Hi I'm new to the list so forgive me for my presumption and spelling.
I agree that advertising and consumerism a
symptom of that which ills our current society. By banning or
propaganda against these will make matter only worse.
Remember that it is easy to become what you hate the most.
To me honesty is part of excellence. Not the honesty the authorities
try to teach you so that you may tell on your friends and family, but
the honesty with one self. So using a form of propaganda is basically
doing what you hate the most. You will become those you seek
to destroy and then suddenly find yourself on the wrong side or lets say the
wrong place.
What you should be trying to do is develop is an understanding of
all things. So that you may know what motivates those that you
think are lost. I say think because you must always relies in life
that you may be the one in error and not those who are around you.
To condemn anybody is to be those that are lost. Strive to understand.
Strive for excellence. Great people of today and the past all strove to
understand and if ever, condemned few. They where more likely
to have sympathy for those that seem to be in the wrong.
I know this is not the solution that you where seeking but I think
(and I am under correction here) this is a first good step towards
our own excellence.
One last thing. A good example of this occurred once when I was
talking to a friend. We had a difference of opinion on a subject. My friend
stated his point if view on the subject. In stating it he used no
motivations to make me believe him. He was just stating his
point of view. In short what he did was the ultimate of Quality. He
made no argument that my point of view was wrong. All he stated
was his point and then stopped. At the end both our views stood
and we had both won.
> ----------
> From: david wilkinson[SMTP:o_evolve_o@hotmail.com]
> Reply To: moq_discuss@moq.org
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 12:47 PM
> To: moq_discuss@moq.org
> Subject: MD we cant hide any more
>
> We need to petition to ban all forms of advertising that feature normative
>
> statements. As a child of cunsumerism I find myself hopelessly
> underepresented in a world which is becomming more and more homogenous,
> this
> must stop, for the sake of my and subsequent generations and for the sake
> of
> this planet. I study Sociology and Economics at Auckland university in
> New
> Zealand and i am looking for a workable political system that uses quality
>
> as its fuel rather than our current fascination with materialistic
> consumerism. I walk to my supermarket and see rows upon rows of
> homogenous
> products, not choice that I have been told to believe but something more
> perverse, any tiny difference is highlighted and we are told we need it
> through the guise of free choice. Free choice is not what it is. We are
> bound by so many different constraints, particularly budget, that we end
> up
> choosing between products that are so similar that there is no real
> choice.
> We have lost touch with quality (Quality is best described, I believe by
> Zen
> and the art of motorcycle maintainence and Lila. both by robert M pirsig)
>
> Why is it necessarry for all this pseudo choice? What we need is products
>
> that arent advertised as they are now. We need to have advertising that
> shows the product and gives a price, not wrapped up in a shiny wrapper.
> FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION. Economically this also makes sense in Aam Smiths
> invisible hand concept. People will start choosing product based on how
> it
> best achieves their particular need, not through our current advertising
> induced distortion. All fonts should be similar, all colouring removed
> from
> ingredients, this would lead to people not having any pre disposed ideas
> about a certain product except for a breif description available on the
> packaging (this description must first be approved by a consumer watchdog
> organisation) This will allow firms to compete on a far more even footing
>
> as massive capital expenditure on advertising will become almost pointless
>
> (the big pharmaceutical companies spend 3 times as much on advertising
> than
> they do on product development/research), and also meake products less
> expensive. This will create a situation where products that have quality
> will be what people buy, and I am happy to give cash to these firms.
> This
> would obviously result in quite severe reshuffling of resources and many
> people would become unemployed as all these dispensors of poor quality
> products would have no marketing to induce people to purchase them,
> leading
> to unemployment. Whilst initially this would be a problem of large
> proportions, the market demand will remain similar if the product is
> actually needed so unemployed workers will be absorbed into these new
> companies who will now have a massively increased demand. Peoples psyche
> would be forced to change as suddenly all this nonsense that a lot of
> people
> strive to (material wealth) will be of little consequence - populations
> would then have to apply their time to advancement of products - cheaper
> methods of production, more ecologically sound, more efficient products
> and
> so on or better still, divorce themselves from this ridiculous consumer
> society and start doing some free thinking, which I believe has been
> almost
> bred out of us since the industrial revolution and subsequent mass
> production mentality. Without these societal constraints inflicted by
> advertising, free will will flourish and as such diversification will
> occur,
> which I believe is vitally important for my particular playstation
> generation. All this however can be circumvented in a few generations by
> a
> new schooling system, one which places less emphasis on money generating
> occupations and instead teaches children the meaning quality. These
> educated people would then choose products and occupations based on thier
> utility rather than our corporate induced image of "coolness", and the
> same
> supply and demand issues will arise.. Why do we buy underpants with
> vastly
> inflated prices because it has a mans name on them. Why do we pay markups
>
> of hundreds of % for a T shirt with a small swoosh on it, when in both
> situations equal quality products are available at vastly cheaper prices,
> we
> have been raped and decieved. This has got to stop, and I would like to
> thank you for providing the facilities to see that people are doing
> something about this predicament, for this I thank you in all sincereness.
