| The Art of Elasticity |
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I have been sympathetic to the human leaning towards equality for almost as long as I have been trying to come up with arguments against all kinds of advertising: no matter how silly a concept, it nevertheless harbours the kernel of post-physical evolution in its most basic form. Similarly to what happens to organisms in isolated locations, there are signs that things are moving on the thinking and feeling front, although not as straightforwardly as in the olden days. While the Darwinian view prevailed, the topic of dispute remained outside the general line of vision. These days, however, it seems to me that in so far as there's nothing to stop it, two unimaginable extremes will be fusing into our unbearable future perspective. Picture on the one hand the spectre of the Haves: the demon of income levelling, juxtaposed by the ideal of social equality, which for those in advertising is particularly appealing as it makes it a great deal easier to figure out what it is that people want and gear the merchandise accordingly. I can't help it that I'd prefer a bit more elasticity in the elaboration of Homo Universalis's individual rights, for that's how I think we're largely made up even though it is my impression that we tend to display rather a lot of indifference in allowing third-party interests to dominate us. Which after a spot of musing presented itself to me as the most convincing argument in favour of better education that I had so far been able to come up with. [Reflections triggered by J. Pietersma's article entitled "Spies along the Highway" in the 31 March 2003 edition of NRC Handelsblad, in which the author describes how target group requirements are identified along US highways through the radio programmes that the drivers are listening to in their cars, not by staging surveys but simply by picking up signals transmitted by the recipient radios themselves - and all of this a mere two days after my somewhat trite musings on the as yet fictitious mind-reading machines in airports, see WR 145: The Amateur (8).] |