Freer To Gouge You

You know I love to criticize advertising. My bachelor's degree in Mass Communications is heavily based on this kind of visual analysis. Okay, so watch this, and pay special attention to the very last few seconds.



"Freer to do what I want"?? Any middle school student knows that "freer" is not a word. See for yourself; it does not appear in any dictionary. The pharmaceutical industry spends $5 billion on advertising, which is among the highest of any industry. With that kind of cash being thrown around, one would think that they would spend a second to check the ad-copy for syntax.

This ad has disappeared in the last few weeks. It was actually difficult for me to find it for you. (In its place is the ad featuring "time in a bottle.") I would like to think the makers of Zyrtec realized how glaringly bad their first ad was, so they quickly made a new one. And, yes, they do have that much cash to blow on TV commercials!

The intellectual property connection to all of this media criticism (and textual nitpicking) is that the pharmaceutical industry is the biggest opponent to governmental regulation, claiming such market interference would unfairly burden their for-profit venture. They ignore the public health component of their business; they ostensibly make drugs to help people.

Antitrust law, which protects consumers by promoting competition and prohibiting unfair business practices, finds the high-cost of important medicines restrictive to consumers particularly when the marginal cost of producing those drugs is dramatically lower than the market price.

Pharmaceutical companies oppose antitrust regulation because they don't want to lower their profits at all. (Importantly, antitrust law does not regulate an industry to the point of bankruptcy. Courts and agencies, like the Federal Trade Commission, would enjoin the companies to charge a more fair price under the circumstances.) They are fine, however, with inundating us with billions of dollars of the slickest advertising out there. No other type of TV ad features more high-profile actors, more slick special effects, more expensive music licensing and more valuable placement.

The next time you see one of those ads, notice (a) how often you see it and (b) how well-produced it is. Those aspects are expensive. Then, realize that the reason working class and elderly people cannot afford all of their prescriptions is that the companies need the extra money to pay for those ads.

Pride and Dignity

While reflecting on the special rights afforded to celebrities, I took a break to re-watch season 2 of Heroes. Lost in thought, I half-heard one of the characters of the show mention 'dignity.' Like a bud blooming into a full red rose, I realized a beautiful truth about the path to happiness.

Buddhist philosophy is aimed at the destruction of the ego, or rather the realization that the ego does not exist. This is because the ego is an artificial construct that separates us from our world. Rather than focusing on how our perceptions fit our conceptions, Buddhists urge us to engage directly with reality without any conceptions. The ego is this prime conception and it should therefore be eliminated.

The 'ego' they discuss is not exactly the same as the 'ego' of common parlance. Most people use the word 'ego' to describe their sense of 'pride.' Prideful people seek external praise in order to justify their self-image. This slight distinction notwithstanding, both types of 'ego' are harmful. Our self-images should never be dependent on any external condition.

While the two words, pride and dignity, can be understood as synonyms, they are in fact different. Dignity is an internal sense of value, independent of transient external conditions. It is a satisfaction with oneself, that we have acted in accordance with our own morals. When we are confident about our intact dignity, we can feel free to love, laugh, and live to the fullest without concern for the consequences. Dignity is thus integral for true happiness. (By happiness, I do not describe a perpetual euphoria, but rather a satisfaction in the moment. "Things are bad, but I got here on my terms and I feel good about that.")

On the other hand, when we act pridefully, we seek approval, love, reciprocation, or some other reinforcement. In those moments, we are dependent on external valuations and we are constricted to aiming our actions at certain results - a positive valuation.

Pride is goal-oriented action by which rewards, if any, will come at the end. Likely, these rewards will register as inadequate. Meanwhile, dignity is process-oriented action, where the satisfaction is internal and continuous, as we act.

You should leave your pride. Let it go, but never let anyone or anything take your dignity. Make sure you act with dignity, not pride. By every act you take, make sure you show yourself how good you really are. Elimination of the prideful ego is the first step towards happiness.

Law Nerd v. High School Punk

This account is based on true events.

LN: What is this music we're listening to?

HSP: It's the new song by Augustana, "Sweet and Low." It's awesome. ... Why?

LN: Because this song sucks. And it sounds just like Matchbox Twenty's "Unwell" and Coldplay's "In My Place," ... inter alia, but way simpler! It's just a watered down version of lots of much better music!

HSP: Well, this is new so I like it. I don't care about the history of music. I just want to like what I like. And I'm not living in the 1980s. It's 2008.

