With last month’s visit of Hu Juntao, President of China — its like everyone’s worried about China taking over the United States! OMGAA! What’s most shocking to me is that this display of pageantry has sparked so much discussion about the two NATIONS, as if there aren’t people working on relations or flying on airplanes between the two places at every hour of every day of the year.
America is a boom & bust kinda place. We’re also filled with a bunch of crazies that didn’t get along with their stable countrymen they felt it better to leave quickly in the middle of the night. While much sneeze has been achoe’d about the fall of America, I’m not so worried about the prevailing reasons of China eating our lunch, I’m more concerned with Grammarians concentrating too much on making sure all of our lunches look the same. That’s what China is good at. We can’t out compete them on copying shit over and over again — but after years of our industro facto, “college prepatory” education system, there are so many of these oppressors walking the streets INSIDE these days.
HU originated some real mainstream discussion amongst the grammarians, noggin scratchers, replicators, and indeed ‘leading economic growth destroyers’ of the American way. And whilst, I wouldn’t be surprised about China becoming a larger economy than the United States in numbers — and all these yonkers will magniphone that inevitable day, in the new world order, we have to continue to remind the baby boomers, these days its not one unified understanding of the 70s, 80s, 90s & today. In fact there never really was one true leader in all things measured, as any PRICELESS Mastercard commercial can remind you, there were always many.
For instance, when it comes to cultural exports the US of A will be hard to beat. We’ve absorbed every culture on the planet and our bland, one-size-fits all media is rivaled by none — with no prospects on the horizon. I don’t know of a single Chinese movie exported here — America is becoming less homogeneous culturally, not more, and thanks to the Brits, the sun never sets on the English language. The media industry is not only a huge money maker, its also more advanced than using child labour in sweat shops — well or at least in the case of the Olsen Twins, Beiber and Shirley Temple-Black, at least it uses the mind instead of one’s back to break the work.
While I still see this American advantage in other industries too, especially those requiring any sort of innovation or origination — replication, the old image of the lazy American as portrayed by Homer Simpson at the Springfield nuclear powerplant is just not accurate anymore. That character mind you was invented before the 1992 recession. The digital worlds through three recessions have thrown most of those folks in the incinerator. Give China its due — its a force, with its own issues.
This is a way of backing into a conversation I had with an old friend from college. It started when I put up the following Paul Simon song, with the following references to FACEBOOK!:
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Cheryl Tiegs No part of this post makes any sense to me.
January 19 at 11:26am · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann
Let me spell it out for you. Take notes:
1) This is a song about being a kid in frame of mind in the hustle, bustle, cavernous city of New York, where people where suits and try to be serious a lot of the time. He’s the only kid — the only …thing he needs is the weather report.
2) When I was at Good Morning America, this week every where someone talking head at the conference table would yammer — this is the most depressing week of the year. Its when credit cards from xmas are due — the sunlight is low, the temps suck and the the most distance between other HALLMARK Holidays. Its also the week when people stop doing their new years resolutions. Its bullshit science, but its how our world goes round.
3) This version sounds older and tired. ITs harder to be a kid this week, then lets say June 5th.
4) on a personal note — I just got back from a very dark place — Stockholm. Yet somehow I find NYC more depressing. The sky is grey — there’s junk every where — it smells bad and so on and so on… I’ve got tons of work but I may just go outside and play later.
Anything else m’am?See More
January 19 at 11:33am · LikeUnlike
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Cheryl Tiegs Your tone implies that the explanation you just laid out is supposed to be obvious to readers. It makes a little more sense to me now but the original post, by itself, looks more like the rantings of a madman.
January 19 at 11:50am · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann Like all art — you’re free to interpret as you feel. You could just play the song and see if you like it and go your own way as far as I’m concerned. I win on all fronts. Its always about winners and losers in America — this is a no lose situation unless you make it one!
January 19 at 11:52am · LikeUnlike · 1 person
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Daniel Beckmann Also, the writers of “Who’s the Boss” liked using terms like “madman” and “floosie” — i appreciate you’re keeping up with the MONAs)
January 19 at 11:53am · LikeUnlike
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Cheryl Tiegs Listen. I think a lot about communicating, and I want you to be more effective because you have a lot of original ideas. I’m just saying that reading this post took a lot of effort and thought and I ultimately found it frustrating instead of enlightening. Think about your readers.
January 19 at 11:55am · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann
I think the same was said of James Joyce? “reading this post took a lot of effort and thought and I ultimately found it frustrating instead of enlightening.”
