(2005-04-22) De Zengotita Mediated

Interview with Thomas De Zengotita on his book Mediated about the Trade-Off-s of Authenticity. So, in the end, I realized that a lot, not all, but a lot of the effects of mediation, even though they grind away at reality and lead to some terrible losses - of nature, for example - are mostly a good thing... What if you said: "OK, suppose you could ameliorate the living conditions of those people who are starving, dying, horribly, by the millions, and the price of that would be a global Shopping Mall. Everyone would become mediated. Everyone would be politically correct. There'd be foolish tourists everywhere. There'd be no nature left. Everything would be an attraction site. The whole world would be Dis Ney-fied. But there'd be no starvation." What would you choose?... I feel like such a phony compared with my grandfather. But then, on the other hand, you could look back and say, poor man, he was practically a zombie... Now Commitment is a matter of the intensity of your Engagement... In principle, I see no reason why it couldn't become enormously fashionable for a whole generation of Western Europeans and Americans to suddenly do something about world Poverty. You don't have to do that much to make a serious dent in it.