He's a Goofy Dancer, Not a Prophet of Peace

The combination of image and music is mystical, but not necessarily meaningful
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 2, 2008 6:33 PM CDT

Happy people dancing on planet Earth:NOTE: I DID NOT MAKE THIS VIDEO. DON'T SUE ME.Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious, and no one can watch this video without smiling.
(Ajax557)

No doubt you've seen or heard of the YouTube phenomenon in which Matt Harding dances his way across the world and its cultures, set to a New Age song poem. And no doubt you've heard fans refer to Harding as nothing less than a purveyor of world peace. But please, let's give it a rest, writes Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times.

Harding is a "skilled multimedia edtor," but he's no prophet, Daum writes. And his video isn't so much a "commercial for happiness" as a "commercial for commercials themselves," she says. "Even though it's well established that images have replaced words as our main communication currency, I think we're less aware of the way that adding music can trick us into thinking we're experiencing something deeper than we really are." (More YouTube stories.)

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