Ok i am sick of animal rights groups. Sure I believe that we shouldn't torture animals for pleasure. Dog fighting is cruel and unneccesary. However, using animals for scientific research is a great idea, culling animals is often neccessary and killing flies is just natural.
One day humans will be wiped out by our alien overlords and they will likely keep a few of us to fill their zoo's. I would happily stay in a zoo to if it would perpetuate my species. The modern day sheep is an example of animals humans have created and whose existance depends on our survival. Should mankind die out, the sheep is doomed. Ok where i wanted to go with this.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/ratcar-now-rodents-can-drive-by-thought/comments-e6frfro0-1225935364464
Everytime a research article comes up with animals being experimented on people pipe up about it being cruel and how we must stop using animals for research. I for one would sacrifice a million rats to improve the quality of life of man. I would use rabbits to test my beauty products on before i tried them on people. Millions of scientific discoveries have come from less then savory practices. Leonardo dug up corpses to cut up so he could better understand the human body. The army uses pig corpses to test weapons on. Scientists use live animals to tset drugs and implants, stem cell research, spinal reconstruction and many other advaces have come from the use of animals. If we want to bring mankind back into the dark ages where we just survive rather then strive I suggest we let the hippies win. Otherwise they should work with the scientists to try and give subjects the best quality of life and painless death that is possible and still achieve results.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Understanding Propoganda
After reading what ming has been saying about Malaysian propoganda, It made me think about why we are so succeptable to propoganda. The following is an article I found that i think explains it well
How Propaganda Works
by Bob Wallace
“Once you base your whole life striving on a desperate lie, and try to implement that lie, you instrument your own undoing.”
- Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death.
It’s not hard to understand how propaganda works. You don’t need a college degree, or to read any of those thick textbooks everyone hates. Everything relevant can be explained in one not-particularly-long article. And, I guarantee you, you must understand how propaganda targets you, to immunize yourself against the attempts.
Propaganda works by appealing to our most base, animalistic instincts. It does not appeal to our better nature, although one of the purposes of it is to convince us it does. It pretends to appeal to our reason, when in fact it appeals to our most primitive emotions. There is good reason for this: perception travels through the emotional brain first, to the rational brain last.
Specifically, propaganda works by appealing to three things: emotionalism, tribalism and narcissism.
I just mentioned perception travels first to the emotional brain, then the rational brain. This happens to everyone, including people who con themselves that they are the most rational and intelligent of intellectuals.
As for tribes, we share with nearly every animal in the world the instinct to form tribes, arranged in a hierarchy, with a leader. We are group animals. The fact we look to a leader to take care of us is one of the most firmly established principles in psychology (if you don’t remember anything else, remember that).
When anyone transgresses the taboos of a tribe, they can, and often are, ostracised or even expelled. An example? Say some people oppose a war. What happens? They are often called cowards and told to leave the country. Who hasn’t heard the insult, “You’re a coward! If you don’t like it here, get out!” People who say such things think they’re being patriotic; in reality they’re acting like animals. Emotional, irrational, herd animals, prone to the fear and flight activated by propaganda. Individuals think; groups do not, and cannot.
Narcissism is our inborn tendency to see everything as grandiose or devalued, good or bad, with nothing in-between. It’s why nearly every tribe in the world — and nations are just tribes writ large — called itself “the People,” “the Humans,” “the Chosen,” “the Motherland,” “the Fatherland,” or “the greatest nation on earth,” relegating everyone outside the tribe to a devalued non-people, non-human status (aka “collateral damage”). No wonder it’s so easy to kill the outsiders — they’re just not quite human.
When you combine those three concepts, you have the basis for all propaganda. If a leader of a tribe tells the people their goodness is under attack by insane, evil people who want to destroy them, they will react just like animals and attack. The Nazi Goering noticed all you had to do to get people to march off to war is for the leaders to tell them they were under attack, denounce protesters as traitors exposing the tribe to danger, and the people would slander, ostracize and expel the protesters, and then tramp straight off to be slaughtered. He said this technique worked in every country of the world.
The Bush administration used exactly this technique to start two wars. Essentially they told the public that our goodness was under attack by insane and evil people who wanted to destroy us. See how it works? Tribalism, emotionalism, and narcissism.
