open up your eyes

[dr5712]

In politik the lyrics seem to urge us to "open up [our] eyes"

Chris Martin flies by private jet wherever he likes. This includes home (which one?) and back again between gigs when he's on tour, a fact which amazed supporting artist Alison Goldfrapp ("I thought 'What? are you insane?'"). Speaking about his daughter, Martin says "As she gets older, hopefully she'll come out as and when he wants", ie. to visit him on tour.

If you are moved by Chris Martin's pledges of support for the poor, and advocacy of responsible living, then where is your sense of outrage at this frankly unbelievable hypocracy? Is it his example we should all follow?

Reputable journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot (author of widely acclaimed political economy books, Guardian columnist) estimates that his flying habits alone, exceed the sustainable level of carbon emissions for individuals, by 250 times! 250 times! his flying habits alone! He also drives a 4x4 gas guzzler around town.

Doesn't this make your head spin? I'm alarmed.

(For more disturbingly enlightening facts about famous figures visit "www.turnuptheheat.org".)

[Ondes Martenot]

i admire George Monbiot and you have the point, but!

 

Chris Martin is a hypocrite like many others and let's separate the music that he makes from personal attitudes

[dr5712]

nuh

 

clearly noone is perfect. does that absolve the less perfect of rebuke? i think not. it is not a sufficient defence that everyones a hypocrite. This is disgusting.

 

Further, im confused by your suggestion that we separate the music from the personal attitudes. For one i did not mention anything about the music, so im curious as to why you think it is relevant to this post (i wasnt aware this was a purely musical forum- indeed it is not so). But i would say that this particular artist uses to great effect his sense of moral outrage to foster an extensive following (live 8 springs to mind). Certainly there is an unmistakable "political" streak in x and y.I do not know what you mean by "separate the music" and i suspect you do not know what you mean either. The music, the attitudes, and the politics to me seem manifestly inextricably interwoven. Rather like telling a food critic who is tasting a chicken curry "ok the chicken is burnt, but lets separate the chicken from the cooking". It doesnt make much sense.

 

Martin's behaviour is unacceptable, and noone, especially the fans who fund his private jet's fuel, should turn a blind eye.

[fudge]

i think we could all be accused of being hypocrites. I know that, from my point of view the state of the world concerns me and yet I do nothing to prevent global warming or even attempt to be environmentally friendly!

 

Regarding your point that you have not referred to the music at all.......I direct your attention to the title you chose for this thread and your opening statement.

[Ondes Martenot]

what i said and meant under "separate music from the rest": artists should be judged for their music, that won't make their music better or worse if they support charity or their flying habits exceed by 250 times the carbon norm. and i don't really think the fans will change their opinion about Chris and Coldplay as musicians

yes i disappointed in him too and those numbers stunned me, but for god's sake i like or dislike Coldplay for their music and not for their personalities lol

 

i don't even know what are you trying to prove, the people are not blind, they either believe in these facts or they don't

[dr5712]

You are right I did quote a lyric, although the points was more of an ethical one. It wasnt really related to the music. Sorry though.

 

With regards to the "we are all hypocrites" point, I agree. To say "I am not a hypocrite" basically means "I think Im perfect". And no ones perfect. But for goodness sake, you must see the difference between Martin's behaviour, and your own defeatest inaction which you speak of (which believe me i can understand). Martin preaches on a massive scale ideals which he frankly openly shits all over. This is intolerable. Such people are not worthy of respect, they deserve our disdain. He is a powerful man, he abuses that power. You are not.

 

To acknowledge universal imperfection is one thing, but to accept such imperfection and not try to improve it, is surely sealing the victory for the devil. Martin's imperfection is not small. Its outrageous. The extravagance is just jawdropping, and you seem intent on making excuses for it. Why?

[dr5712]

You may find the notion that fans buy music on the basis of personalities funny, but the bands public relations team clearly dont. Thats why so much effort is made in sculpting their public appearance- makeup, interviews, merchandise, websites, etc. These things are not pure music.

[busybeeburns]

I encourage free speech on this site and you are welcome here with your radical views but I would appreciate it if you didn't spam the same topic by posting multiple threads, it makes me angry ;)

[Ondes Martenot]

honestly, what is more important for you?

 

1) prove that Martin is a hypocrite

or

2) encourage people to do something against global warming

 

i'm not defending either Chris Martin, his interests or his actions, but this is not the right way to prevent the global warming. moreover, i would also like to ask him about all that "shit" he does, but definitely privately, face to face, vis-a-vis. not buying his records or not going to his concerts wouldn't solve anything. Coldplay's music has nothing to do with Martin's personal "hypocrite views".

the fans can't change Chris Martin but THEY CAN DO AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING, and it's more important

 

so instead of criticising Chris Martin because of his "dumb actions" (this is a personal issue which may be solved with sending an e-mail, letter, whatever to his address), encouraging people to recycle, to do not drive their cars when they can walk or ride a bike and to do not pollute the atmosphere would be more useful and more appreciated :thumbsup:

[Flying Sparks]

I absolutely agree with Nik. Chris might have done something wrong, but he still encourages other people, and he certainly doesn't use his power for bad, but for good things! It might be true that some of his actions show that he's maybe just a hypocryte, but at least he makes us aware of all these problems - the question, if he himself is even aware of that, is another topic..

