Battle of the Enlightened Progressive Scolds

Oops, we're stubbing a lot of toes here. Fact is no one likes to spurn the opportunity to party and to listen to loud music, the watch celebrated popular artists perform. And if it's in the name of a good cause, all the better. After all, piety accrues to one's attendance at such affairs, meant to affirm one's sensitivity to the needs of others.

For the 1980s Live Aid concerts the idea was to bring people together for the purpose of entertainment and celebration, while pricking their consciences sufficiently to raise awareness and aid to ameliorate the African famine. Today, the event du jour is the environment and everyone's on board.

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has made it his life-work to bring the state of the environment front and centre on everyone's radar, to impress upon the public, through fair means or foul that this is of concern to everyone, we're all responsible and we're all part of the solution. We've got to alter our perceptions about what is truly necessary to maintain life on earth.

Before matters deteriorate to the extent that life on earth can no longer be maintained.

That's a severe message, right? Modify it slightly by bringing to the masses what they most crave. Fun! Entertainment! So eight Live Earth concerts were on offer at sites as dispersed as London, Sydney, Shanghai, Hamburg, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and New Jersey. And flashed around the world through the marvels of modern technology.

Isn't there always a fly in the ointment? Like dammit, finding out that Al Gore is a teeny weeny bit of a hypocrite? Oh sure, that needn't diminish the message, but it certainly sours one on the messenger. Oops, here's none other than Bob Geldof, critiquing the Live Earth concerts, like what's the point..."Everybody's known about that problem for years. We are all (expletive) conscious of global warming."

And then there's The Who's Roger Daltrey (who's he, anyway?) informing British media that "the last thing the planet needs is a rock concert". Just so. But bread and circuses have always brought out the hordes. So what if the resulting carbon emissions produced by the events themselves outweigh the benefits of increased awareness. Now who is raining on whose parade?

And who wants to miss out on seeing and hearing those hard-core committed environmentalists, like Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lenny Kravitz, Garth Books, Bon Jovi and Justin Timberlake?

Psst...who are they, anyway?