Quantity vs Persistence
Have you see the Napster To Go [Away?] ads? Here's the marketing mathematics:
[various clunky MP3 players] + Napster = $15/month
Isn't that interesting? Oh My Goddess, you mean I can just spend $15 per month—why, that's only 50¢ a day!—instead of ten thousand dollars to have full use of my iPod? Why, this can't lose!
Now, there are many times where I see certain similar patterns in very different domains. This is just the garden-variety human ability to abstract and generalize; this is just one mechanism of learning.
I knew that Napster's math was off of reality for a few reasons, but the pattern of this struck me more fundamentally that just a lame attempt by an also-ran to grab attention to itself. There are other examples of this line of thought, but they're boring.
No, the more interesting part of this is what compromises Napster is making of itself here in order to compete with a more natural model (i.e., ownership). It's the same compromise of ethic that many of the religions—or at least the most visible and extremist members of such religions—are making: they're trading long-held ethics for the shot at a Transient More. They've traded their own morality, their own compassion, in favor of political prepotence. A ridiculously unworthy trade, but there they are, giving away their own permanence in favor of cheap shots at homosexuals, punishment of women who dare believe they should have a say over their own reproductive systems. Make no mistake...these religious types are the modern day Pharisees...they are the money-changers in the temple. They are the Caesar that the fringy, unwashed hippies and other liberals are supposed to be rendering unto.
Rome has come and gone (though it's making a return these days), but the Christians had endured because they chose the path of permanence. And now they're cashing in.
So you Napsters out there, pay your $15/month. Five years from now, you'll have paid out $900 and if you stop paying, or more likely, if Napster shuts down, you're out $900. If I buy $15 worth of songs from iTunes Music Store every month, after 5 years I'll have 900 more songs. Oh, you'll still have all those old songs too, the ones that Napster doesn't want you to remember you have, but you're throwing your energy away while I am investing mine.
So you Christians out there, pay your political dues and cash in. Years from now, you'll have emptied your moral and ethical stores and if you stop politicking, or more likely, if your party comes crashing down, you're out of all decency. If I continue to do what's right, what's compassionate, what's decent, what's freedom-loving, what's respectful, years from now, I'll have my pride and the world around me will be better because of me. Oh, you'll still have the right to claim a lifelong devotion to the Jesus-meme, the one that the Falwells and Robertsons don't want you to remember you have, but you're throwing all of your energy into their campaigns instead of towards your god, while I, with no god to speak of, am investing in my fellow human beings.
Marketing messages are funny, aren't they?
Comments
Nice is boring. Prosperity is boring. Bored people can be very, very dangerous. After a while, nice prosperity starts to feel like a right, feels like the natural order of things - rather than something earned and sacrificed for. Woe be to he who perturbs the status quo.
Bossing people around is fun. Feeling superior to other people is fun. Feeling persecuted builds group spirit - and when the persecution is mostly imagined, it has the added bonus of being painless.
The lessons of the past don't matter - my time is different, my situation is different, my claim to power and righteousness is new and pure. If you're not with me, you're with the terrorists.
Posted by: Clever Monkey | February 4, 2005 01:18 AM
Yeah, because of course politicians are always a the perfect representation of whatever religion they were raised in...
You can't label all of us "Religious" with the things one man does that you don't like. Or pretend you always know everybody's motives, so then you can nail us for them. You only see what you want to see, which is a bunch of hypocrites. Hey, if they're bad, you must be right! You only grudgingly agree with anything "religious", and even then you are certain you can see the malice behind our good intent.
And I'm glad you're "investing in my fellow human beings", because I was under the DISTINCT impression you were a crabby guy with no life besides furiously shouting down anybody who gets in the way of your plans of how things should run in your little corner of rich America.
Meawhile, us religious wackjobs are out every weekend, volunteering to take in the orphans, feed the homeless, care for those with nobody to care for them, give the forgotten a dignified death, and help those that people like you ignore. The filthy, the sick, the handicapped.
But hey! We ARE self-righteous, arrogant jerks, so I can see why you'd disagree with what we do. I'm sure you've done a lot more for humanity, because of course, you are for more enlightened that we are. Way to go. I'm sure the veiw is great from that pedestal you stand on. What do you do up there, for all your talk of investing in humanity? Besides bitch and moan, and complain about the people who are actually doing things, I mean. Like...actually doing something useful. Anything? Anything at all?!?
And for the record, Catholicism ain't going nowhere. Can't say the same about Evangelicalism (I can definitely see them being killed off by a perfectly logical and possible revolution by the left...), but we Catholics have already got our foothold in other places. China, which has my money on being the next world power, is rapidly turning Catholic.