If you spell it out for people too much, you deprive them the ability of having their own thoughts and making it their own thing. This is why I hate teachers! There’s lots of “have tas” they think you’ve “gotta” do. It only causes weaker economies through diminished imagination and self responsibility for understanding things on your own.See More
January 19 at 11:57am · LikeUnlike
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Cheryl Tiegs Weaker economies… what? You had me for a minute when you analogized your post more to art or poetry than straight up communications… but then bringing the term “weaker economies” into it confuses me again because now I’m thinking about …efficiency and it brings me back to the effort I had to put into reading your original post. Here’s my problem. You’re haphazard, and I take it as almost an insult that you’re just throwing your shit out there for me to read and take seriously when you’re not taking your readers’ time and attention seriously. If your strategy is to throw a zillion crazy things out and some tiny percentage of them will resonate with each reader, on a cost-benefit analysis it doesn’t make sense for me, the individual reader, to take the time to read each of your posts on the 2% chance that something will make sense to me. So you’re doing yourself a disservice by not thinking about your readers more, because you’re losing readership and will ultimately be less effective in getting your ideas out.See More
January 19 at 12:07pm · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann
See — this is where — I think you lose people. Everyone has a different interpretation, perspective — so you either
A) dumb things down for the masses
B) Let people figure it out for themselves, some get it wrong, some don’t try to figure it… out, others make it something you didn’t intend when you sent it.
Our public schools often chose option A — its efficient, but it makes economies weaker. If you think about it, when economies are based off of new inventions and the growth of new markets — with manufacturing going by the wayside, our investment in option A has made too many automattons, and not enough market makers.
If the US is to survive against CHINA or any nation for that matter, we must continue to come up with new ideas. That’s why when GE meets with china and gives away our engine design secrets, its not a big deal — crunch all you want we can make more.
Option A — in my view is killing US right now. Where’s the big idea Cheryl — the car is done, bio tech — green jobs? Watch wall Street 2 — when is the next bubble — what’s it gonna be? We need more OPTION B — and people who can handle them.See More
January 19 at 12:15pm · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann I’m not the only one talking about this — ask David Brooks from yesterday’s TIMES:
Chua is an OPTION Aer…
January 19 at 12:18pm · LikeUnlike
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Cheryl Tiegs Your “Option B” – that of innovative design – only works if the innovative things are DESIGNED for users. Your posts are poorly designed. If you’re not willing to “Dumb it down for me”- “Option A” – then I’m suggesting you instead put more thought into your “design.”
January 19 at 12:19pm · LikeUnlike
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Steev Hise NYC is pretty much always depressing for me. but yeah, especially this part of winter is esp bad for places where it snows and is super cold.
January 19 at 12:31pm · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann
Cheryl — these are always fun things to get into with you — but I think you trap yourself when you speak for everyone on this one.
This clearly is not an intelligence thing here, you’re smarter than all of us — more capable, faster, stro…nger. Its about focus and control of the focus. If you let yourself get out of hand with your thoughts, I think it would be quite painful for you, but it would create millions of new markets. The focus of your energies on this militant grammarian stuff, I mean thats not a bad focus either — it is clearly very intense though.See More
January 19 at 12:31pm · LikeUnlike · 1 personLoading…
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Daniel Beckmann
There are some that understood my intention from moment 1. There are some that didn’t but liked the song — others who understood half of it, but changed most of the intention in their minds. Most ignored it for a variety of reasons rangin…g from not liking me, to no time, to they didn’t like the first world.
To speak for everyone on this one, ruins it for those who got it the first time, but also for anyone who enjoyed it the first time for any reason as well.See More
January 19 at 12:41pm · LikeUnlike
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Cheryl Tiegs This is about me only insofar as I considered myself to be one of your most willing readers and I couldn’t get through the post. I’m trying to help you be more effective, that’s all.
January 19 at 12:43pm · LikeUnlike
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Daniel Beckmann
There are times for that AND I appreciate it — but the exercise here was not trying to be most effective to all. IN those instances, I would appreciate your filter.. this is a controlled access environment of AGREED to friends.
I MAY writ…e differently for the general audience — but even then, according to OKCUPID, the most successful chicks there are not the ones who are most hot, most agreeable, they are the ones that truly reflect their most ugly quirks. They find their most true and loving audiences. That’s what the internet is about — and in fact schmooru — the article is posted on my profile for your reference.
Thanks for CARING! See More
January 19 at 12:48pm · Like
Tags: cheryl tiegs, china, grammarians, Hu Juntao, mastercard priceless, only living boy in new york, paul simon, president obama, state dinners, washington dc