LN: Okay, I'm not trying to teach you music history. I'm just saying, why would you like music when you know it's a rip-off of other music?

HSP: Because I don't know that! I've never heard the other music that this music rips off. So, to me, it's brand new.

LN: ... Damn. I used to be you.

HSP: When? In 1973?

LN: How old do you think I am?

HSP: 37.

LN: Fuck. ... Anyway, you think it's okay for bands to copy other bands as long as you've never heard the original bands?

HSP: Yes, and under 17 U.S.C. § 501, one infringes a copyright contributorily by intentionally inducing or encouraging direct infringement and infringes vicariously by profiting from direct infringement while declining to exercise a right to stop or limit it. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 125 S. Ct. 2764, 162 L. Ed. 2d 781 (U.S. 2005). Intent is required to infringe a copyright, and if a person has never heard a piece of copyrighted music, then he cannot form the intent to infringe upon it.

LN: [violent coughing] Did you just cite a case??

HSP: Are you the only person with a Westlaw account? Chump. I was saying--

LN: You're saying that you've never heard Matchbox Twenty so you cannot infringe their copyright. Fine. You're off the hook. What about Augustana?

HSP: Matchbox Twenty was your generation's music. I bet Augustana has never heard of Matchbox Twenty, and neither have I. So just let them be, old man!

LN: First of all, never associate me with Matchbox Twenty. Second, even Matchbox Twenty was just a watered-down version of Pearl Jam. The only difference between you and I is that I remember music from when I was your age and I still listen to pop music. So I recognize the similarities. You'll be just like me. This cycle will never end. Don't you see that?

HSP: I'll never dress like shit. Tell me, who is Fall Out Boy ripping off, then??

LN: There has never been a band so terrible and creatively void.

HSP: Ah ha! See?? My generation is different then!

Change: Retail Therapy (Part II)

Today, I saw this ad:



Whoa, whoa, whoa!! Hold up.

First of all, this is not what I meant by my discussion of retail therapy!! I did not mean to encourage consumerism. I also did not mean to suggest that new shoes were going to solve all of your problems.

Secondly, it is ironic that the shoes I mentioned in my original post on the topic, were in fact Pumas! How did they know?? Is there something in the stitching of their shoes that makes us live afresh??

Because it was my first real attempt at a substantive posting, and because it is a complicated topic, I may not have been as crisp and direct as I would have liked. Let me, real quick, re-focus the point of my Change discussion:

You are not an idle passenger on the train of your life. You can change your experience in a single flash of transformation. Introduce a new element to your life and everything around it will change too.

Before and After

Once your mind is blown, how can you go back to normal life?

Pledge Drive

You knew this day was coming. Just as every riveting PBS show must be interrupted periodically for a pledge drive, I must interject here my own readership drive.

Ugh, Video Professor Founder and CEO John Scherer, I hate you. And yet I have finally become you. I'm out here, plugging my product and begging people to try it. Is that salesmanship or desperation? Yes.

There are three things I seek. The first is more chances to interact with you via comments. I really enjoy all of your feedback. Let's have more! Have a thought? Agree with something? Violently disagree with something? Spit it out!! Let me see! Maybe you'll start a mutiny against me among the other readers! There really is no reason to hold back your opinion. If I relish the conversation this much, do you really think I'm going to be mean to you if you comment?

The other thing I ask is that you spread the word about this blog. If each of you gets one more person to subscribe to the blog, we'll have doubled our numbers. You don't have to send out a mass email. People don't like that. Just tell a couple of people. Be cool about it, man. Let's be serious. One taste of this blog is all they'll need. Remember the first time you tasted this tasty blog? It was a little bit like heroine but, like, better. Why not share that?

The third thing I seek is optional. If you have subscribed to the blog via RSS or some equivalent but would rather have the posts emailed conveniently to your Inbox, just "subscribe via email." To quote Axl Rose, "it's so easy." See this older post for more help subscribing.

Real Compassion

I saw an ad yesterday for a new program on CNN called The Compassion Forum. I am not going to link you to it because I have purposely not investigated what the show is about. I have my own idea what it should be and I don't want to be disappointed with what it really is.

Hopefully the show is going to focus on what compassion is, who displays it, how they attained it, how they display it, and of course, why. If I am right, then that would be an excellent program.

