Question: What do you want?
Answer: I don't know.
David Barringer muses on the essential grinding necessity of desire which underpins capitalism. It's a very interesting article in Voice, the AIGA Journal of Design. I don't agree with his last paragraph about a mature economy having transcended the need, though; after all, the Japanese economy has the worst case of novophilia of pretty much anywhere in the world, and that's what drives design there. And besides, I live on a crowded island and I'm not seeing any sign of moderation. I don't think this is geographical, or even linked to anything as concrete as material resources.
Nonetheless, I totally agree with him on one point: we don't know what we want.
Failing that, maybe we need some lessons in how to want.
28 comments:
Of course you don't know what you want - that's why we have to advertise, so you can find out!
Well, I know what I want, but can't afford it.
( I want to travel around the world, taking photos, eating exotic foods, sunbathing, and have money keep appearing in my wallet!)
How To Want: A Guide To Desires and Their Fulfillment
with Dr. N. D. Cisive
What do I want? To ease suffering, to stand as an example to kids and adults alike of someone who considers what I do to be in the best interests of everyone affected by my actions, to constantly and consistently seek out better ways to fulfill the expections of my family and peers, to increase every day my wealth of understanding that by application of tested and true methods for dealing with nature, social forces, and spiritual links to any decision I make I may take pride in my accomplishments.
... and yet you buy so much stuff.
Lottery #: 4 10 19 34 38 45
Organization Behavior, advanced topics: Satisficing theory
Good one, Matt
To be elected Benevolent Planetary Dictator.
.
.
(A) I don't really want the job, which is the main reason I'm running for office (I figure that any person "wanting" to be dictator would probably be a bad choice).
(B) I have very few prejudices, none of them racial in nature so redistribution of global wealth through my "teach a man to fish" initiative should work well up right up until my assassination.
(C) Since absolute power corrupts absolutely, my first law would be to limit the length of term for Planetary Dictator to five years unless re-instated by the population through a majority vote. I haven't figured out how to deter voter fraud yet, so that will be the first task assigned to my international board of directors before I get all corrupt and such.
(D) I'm just this really swell guy, loved by babies and animals, modest almost to a fault, and I figure I can do a way better job than any of the other Dictators that tried to go planetary.
(E) Somebody has to do it before the whole place goes to shit.
(F) Together we will abolish homelessness and educate the masses. There will be a non-GM, free-range chicken in every pot and an environmentally friendly vehicle with a garage to put it in. Third world countries will become prosperous as tourism dollars stay within the countries they are spent alleviating immigration and terrorism, right up until my aforementioned assassination, (see (B).
(G) A vote for me, is a vote for your grandchildren's children.
Thank you, and may He-who-is-all-powerful-but-has-many-names bless and keep you.
Goodnight.
"I want what I don't know "-someone must have said this at some point surely
I think someone just did.
True but I don't know what it means!
Try some phraseology, eg.: "I want I know not what." or "What I want I don't know". Little mood change there. ;)
I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire! Why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
"which unlike traditional accounts, postulates that producers treat profit not as a goal to be maximized, but as a constraint." ...interesting. That's a view I hadn't heard before.
To someone with very concrete, goal oriented thinking (can't parse 'think globally; act locally') that particular verse may denote one's sense of equifinality. I took a peek to how it was wrapped up: by dichotomy rather than conceit, another stroke of genius in the author's ineluctable form.
''we usually do not know the relevant probabilities of outcomes, we can rarely evaluate all outcomes with sufficient precision, and our memories are weak and unreliable. A more realistic approach to rationality takes into account these limitations''
In this regard our PM Mr Brown can be considered a very satisficing Prime Minister-especially in regard to the results of the scrapping of the 10p tax bracket he mooted a year ago.
D'Israeli can't be on his feet!? He should be spinning in his grave!
Isaac ?
Sort of had a way with words, eh? Though his son reprised some of Isaac's quotability (and I suppose softened some of his social perspective for political reasons -- Isaac's publications seemed to carry a veiled rascism) Benjamin never really honed the phrase like his dad.
Yes,and some not so veiled-
''The negroes are lovers of ludicrous actions, and hence all their ceremonies seem farcical.''
