Rant till you bleed, then clean up the mess
I. Capitalism is Bad.
i) The goal of marketing is to create the feeling of need in the consumer.
ii) Marketing treats all people as potential consumers, all are in their own marketing category.
iii) The core of Budhist philosophy revolves around the statement "Pain is caused by desire".
iv) Assuming the truth of iii, then Marketing causes pain.
v) Causing another to believe they 'need' something they do not already possess is essentially the creation of limited psycological addiction in the consumer
vi) Marketing is essential to the current capitalist system.
vii) Therefore, the current capitalist system creates suffering and dependance.
II. I dream of a New World
i) In Brave New World, the tequniques of Marketing are used to create the belief that citizens should be happy with what they have.
ii) Hypothesis: Happyness is the result of a mental state wherin one feels fufilled, comfortable, and safe.
iii) In BNW, one is comfortable and safe... if one also feels fufilled then one can be said to be happy.
iv) If Marketing can create 'need', then it stands to reason that it could also be used to create 'fulfillment', perhaps through means employed in BNW (early teaching and continual reinforcement with no alternatives presented).
v) Therefore, the citizens of BNW _are_ happy.
III. Is there such a thing as intelectual property?
i) Intelectual property is the ownership of the rights to a particular song, painting, blueprint, etc. It states that only the owner can make money using this particular idea.
ii) Can anyone actually 'own' an idea?
iii) For the purposes of simplification, lets break ideas into different categories:
a) Artistic ideas-- paintings, fiction, music, etc.
b) Scientific ideas-- theories and research, all of Physics and Chemistry and Biology etc.
c) Technological ideas-- applications of science to make something.. blueprints to make a truck, using particular materials to make lightbulbs, etc.
d) Comercial ideas-- schemes employing psycology and art to persuade the consumer to buy something in a particular manner, or to accomplish a simmilar business end.
iv) I'm of the oppinion that if these four categories don't encompass all ideas, they come pretty darn close.
v) in Science, many theories are published without consern for who 'owns' the rights to the discovery. Should Newton have been able to patent the theory of universal gravitation? of course not. He discovered something about the natural world, his idea conserning it isn't actually "his"
vi) Almost all art is sold to fund the artist or his employer. Many of the fine artists of time long ago didn't have a choice. They desired to create art, they desired to deseminate their art to others, who might appreciate it. I'm of the oppinion that they should be held to the same standards as scientists, they should be funded but required to provide their art for peer/public review. If its liked, it should recieve continued funding. If it isn't liked, the opposite should be true. However, I don't believe anyone should "own" the art... art isn't a painting, the art is in the beauty, the idea, of that painting.
vii) technological ideas are the applications of scientific ideas, they are founded on concepts which can't be owned. These inventions either were invented to make the owner money or to better mankind. Man ought not buy something which is designed to hurt him/ cause him displeasure. Technology is for the beterment of man, therefore. One shouldn't deny one's species the knowledge to make a tool to further said species' survival. Greedy materialism has no place in the race for the future, other than incentive. (see more on greed later)
viii) comercial ideas prostitute art and science to cause the consumer to buy things they don't need. See parts I and II.
ix) Greed is the tool used to motivate folk, because Greed kinda works. That doesn't mean one can own an idea because people have treated ideas as ownable, it just means Greed has convinced the law that something called 'intelectual property rights' are a thing which should be protected. Its a case of children saying "I was here first, I called dibs, its MINE!".
x) if our race remains imature, we could wind up extinct very easily.
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