Supporters of the war responded by attacking protestors as traitors — trying to expel them from the tribe — and marching off to war. It’s altogether too simple, and too easy.
One man everyone should know is Edward L. Bernays, the American disciple and nephew of Sigmund Freud. He was for all practical purposes the founder of modern propaganda techniques.
Bernays despised most people and regarded them as his inferiors, especially because of intellectual or social claims. (See how it works? I just appealed to your emotions, and convinced you Bernays was attacking you. You fell for it, right?)
Bernays not only pretty much founded modern propaganda techniques, but was also the father of modern PR. Although, you could say they are same thing, and that there’s really no difference between them.
In his 1928 book, Propaganda, Bernays wrote, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…”
Remember that quote. Burn it into your memory. Bernays thought people should be ruled by an extremely small elite, who should manipulate them through propaganda. That means you. People who believe in the wonders of government, and that it is their friend, should think twice about it.
In another book, In Crystallizing Public Opinion, Bernays wrote how governments and advertisers can “regiment the mind like the military regiments the body.” This can be imposed, he said, because of “the natural inherent flexibility of individual human nature,” and suggested the “average citizen is the world’s most efficient censor. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own ‘logic-proof compartments,’ his own absolutism are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction.”
Bernays also thought “physical loneliness is a real terror to the gregarious animal, and that association with the herd causes a feeling of security. In man this fear of loneliness creates a desire for identification with the herd in matters of opinion.”
Bernays claimed that “the group mind does not think in the strict sense of the word…In making up its mind, its first impulse is usually to follow the example of a trusted leader. This is one of the most firmly established principles in mass psychology.” What Bernays called the “regimentation of the mind” is accomplished by taking advantage of the human tendency to self-deception [logic-proof compartments], gregariousness [the herd instinct], individualism [exalting their vanity] and the seductive power of a strong leader.
Bernays also expressed the opinion people “have to take sides…[they] must step out of the audience onto the stage and wrestle as the hero for the victory of good over evil.” This also means appealing to our narcissism, our inborn tendency to see everything as either good or bad, with little or nothing in-between.
He also noted the need for people to feel as if they belong to something larger than themselves. Again, this also means appealing to our narcissism, such as people claiming they belong to “the greatest nation on earth.”
When people consider themselves as part of the Humans (by whatever name they call themselves), they exalt themselves. Still again, those outside the tribe are non-people, “collateral damage.”
“Mental habits create stereotypes just as physical habits create certain definite reflex actionism,” Bernays wrote. “…these stereotypes or clichés are not necessarily truthful pictures of what they are supposed to portray.” Perception is everything, the truth matters little or not at all.
Now, let’s boil all this down and see what we have:
Mass Man, the herd, cannot think, and is instead ruled by its feelings. The herd will look to a leader to save it. The best way to accomplish this is for the herd to feel it is under attack. The herd will draw together, expel those who see the truth and protest, and then march off to war.
The full quote from Goering? “Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Tell the herd they are the Humans, or the People, or best of all, have God on their side. Paint their enemies as insane and evil. Again, this is appealing to people’s narcissism, the tendency to see everything as either good (us) or evil (them). Evoke paranoia and hysteria in them by convincing them the insane evil ones want to conquer and destroy them. What will happen? You can get them to march off to war by the millions, just as Goering noticed. The truth doesn’t matter, only the manipulation of perception.
To make it as simple as possible, everything that is needed for a successful propaganda campaign can be summed up in those three aforementioned words: emotionalism, tribalism and narcissism.
We con ourselves we are so advanced. In reality, the human race is stuck in One Million Years BC, except there’s no Raquel Welch in a two-piece fur bikini.
How Propaganda Works
by Bob Wallace
“Once you base your whole life striving on a desperate lie, and try to implement that lie, you instrument your own undoing.”
- Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death.
It’s not hard to understand how propaganda works. You don’t need a college degree, or to read any of those thick textbooks everyone hates. Everything relevant can be explained in one not-particularly-long article. And, I guarantee you, you must understand how propaganda targets you, to immunize yourself against the attempts.
