> Gee, I have the same sort of feeling about most TV, most
advertising,
>most 'new' products,....
>
Hey, I never thought of that! Maybe they knew more about us than I
thought,
and saw us coming!
Ed Weick
Or else it's all in the family. As a Native American standing on the
outside, it often feels that way when the "Supreme Duality" gets to
working. Socialism!@!! NO Capitalism!@!! NO Socialism N000000!@!!
It would be wonderful to see the kitschiness of most Western
expressivity "owned" and "admitted." One could start by admitting the
familial relationships between the various groups that makes their
kitschiness acceptable and even admired.
For example the incredible cheapness of the wealthy Americans sitting
around plotting how they can get the most mileage out of a charitable
donation is very little different from the local Communist bureaucrat
plotting how he can get a couple of days longer at the Dacha instead of
being available to get the job done. Or consider the practitioners of
"valuable effort" lamenting the defeat of a "Public Good" like
education, public health or the arts because everyone wants to get a
free ride and yet when it collapses blames it on the "Good" for not
being "popular" enough with the consumers to get it produced.
Of course how do you get that vaunted "popularity" with the consumers?
You advertise! That is how you let the consumers know of the quality
that you offer. Have you ever gone to a swimming pool in middle America
and noticed how the predominant obesity resembles those terrible
commercials that made fun of Russian State fashions with the fat
"Svetlana" parading back and forth in her military uniform? (Those
were not the beautiful Bolshoi opera singers that I saw at that
fundraiser in Manhattan two weeks ago. Only the elder had that
stereotypical body and she carried it with great power and she WAS old.
These Americans are the parents of infants and they weigh above 300 lbs.
each.)
So if the advertisement was inaccurate then what was its purpose? To
enlighten? To announce a new higher value? Would the product have sold
without it? Was the product itself as shoddy as the advertisement's
message? What was (as the computernik physicists say) the
"compressibility" of the message? In other words, was the message as
simple-minded as the audience? Has the incredible "cheapness" of these
societies finally created a consumer unable to comprehend his own
health, education and cultural identity?
I apologize for the polemic but I am a person recovering from a pulled
back. Like Tom Walker, at this point it is hard to equate vain bragging
or flattery with positive reinforcement and psychological support for
the current market. It is hard to escape the feeling that the reality
of the current diversity of structures and systems, that lie outside of
the Supreme Duality model, spell a danger of eminent collapse. If not a
market vulnerability than one that lies deeper. A truth that the
problem of complexity lies not in externals but within the minds of
those who are observing the situation. That the current words and
models that are comprehensible are just not up to the task of dealing
with the diversity.
Again and again we hear the words "it just can't be that hard" or "this
is just too complicated." I would suggest that the only model that is
worth anything is one that covers all of the "bases" with a human
generosity and an efficiency of effort.
The architect Mies van der Rohe used to say "less is more." Too little
is however inadequate and the right amount is the right amount and
Mies's spareness doesn't weather all that well in the long run. I have
a piece of his Seagram building that just dropped off leaving a
noticeable hole. There are more than two sides to these issues and
for that we should be thankful. So my point about the Russians is
still the same and has nothing to do with romance. They are better than
we are at certain things. And we are better than them at others.
Neither of those two things are enough to make a society and Russia's
collapsed as a result. I believe we are in danger of the same and for
basically the same reason. Regards REH
