like you predict and well, so the death tolls will rise. Big deal. Another skin head is fotter. I go on living my refined city life, getting to think about stuff like "hat is the meaning of life?"

Live Earth is a spectacle...come on,do we really need more Iphones? Luckily, if you watched your commercials you'd learn that you can save the petrodollar by downloading music online! Ohh...I'm almost wet.

So what I find lacking is a real dialogue amist the whole posturing. The dialogue seems to go like this: Liberals are afraid and want to make changes, some are willing to make sacifices but still want their Biodisel Cars and Consummerist way of life. Conservatives will bash the left and point out that Global Warming isn't even man-made. Oh yeah, and those Liberals are using this to take away your rights...which is, in a way, true...saving energy means more profits to spread around...another round of drinks everyone! Brought to you by Corporate America and the IPhone!

So the dialouge pretty much stops there.

And as for the "professional narssicists" they live in large part to cater to their fans...granted there's the ugly music industry, which is another story. These preformers are deeply wanted. They are our icons and we think we have some control over them. Their songs are sympathies to their fans and a much broader specturm of people than say, the Neocons or any other blundering politician.

So fuck it. They reach more people than you do...are you jealous? I'm just kidding...everything in it's right place. We need you both. And we need people who can take shorter showers and all the rest.

We are cynical...but let's take a moment to celebrate what's going on that right, that we might triumph over this crisis, like we did in the y2k ;)

I like this (will I buy the album? maybe...):

Doomsday Clock by Smashing PUmpkins

Is everyone afraid?
Is everyone ashamed?
Their running torwards their holes to find out
Apocalyptic thieves
Are lost amongst our dead
A message to our friends, to get out

There's wagers on this fear
Ooh, ooh so clear
Depends on what you'll pay to hear

They're bound to kill us all
In white-washed halls
The jackals lick their paws

Please don't stop
It's lonely at the top
These lonely days
Will they ever stop?
This doomsday clock
Tickin' in my heart, not broken

I love life everyday, each and every way
Khafka would be proud to find out
I'm certain of the end, it's the means that has me spooked
It takes an unknown truth to get out
I guess that I'm born free, c'est le ve
I was meant to beg from my knees

(chorus)
Please don't stop
It's lonely at the top
These lonely days
Will they ever stop?
This doomsday clock
Tickin' in my heart
These lonely days, will they ever stop?

Gotta dig in
Gasmasks on
Wait in the sunshine overhead
If this is living, sakes alive
Well then we can't win, no one survives

Is everyone afraid?
You should be ashamed
Apocalyptic screams mean nothing to the dead
Kiss your little son to know all there is
C'mon, last call!
You should want it all!

(chorus)
It's lonely at the top
These lonely days, will they ever stop?
This doomsday clock
Tickin' in my heart
These lonely days, will they ever stop?
It's tickin' in my heart
Is everyone afraid?

[John]

Boy, Jim, we grouchy geezing today. The Buddhists advise us that ignorance is the root poison from which all suffering arises. Nature has devised all sorts of brightly colored plumage to attract attention. That is all that is going on. Attract their attention and then inform them to address the root cause of the suffering..
I know that the house is on fire. By God, my hair is on fire. We are dying. So it seems a little irrelevant to listen to some rock music. But you know...maybe it's just okay to listen to the music...hopefully on your rechargeable battery ipod or whatever...and try to pass the word.
In darker moments, I would like to have large multicontinent televised public lashing and flailing of auto and oil executives...but maybe to dissolve ignorance, the music is better.
cheers

[ken ytuarte]

Sometimes a Stratocaster is the best available piece of lumber for smacking the mule on the head. Gotta get their attention.

[Nicholas]

There have always been stars and/or royalty for the masses to look to for some sort of guidance. The riff raff just happens to be a lot more wealthy than in the past. Sorry, but I don’t believe that the general population will get “it” in time, and that bad things will happen to a majority rather than a global minority.

Seriously, which is the bigger problem, an accelerated global climate change or a crash in energy supplies? And, what are the effects of each? The problems are so complex, and there is so much to do, that a set of priorities would be the first step. We have destroyed so much real infrastructure to the automobile culture that rebuilding is outside of the thinking of many, witness those who stop by and can’t quite get over their conservative agenda.