So it's going to be a long and disappointing ride for you, man.
In conclusion, I'll post again when I'm feeling civil. But you can't go off an paint several million people with the same brush, and say you know exactly what we're all thinking. Especially if you don't know how to paint in the first place.
Posted by: The Masked Avenger | February 4, 2005 08:01 AM
Although I agree with you on both points (renting music=stupid, renting idealogy=stupid) I think it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that use of the iPod is somehow akin to social progressiveness, or that napster is selling out like the God And Country set.
But I don't think it's because your metaphor is bad, I think I just disagree. I think it's not that the God And Country people are selling out, it's that they never really wanted fairness, equality, or the American dream for anyone but themselves to begin with. And they simply don't understand the point of doing the right thing for anyone but God. Being a good person solely for the sake of being a good person isn't something they comprehend.
Obviously.
Posted by: Josh | February 4, 2005 08:04 AM
Masked Avenger, I merely borrowed your smallest brush. "Catholicism ain't goin' nowhere", "already got our foothold in China", "next world power...rapidly turning Catholic". Yeah, no Ascendancy there. Maybe you're just hedging your bets just in case you're wrong about the whole Heaven thing.
Josh, the christian folks I used to know didn't ever want to get too involved in politics, because they weren't supposed to. This life wasn't suppposed to be the end-all, be-all.
Christians were supposed to be decent, unassuming folks who brought others to God by example, not by law and certainly not by fiat.
Way back when, Pat Robertson was the wacko. Now he's just the Typical.
Posted by: God of Biscuits | February 4, 2005 09:23 AM
You're not making sense. You're comparing my statment of fact, that there are a lot of Catholics in a growing power in the world, to your claim to know that all us Christians deep down just trying to make money and scrape up power, and we all hate gays and pregnant women?
It's statistics, yo.
And as for Catholicism not going anywhere, I've got history on my side. Catholic traditions have been doing fine for the last 2 thousand years, and if we trace our Jewish heritage, our roots are definitely down deep, thank you. A couple corrupt politians aren't going to bring about the downfall of the faith. Countless attacks and revolutions and murders and heresies couldn't do it, either.
And what do you mean by hedging my bet? A Catholic China is going to isurance for me in case there's no Heaven? Umm...perhaps I'm misunderstanding you.
And wait...now you're telling me that as a religious person I can't be in politics, that I have to be a quiet, unassuming person? Good to see that open, definitely unoppresive mind at work.
Speaking of which, I noticed a blaring silence about your investments in your fellow man you were so proud of. Those investments that make you SO superior to us Christians, who are just too obcessed with God to worry about mere people. Those investments you avoided talking about in any detail...
I'm sure there's a good reason, though. After all, you're infititely better than me since your an atheist liberal, so I don't see why I should even try to understand your motives, which are all wonderfully loving, well thought-out and perfect in every aspect. Unlike me, of course.
Posted by: The Masked Avenger | February 5, 2005 01:56 AM
Quote: "Good to see that open, definitely unoppresive mind at work." LOL Touche.
Quote: "Speaking of which, I noticed a blaring silence about your investments in your fellow man you were so proud of. Those investments that make you SO superior to us Christians, who are just too obcessed with God to worry about mere people."
Is anyone surprised? Anyone?
Posted by: hoody | February 5, 2005 02:39 AM
Masked Avenger & hoody.
isn't it interesting that christians today seem to quote leviticus a whole lot more than the beatitudes?
They're selective, of course, about which parts of leviticus they trot out, but to be fair, consistently ignore all of the beatitudes.
Masked Avenger, it's your attitude, not the facts. Why are so you thrilled that catholicism stays a force to be reckoned with?
Notice that I'm commenting on observable behavior, NOT individual christian persons as a lump mob.
For the record, I am most certainly not an atheist. And still, you don't see me out there treating whole classes of people as second class citizens and going out on some virulent jihad to get oppressive, exclusionary laws written in the US Constitution.
Give me the same rights as you and I'll leave you the fuck alone. Keep trying to roust your troops to target me and bring me down, expect a defensive posture.
Which part of this doesn't make sense to you people who have made a choice to believe in god?
Posted by: GodOfBiscuits | February 5, 2005 03:57 AM
Masked Avenger: Investments: see Beatitudes.
Only I don't take them literally and often, i'm on the provider side of them...y'know, where you think only god is supposed to be.
Beatitudes
There's a link, just so they're as close at hand as you keep your leviticus.
Posted by: GodOfBiscuits | February 5, 2005 04:00 AM
Once again, you nailed it.
Posted by: Ron (Out There) | February 7, 2005 06:45 AM