🚀 go-pugleaf

*** NOTE ****
This followup has been heavily paraphrased.  Apologies to Richard Gardner
if I misinterpreted his carefully-prepared text, but it was LONG.
*************

>			The New (economic) World Order

>[The USA with 5% of the world's population had 50% of the wealth 50 years ago. 
> It is postulated that this wealth comes from ideas.]
>[Today, the world is better educated.  50% are educated as we are.  So,
> let's say that for each American idea there are 10 ideas produced elsewhere.
> The other 50% are educating themselves, so we can expect a still less
> favorable "idea ratio".  Prosperity is redistributing itself.]

I agree that the United States is in less of a dominant economic position than
it was 50 years ago.  This probably wasn't due to the number of "ideas per
educated capita" than the fact that Europe and Japan had most of their
manufacturing capability destroyed in WWII.  The United States, on the other
hand, was largely untouched.  with enormous reserves of air, sea, and
industrial capacity. 

>[Can the US regain its position of world dominance?  Probably not without
> a "miracle" such as everyone getting a PhD.  World competition is rising
> as standards of education rise.  The US will not be a manufacturer of unique
> products.]
>[Politicians promise restoration of the title, but rgardner doubts it.
> American strengths of superior education, information, capital, and
> raw material are no longer.  There are no more hoards of resources
> or technical advantages because of the globalization of economy and
> popular culture.  The playing field is essentially level.]

The United States is capable of competing.  The US is remarkably adept
at generating people with good ideas AND the willpower to make things
happen.

>[Fictional Utopia: Everyone works a little.  Reality: Not everyone works if
> they are unemployed or on welfare or disabled or financially secure.]
>[New Reality: Bright people are unemployed, or are making less, or are
> overqualified.  Rgardner postulates that it is because of increased
> productivity due to automation and technical innovation.  Fighting
> this is pointless if other people are doing your job better than you
> can.]

>[Development and progress are consuming the earth, and producing more waste.
> Increasingly affluent tastes leads to more waste.]
>[Some say environmental industries are key to future well-being of the
> world's unemployment problem.  That's fine.]

>[KEY STATEMENTS!
> There's an unrealized direction that could make the US Number 1 in the
> world economy, by exploiting a unique American strength.  Currently,
> the US's largest export is of course Airplanes.  The rest of the world
> are getting into this, so domination will not be permanent!  But the
> #2 export is (take a wild guess)
>
>How  about... art and culture!  How about films, video, TV, music, MTV,  books,
>magazines,  etc.  Close on the heels of airplanes.  And our  competitors?   Ask
>yourself  about  the  last time you heard a really great  Japanese  song  being
>played on the radio.  See any wonderful Russian films lately?  No way!  At this
>point in history, America really has no competitors in the arts & culture  that
is more and more becoming a part of the every day life of people everywhere  in
>the world.  Step into a taxi in Ankara, Turkey.  The driver is wearing a  Walk-
>man.  What kind of music is playing?  American pop, jazz, rock & roll,  whatev-
>er--but  definitely American.  A bus driver in Indonesia, also wearing a  Walk-
>man.  What music is playing?  The answer is left as an exercise for the reader.

Are you saying that Japanese songs suck?  Do Russian films stink?  No way!
Russian filmmaking was supposed to have been rather progressive back before
the Soviets came around.  With their new found freedom, I fully expect
a lot of really fascinating things to come out of that area of the world.

I believe that part of the reason why we don't have many imports of foreign
media is because our mainstream audiences won't stand for anything that
isn't in English.  America is not the World Guardian of art & culture, nor
is it superior.  As for airplanes, these may be the biggest single export,
but they do not constitute the lion's share of our economy.  As for our
alleged cultural and artistic dominance, your examples merely show that our
music has an international audience.  There are healthy music industries in
other countries.  The Europeans took our Jazz and reinvented it.  Popular
songs in Taiwan are not exclusively western...they are mostly local artists
singing songs tailored to the local audience.  And one can't help but ask
what percentage of popular songs here in the States are from Great Britain?

>[Anecdotes deleted]
>[Conclusion: "American art & culture is appreciated and consumed world-wide".
> Conclusion: For continued economic growth, we emphasize this instead of
> manufacturing commodities.

