the risk of modernity

these days i like to take the luxury (or the risk) of dwelling on the past.
thinking about the places i have been, the people i have been with, those who have been with me. no doubt it takes from the present, a toll. nevertheless, a consequence of age, accumulating time and experience, we write to remember.

the risk of modernity. people see it differently. development a mandatory ideology for those who have not yet outrun their resources, regret for those who can barely remember the time before.

in tourism studies, many have trouble thinking beyond the gilded edges of the 'operation', to what place tourism as a social phenomenon has in the world. there is little concern for the politics of conservation and development, the big theoretical picture of 'the base' (resources and stakeholders) and 'concerns about the base' (distribution of benefits, and sustainability) and 'threats to the base' (that rapid or over-development is not progress) -- think about Bhutan's Gross National Happiness next time the stock reports come in in red.

the vicious cycle of 'threats to the base' is cause and effect as natural and human disasters play against each other, the delicate balance of life masquerades as resilient and limitless in its abundance.

but the sign, the warning comes when nostalgia sets in. when nostalgia in its dementia -- distorted and romantic glory appears we look upon the representations and simulations of the past that might have never existed and say, "that's the way it was" !!