>
> BUT I dont think it is enough, we MUST get mass exposure, and I think the
> best way of doing this is to beat them at their own game. It is futile to
>
> try and stop an avalance with a wall, instead if you can redirect the
> energy
> then you can control it, this is what we need to do - it is too late for
> the
> baby boomers and pretty much too late for generation X, it is in youth
> that
> attention needs to be spent as this youth will obviously be the ones
> making
> the decisions in 20-30 years time, and I know by being in this demograph,
> that we are open to suggestions, the combined weight of 100 years of mass
> production and 50 years of bombardment advertising has made us ripe for
> inserting memes, and also youths biological propencity to rebel against
> authority. This is the key I believe, pull the rug from underneath the
> big
> business (I like how they dont call them corporations anymore, big
> business
> sounds much more friendly) no more new consumer drones.
>
> We cant hide any longer,
>
> ANYONE WITH ANY SUGGESTIONS AT ALL ON A WORKABLE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM THAT
>
> DOES NOT RELY ON CONSUMERISM PLEASE CONTACT ME. i LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND AND
>
> AS SUCH HAVE A FAR GREATER CHANCE OF BRINGING ABOUT CHANGE THAN IS
> AVAILABLE
> TO AMERICA (WE ALSO DIDNT SPAWN THIS WHOLE PREDICAMENT) OUR POPULATION IS
> RELAXED AND SOCIALLY AWARE ENOUGH TO CONSIDER AN ALTERNATIVE - WE HAVE
> DONE
> SO IN THE PAST - WE ARE NUCLEAR FREE ( INCLUDING BANNING NUCLEAR SHIPS
> FROM
> OUR WATERS {WHICH HAS AN IMPORTANT STRATEGIC POSITION} AND ARE VERY AWARE
> OF
> ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES. WE HAVE ONLY 4 MILLION PEOPLE AND STILL HAVE A
> RELATIVE WEALTH SIMILAR TO ALL OTHER 'ADVANCED' NATIONS. OUR FREE MARKET
> ECONOMY WAS A BOLD AND UNIQUE EXPERIMENT AND WE HAVE A VERY LIBERAL SOCIAL
>
> ATTITUDE TOWARDS CANNABIS (THOUGH LAW HAS NOT BEEN SO ACCOMODATING, MAINLY
>
> BECAUSE OF FEAR OF REPERCUSSIONS FROM THE US APPARANTLY). dESPITE STRONG
> PROTESTS FROM THE US WE HAVE JUST ANNOUNCED THE DISBANDMENT OF OUR
> AIRFORCE
> STRIKE CAPABILITIES AND THE PUBLIC SUPPORTS VASTLY REDUCED DEFENCE
> SEPNDING
> - WE REALISE THAT WE CANNOT COMPETE SO WHY TRY, ANY COUNTRY WHO REALLY
> WISHES TO TAKE US OVER CAN WITH LITTLE EFFORT, AND WE ARE GEOGRAPHICALLY
> SO
> FAR AWAY FROM EVERYWHERE ELSE THAT THRERE WOULDNT BE MUCH REASON TO IVADE
> ANYWAY (WE HOLD NO REAL COMMERCIAL QUANTITIES OF ANY RESOURCE. i THINK
> THIS
> SHOWS THAT WE ARE FREE THINKING, ASSESS THE PROS AND CONS AND MAKE
> DECISIONS
> RELATIVE TO US, NOT BE PUSHED AROUND LIKE OTHER SMALLER NATIONS AND AS A
> RESULT WE ARE PROBABLY MORE LIKELY THAN ANY OTHER INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRY
> TO
> ACCEPT A NEW SYSTEM
>
> Thank you once again and all the very best
>
> evolve
>
> david wilkinson
> _________________________________________________________________________
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>
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