Brave New World

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world
That has such people in't!" - Shakespeare, The Tempest

Hong Kong, in many ways, is an upgraded version of Western cities. At least that's how I've grown to perceive it. Hong Kong is future.

Skyscrapers, new cars, masses of people, good mass transit system, neon lights, big shopping malls and a lot of business and banking. A dystopia (only slightly), with lots of rain and pollution, lots of traffic and Asian faces.

Actually, for some reason this place reminds me of the world of Blade Runner which always seemed the most plausible and realistic future world to me. Slightly gloomy, taking place in a futuristic city but still very down-to-earth and with a Chinatownish themes going on.



We don't have flying cars here yet, but I bet it won't take too long.

Oh, and below a picture of Hong Kong (taken from the Peak last year).



Granted, I haven't been to that many major cities in the West, not to mention living in them for long enough to fully understand them. For these reasons my reasoning may be faulted and based on biased conceptions from movies and television, and uneducated prejudice based on my disrespect to many aspects of western cultures. I remain confident, however, that you can't really find a city so modern and so well managed anywhere in Europe, nor the States. The cultural aspects that are required to run a society like this, the political structures and the overall resources are not found in the West.

The developed Asian societies, in my thinking, are what future looks like while the West will remain focused to boost their own imaginary importance, and cling to petty and trivial trifle's like the Western democracy and social tolerance.

Here a few thoughts of Democracy I find corresponding to my own:
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time." - Sir Winston Churchill

and my favorite:
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." - Sir Winston Churchill

I'm not saying we should give up democracy. I'm saying our system of government is out-dated and needs to go through a big reform to correspond to the demands of today. Now it is just a popularity contest without any real intention of changing things. Politicians play their games and claim credit for events that would've taken place anyway. How has anyone's life changed since the last elections?.. or the ones before the last one? Seriously, how much of that was really affected by anything that happened in the government, and how much would've happened anyway?

We need to change.

Now I am getting off-track, however. Maybe I'll return to politics later on since it stirs up some strong opinions in me. I'm not political though, I just have ideas.

Back to Asia and future:

I believe that many cities, for example, in Japan and Korea could offer a good alternative to all the positive things I've found in Hong Kong. It would be interesting to see some of those places actually. Hong Kong is strongly influenced by its time as a British colony and that is one clear benefit compared to most on Mainland China. I don't really like the history of how Hong Kong fell to the British and I actually find that to be one of the most despicable things of the whole Western history - equally despicable as the massacre of American Indians. But the benefits are clear for everyone to see, as I have mentioned in previous posts.

However, cities in Japan and Korea have had the change to grow with less Western influence. Of course the influence is there, but it has not been so strongly force-fed to them. They have had their own pace and own way of absorbing it.

So, is the Western culture supreme as it is thought so strongly? No, hell no. While some of the western ideals and cultural products have taken some wind and gained support in the Orient, it only means us Occidentals got at least something right.

I think that Asia will be the center of attention in the future. They have the will, the resources and the culture to do so. West will retain some of its importance but it will inevitably lose its superior position due to its inability to face the change.

As a final thing, I'd like to point out that I am not writing this because I'm against the West and/or Pro-Asia, it is just the way I've come to look at things. And I find it depressing that most people in the West just don't see it. They don't care. They don't plan ahead.

The only planning people do is for things they want for themselves in the future: a new car, a bigger house, a cabin by a lake, a boat, a private jet, a lingerie-model-wife, a steady future and nice retirement days. Only problem is, they make the plans as if everything would remain the same. They believe in the status quo and will not accept change.

What they forget is the world is changing constantly and while planning according to the status quo makes sense, one should also accept the random-factor of inevitable change.

"Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer." - Shunryu Suzuki

"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." - Confucius

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery." - Harold Wilson