GDP in the Red?
A new article in The Economist reveals a startling discovery: when China’s GDP was recalculated using Purchasing Power Parity, China’s GDP fell by 40%. Is there cause for concern, or is this just more statistic slinging by economists?
What’s in a Word?
As someone living in Beijing, I am constantly bombarded with propaganda—from red-letter posters telling me that “we are building a harmonious bus station and society,” to ones that proclaim “it is everyone’s job to prevent fires,” and the other innumerable mottos about the Olympics and the importance of social harmony, I’ve seen it all. Because I live in a country in which propaganda is the norm, I’ve become acutely aware of its presence in the United States. While this piece is not meant to be all encompassing, I’d like to make a few points about framing and then discuss two words that have come into vogue in America in recent months: “surge” and “insurgent.”
The New Year
Every time I mention starting a blog, I’m met with a cocked eyebrow and an insinuatory, “You’re starting a blog?”
I can understand why blogs are met with such skepticism. It’s the same reason why I used to roll my eyes when someone said they had a LiveJournal or listened to Linkin Park. It’s a bandwagon thing, and unless you were on the bandwagon before it became a bandwagon, you’re a poser. So I quickly make the distinction that it’s an intellectual blog, and that I’m not the only writer. Although, as you’ll see, this is only marginally true.
About the name…
“The Hypermodern” refers dually to the style of chess play which David Shenk, in his book The Immortal Game, describes as
“a paradigm-shattering gift to chess… The lesson of the Hypermodern revolution was that anything was still possible… Hypermodernism was not about fear, but about the love of intellectual adventure. It was, in fact, archetypal modernism–the spirit of breaking decisively with past styles in order to make a new aesthetic contribution to the world,”
and to the view of contemporary society described by Gilles Lipovetsky and Sebastien Charles in their book Hypermodern Times as a historical context
“where no ideological discourse makes sense any more, and when the disintegration of society has reached its peak. Of course, society is being reconstituted, but in a way that starts out uniquely from the singular desire of individuals.”
Welcome to The Hypermodern
The launch date for this blog is January 1st, 2008. I know, kitschy right? If you’re here before then you were probably referred by me in a desperate attempt to assemble content for said launch date. If this is the case, please register an account by clicking the “Register” link to the right and filling in some shit.
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