America does enjoy certain advantages.  Research and Development have always
been an American strength.  The US leads in microprocessor design.  We lead
in aerospace.  We kick ass in software engineering.  Our farms are among the
most productive in the world.  The list goes on and on, but what is the
point?  Is the role of America to compete only in areas where we (as rgardner
would have it) HAVE NO COMPETITION?  

>America  has  strong
>competitors  for airplanes and most commodity goods.  The country  has,  effec-
>tively, no competitors for art.  Huh?  Heard any good Japanese pop music  late-
>ly?   Watched any interesting European TV in the last few years?   This  writer
>believes that American art dominates the world for a very simple reason.  It is
>similar  to  the reason why so many people want to come to  this  country  from
>every  corner  of the world.  We live in a less  authoritarian  and  conformist
>society.  While this can be a dangerous place to live, it is seldom because  of
>government  or social convention.  

This argument is pretty shallow.  Pop Music = TV = Art?  I might agree with
a statement like, "American mass media is highly influential".  Our popular
television have excellent production values compared with those of other
nations, but is production equal to art?  What's wrong with Japanese pop
music?  Just because we don't hear it on AMERICAN radio, it is as inferior?
You do know that Japanese pop is widely exported throughout all of Asia,
right alongside the best of the Western music world?  For every good
American pop song, how many duds accompany it on the album?  

>     Nearly every country encourages education (political movements in Cambodia 
>and Peru being the two main exceptions) in mathematics and science.  Art educa-
>tion  is  feared and discouraged in many place.  To be an artist is  to  be  an 
>explorer  of  human experience and the human condition.  Vaclav Havel,  once  a 
>tenant of his state's prisons, and later his countries leader, is an example of 
>how  dangerous  art can be for some governments.  The best art  needs  complete 
>freedom  to explore and consider every possibility.  Everything has to be  open 
>to consideration.  Every feeling has to be touchable and open to exposure.   Or 
>consider the case of Salmon Rushdie, and his book Satanic Verses, and the  gov-
>ernment  of Iran has offered several millions dollars to the person  who  kills 
>him.   We  won't be hearing a lot of good pop music from Iran!   The  citizenry 
>there  is mostly walking on tip-toes to avoid doing anything that  doesn't  fit 
>in.  An important journalist in Egypt was recently murdered for his openness to 
>new ideas.  And so it is, mainly to a lesser degree, in much of the world.   In >no  other country does the individual or collaborative effort in the arts  have 
>such  a  free reign as here.  This means that America will continue to  be  the 
>source of much of the world's consumable art.

Any communication medium can be a force for dissent.  If you are emphasizing
CONSUMABLE art, then the US is probably the haven you describe.  We still
have our hangups, too, in the form of special interest groups.  Explicit
lyrics or art, for example, often run afoul of "watchdog" organizations.

>     For  who  knows how long one has heard the refrain of  arts  teachers  and 
>advocates that we must fund arts education better.  And now there is, it  seems 
>to this writer, clear economic justification for doing so.  Democratic  systems 
>of government are becoming more and more common in the world.  But it will be a 
>considerably longer time before those governments result in really free people, 
>and  people free to make art.  Meanwhile, America has a clear  and  unambiguous 
>hold on the market and the attention of the world's people.

Since the term "art" is pretty sweeping in meaning, I can't help but wonder
how such an economy would function.  Are you suggesting that we concentrate
on producing pop music as a nation?  Instead of fighting the economic trade
war, we are battling for artistic surpremacy?  As your numerous examples
illustrate, American media does very well in the global economy.  We also do
very well in a number of other fields.  For what purpose other than bragging
rights would the United States as a people want to dominate the world
economy?  We can't do it by concentrating on art.  We couldn't dominate the
world through "aesthetic warfare" if we WANTED to, anyway.  What about
all those people who have no interest or particular talent in art-related
fields?  

I guess this entire essay was purposely designed to solicit responses
by clever use of high-flying logic, trivial examples, and ambiguity. 

[stuff deleted]

>Comments to: Richard Gardner
>             Box 1067 Harvard Sq Stn
>             Cambridge MA 02238
>
>             rgardner@charon.mit.edu (Internet)

-- 
Dave Seah (seah@ee.rochester.edu, AFCDaveS@aol.com)
MS Electrical Engineering / MFA Computer Graphic Design (to be!)