First of all I'd like to say that if it weren't for the current 'system' we
would not have been able to express these views which we
are expressing. This includes Communism and Socialism. As even
in these there are freedoms. Though you might not think it.
Secondly I do not agree with what you think empowers you.
(Sorry this sounds like I am aiming this at you personally but there
are many people around the world who think this way. I think
I even attended a course where they said the same thing)
Anything that can be taken away from you is not empowering
but enslaving. That which no one can take from you is
empowering. That which you stated as being empowering is
that which the 'system' makes you think is empowering.
The current 'systems' has allowed us to think this way. But
that is where it ends. We have seen the cracks. That is all
we have to thank it for and that is where it ends.
> ----------
> From: RISKYBIZ9@aol.com[SMTP:RISKYBIZ9@aol.com]
> Reply To: moq_discuss@moq.org
> Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 2:06 PM
> To: moq_discuss@moq.org
> Subject: Re: MD HELP - Consumerism, homogonisation and the
> degregation of quality
>
> Hi David, Platt, Rasheed, Joel, Andrea and a half dozen others now.....
>
> Please take this feedback with a grain of salt, your initial post
> expressed a
> lot of sincerity and intelligence. I hope I can add rather than subtract
> to
> both.
>
> If I could be so bold, the problems you observe aren't with americana or
> consumerism. They aren't deviously controlled by advertisers or nefarious
>
> "factory managers." The thing you are revolting against is to be
> subservient
> to social values. You see beyond the social values of beauty, wealth,
> position, power, fitting-in, being cool and sexy, etc.
>
> In your writing you frequently allude to influential manipulators that
> somehow ruined the pure, happy, level-headed pre-industrialists with
> capitalist, consumerist values. I suggest you are missing that people
> really
> are that shallow. Oh sure, advertisers, teachers, parents, the media and
> politicians play to our weakenesses, but they aren't creating it out of
> thin
> air. The truth is that people do want and need to be
> sexy/beautiful/powerful/wealthy/respected. Americana didn't create those
> values, it EMPOWERED them. The shallow, social-focused values are a
> reflection of what many of the people around us pursue. But not all. Many
> --
> perhaps even most -- of those that pursue social value don't JUST pursue
> shallow quality.
>
> By the way, I agree that the free enterprise system is currently
> ill-equipped
> to manage non-repleneshable resources.
>
> Free enterprise does not have to be a zero-sum game. We do not have to
> (as
> Rasheed says) 'step on whoever you need to step on to get there." Granted
>
> some people play it that way, but they miss that the value of free
> enterprise
> is in the synergy. More can be created out of specialization, competition
> of
> ideas, expertise, trade, cooperation etc than is put in. Those that play
> capitalism in a harmful way (ie in a strictly win/lose fashion) only
> detract
> from total value. But I repeat, it can be played to mutual benefit, and
> it
> is when it is that the world becomes better.
>
> The reference to Adam Smith's invisible "finger" as the source of our
> evils
> is interesting. On the one hand, you refer to free enterprise as doing
> nothing for those engaged in it, but then you blame it for "reducing the
> chance of anyone outside that 6% to have any piece of that wealth." I
> repeat, wealth is a positive sum process (as are societal and intellectual
>
> values in general). The invisible hand is people voluntarily agreeing to
> work with/for/beside each other to accomplish more apart than separately.
> A
> lone individual can pick fruit, a team can catch rabbits, and several
> hundred million together can build a 747. Capitalism did not create the
> other 94%, it inherited it. And so far, only free enterprise (and the
> intellectual values that blossom off this level) has offered any hope.
> Please don't blame the medicine for the disease.
>
> Roger
>
>
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