| COFFEEHOUSE CULTURE -- Issue 1 | ||
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PAGE ONE; ARTICLE TWO; NEWS STORY SEATTLE'S BATTLES As the straight media focused on the violent minority involved in |
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| It has been a long time since public feeling ran high enough in the States to get people onto the streets and making enough noise to attract world wide media interest. But the protests in Seattle designed to disrupt the World Trade Organisation meeting during the last week in November did just that. But, as usual, the straight media focused on all the wrong things, missing completely the real significance of more than 50,000 people protesting about a global issue rather than a national or personal one. There has never been a protest quite this one. The meeting of the World Trade Organisation provided a focus for the various dissatisfactions of all those who can see the global economy turning the world into little more than a profit centre. Full-blown anarchists marched alongside assorted environmentalists and animal and human rights activists but that didn't matter because they were all protesting about the same thing. And what exactly was that? There have been few issues as disturbing in recent decades as the sharp decline in social values. As society has become increasingly commercial, the traditional social values that made for civilisation have become eroded. This has resulted in a dehumanisation of the world and its resources. Reflected in a lack of common humanity, a decline in ethical values and a debasement of the minimum accepted standards for civilised societies, it is this dehumanisation that was the subject for the protests in Seattle and elsewhere. For the majority of people in western societies who have been witness to the decline in social standards but have been unable to see any clear focus for protest, the events in Seattle offer some hope. And, for the several million readers of 'The Celestine Prophesy', perhaps a little more than hope. In his bestseller, author James Redfield describes a series of changes in social attitude which mark a movement away from dehumanisation towards life at a higher level. As the basis for his predictions, Redfield accurately describes a slow spiritual awakening, reflected in an ill-defined 'restlessness', starting in the 1960s and, he says, reaching fulfilment at the end of the century. Although his time scale might be a little out, it is evident that such an awakening is taking place. In many ways, the Seattle protests could be seen as providing a certain vindication of Redfield's prophesy. James Redfield, of course, in not alone in predicting major changes as the new millennium draws on. Many pundits, ancient and modern, predict tempestuous times for the world over the coming decades. |
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Or read these Page One articles in Plain Text: We've Arrived and Prove It we're Here Red Eyes in the Morning, Optician's Warning 8.5 Million People Can't Be Wrong Outta Site |
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