Am I the only one who thinks the idea behind Live 8 (i.e. to put pressure on those at the G8 summit) is complete rubbish?
I'm all for free music concerts, but BobG has really lost the plot if he thinks that's how politicians make choices, or even if the people attending the concerts are there for any other reason than to get a free concert.
Live8 looked pretty good, and I wish I could have got tickets (I'll save my rant about ticketmaster for another day) but I wouldn't expect anyone to be fooled into thinking I would attend for any other reason than free tickets.
Not that I don't want the G8 leaders to be more concerned about global issues - I do. I just think this is a daft way to go about it.
That is how stars do it. They gives concerts really thinking that you care what their political motivations are when in reality you just take advantage of a great free concert regardless of what it is "for".
Hey, it worked during the last election cycle right? Right?
Nope. You're certainly not the only one. If Live 8 was supposed to be some kind of Live Aid revisited, it was a miserable sequel.Am I the only one who thinks the idea behind Live 8 (i.e. to put pressure on those at the G8 summit) is complete rubbish?
With Live Aid, it followed nearly a year's worth of pleas to help the starving in Ethiopia, and two songs with incessant airplay. From the man-on-the-street interviews I've heard this week, people generally (a) don't know a G8 from a B9, (b) don't know what, when, where, or why there's a G8 summit, (c) don't know what the agenda is behind Live 8, and (d) if they've even heard about debt relief, are generally behind it (What, it's not about magic forgiveness of Visa bills and student loans? What Gives?)
On top of it all, the whole thing was hastily organized in, what, one month? The only kind of public opinion that can change in that kind of time generally goes from Star Wars is going to be the greatest movie of the summer to Dammit, I want my $9 back, Lucas!
So how are the spinsters trying to play this? It'll be a huge win if 15% of the people who attend sign an online petition for debt forgiveness and more aid for Africa...
Sounds like a job for Dr. Pudge. Just put a few Red Sox on the petition, and there'll be millions of signatures in no time.
Re:You are not alone
pudge on 2005-07-13T21:52:59
You guys must really hate poor people!
(I figure there's enough people singing my tune on this one, I'll play the other side for awhile.:-) Re:You are not alone
ziggy on 2005-07-14T04:37:37
Stop playing devil's advocate and start signing petitions already!
Oh, is that what this is about? I honestly didn't even know. I thought it was a charity thing, like "We are the World" and "Band Aid." But I don't even listen to what most of the rest of the world calls "music," I barely know what the two events I just mentioned were, and I've spent the last few weeks thinking "Why is this in the news so much?" at every Live 8 headline.
Knowing it's not simply a charity event makes it even more depressing that this is being so hyped.
Now it just reminds me of this.