As I said to a friend some years ago, you can live in your conservative state, and I’ll live in my liberal city. Just don’t apply your rules to me thinking that your state takes precedence. Those that “do” will rule the world. Is that going to be a President, bound to a flat earth populace? Or, a group of mayors applying a global mind set? Think Venice not Rome. Trade will simply become that much more valuable.

[denny]

Fascist corn pone - good one. Just look at the gravy soaked Fred Thompson - the man responsible for the Savings and Loan atrocity. He'd do what it takes - build more prisons, invade more poverty stricken nations.

[dopamine]

Seems like another case of giving the children a little sugar to make them take their medicine. The time is coming when gentle sugar-coated musical coercion will give way to the iron fisted will of an uncompromising authority. The issue of importance will not be Global Warming but rather Peak Oil and people will be doing the twist, the hustle and the chicken dance in their own ill-conceived homes just to stay warm. Want a real adrenalin rush? Sign up for duty in one or our resource wars and feel the excitement like never before. I’m sure an IED could put you into adrenaline orbit more quickly than any fancy pants rock-and-roll hippity-hop monkey.

Everything in our society has been designed and built upon a one-time windfall of fossil fuel energy which is running out. Our grandiose structures will be the dinosaur bones of the future. Did you ever wonder about the dinosaurs of 65 million years ago and the massive amounts of energy required to move them about? I’m sure if they had the brains they would have been supremely confident, masters of their realm, certain that nothing could unravel their photosynthetic paradise. What happened? They’re all dead, suddenly deprived of their food and warmth. Without immediate and radical reorganization ours will be a slow technological death with a few punctuating events like when meteorites strike. Maybe we can all dance and worship by the thermonuclear glow as our DNA does its own terminal break dance.

Instead of reducing our fossil fuel footprint by 20% perhaps we could reduce our food intake by 20% and cut methane emissions by an equivalent amount, makes about as much sense. It's time to stop cutting the cheese people.

Actually it's time to stop fooling around with feel good measures – the clock is ticking.

[montysano]

Wow: we're really in the Old Fart "You kids get offa my lawn" mode this week. I'm not going to argue that Live Earth is going to solve anything, but jeez, let's lighten up just a bit.

My main bone with this piece: listening to a terrific band like the Police is not "celebrity worhsip". Celebrity worhsip is worrying about the daily comings-and-goings of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears.

I bike to work several days a week. We live, by choice, in a very modest house. We're trying. Please don't infer that by listening to music that we've become part of the problem.

[Laura Louzader]

Jim, this is one of the best articles you have posted lately, but you are in error on one little point:

The celebrity posturing on global concerns does real harm.

These people trivialize and degrade every cause they embrace, and their endorsement of a cause is the kiss of death. Not only does the public mostly have ardent contempt for most of these people and does not regard them in any way as serious human beings, but the general feeling is if the cause is embraced by the rich, connected, and powerful, that it must be pernicious to the public as a whole. You feel that some dim-itted entertainer is enjoining you to drop your level of comfort and basic hygiene to medieval levels the better for her to have plenty of resources and energy to burn through, and I'll be damned if I'll restrict myself to one square of TP per use while some twitty little rock singer burns through enough resources and energy in her sabaritic off-stage life-which no doubt includes a 10,000 sq ft house perched on the slope of one of the most environmentallly sensitive areas of the country- to keep me well-powered and comfy for the remainder of my life.

Unfortunately, these overpaid and overhyped celebrity fluffballs DO reach more people than you, and the message that they are conveying to the public, by their examples and even their statements, is that Peak Oil and global warming are strictly the concerns of moneyed elitists who don't care if the rest of us are reduced to a shanty-town lifestyle as long as our masters are safe in their Malibu palaces and have plenty of fuel to hop from one Playground of the Rich to the next.

These people DON'T help get the message out to the public that the people who will be hurt firt and the worst by energy depletion and environmental devastation will be the poor, and then the non-rich in general. That is the message that people like you are trying to convey to the feckless, ingnorant public, but it is drowned out by all the noise surrounding our celebrity royalty and their idiotic posturing.

[Laura Louzader]

Forgive typos in foregoing- some of the keys on this thing aren't working properly.

[Harry]

CFNerians:

I'm 45, and I tried watching some of the Live Earth performances, but it all seemed to be bands I'd never heard of playing music I didn't enjoy. Which puts me on the precipitous ledge of geezerhood. I'm between being hip and needing hip replacement. Oh, well.

