The New Consumer

Advertisements are annoying, no matter what! One might argue that some advertisements are really creative, almost "a piece of art" (sic), but this is not about the content, nor how creative the advertisement might be, not even about the product being advertised... It's about privacy. It's about timing. Not to mention social cost -  fake ads; children as targets; persuasion to make you think you are what you are not and etc.

I remember the old days of telemarketing when we used to receive random calls about different products, promotions, and "unmissable opportunities", usually at dinner time! I remember my father once, after saying 2 or 3 times that he was not interested, saying "Look Joe, why don't you give me your number and I'll call you back when you're having dinner!", and hung up the phone.

Enough of that! Enough of spam mails in the letterbox! Enough of junk e-mails, unsolicited pop-ups in your web navigation, and, most annoying of all, unsolicited ads inserted in YouTube videos (not only in the beginning of a video, but in the middle as well!) and before starting radio streaming.

Unsolicited ads are like unwanted advice: Nobody wants them!!!

Advertising might be causing the opposite effect they very much aim... Instead of creating empathy to satisfied consumers, they are generating repulsion and rejection to a legion of frustrated consumers, which have no much options if they want a way out of this ocean of rubbish and visual/noisy/mental pollution. What can we, consumers, do?

BAN!
REJECT!
EMBARGO!

Do not buy anything that invasively throws an ad into your eyes or ears! The consumer have the power! Down with the ads!

Yes we could...

Unplugging...

Would you dare to press the pause button on this chaotic and crazy life we are all so caught up in? Turn-off your phone, the computer, give up electricity and everything else from the "outside world" that we have grown so dependent on and start all over again? On totally different terms?

Very few of us, I'd say.

The interesting times we are all living in lately offer us a great opportunity for reflection. We might not turn our backs to internet and everything else by moving to a wood cabin somewhere in the countryside, and live on candlelight and wood burning stove -  to our cynical minds it might seem impossible to live a life without money - but if we consider the impact we are having on the planet, it would be a big motivation itself!

Unplugged from modernity, making fire by rubbing sticks together, collecting water from the  spring, foraging in the woods, tending the garden and fishing for pike and trout. A reflective, lyrical account, which is refreshingly free of doctrinaire haranguing or guilt-tripping.

But reality is that we are not pulling the plug. Instead, we were forced to a situation which we all want to see ending, and as we have no assurance of anything, we should at least exam the lives we all take for granted...

After letting it go...

The art of letting things go and detach yourself from the suffering of attachment is magical! It alleviates you from a burden - even if it was not a burden. Frees you from identification - another bad thing to carry with you - and distances you from the object in question, being a thing, a situation or a person - whatever/whoever it is!

Letting something go, sometimes, doesn’t mean you’re not responsible yet for that thing. You might still be accountable, but without any attachment, without being too demanding or critical of yourself and others.

This is good, but it might have an aftermath, where after letting something go, you might be left with disappointment, but then you might come to the understanding that disappointment is not on you - but from you. It regards to someone else, usually based on a behaviour that you’d expect to be different - thus disappointed by someone else. It comes from you, and you can let that go as well!

All you need to do is to accept that we are only humans, and we are imperfect... Beautifully imperfect!

If the people were the priority...

A Fianna Fáil spokesman for Education was on the radio today, speaking about the lack of vacancy on Secondary School for autist children - and children in general. He was very emphatic about how he has been addressing the issue with the government, but a quick research in the WWWW (World Wide Wild Web) shows the same subject has being questioned years and years (and governments) before him!

It is the same bullshit, again and again - politicians don’t give a rat’s ass to people and their problems. They are only there to perpetuate their privileges: this government I attack, the next I excuse. And the people keep voting to them!

The Pope, the Church, and the People...

... Which People?

The Pope came to Ireland. Nobody dare to say he's not a messenger of peace and compassion, whether they are religious or not - I am not!

Not being religious mean you are not in accordance with A religion, or ANY religion... that set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, that superhuman agency, practising devotional and ritual observances, containing their own moral code for the conduct of human affairs...

For this set of beliefs, we better take from the nature... cosmology (it doesn't mean you don't believe in God)! The moral code can be found in philosophy. The conduct of human affairs was broadly spoken by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. No fear involved! Pure reasoning!

But when it comes to re.li.gion... that's belief! And we are talking about a particular variety of such belief, especially when organized into a system of doctrine and practice, usually based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. It's might be all about fear!

I was discussing the abuse of children by priests, the other day, and the church's position on the subject. A friend of mine dared to question the gravity of the issue! Full of arguments regarding universal love, compassion for the kind of life the priests live... I heard, patiently. When he finished, I brought the universal love to the victims... and then I asked whether the church was above the law.

And there was no answer...