CONSUME MASS QUANTITIES
polycounter lvl 18
It is your duty to consume.
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Replies
im arman and i approve this message :thumbup:
I've seen a bunch of still images from Manufactured Landscapes. it's full of really inspiring material for games and textures, on the other hand, it's rather scary.
Shame, I don't even have a credit card.
It's not that being a consumer itself is bad or unhealthy, it's the long term effect that advertisement and consumption can have on a human during the course of one's life.
We all create our own suffering, essentially, but the consumer culture helps us hurt ourselves more easily.
Example:
My roommate's niece who is 11 years old went to get an mp3 player for Christmas. She looked at them for a few weeks and finally found one that was perfect for her, had video and everything. She goes to get it, they have one left. She picks it up off the shelf and is overjoyed.
Some douchebag middle-aged lady comes over and TAKES IT OUT OF HER HANDS. The niece is dumbfounded and stands there in shock. The lady walks off. Jordy picks up another one, still in shock and sad that she is having to settle on another one. The same prick of a lady comes over and tries to take this one as well even though there are more on the rack. Jordy hangs on to this one and yanks it out of the lady's hands. The lady sneers and walks off.
WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!
Stealing out of the hands of a child.
gotta say that is pretty LOW!
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Happy thanksgiving peeps! Consume lots of Turkey!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self
Happy TYgiving ppl
Sounds like a slap to the face would do the trick.
There's no need to get in line for a battle royal in a big box store. Just order what you want off the net. Big savings there. If you're in the market for something, this is the best time to buy it.
Or is this just one of those antisocial internet "boycott anything and everything that normal people do, just because we can" movements?
I agree, what in the hell is wrong with you? Not to be offensive, and not directed at you specifically. But using your story as an example.
Every time I read stories like this on the net, I always wonder why the reaction is always the same, "we just stood there". Get your damn MP3 player. Tell the store security that the woman just robbed your niece. They have it on camera. Failing that, grab it back. How can one old lady even rob 2 younger people, one of them being an uncle? And how did it happen twice, without even a peep from her and you? At least do something.
I realize that the lady had the attitude problem. But you have to deal with these types of people, or they will walk over you again and again. No flame or offense intended.
Every thing you want in life comes down to pushing your way through, or standing there there doing nothing while someone else walks off with what you wanted. How do people push their way through those other billion sperm to get born and then spend the rest of their days standing by doing nothing?
I see this all the time.
It seems like 9 out of 10 people spend their entire lives just standing there and not reacting, while those remaining 1 out of 10 gets everything they want, simply because of their attitude. These other 9 spend their lives just accepting what is left over, and get used by other people to get what they want. And these people react later by quietly talking about it to their friends, complaining about the other person's attitude.
Even worse when it's someone else who needs help and there is lots of standing around and just watching it happen.
Hell yeah! But usually there is no need. Just speaking up will do the trick. People get away with this shit because they realize the target will stand there and not react. Once they do react, this person freezes up, and reveals the little weakling they actually are.
Why buy consumer products as gifts always? Why should we show our love through mass production of items that are not one of a kind and that are not ecologically sustainable? And don't take into effect entropy. Please answer.
If. Or are these impulse buys because of the sales? Many of these items are special stripped down versions, so your not getting the whole package. Just because something is cheap, doesn't make it a good deal. Many times in fact, its worse because of quality, workmanship, and features. That relies on a unequal system of trade in order to create these items for first world markets using labor from third and second. Using the excuse that it will all equal out in the end, be damn the effects on the people who create these for us right now.
No, but Im sure that's the excuse you use to yourself in order to ignore reality. If you have any inclination of a open mind, try to obtain Raj Patlel's "Stuffed and Starved ". That only covers the food portion of our capitalist system, but even shows the flaws and dangers in that one section alone we consider the most benign of our consumptions.
"Stuffed and Starved seems like such a paradox. There's so much food. How can there be hunger and obesity? In supposedly the world's wealthiest country, tens of millions of Americans are hungry. With the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression those numbers will certainly increase. Issues of race and class are factors linking diet with cancer, diabetes and heart disease all of which are much higher among African Americans and Latino Americans. Food's also a global issue. There are connections between famine in Africa and coffee prices at Starbucks as well as how biofuels made from corn in Iowa drives up tortilla prices in Mexico. In the U.S., the popularity and growth of farmers' markets and CSAs, community supported agriculture are indications of new thinking about food. But few among the poor can afford those options.
Raj Patel
Raj Patel, writer, activist and former policy analyst with Food First, is a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley. He has worked for the World Bank, the WTO, and the United Nations, and has also protested them on four continents. He is the author of "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System."
Borrow it from your library.
Oh yes, Im guilty of this system as well. But there is being purposely ignorant, versus realizing the effects and minimizing when possible.
Robin Hood and the Poor
It's perfectly reasonable to buy a consumer product as a gift because it demonstrates that one's feelings for somebody are greater than their attachment to their money. Comparing that to some individual gift like, I dunno, a hand-whittled ivory whale sculpture, is just an exercise in relative value. Make them the whale, they know you care enough to spend the time it takes to make it, buy them a TV, they think of you every time they use it. Neither is "wrong" and asserting otherwise makes you seem pretty arrogant.
As I just said above, there is taking responsibility of your effects of consumerism, and there is just buying because you can. In other words no one is innocent. And lets be frank, game development is small potatoes against the backdrop of what most forms of consumerism do. At least the hardware can be reused again and again. Many games can be purchased online, so that reduces the physical element as well.
