history

This is an open letter to China - if it is possible to write such a letter.

When I traveled to China (Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Hong Kong) in 2001, I found the towering density of the country breath taking. One country, but another world, filled with cultural diversity, coordinated for production.

In Beijing, the Chinese New Year celebration had just finished, and the coal which fueled the city had created a layer of lingering smoke over the city which I could see from the plane, along with a section of the Great Wall, on approach to landing.

This is from May of 2001. The speed of the economy, the omni-presence of corporate media, and the complexity of our personal lives, has made many existing institutions of change (like education, our government, and even cultural norms) increasingly ineffective. Morality, the frame of reference for living, our paradigms, are being outpaced by technological changes.