From Massive Change to its Urban Focal Points

Historically I wonder if other moments of possibly massive changed have been greeted with anything like sagacity of its contemporaries. Interesting times seem to be upon us. However, our interest in the international and national goings-on seems to swing from obsessive-compulsive attention to a listlessly passive browsing and watching of news. Was it also as ennuieux as it feels to be when reports on industry, policy and society read as forgone conclusions? The condition is more emotional than intellectual though. Learned articles go over the movements of defense and repudiation, running commentary solemnly repeats tried and true formula, private response remains in an undecided state of mind welcoming things to come. Rather than for a community to come, the expectation is for a symbolic event to come. Like a Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. It had a force of a carnival, a play and a ceremony all rolled into one event. A massively symbolic representation of a place the urban dymensions of its change only dimly register on collective imagination of its observers. If all previous periods of massive change had their urban focal points, than one may surmise that the present wave of transition towards a yet to be explored situation will have as one of its more visible bases in China.