The entire discussion – deconstruction, death of the author, nothing but the text etc., – may have gently floated beyond me, but here’s somethingelse altogether.
This morning’s Financial Times carries an article by two prominent public figures, Ban Ki-Moon and Al Gore. In case you need reminding, one is the United Nations Secretary-General, while the other is a former Vice-President of the United States of America and author of An Inconvenient Truth
The article itself, Green growth is essential to any stimulus, promotes various initiatives which may well turn out to be of significance in the Grand Scheme of Things. What caught my attention, however, is the concluding paragraph:
For millions of people from Detroit to Delhi these are the worst of times. Families have lost jobs, homes, healthcare and even the prospect of their next meal. With so much at stake, governments must be strategic in their choices. We must not let the urgent undermine the essential. Investing in the green economy is not an optional expense. It is a smart investment for a more equitable, prosperous future.
This is such a spun-up, rousing conclusion to an article as you would see in a Hollywood courtroom drama.
Are we so complacent and so trusting that we don’t ask the basic question? Call me cynical, call me tom, heck, call me cynical tom, but there is no way on this Green Earth that Ban Ki-Moon and Al Gore actually wrote the words that make up that paragraph. Who writes Al Gore’s “Op-Ed” pieces?
We must not let the urgent undermine the essential
Looks to me they took a leaf out of Covey.