Propaganda works by appealing to our most base, animalistic instincts. It does not appeal to our better nature, although one of the purposes of it is to convince us it does. It pretends to appeal to our reason, when in fact it appeals to our most primitive emotions. There is good reason for this: perception travels through the emotional brain first, to the rational brain last.
Specifically, propaganda works by appealing to three things: emotionalism, tribalism and narcissism.
I just mentioned perception travels first to the emotional brain, then the rational brain. This happens to everyone, including people who con themselves that they are the most rational and intelligent of intellectuals.
As for tribes, we share with nearly every animal in the world the instinct to form tribes, arranged in a hierarchy, with a leader. We are group animals. The fact we look to a leader to take care of us is one of the most firmly established principles in psychology (if you don’t remember anything else, remember that).
When anyone transgresses the taboos of a tribe, they can, and often are, ostracised or even expelled. An example? Say some people oppose a war. What happens? They are often called cowards and told to leave the country. Who hasn’t heard the insult, “You’re a coward! If you don’t like it here, get out!” People who say such things think they’re being patriotic; in reality they’re acting like animals. Emotional, irrational, herd animals, prone to the fear and flight activated by propaganda. Individuals think; groups do not, and cannot.
Narcissism is our inborn tendency to see everything as grandiose or devalued, good or bad, with nothing in-between. It’s why nearly every tribe in the world — and nations are just tribes writ large — called itself “the People,” “the Humans,” “the Chosen,” “the Motherland,” “the Fatherland,” or “the greatest nation on earth,” relegating everyone outside the tribe to a devalued non-people, non-human status (aka “collateral damage”). No wonder it’s so easy to kill the outsiders — they’re just not quite human.
When you combine those three concepts, you have the basis for all propaganda. If a leader of a tribe tells the people their goodness is under attack by insane, evil people who want to destroy them, they will react just like animals and attack. The Nazi Goering noticed all you had to do to get people to march off to war is for the leaders to tell them they were under attack, denounce protesters as traitors exposing the tribe to danger, and the people would slander, ostracize and expel the protesters, and then tramp straight off to be slaughtered. He said this technique worked in every country of the world.
The Bush administration used exactly this technique to start two wars. Essentially they told the public that our goodness was under attack by insane and evil people who wanted to destroy us. See how it works? Tribalism, emotionalism, and narcissism.
Supporters of the war responded by attacking protestors as traitors — trying to expel them from the tribe — and marching off to war. It’s altogether too simple, and too easy.
One man everyone should know is Edward L. Bernays, the American disciple and nephew of Sigmund Freud. He was for all practical purposes the founder of modern propaganda techniques.
Bernays despised most people and regarded them as his inferiors, especially because of intellectual or social claims. (See how it works? I just appealed to your emotions, and convinced you Bernays was attacking you. You fell for it, right?)
Bernays not only pretty much founded modern propaganda techniques, but was also the father of modern PR. Although, you could say they are same thing, and that there’s really no difference between them.
In his 1928 book, Propaganda, Bernays wrote, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…”
Remember that quote. Burn it into your memory. Bernays thought people should be ruled by an extremely small elite, who should manipulate them through propaganda. That means you. People who believe in the wonders of government, and that it is their friend, should think twice about it.
In another book, In Crystallizing Public Opinion, Bernays wrote how governments and advertisers can “regiment the mind like the military regiments the body.” This can be imposed, he said, because of “the natural inherent flexibility of individual human nature,” and suggested the “average citizen is the world’s most efficient censor. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own ‘logic-proof compartments,’ his own absolutism are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction.”
Bernays also thought “physical loneliness is a real terror to the gregarious animal, and that association with the herd causes a feeling of security. In man this fear of loneliness creates a desire for identification with the herd in matters of opinion.”
Bernays claimed that “the group mind does not think in the strict sense of the word…In making up its mind, its first impulse is usually to follow the example of a trusted leader. This is one of the most firmly established principles in mass psychology.” What Bernays called the “regimentation of the mind” is accomplished by taking advantage of the human tendency to self-deception [logic-proof compartments], gregariousness [the herd instinct], individualism [exalting their vanity] and the seductive power of a strong leader.
Bernays also expressed the opinion people “have to take sides…[they] must step out of the audience onto the stage and wrestle as the hero for the victory of good over evil.” This also means appealing to our narcissism, our inborn tendency to see everything as either good or bad, with little or nothing in-between.