I had a grand afternoon this past Saturday seeing "Rashomon" for the first time with a salon group with which I meet. We engaged in a far-ranging, wine-fueled discussion based on the themes and context of the film. You forget how outside of the academic world how enjoyable it is just slugging ideas around with real people in real places.

Perhaps if I'd taken up on an invitation to view some of the Live Earth goings-on in a group of the like-minded I would've gotten more out of the experience than just watching it on television.

This would've at least given me the illusion that I was "doing something." It's all about the society of the spectacle, where actual experience is supplanted by programmed events (see Debord, Guy) and see the parents at the school play who tape it rather than watch while their kids traipse across the stage.

I don't begrudge the performers their time in the light, whether it means anything or not. Thing is, with these mass events, and the attendant publicity, one never knows how it'll affect individuals. It beats people killing each other. (Though some cynics on CFN seem to suggest that's our 'only way out' is through mass die offs. Rawther reductive, you ask me). Still, I'd venture to say--without sufficient evidence to be sure-- that not one rock concert has prevented a car bomb explosion.

JHK's comparison to rock concerts and political rallies isn't far off. I've not been to many of either, but the power of these performers, whether it was Phish in Charlotte, N.C., or Poe (remember her?) in a little concert in the garden behind the Poe Museum here, is, well, Dionysian. This is the pursuit of transient and tranformative ecstasy that compels addicts and, well, mass consumer society. Such is the human condition. We want to feel good.

Thing is, we don't have another species to compare ourselves againt, besides elephants, dolphins, and simians, and they don't drive or make art, at least as we know it. Is anybody else out there doing any better?

I mean, it comes down to this; the only way to resolve energy and environmental issues is a party of power that says it is so and enforcing that views, thorugh a combination of rewards and punishments. Simple. But that'll never happen in a benevolent manner because, welll, that's dicatorship.

Such an arrangement would please Plato (first, chase out all the poets), but I don't think it would go down well with civil libertarians of any political stripe. Of course, they'd all get locked up anyway, for the benefit of the revolution.

In this country, revolutionaries tend to get jailed and marginalized (see Debs, Eugene V.) or, just ignored, or their ideas absorbed by the ruling class for the theoretical benefit of the greater good then being accused of both class betrayal and heightening authoritarinism (see Roosevelt, Franklin Delano).

Meanwhile, folks are willing to go along as they have until such time when they cannot, whether through circumstance or enforcement. The basic question for all this is; who sets the standards of society, and why?

When World War II created gas rationing, tin drives and rubber drives, people pitched in, but there was also a thriving black market and rationing coupon counterfeit operations. There were war profiteers aplenty during that catacalysm (see Huie, William Bradford and his pot boiler novel 'The Revolt of Mamie Stover.').

So I can't say I know exactly where that leaves us. Back at the rock concert, I guess. Going to Burning Man. Living in a hand built hut in a North Carolina "intentional community," that isn't really a commune but an experimnt in self-sustainability. We continue on thinking that we're doing something, until finally, we're undone.

Me, I just try in way not to make other people miserable. I pick up trash when I walk to and from work and try to laugh often. I can be bit of a crank, but if you're aware of the world and its discontents, you sort of have no choice. Or you can, like Reverend Billy, form the Church of Stop Shopping, and preach anti-consumerism in Times Square. At least that's funny.

--HEK

[ahpook]

http://ahpook.vox.com/library/post/live-earth-annoyance.html

There were several annoying things about the global day of really concerned rock-n-roll on Saturday, most of them ably laid out by Jim Kunstler, but the thing that annoyed me the most about the whole charade is this "live earth pledge" BS where people commit to:

I will change four light bulbs to CFLs at my home.

I will ride public transit or carpool one or more times per week.
I will shop for the most energy efficient electronics and appliances.
I will forward a Live Earth email message to 5 friends.
I will shut off my equipment and lights whenever I'm not using them.
Add my name to the Live Earth pledge.

OK, six action items, two of which are no-brainer clickthroughs (add the name and send the email), two of which the even moderately crunchy people likely to be on the website are probably already doing (turn off the lights and carpool once a week), and the remaining two of which involve doing more shopping! Is this really the best they could come up with? I'd argue that this in fact harms the cause of reducing carbon output by providing both a moral balm to soothe people's troubling guilt about over-consumption -- which might spur them to real action -- as well as minimizing the scope of the problem by making it seem like, "well if everybody just went there and clicked the boxes everything will be OK!" Maybe this is a limitation of Al Gore's technocratic roots or politician's eye to the art of the possible, but wow, this seems like a pretty low bar.