[The Scientist Man]

I don't really know what to say:\

[frostbitepanda]

In politik the lyrics seem to urge us to "open up [our] eyes"

Chris Martin flies by private jet wherever he likes. This includes home (which one?) and back again between gigs when he's on tour, a fact which amazed supporting artist Alison Goldfrapp ("I thought 'What? are you insane?'"). Speaking about his daughter, Martin says "As she gets older, hopefully she'll come out as and when he wants", ie. to visit him on tour.

If you are moved by Chris Martin's pledges of support for the poor, and advocacy of responsible living, then where is your sense of outrage at this frankly unbelievable hypocracy? Is it his example we should all follow?

Reputable journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot (author of widely acclaimed political economy books, Guardian columnist) estimates that his flying habits alone, exceed the sustainable level of carbon emissions for individuals, by 250 times! 250 times! his flying habits alone! He also drives a 4x4 gas guzzler around town.

Doesn't this make your head spin? I'm alarmed.

(For more disturbingly enlightening facts about famous figures visit "www.turnuptheheat.org".)

 

I'm really confused.

 

Chris doesn't have a private jet. They had one for the tour, but it wasn't his. It wasn't even the band's. It belonged to EMI.

 

And I agree with Nik. I don't care if Chris is a hypocrit: put your efforts and energies towards things that matter.

 

On top of that, it's not like Chris (If he even did this... which I'm not 100 percent sure that he did) is jetting off to go party in one city and come back to Adelaide or where ever for a gig, like alot of celeberties. He's going to see his family and newborn son.

 

You talk of jawdropping extravagance when ther eare celeberties who piss mountains of money away on yatchs and jets that burn, I'm sure, a staggering amount of fuel. And most of them do nothing to try to offset the balance. Atleast Coldplay is buying rainforests in Brazil and planting mango groves in India to try to negate their carbon output.

[ColdMike]

there is already a thread about this topic...

It's going to be boring to say always the same thing... One of the members posted the original article everywhere on this site and it was really annoying...

 

No one's perfect, No one will never be...

 

Anyway, isn't it a bit too late to do sth against the global warming??? Shouldn't we think about this before???

You're critisizing someone who tries to drive ppl to act...

Ok, he drives a BMW X5... and I guess it's not a diesel... and what?

 

We're all involved in the global warming, we're all guilty as some of you said...

 

I agree with Nik, Frostbitepanda, fudge.

[razors_girl23]

Yeah ok he does have a fuel guzzling car, he may take private jet flights often....but how many celebs do this and then do nothing at all for the environment? At least he is doing a great deal of charity work unlike many many other celebs....why whinge about that?

[dr5712]

I’m gonna say one last thing. This thread is pretty much dead now, so I’ll use this as an opportunity to give it one last bit of life, and settle some points.

A few things. If you think that “the music” is separate from the “personal attitudes” I’d dispute that. That’s the point of lyrics; they mean something, otherwise he may just be talking mumbo jumbo. So when I hear for example “if you tolerate this the your children will be next” the sentiment and therefore the song move me. Likewise, the knowledge that garry glitter is nonce influences the way I react to his music; its almost as if the posters on this forum don’t like me knocking Martin cos it pops the image they have of him, and therefore hinders the kick they get out of his music. But this is a complicated issue. The way people react to music, and international pop idols like Chris Martin (and that is just what he is an IDOL) is not something I understand and noone does. But, I do not like the idea of such idols pretending to be saints, when they aren’t.

The claim that the fans cannot influence Martin’s behaviour just seems very obviously false to me. On a financial, and on an emotional level I expect, Martin relies on his fans. It would surprise me immensely if in the face of such a decline in popularity, he continued with his wasteful ways.

The thing about him not owning a private jet is just embarrassing. I never said he owned one, I just said he flew in one, which he does, and it is hideously decadent.

The point is not that Martin is Hitler. He isn’t, and perhaps he’s helped in publicising the biggest issue of the day, climate change. However, it will not do for figureheads of the movement to behave so hypocritically. I know people who have stopped flying, full stop out of concern for the environment. Normal people who have made sacrifices. It is an insult to them and everyone who cares, and to the millions who will almost certainly die as a result of climate change, that a person of such massive wealth and influence should preach and then show complete contempt for the issues in his actions. Most people cant afford to clean their consciences with artificially planted rainforests; the worlds poorest, the probable victims of the likes of martins excesses, certainly cant. It is not hard to see the difference in the levels of hypocracy involved in say driving to work, and those involved in flying around on a private jet non-stop.

This does matter. Ok Chris is not single handedly causing climate change, but if the people shouting about it don’t make sacrifices (and most people would not consider flying on a commercial flight instead of a private jet a massive sacrifice) what chance do we have. The defences being presented here on this site are indicative of the problem; this acceptance and lazyness when it comes to change. Climate change will impose big changes on us whether we like it or not. We all have to get our heads around it- each and every one of us.

Why pick on martin? Well you cant reverse climate change in one thread on a fansite forum. But if enough people start kicking up a fuss, we may stand a better chance of averting catastrophe.