He also noted the need for people to feel as if they belong to something larger than themselves. Again, this also means appealing to our narcissism, such as people claiming they belong to “the greatest nation on earth.”
When people consider themselves as part of the Humans (by whatever name they call themselves), they exalt themselves. Still again, those outside the tribe are non-people, “collateral damage.”
“Mental habits create stereotypes just as physical habits create certain definite reflex actionism,” Bernays wrote. “…these stereotypes or clichés are not necessarily truthful pictures of what they are supposed to portray.” Perception is everything, the truth matters little or not at all.
Now, let’s boil all this down and see what we have:
Mass Man, the herd, cannot think, and is instead ruled by its feelings. The herd will look to a leader to save it. The best way to accomplish this is for the herd to feel it is under attack. The herd will draw together, expel those who see the truth and protest, and then march off to war.
The full quote from Goering? “Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Tell the herd they are the Humans, or the People, or best of all, have God on their side. Paint their enemies as insane and evil. Again, this is appealing to people’s narcissism, the tendency to see everything as either good (us) or evil (them). Evoke paranoia and hysteria in them by convincing them the insane evil ones want to conquer and destroy them. What will happen? You can get them to march off to war by the millions, just as Goering noticed. The truth doesn’t matter, only the manipulation of perception.
To make it as simple as possible, everything that is needed for a successful propaganda campaign can be summed up in those three aforementioned words: emotionalism, tribalism and narcissism.
We con ourselves we are so advanced. In reality, the human race is stuck in One Million Years BC, except there’s no Raquel Welch in a two-piece fur bikini.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Australians getting fucked with book prices
Google can link Amazon directly into your blog now. In Australia this is kind of pointless because we dont have Amazon over here, you cant buy ebooks from the store and we are pretty much treated like shit for all online content.
My brother buys shit of Amazon.uk all the time, and stuff is delivered the next day.
I bought this book from ebay second hand for $20 shipped.
To buy it new is $115 in a Perth bookstore! What the FUCK?
My brother buys shit of Amazon.uk all the time, and stuff is delivered the next day.
I bought this book from ebay second hand for $20 shipped.
To buy it new is $115 in a Perth bookstore! What the FUCK?
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Computer Games Can Teach
Quote From Deus Ex. - Why the anarchists beleive they are the good guys
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leo Gold: "Don’t believe me? It’s all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there’s been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people."
JC Denton: "Do you have a single fact to back that up?"
Leo Gold: "Number one: In 1945, corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it’s about two percent."
JC Denton: "So?"
Leo Gold: "It’s called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leo Gold: "Don’t believe me? It’s all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there’s been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people."
JC Denton: "Do you have a single fact to back that up?"
Leo Gold: "Number one: In 1945, corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it’s about two percent."
JC Denton: "So?"
Leo Gold: "It’s called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time."
Happy Easter All
This is the first time in my life that I am away from my friends and family for Easter. Pretty sucky feeling. Up here you wouldn't know its easter except for the occasional person eating a hot cross bun for breakfast.
Hope everyone has a good day of family fun and reflection on this very meaningful day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random news.
A Two-Pronged Attack on Cancer
Maybe in my lifetime cancer cures will be available for the rich :)
Hope everyone has a good day of family fun and reflection on this very meaningful day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random news.
A Two-Pronged Attack on Cancer
Maybe in my lifetime cancer cures will be available for the rich :)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
War vs Murder?
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire
What is war if not murder? Society teaches us with one hand and then commands us to disobey all that we have learned. Those we are killing, if we had killed in their homes we would be jailed as a monster. Yet on the battlefield, we are hailed as a hero. What is an enemy? He is just another man, commanded as you were to advance the society for whom he was sent to kill and die for.
Why do people kill in 2010? Surely we are all civilised enough by now to realise there are alternatives to war?
Voltaire
What is war if not murder? Society teaches us with one hand and then commands us to disobey all that we have learned. Those we are killing, if we had killed in their homes we would be jailed as a monster. Yet on the battlefield, we are hailed as a hero. What is an enemy? He is just another man, commanded as you were to advance the society for whom he was sent to kill and die for.