[JS]

After bashing kids for their damn baggy pants last week, JHK comes out swinging against that damn noise the kids listen to these days. Didn't you grow up in the 60s Mr. Kunstler?
Comparing Live Earth to a Nuremburg rally is absolute insanity, way beyond the usual bits of fun insanity you reguarly disperse.
Live Earth was trying to get the word out, and had to use energy to do so. From what I understand that's the same justification you use for trvelling all over the world on your speaking engagements.

[Dr.Doom]

Meza Verde’s House of the Sun—upon a recent visit to Meza Verde National Park in SE Colorado, we happened upon a ruin known as the House of the Sun. Hard to miss, it rests upon a bluff overlooking the several magnificent cliff dwellings that the Anasazi made there, under huge curved arches in the cliffs. The first thing I noted was the position and architecture of this ruin was different. Unlike the others at that time (circa 1250 AD) it was very sturdy, with thick walls and quite out in the open, as if some other people had built it. The archeologists have determined its age and the interesting fact that it was never occupied like the other dwellings and, importantly I think, never finished, either.

The official NPS sign stated that the scientific interpretation for this structure was as a place of worship to the Anasazi God(s) to please allow them to stay there longer on the Meza doing what they had been doing for centuries past, all the while the regional droughts worsened and “other factors” (fill in overproduction of the land, over-hunting, over-fishing, overpopulation) made the situation increasingly dire, and they all disappeared from there within the next 50 years.

Think Live Earth, think Now. Great post, Jim.

[Manuel Alvarez]

These mega-rockstars are the new gladiators of the decadent American empire. In the near future we'll probably witness the next Bush III Caesar bloodline turning his thumb down upon some Ecosystem followers to be swallowed by a troop of robotical bullshits.

[Barry]

We drove our Smart Car to the Live Earth concert to promote our documentary, "The End of Suburbia". We, and several other environmental groups, were not allowed to exhibit INSIDE the stadium, however we did have several thousand people pass by us at the NJ State Fair lot on the way into the venue. It was interesting to watch people being fascinated by an 8-foot-long car (because it's soooo cute), but they were oblivious to the large empty-gas-gauge graphic on the side and the message it conveyed. Most of the crowd simply wasn't interested in anything other than the spectacle and the beer. The media - even local media - never dropped by the area to talk to any of the groups about their work. I suspect that TV viewers got the most out of the event, but those attending were nothing more than fodder for the spectacle.

One of the biggest disappointments was finding out that Smart, one of the sponsors of the show, will be bringing the car to the US in 2008 with twice the horsepower, but only the efficiency of an average Honda Civic. I guess the smaller engine wasn't enough to move the average American ego. One bright spot: when we mentioned this to the people who stopped to talk to us, they were disgusted at Smart for that decision.

Yes, the whole circus used a lot of energy. But not that much more energy in the 85-million-barrel-a-day scheme of things. The portion of the concert I saw was great, apart from two brawls and a lot of people on the verge of passing out in the halls.

[Don in Colorado]

There was a concert this weekend?

Sorry, I was out trying to farm some crops so that people have something to eat this winter.

Inspired farming is actually kind of fun, and more interesting than sitting around watching TV ...

I would suggest that Americans learn how to do some basic gardening. One feels much less dependent on "the government" when one knows how to raise his or her own food.

That's my feeling, anyway.

[FARfetched]

I agree with the posters who think JHK is missing the point (which is, of course, to raise awareness of the problem). Laura has a good point about the elites wanting the rest of us to shoulder the burden, but falls into the "everyone thinks like me" trap w.r.t. people's general attitudes toward the "stars" up on stage.

The pledges are only a good start, but better than nothing — as I've said before, we in the US could probably cut our usage by 20% and be *better off*. The point is to get people to see that cutting energy use is *no* hardship, but actually has some daily benefits beyond the feel-good aspects, which (we hope) will lead people to conserve more. A public-service campaign would probably be more effective over time, but events like Live Earth can raise awareness and get more people to pay attention to subsequent campaigns.

As for me, $5.06 put a full tank of gas in my motorcycle this morning (getting a fraction over 60mpg). It might rain on the way home this afternoon, but that's what a rain suit is for.