There is much talk about "being real" and then "keeping it real." It all sorta began on TV with MTV's Real World in 1991. I watched that show back then because it was exciting to see what really would happen when 7 strangers stop being polite and start being real. At that point in our culture, there was a feeling that real-ness or honesty was lacking in discourse, especially between the various groups in our world. If people just expressed themselves honestly, the real-ness movement said, we could clear up a lot of misunderstandings and problems. Very importantly, the show promised to reveal the value in honesty underneath the stigma of honesty.

A really cancerous effect of this idea, however, is the license for people to be rude and crass under the guise of real-ness and honesty. Rude people walk around hurting everyone and defending their actions with faux-noble principles of honesty. Yet for what tiny piece of truth they have shared with the world, they have contributed more pain. Furthermore, these hurtful honest people only reinforce the danger in (clumsy) honesty and the stigma of being real.

Certainly, I think honesty is the best approach to every situation. Without discussing the nature of "truth," let us say that open, sincere communication with oneself and with others always helps. So, what is "compassion"? I would define compassion as the understanding (empathy, not sympathy) that all people are connected and that what one person experiences, we all experience.

Compassion is a cloak around honesty. Honesty is a subset, one part, of compassion. First, you need to be honest about a situation, then you need to express that understanding in a way that acknowledges the interconnectedness of all people. "Yes, what you're going through is tragic. Yes, I am not in your exact situation. But I was there yesterday, and I could be there again tomorrow. So your experience is mine too. We will go through this together."

So, if the Real World set out to make people communicated honestly with each other, then this Compassion Forum could set out to make people use that honesty in truly compassionate dealings with each other. TV has become rude, crude and mean-spirited. We could use some compassion. It is the next logical step in emotional development. To spew honesty clumsily is like spitting poison just to get it out of your system, but in the process, spitting it on someone else's face; it's a fundamentally selfish act.

The next time you start a sentence with the phrase, "Honestly...." pause and make sure the next words you say are more compassionate than rude.

Do The Hard Thing

Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do!
Just kidding.

Do you have any ambitions? We all have ambitions, whether they are grand like being a doctor or smaller like waking up at 8am tomorrow. I think of an ambition as any goal, but especially one that involves a self-imposed obligation to improve oneself.

In the course of attaining these goals, we face difficult choices. The easiest pattern to spot is these choices is that of "hard vs. easy." It sounds oversimplified and yes, there is the potential to argue against my ideas to break down the distinction. I know someone could convince me that what I see as the hard option is really the easier of the two. Hey Someone! Shut up and read this. It may help you.

Bottom line up front, the hard option is always the best decision. Hard options are daunting because they involve confrontation of some fear, insecurity or other weakness. They require more effort. They make us deal with uncertainties. We take a bigger risk than we would like to take. It is scary. But in facing these situations, we accomplish what we really want to do and simultaneously face our fear so that the same option will never appear hard again. It really is slaying a dragon.

I don't think anyone is ever motivated by the knowledge that doing something will build inner-strength. I know that doesn't help me, but I also know that it is true. Just between your intellect and me, every time we choose a hard option, we get stronger so that we can more easily face other hard choices.

Easy options evade effort. They avoid dealing with problems for the sake of comfort. The only effect of such a choice is to gain more time, but when that time elapses, the hard option remains and we will have to face it anyway. Is there any benefit of that extra time? Sure, a person may need more time to face the true hard option so that they can better accomplish the task. Such respites are unnecessary though, as reflected in our own hindsight. I know every time I have chosen to wait before making a hard choice, I have been aware that there was no way around the difficulty AND that I should have just more bravely moved forward in the first place. So again, I write these words for myself as much as for anyone else.

Taking a step towards the hard choice, fear in tow, is exactly the change I discuss below. It is a step towards the unknown, which is probably why it is so scary but also why it is necessary under the circumstances. What would Kaiser Soze say about this? He would consider it bold to choose the hard option and break the script where your character would normally do the same old easy thing one more time.

Every morsel of insight (inside), philosophy (outside) and Universal Energy (everywhere else) tells us, generally, to face our fears, and specifically, to do exactly this hard thing.

Like a child squirming on the first day of school or a young penguin scared at the water's edge, we only squirm because we are scared. Nowhere in this writing have I said "let go of your fear." I have no reason to think anyone is capable of turning that emotion off. But while you are pumping fear in your blood, also pump some strength. You can do both at the same time. Just keep moving toward the scary thing and your strength will take over. Think back. It has always been there.