Why do people kill in 2010? Surely we are all civilised enough by now to realise there are alternatives to war?
Friday, February 19, 2010
Whats the point?
So, the age old addage, without god what is the point?
Flip the coin.
What's the point even if god exists?
Seriously? Why are we here? Why would God create us so far away from him and then put us through all these tests just so that we can be with him after our bodies cease to function? If God created us. Why wouldnt he want to live with us? Instead of playing around with the whole two stage process. This has never made sense to me. Guess now that I have such a big cup the faith I have sometimes doesn't go very far.
Ok so moving on, if not God the Creator, Destroyer and just overall supreme being, what about some kind of Universal Divine Existance or Will? No proof but people who find the need for a god, but realise that all organised religion's are so narrow minded.
Perhaps there are untapped regions of our brains that we can tap into, and we all have some kind of super powers. And perhaps there is a whole planet of beings all linked together like the trees in Pandora (Avatar the movie reference) and they are communicating with us every now and then when they get bored, perhaps when we are all cyborgs communicating across the hypernet humans will achieve some higher state of consciousness as we are guided by our own AI into Utopian computer game where we will live out a virtual existance for all eternity, thus creating our own Heaven.
Flip the coin.
What's the point even if god exists?
Seriously? Why are we here? Why would God create us so far away from him and then put us through all these tests just so that we can be with him after our bodies cease to function? If God created us. Why wouldnt he want to live with us? Instead of playing around with the whole two stage process. This has never made sense to me. Guess now that I have such a big cup the faith I have sometimes doesn't go very far.
Ok so moving on, if not God the Creator, Destroyer and just overall supreme being, what about some kind of Universal Divine Existance or Will? No proof but people who find the need for a god, but realise that all organised religion's are so narrow minded.
Perhaps there are untapped regions of our brains that we can tap into, and we all have some kind of super powers. And perhaps there is a whole planet of beings all linked together like the trees in Pandora (Avatar the movie reference) and they are communicating with us every now and then when they get bored, perhaps when we are all cyborgs communicating across the hypernet humans will achieve some higher state of consciousness as we are guided by our own AI into Utopian computer game where we will live out a virtual existance for all eternity, thus creating our own Heaven.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Does God Exist?
One of my collegues is extremely Christian. Like the world is 4000 years old Christian. Who tries to convince me that creationism is more likely then evolution. Now seriously, were talking religion vs science, and the argument is like talking to a person with tunnel vision.
Religion is not science and can never be science because it can not be proved with the scientific method. Religion, all religion, is about Faith. Without it you have nothing. If you try and manipulate science to validate the bible, and use science to prove creationism you will fail. God Himself cannot be observed therefore cannot be proved.
Science is not about faith. Its about models and peers, observation and repetition. Anything beyond our current understanding is rationalised with models.
Evolution is a model. Its science. Creationism is faith. Perhaps that section of the Bible is supposed to be read as figuratively, not literally?
Religion is not science and can never be science because it can not be proved with the scientific method. Religion, all religion, is about Faith. Without it you have nothing. If you try and manipulate science to validate the bible, and use science to prove creationism you will fail. God Himself cannot be observed therefore cannot be proved.
Science is not about faith. Its about models and peers, observation and repetition. Anything beyond our current understanding is rationalised with models.
Evolution is a model. Its science. Creationism is faith. Perhaps that section of the Bible is supposed to be read as figuratively, not literally?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Social Experiment Cont.
So being on site workers are all bound by the same routine and have the same limitations placed on our time.
Basically in a 24hour day we have 4 hours to use with as we please. Within these four hours we must(or should) do our washing, shower, eat and groom ourselves. The rest is free for entertainment. So that probably leaves about 3 hours a day for recreation.
Now the gym is free, table tennis, pool, swimming pool, tennis, cricket nets, foxtel and the wet mess(aka bar) is like $3 for a drink. With all these activities people tend to be clustered into 3 groups. Loners, aka TV watchers. Drinkers and Gym junkies.
So while i go to the gym as often as i can, others drink beer as often as they can and still others hide in their rooms lest anybody recognise them and they have to socialise. These groups are pretty polarised with people clearly belonging to one and without much overlap.
