Matt Damon Loves China (And Mark Allen)

Here's a little pop-quiz for you - who said this about the Szechuan earthquake?

"...I got a letter, from the Tibetan Foundation that they want to go and be helpful. And that made me cry. And they ask me if I would write a quote about that and I said, “I would.” And it was a big lesson to me, that some times you have to learn to put your head down and be of service...." [Transcrīpt from Speak4China] A)  Patrick Lee

B)  Matt Damon

C)  Sharon Stone

D)  Mark Allen

Now... I really want you to answer this in your head before reading on.  Got it?

Okay - well, it's not Matt Damon.

The real answer is Sharon Stone.  In fact, this was the same paragraph that she supposedly said the earthquake was a result of karma.

Now, I don't know Sharon Stone and I don't care what people think about her.  Personally, I find it really weird that she was talking to the press like they were children in her speech (which Matt Damon would  never do and might have given away my quiz) - but I still don't care.  What I do care about is how our entire world culture is starting to exist on headlines without doing any research.

Today I saw an article that began:

"Sharon Stone is facing a $1 billion lawsuit from the victims of China's recent earthquake after she controversially blamed the disaster on "karma". "

First of all - it's a ridiculous law suit.  Secondly, she never did what is being described here.

Ms. Stone's entire point in her oddly phrased speech was actually saying this:

She feels close to Tibet and the Dali Lama and doesn't like how China is treating the situation in Tibet and when the earthquake happened, it crossed her mind "Is that Kharma?"  (note that is is being used as a rhetorical question here, not a statement - like someone who is learning what karma means.)  And then she says she received a letter from the Tibet foundation asking her to help and that this was a lesson for her about putting your head down and being of service despite what you think about political things.

Frankly, the shocking part is that someone would admit publicly that they actually learned a lesson versus that they are a know it all.  In actuality - it's quite a humble and beautiful thing she's trying to convey.  I'm shocked she tried to say it at all.

Unfortunately - apparently exposing that she actually had a thought for a moment of which she later repented by learning a lesson is so unheard of today that she was totally crucified on a world wide level for it.

This kind of thing is happening ALL - THE - TIME.  I blogged about the Miley Sirus "nude photos" earlier.  (There were no nude photos but most people seemed to happily ignore that fact and freak out anyway.)

Why does it upset me?  Because these things happen for a reason.  Marketers are getting very very good at manipulating our headlines based world culture.  And when it happen, you better know that someone has a reason for wanting you to believe something which isn't true.

Do you think the fact that Sharon Stone's movies and celebrity were crushed in China was just a result of a quip she made?  I believe someone has an interest in bringing her down because they don't like her opinion and influence.  

That's how things work. 

Don't accept being a pawn in this game. 

And it doesn't just happen to celebrities.  Don't think you're immune, you could be the game one day.

So - Mark - what the hell does this have to do with Matt Damon?

Well - two things.  One, I just wanted to use the headline trick on you so you thought I was joking when I put Sharon Stone as an option... and underscore my point about headlines... and sorry, I couldn't just stop at him loving China, he needed to love me too... well... it's my blog!  

Secondly, I chose Matt Damon (vs. Daniel Wu which would have been the obvious choice to gain readership) to underscore that this stuff is happening everyday - I wanted to point to an article by quarter to three ( http://www.quartertothree.com/inhouse/news/437/

 ) [a videogame blog] where the blogger recounts how he heard a headline about Matt Damon....  "Matt Damon [Is] OK With Movie Violence, Not OK With Game Violence" and he actually decided to look into this and see where it came from and how wrong it ended up being.  It's a fascinating article and I recommend the read even if you don't care about videogames.

Marketing or propaganda, there is really a fine line if any at all.  

There are two kinds of censorship -

one doesn't let you hear anything;

the other doesn't let you hear the truth.