Live 8

"But that sort of cynicism will achieve nothing."

It is just an honest appraisal of the puffed up event going on and if it gets people to actually THINK about the nature of the problem and rather that just utter airy platitudes about the G 8 governments making it all better, then it may indeed achieve something. Governments in both in the West and Third World are the problem here, not the solution.

Perhaps the people who went and saw Live Aid and then voted for Thatcher were saying that *socialism* (in all its forms) was the problem in both Africa and the UK. That was certainly my view at the time (and still is).

Every time I link to a Samizdata post, you comment within about 30 seconds. Are you never off-line?

You know, pointing out the anthropology involved doesn't make (some of) the concert's motivations wrong. Removal of all artificial market distortions would be a very good thing. It's just the particular form of what was happening struck me so completely as a religious ceremony. Observe: hymns, a prophet/saint (Geldof), a dancing congregation, the modern press-release equivalent of the Shinto clap-for-attention, and not least, the god-kings of the G8 - able to dispense or withold beneficience at a whim, reachable only by the particularly religious combination of subservience and demands.

This is (deliberately) distinct from aid-raising in which individual efforts count. it's distinct even from consciousness-raising, in which the minds of the public are the target. This is specifically an all dancing all singing *prayer* to "the leaders of the world", that could they please wave a wand and fix everything. Any martian observing would certainly see it as religion.

Tim,

I get notified by e-mail whenever there is a comment and there are terminals all around my house (five of them), so all I have to do is stop for a moment, comment and then go back to whatever off-line thing I was doing :-)

I have visions of alarm bells ringing at your Bond-like underground HQ every time I link to the site :)

I was in Edinburgh yesterday and I, and the other 200 plus thousand there, know exactly what the problem is. Part of the problem is those who pray to the great god of the market, that will solve all problems as long as we let the market decide everything. Wasn't that tried in the 20's didn't it go tits up. Wasn't that tried in the 80's didn't it go tits up. What developing nations need is the ability to compete on a level plying field with the ability to protect their fledgling industries in the short term - US cotton farmers get more subsidies than the GDP of Burkina Faso. Aid should be without strings attached - 70% of US aid must be spent on US goods. Who exactly is getting aid there? The Live 8 concerts are a means of raising awareness and if you take a look at the UK press.... On the whole concert as religion thing. How many stadium gigs have you been too? I've lost count of how many I've been too and they are all like that.