I just don;t understand why people who are earning that much money dont want to take care of their health so that they can enjoy it later? How can we motivate our peers to care for themselves. I remember walking past a party one sunday on my way to the gym after work. They invited me in for a beer and I said nah gotta go to the gym. 2 hours later i came back after a class all covered in sweat and they gave me shit for making them feel bad for drinking beer while I was exercising.
I think that it should be part of the corporate culture that everybody has to exercise, perhaps even force mandatory participation in physical activity everyday. Once it becomes routine the competitive aspect of man will rise and i think the workers will strive to outdo their fellow man and eventually 75%+ might be fit rather then being overweight.
Basically in a 24hour day we have 4 hours to use with as we please. Within these four hours we must(or should) do our washing, shower, eat and groom ourselves. The rest is free for entertainment. So that probably leaves about 3 hours a day for recreation.
Now the gym is free, table tennis, pool, swimming pool, tennis, cricket nets, foxtel and the wet mess(aka bar) is like $3 for a drink. With all these activities people tend to be clustered into 3 groups. Loners, aka TV watchers. Drinkers and Gym junkies.
So while i go to the gym as often as i can, others drink beer as often as they can and still others hide in their rooms lest anybody recognise them and they have to socialise. These groups are pretty polarised with people clearly belonging to one and without much overlap.
I just don;t understand why people who are earning that much money dont want to take care of their health so that they can enjoy it later? How can we motivate our peers to care for themselves. I remember walking past a party one sunday on my way to the gym after work. They invited me in for a beer and I said nah gotta go to the gym. 2 hours later i came back after a class all covered in sweat and they gave me shit for making them feel bad for drinking beer while I was exercising.
I think that it should be part of the corporate culture that everybody has to exercise, perhaps even force mandatory participation in physical activity everyday. Once it becomes routine the competitive aspect of man will rise and i think the workers will strive to outdo their fellow man and eventually 75%+ might be fit rather then being overweight.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Prison Camp
Having spent 5 weeks in isolation from society I can tell you that life really is simple. Once all our basic needs are satiated, we must find activity to occupy our time. I am my own social experiment.
On site I am subjected to no advertising, marketing ploys or even the use of money. What happens when we live in a society without such things?
Firstly, my first experiment was with food. When you pay for a buffet you are inclined to get as much value as you can from the money that you spend. You typically do this by eating the most expensive food first and as much of it as you can. So at a Japanese buffet we gorge on sashimi until we feel sick. What about a la carte? When we go to fast food restaurants or near any restaurant for that matter there is the pressure to up sell. Why by an entree when it’s much better value to get main size, or perhaps more colloquially would you like fries with that?
When I go to a food court, if I have to pay $9 for a small continental roll / foccacia or something or $6 for a burger fries and coke which i know will fill me up its hard to pay more for a perceived less. I know which is better for me but I somehow end up at the line to Maccas. Then when I get to ordering its only 50c more for a large so I get it. Then when I feel full but there are still chips on the plate staring at me to be eaten, I eat them just so that my money is not wasted.
Now on site, there is no money exchanged. I do not pay for my buffet. It is provided as stated in the terms of my employment contract. So because there is no perceived value being lost I feel no obligation to get my money’s worth. So I skip all of the eggs, and bacon, sausages, hash browns for breakfast and get a bowl of cereal, prunes and yogurt. For lunch I have a salad with cold cuts, and dinner I usually have a light vegetable rich one and sneak in a bit of dessert.
More interestingly is that when I am full, I stop eating. There is no mother figure to yell at me for not finishing my food. No financial penalty or perceived gain for finishing it. So I eat what I need and have been taking less and less as I have been losing weight and exercising more.
Amazing what life is like without money.
On site I am subjected to no advertising, marketing ploys or even the use of money. What happens when we live in a society without such things?
Firstly, my first experiment was with food. When you pay for a buffet you are inclined to get as much value as you can from the money that you spend. You typically do this by eating the most expensive food first and as much of it as you can. So at a Japanese buffet we gorge on sashimi until we feel sick. What about a la carte? When we go to fast food restaurants or near any restaurant for that matter there is the pressure to up sell. Why by an entree when it’s much better value to get main size, or perhaps more colloquially would you like fries with that?
