Gary Shteyngart in Seoul: ‘A Megacity With Endless Incongruities’

Interesting article on Seoul and it brings up a lot of questions/concerns about the breakneck speed at which many urban areas all over Asian are moving.  Namely, where will it all end and will things really be better or just different and potentially worse?  You could consider what is occurring in Asian to be the Industrial Revolution of the East, only in fast forward!  It is surprising and scary that some of the lessons that the West is just now learning and trying to cope with because of our Industrial Revolution are being completely ignored by the East. What’s worse is that what is happening there is on a scale and intensity never before seen in the history of mankind.  The East has the benefit of learning from the mistakes that Western society has already made, but seems to be completely ignoring gobs of information that is available to them.  The term used in the article is “overdevelopment” and I think it is a great one-word description of what is happening throughout much of Asia!  Perhaps hyperdevelopment would be more appropriate though!?  Now, before anyone responds to my post with comments like, “The East deserves to have their heyday too,” and “Things are monumentally better there than they used to be, doesn’t that make it all worth it?”, let me just direct you to the first question in my post!  Yes, the East deserves their heyday too, but what is currently happening there smacks of absurd irresponsibility given what we now know as a society and there will be a monumental backlash not just for Asia, but the rest of the world as well!