You talk the talk, yet you cannot answer my query above. You also turn a blind eye to what this whole economic situation has shown the cracks in the consumerist/debt ideal.
Yep. Its self righteous. Even though I admitted at the bottom no one was innocent and admitted guilt. There is a difference of buying blindly with debt looking for the cheapest price. Versus seeing what you are actually purchasing.
So your saying you would like a product versus something made just for you? That's pretty self righteous, telling the person who put that time into creating something for you, which takes more of your freetime, that you would have rather had the unnecessary big screen TV.
I.E. Your logic works both ways.
Ok, its going to turn into one of those threads. So not to piss myself off too much Im bowing out. I made my point, ignore if you like. At least it brought some discussion up, which is the purpose.
And personally I despise the 'I'm going to take it all because I can attitude'. Somehow, despite how horrible people are in this world, I remain an idealist and expect some decency and respect out of people.
Things are also never as simple as 'take it back'..
Sure viewing it out of context like this, it's easy to say that, not knowing anything about the girl, being small for her age, or how her family horribly impresses upon themselves that children have no say in ANYTHING, that you are not an adult (thus can't make desicions until you are 32 or have children (whatever age).. and her guardians are pretty much that in name only, not wanting to assume any responsibility for her... so yeah, let's not open *that can of worms.
I once embarrassed someone in a room full of people who tried to use that line on me. "The truth set me free". Yeah, I informed them that I'm not really up to dumping one so called propaganda for another equally ridiculous one, and that the "truth" seems to have set them back quite a bit.
I've never bought someone a gift out of societal obligation. I'm not even religious. So I'm off the hook completely. But it's a nice time of year to get together with people I haven't seen all year and exchange things with them after a night of partying.
I'm not really the type to stand in line to buy a something expensive that I wasn't in the market for. But I have no problem with those that do. There are a few poor neighborhoods around here, and if some of those guys can get that needed new TV or couch for a fraction of the price, I hope they get it.
I don't really impulse buy stuff. We don't do the black Friday thing up here, we do it after Christmas. It's called boxing week sales. I've gotten a lot of stuff for cheap that I was going to buy anyways, but put it to a later time off because it was a bit too expensive at the time. When I pick up a series of DVD sets that I was going to buy over time at 20-40$ each at much lower prices because my local media stores are dumping their 200X stock, I'm not really getting suckered into impulse buying something.
This year, I have a ton of CDs on my want list, and in the days after xmas I'll be visiting all my usual haunts to try and make a big dent in that list by taking advantage of the various sales.
Borrow that book from the library? Would you also give me that baseless 'stick it to the man' speech by telling me to buy my CDs and DVDs used? Especially considering the occupation of a good chunk of this board.
Anyways, it's late. We both said our piece. Let's not get into some holy war.
I get that. But idealists end up being doormats in the long run, even thought it's a good trait to have. No one is going to stick up for you. You have to be able to deal with these people if you want to get the most out of life.
Of course, if you think of all time as money, that $4 could save you an hour of preparing and baking, but in my case the process is relaxing and enjoyable, so it isn't too much of a loss. Besides, how many similar hours have I wasted grinding levels in some pointless game. (Except TQ; TQ is a lovely game.)
Yeah try giving the don't buy talk to a 5 year old... they will love the part where you let them know this means they get nothing for xmas... that will go over really well.
Moral of the story, make informed decisions about how you spend your money, and don't just listen to the biased propaganda of either side, whether its a company pushing a product or a bunch of dumb hippies trying to make me feel bad for not having a carbon footprint as small as theirs. How about instead of making up ridiculous "don't do this on this day!" bullshit, why don't you instead focus on helping people work out their debts and spend more wisely? Yea, a lot of people have those times where they spend too much on shit they don't need, rather than promoting a silly one day protest that solves NOTHING, you should work on quelling the problem overall. Seriously Oxy, you could be solving the problem in more productive ways than this, yet instead you decide to debate anyone that disagrees with your protest.
One day boycotts are a goddamn joke.
If you let adds and fashion magazines tell you what you should wear and what's cool and what not, you have self esteem issues and should address those, a 1 day boycott is not gonna do anything at all.
The rest of the discussion is rather unnecessary. You want something, and you can afford it ? go for it, it's your life and you made the decision.
I don't even like how the video puts working in a bad light, like you're working to make money so that you can buy things...
I mean, what would be the alternative ? be a farmer and trade in your chickens ? it's just another form of currency, I don't want to be paid in chickens for my work.
Long before there was money, people had to work for a living, i wouldn't want to be a farmer and work my butt off to feed those boycotting work.
Yeah I would rather have a useful consumer product of some sort than a hand made item (generally speaking). ie if it is a hand made trinket, ala a whittled something or other, I will appreciate it, but by next year.. or more like next month you know where it will be?
In a cardboard box in storage with everything else I feel too guilty to get rid of, but have no space or use for. That, to me, is a far greater waste than a mass produced good that actually gets used.
Consumerism isn't the problem with "Black friday". The problem is the relative insanity people work themselves into over the idea of "sale". These are two separate things.
http://online.indianagazette.com/articles/2008/11/28/news/doc4930b9de953a9264868586.txt
I guess Wal-Mart needs to install cattle runs at their entrances now...
so so sad