When I go to a food court, if I have to pay $9 for a small continental roll / foccacia or something or $6 for a burger fries and coke which i know will fill me up its hard to pay more for a perceived less. I know which is better for me but I somehow end up at the line to Maccas. Then when I get to ordering its only 50c more for a large so I get it. Then when I feel full but there are still chips on the plate staring at me to be eaten, I eat them just so that my money is not wasted.
Now on site, there is no money exchanged. I do not pay for my buffet. It is provided as stated in the terms of my employment contract. So because there is no perceived value being lost I feel no obligation to get my money’s worth. So I skip all of the eggs, and bacon, sausages, hash browns for breakfast and get a bowl of cereal, prunes and yogurt. For lunch I have a salad with cold cuts, and dinner I usually have a light vegetable rich one and sneak in a bit of dessert.
More interestingly is that when I am full, I stop eating. There is no mother figure to yell at me for not finishing my food. No financial penalty or perceived gain for finishing it. So I eat what I need and have been taking less and less as I have been losing weight and exercising more.
Amazing what life is like without money.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Brothers and Sisters of the Future
Why?
Epicurus taught us that there is no god, no divine creator and punisher and that we should live to maximise our own happiness. Perhaps this is an overly simplistic view of reality, but without God how did we get here? Too subjective? Well how did the earth get here? Likely a cosmic ballet of maelstrom and violence. Molten rock, explosions, vacuums and black holes the probability of all of this creating a planet and a star at a healthy distance apart with appropriate amounts of water are so farfetched that one could say you are crazy for believing in chance. Yet by that same argument there are billions of galaxies out there each with billions of stars and so in our game of chance with minuscule odds, winning at least once becomes certainty.
You. One thing that you can be certain about is back to the first bacteria that formed from simple proteins in a primordial soup from when the world first cooled, or back to Adam should you be a creationist, every single one of your ancestors survived to breeding age and produced at least a single child which in turn found a suitable partner and they once again bred. This seems so extraordinarily improbable that the fact that you are standing before me is a statisticians very nightmare and the reason people gamble on lotto every week. People win, we all won in some strange breeding lottery.
So you are special. You are a miraculous lotto that by all mathematical likelihood is improbably and yet here we are. 6 billion of us are sharing this tiny ball floating through the absolute inhospitable, our Noah's ark. We are survivors.
So you miraculous and inevitable being of fate or probability, which is it? An impertinent question to ask any believer and yet it is this single question that has caused more premature deaths than any other in our history. Surely with enough food, water, shelter and clothing we should be happy with our lot and not seek to take another’s?
That is the Why. This blog is my little vent on the world about the things that I see that I believe prevent happiness without giving reward.
Epicurus taught us that there is no god, no divine creator and punisher and that we should live to maximise our own happiness. Perhaps this is an overly simplistic view of reality, but without God how did we get here? Too subjective? Well how did the earth get here? Likely a cosmic ballet of maelstrom and violence. Molten rock, explosions, vacuums and black holes the probability of all of this creating a planet and a star at a healthy distance apart with appropriate amounts of water are so farfetched that one could say you are crazy for believing in chance. Yet by that same argument there are billions of galaxies out there each with billions of stars and so in our game of chance with minuscule odds, winning at least once becomes certainty.
You. One thing that you can be certain about is back to the first bacteria that formed from simple proteins in a primordial soup from when the world first cooled, or back to Adam should you be a creationist, every single one of your ancestors survived to breeding age and produced at least a single child which in turn found a suitable partner and they once again bred. This seems so extraordinarily improbable that the fact that you are standing before me is a statisticians very nightmare and the reason people gamble on lotto every week. People win, we all won in some strange breeding lottery.
So you are special. You are a miraculous lotto that by all mathematical likelihood is improbably and yet here we are. 6 billion of us are sharing this tiny ball floating through the absolute inhospitable, our Noah's ark. We are survivors.
So you miraculous and inevitable being of fate or probability, which is it? An impertinent question to ask any believer and yet it is this single question that has caused more premature deaths than any other in our history. Surely with enough food, water, shelter and clothing we should be happy with our lot and not seek to take another’s?
That is the Why. This blog is my little vent on the world about the things that I see that I believe prevent happiness without giving reward.
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