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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, December 04, 2002
A Little History Lesson
Thank God -- or rather, thank the BBC -- for Simon Schama. His episodic History of Britain is showing repeatedly on the History Channel, and I simply can't get enough of its meaty goodness. The show stands out like a beacon of honest, communicative intelligence in the rest of that channel's turgid output (which seems largely concerned with how many times it can get footage of Panzer tanks and large explosions on the screen). Watch it once and you'll see what I mean.
Schama is like everyone's favorite history teacher: he makes this stuff come alive without using big words. He turns great swathes of a century into a warm, human story, without employing a Tolstoy-like cast of thousands. And he's just a little bit naughty, puncturing the pompous egos of the past with well-chosen quips. Most importantly, he's not afraid to send political messages -- not by thrusting them in our face, but by casually lifting up metaphorical rocks. The follies of the past are so obvious, once explosed to daylight, that nothing need be added. Take the British Empire. It was founded on trade, Schama reminds us, and on the concept that the poor nations of the world needed economic guidance and Western goods. The people at the top of the heap thought they were being benevolent. They knew people were starving because international trade was more important than feeding the hungry, but they always assumed their enlightened system would lift everyone up in the end. They were unable to perceive their own arrogance, precisely because they were at the top of the heap.
Sound familiar? I smacked my forehead after that one. It was the best argument against globalization I've ever heard. And believe me, I've heard a lot of half-baked arguments against globalization. This one got through, it clarified the whole damn issue, it practically made me want to run through the streets of Seattle lobbing rocks through Starbucks' windows. And it never once mentioned the words WTO, World Bank -- or, indeed, globalization. Funny how history can do that, in the right hands.
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