|
about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: The Name Game
What
would Confucius say?
By
ADI IGNATIUS
July
10, 2000
Web posted at 10:30 a.m. Hong Kong time, 10:30 p.m. EDT
Does it bother anyone else that the era we live in defies characterization? That we're no longer capable of referring properly to anything. Consider the Internet, the defining achievement of our time. What do you call the millions of people who use it? Users? That's pathetically straightforward. Visitors? It sounds so temporary, so noncommittal. Viewsers, as Hong Kong cyberboy Richard Li suggests? Lame. Surfers? Please. Browsers? Woof.
|
INTERACTIVE |
|
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
|
|
Confucianism teaches that the most important thing for a society is the rectification of names. If we don't use the precise words, the sage said, then we are doomed to live our lives as lies, and society will be a sham. I'm not sure what all of that means, but it sounds bad. And I have a feeling Confucius would be mightily unimpressed with what we've done so far with the 21st century.
| |
ASIA BUZZ |
|
|
ASIAWEEK |
Intelligence
The story behind today's news from the editors of Asiaweek
|
|
Let's consider the first decade of this new century. Despite the attempts of many of us who sounded the alarm in 1998 and '99, we still don't have a working title for this span. Think of what you'd say about a slightly dated trend, like the Internet IPO explosion: That's s-o-o-o '90s. O.K., so what about the newest It-things: lightweight scooters, survival TV shows, Eminem: They're s-o-o-o '00s. How do you pronounce that? No one even tries.
Has anyone coined a term that's actually catching on? The only phrase for the decade that seems to have any traction is "the start of the 21st century." Catchy.
Is it possible that this inarticulation portends the decay of civilization? I hope not, because I just downloaded a bunch of cool stuff on my Palm Pilot. (That device, too, is a minefield. What am I when I use it? A user? A pilot? A Palm-enabled person?)
Someone, please, come to our rescue. Any neo-Confucians out there?
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
Write
to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com
Search
for recent
Asia Buzz
TIME Asia home
|
|
LATEST HEADLINES:
|
Click Here for the latest regional analysis from TIME Asia
|
|