Oh yeah. Owing to the furor in England during Isaac's day over consequences of the slave trade and over events such as the Amistad trial, etc. his view probably represented the majority opinion of the time and was to say the least ironic from a Jewish perspective. That kind of remark would get you posted involuntarily to YouTube were you to make it today.
So would this: "The services in wartime are fit only for desperadoes, but in peace are only fit for fools." John Kerr Benjamin D'Israeli
and this: "To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them." Barack O Benjamin D'Israeli
You have to be very careful taking sound bites from historical figures, without relating them to the culture they lived in and the way language was used at the time.
Out of context, who knows exactly what Disraeli senior meant by that - was he actually defending negro dances? "seems farcical" after all, could be something he then went onto dispel. And certainly, he was much of a muchness with his culture, that went on to celebrate negro ceremony for its entertainment value, as we still do today.
So true. (I recall that quote by I D'Isreali very well, but there are many more that gesture the way of other ethnic groups). If I were to guess at the meaning of the quote -- and I use the word quote loosely, since I agree that one is more of a sound bite than an attempt to be pithy -- I would say it means "(Their) cultural expression is by joyous celebration, so their reaction to life's absurdities is to celebrate with a great passion." I don't think the statement was intended to suggest, in fortune cookie style, that the reader take into consideration what "normal" people would otherwise be doing (e.g., while we keep a straight face)
A hundred years later, Theodore Roosevelt, speaking of a lunch he had with Booker T. Washington, said of Mr. Washington, " he talked so well that in five minutes we had forgotten whether he was black or white" --- Maurice Egan The Atlantic May, 1919. As I'm saying, a hundred years later not even being Jesse Ja an ex-president can save your friends from political destruction after you've uttered a phrase like that.
I was musing to myself that Jeremiah Wright really doesn't seem much more inflammatory than, say, Frederick Douglass, and certainly is on a par with the many white polemicists who are approvingly accepted by the establishment here.
I am struck by how many Americans are afraid of the "angry black man" - a fear that itself is an implicit acknowledgement of how badly black men (and women) have been treated historically - so consequently, black men aren't allowed to be angry, even when it's entirely justified.
For myself, I don't see a difference between Jeremiah Wright and Rush Limbaugh, or even Howard Stern - very American demagogues making their points in outrageous terms to get attention.
http://www.spamula.net/col/archives/2005/07/modes_of_salutation_and_amicab.html
"Snelgrave gives an odd representation of the embassy which the king of Dahomey sent to him"
William Snelgrave, for instance, writing about his experience as the captain of a slaver, begins by suggesting that since the slaves were criminals in their own society, taking them away had been doing a favour to Africa. He goes on to detail the measures that needed to be taken in order to ensure calm and avoid mutiny. In comparison the opponents of the trade spell out the inhumanity of its practices. Alexander Falconbridge, also captain of a slaver, describes the practice of selling slaves by “scramble”, where the buyers rush at the group of slaves and grab as many as they could at a time. He outlines some of the tricks used by the sellers: for example, the practice of passing off sick slaves as healthy, by dint of sealing up their anuses with a plug of oakum.
To say there is a shortage of well-qualified, intelligent, and ambitious black Americans is like saying there is a shortage of attractive virgins who live with their parents; an inherent falsehood that if spoken by a non-black outside the scope of a debate on politics of race is considered hateful and when spoken at all by a black outside the scope of a church promoting black liberation theology or the home is considered hateful. Within a debate on politics of race one may expect to only hear that from a non-black -- then it sounds just horrid; but, within a black liberation debate or the home it is likely meant to educate a young mind, and to impress on the listeners that the alternative (stupidity) should sound horrid.
Since I live in an area frequented by the likes of Al Sharpton and so on, I'm inclined to ask if someone like Barack Obama fits the stereotype of a high achieving black man, who felt the need to out-pace his non-black peers in school and work just to be treated with the same respect. Don't misunderstand me, I wish everyone felt the need to excel. I do wonder if someone like that, given the presidential executive office, will give us twice the president for the same vote.
It certainly might explain why we got half the president from the current bozo.
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