(no subject)
Apr. 25th, 2006 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vriad_lee[...] it's like,
'and that girl they killed recently...'
'what girl, i don't know anything'
'you don't know? you don't know? they were talking about that for several days everywhere!'
and then violance in the army, people being tortured and killed all the time, deserters - but that's been going on for so long, it's more like white noise in the background. a soldier killed himself after being forced to swallow candies with wrappers. a recruit was tied to a chair (between two chairs?) and tortured for hours. 'and then they had to amputate his legs and genitals...' i say to my aunt: 'i've become a misanthrope. i hate everyone. i'm hitting the absolute low in my detachment from people.' and she says, 'well and i hate this country.' and then we have one of those arguments, where she says that america is much, much better, that they do, do care about people. and i say that i hate capitalism, and that this, this box of cornflakes makes me sick because everytime i see such colors, fonts, and layouts, i see someone who wanted to sleep or to poke their nose or to take a walk in the street, and instead they had to sit and design this. golden cornflakes and a tide of milk on a fucking navy background - splendid. who needs this? do you? i don't. i want an ugly grey box. with a sickly yellow corn ear printed on each side, and nothing else. and i don't care if the fill colors and the outlines don't coincide. it gives me a sense of fucking phantasmagoria to see such effort put into making a fucking cornflake box. and she says, 'you're crazy, they don't have money to build a leucaemia center, in our country children die of leucaemia every day. and they just hired a soccer coach for $20 millions. how can you compare such things?' and i say, 'people are the same everywhere. i know. the same mean motherfuckers everywhere, they just have a more advanced sort of social contract. have you seen the Diagram of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? love/belonging comes after safety. and everything is dismissed by physiological needs.' and she says, 'what i care about is that they get things done, and we don't' and i say, 'what do you expect, aunty? we are a fledgling democracy. or a fledgling nazi state. we've never had a chance to get anything done. how can you compare such things?' and she says 'well that's exactly what i'm talking about.'
'and that girl they killed recently...'
'what girl, i don't know anything'
'you don't know? you don't know? they were talking about that for several days everywhere!'
and then violance in the army, people being tortured and killed all the time, deserters - but that's been going on for so long, it's more like white noise in the background. a soldier killed himself after being forced to swallow candies with wrappers. a recruit was tied to a chair (between two chairs?) and tortured for hours. 'and then they had to amputate his legs and genitals...' i say to my aunt: 'i've become a misanthrope. i hate everyone. i'm hitting the absolute low in my detachment from people.' and she says, 'well and i hate this country.' and then we have one of those arguments, where she says that america is much, much better, that they do, do care about people. and i say that i hate capitalism, and that this, this box of cornflakes makes me sick because everytime i see such colors, fonts, and layouts, i see someone who wanted to sleep or to poke their nose or to take a walk in the street, and instead they had to sit and design this. golden cornflakes and a tide of milk on a fucking navy background - splendid. who needs this? do you? i don't. i want an ugly grey box. with a sickly yellow corn ear printed on each side, and nothing else. and i don't care if the fill colors and the outlines don't coincide. it gives me a sense of fucking phantasmagoria to see such effort put into making a fucking cornflake box. and she says, 'you're crazy, they don't have money to build a leucaemia center, in our country children die of leucaemia every day. and they just hired a soccer coach for $20 millions. how can you compare such things?' and i say, 'people are the same everywhere. i know. the same mean motherfuckers everywhere, they just have a more advanced sort of social contract. have you seen the Diagram of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? love/belonging comes after safety. and everything is dismissed by physiological needs.' and she says, 'what i care about is that they get things done, and we don't' and i say, 'what do you expect, aunty? we are a fledgling democracy. or a fledgling nazi state. we've never had a chance to get anything done. how can you compare such things?' and she says 'well that's exactly what i'm talking about.'
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 04:07 pm (UTC)I'd say give Russia a chance.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 04:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-25 04:50 pm (UTC)Answer: No you don't, and yes you do; or sure you do, but no you don't. There is very little middle ground on this one.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-30 08:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-30 12:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-01 08:19 am (UTC)But suppose you came up with a better yogurt? How would you package it so the customers would notice its existence among the millions of other brands?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-01 09:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-01 10:04 am (UTC)But I actually agree. I like stuff that lasts (and hence hate planned obsolesence) and would prefer people to modify existing stuff to give it their own style than to get their style by buying this, that or the other designer gear - or whatever. People who make their stuff are much more interesting than those who just buy it.
The bind in the West though is the cost of living. It'd be very hard to live like you want to without a decent income - unless you owned a morgage-free property.
Anyway, good news on the Microsoft front... (http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-micro29apr29,1,632385.story?coll=la-headlines-technology)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-01 10:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-01 11:11 am (UTC)American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-03 11:01 am (UTC)http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/
Not modern American aesthetics though...
Re: American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-03 11:31 am (UTC)btw, it seems they don't have comment threads on blogger. pretty crazy, n'est-ce pas?
Re: American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-03 11:47 am (UTC)Yeah, LJ's got blogger beat when it comes to comments, and ditto for SixApart's Typepad. I'm sure it's why SixApart won't allow LJers to make money from their journals - LJ's much better technology than Typepad!
Re: American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-03 01:19 pm (UTC)Re: American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-04 08:14 am (UTC)Re: American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-03 01:23 pm (UTC)Re: American Aesthetics...
Date: 2006-05-04 08:25 am (UTC)