I was watching TV the other evening and switching between a few channels to see what was on and came across something on BBC4 which was described as “A spectacular aerial journey following the world\u2019s longest monument … in slow-TV style”. I have watched bits of other programmes which were “in slow-TV style” and generally they are, actually, rather attractive – in that they draw you in to watch what is, often, not very much!! This one was the same – although actually compared to the journey along a canal this was not quite so slow as it was more like ‘highlights’ than true “slow-TV”. Doing the maths they were in effect travelling at over 1500km\/hr – hardly slow.<\/p>\n
However, that is not the purpose of this post. Rather it is comparing the subject matter of the programme with something that is tremendously pertinent in modern day USA – a wall. Yes, the programme was following along the\u00a0Great Wall of China<\/a>\u00a0– or to be more accurate some sections of it as it would have been impossible to show it all in a show lasting just one and a half hours. As one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World, this wall clearly is something that is viewed as “special” by many people.<\/p>\n Yet, its purpose was precisely the same as that of the wall that President Trump would like to build along the border with Mexico. Something that few people would recognise as a “wonder of the world”. It is slightly trite to ask “why is that” – but it is pertinent to point out that the two structures are, in terms of functionality”, identical. Assuming the “Trump Wall” did indeed cover the entire border then it would be longer than the Great Wall – would that make it the “even greater wall” – and would people in several hundred years time vote for it as one of the seven wonders of the world?<\/p>\n Just saying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was watching TV the other evening and switching between a few channels to see what was on and came across something on BBC4 which was described as “A spectacular aerial journey following the world\u2019s longest monument … in slow-TV style”. I have watched bits of other programmes which were “in slow-TV style” and generally … Continue reading “A Matter of Perspective”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[79,119],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ignorance","tag-cognition","tag-worldview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}