Comments on: The meaning of life http://www.davidpratten.com/2006/10/16/the-meaning-of-life/ Interests, Ideas and Observations Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:08:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: sPelinque Powleece http://www.davidpratten.com/2006/10/16/the-meaning-of-life/comment-page-1/#comment-10415 sPelinque Powleece Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:03:48 +0000 http://www.davidpratten.com/2006/10/16/the-meaning-of-life/#comment-10415 "targeted" anyway, agree w/ you & commenter. unless you work in the biz 40+hr/wk, the biz will not "mean" much (for long, iow excluding personal "fad" phases). it's just not the nature of commerce. “targeted”
anyway, agree w/ you & commenter. unless you work in the biz 40+hr/wk, the biz will not “mean” much (for long, iow excluding personal “fad” phases).
it’s just not the nature of commerce.

]]> By: Ben Lancini http://www.davidpratten.com/2006/10/16/the-meaning-of-life/comment-page-1/#comment-9712 Ben Lancini Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:18:04 +0000 http://www.davidpratten.com/2006/10/16/the-meaning-of-life/#comment-9712 The personal experience of meanings is reflected as a persons ‘values’. The conceptual marketing of values like "beauty" and "freedom" constrains their definition to a very narrow subset of what their potential scope of interpretation might encompass. It can narrow these interpretations to the point of meaninglessness. These values or beliefs really have a cost to the holder, a cost not acknowledged by those who are selling them - Beauty at the expense of a fantasy of superficiality. Freedom at the cost of responsibly for the deeper consequences of one's actions. Harmony at the cost of gagging or hiding dissent. Security at the cost of freedom. etc. At their heart, these values as marketing element are just a husk. Hollow and insubstantial. Humans are not rational entities, we are easily be manipulated if we are not vigilant Likewise are nations. What is the long term impact of the commercialisation and commoditisation of our experience? It is to lose meaning in our lives. To become more superficial, alienated, scared, malleable and reactionary. These are characteristics of weakness, not strength. For a thorough examination behind this trend see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_Of_The_Self The personal experience of meanings is reflected as a persons ‘values’. The conceptual marketing of values like “beauty” and “freedom” constrains their definition to a very narrow subset of what their potential scope of interpretation might encompass. It can narrow these interpretations to the point of meaninglessness. These values or beliefs really have a cost to the holder, a cost not acknowledged by those who are selling them -

Beauty at the expense of a fantasy of superficiality.
Freedom at the cost of responsibly for the deeper consequences of one’s actions.
Harmony at the cost of gagging or hiding dissent.
Security at the cost of freedom.
etc.

At their heart, these values as marketing element are just a husk. Hollow and insubstantial. Humans are not rational entities, we are easily be manipulated if we are not vigilant Likewise are nations. What is the long term impact of the commercialisation and commoditisation of our experience? It is to lose meaning in our lives. To become more superficial, alienated, scared, malleable and reactionary. These are characteristics of weakness, not strength.

For a thorough examination behind this trend see -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_Of_The_Self

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