Poster boy
On the way to work today, I took a look at advertising posters in subway cars and platforms. A few of them caught my eye.
First, there was an advertising campaign against nuclear energy in Ontario. Nuclear energy is apparently somehow unclean and should be abolished. The greeny poster offered solar and wind power as an alternative, but it sure would be interesting to find out how much the opposition of nuclear power is financed by the coal and petroleum industries. To a large extent, I would bet. The nice thing about capitalism and profit maximization is that it makes people and organizations more predictable.
Another poster advertised a professional matchmaking service that specializes to same-sex couples. In the picture, two handsome men were engaged in a Brokeback-style loving embrace. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for gay men to find a partner who is (a) monogamous and (b) monogamous for some other reason than that the other gay men generally don't want to bang him. If a gay man wants monogamy, pursuing it will probably teach him painfully what the word "settle" means. "What you want, others also want", as a wise character in a Korean movie that I once saw aptly noted. So very true, at least to first approximation.
The local lottery has been running an ad campaign where each poster has four digits and the poster asks if they are winning numbers or something else. For example, 4-3-2-1 could be a crash course on rocketry. The poster I saw had the numbers 1-9-7-6 and wondered if they are the last year that you looked good in tight pants. Under this text, somebody had glued a homemade sticker that said "Fat is sexy!" Well, at least it is an interesting theory. Some late-night comedian should perhaps explore it by sending a bunch of middle-aged fat guys to courteously hit on twentysomething women in a nightclub and record the reactions and responses of these women with a hidden camera.
As long as I have lived here, there have been ads for some "School of Philosophy" whose courses "combine the teachings of East and West" and are designed for "thoughtful men and women". The saddest thing with this is that this school is probably not that different from the humanities departments of real universities.
Of course, the day wouldn't be complete without the TTC:s advertisements about their heroic bus drivers and other workers. When they see that something abnormal is going on, they grab their radios and call the cops who will then come and solve the situation. It's almost like the TTC workers were superheroes or something. Surely these brave men and women deserve our heartfelt thanks, endangering themselves by going above and beyond their call of duty.
First, there was an advertising campaign against nuclear energy in Ontario. Nuclear energy is apparently somehow unclean and should be abolished. The greeny poster offered solar and wind power as an alternative, but it sure would be interesting to find out how much the opposition of nuclear power is financed by the coal and petroleum industries. To a large extent, I would bet. The nice thing about capitalism and profit maximization is that it makes people and organizations more predictable.
Another poster advertised a professional matchmaking service that specializes to same-sex couples. In the picture, two handsome men were engaged in a Brokeback-style loving embrace. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for gay men to find a partner who is (a) monogamous and (b) monogamous for some other reason than that the other gay men generally don't want to bang him. If a gay man wants monogamy, pursuing it will probably teach him painfully what the word "settle" means. "What you want, others also want", as a wise character in a Korean movie that I once saw aptly noted. So very true, at least to first approximation.
The local lottery has been running an ad campaign where each poster has four digits and the poster asks if they are winning numbers or something else. For example, 4-3-2-1 could be a crash course on rocketry. The poster I saw had the numbers 1-9-7-6 and wondered if they are the last year that you looked good in tight pants. Under this text, somebody had glued a homemade sticker that said "Fat is sexy!" Well, at least it is an interesting theory. Some late-night comedian should perhaps explore it by sending a bunch of middle-aged fat guys to courteously hit on twentysomething women in a nightclub and record the reactions and responses of these women with a hidden camera.
As long as I have lived here, there have been ads for some "School of Philosophy" whose courses "combine the teachings of East and West" and are designed for "thoughtful men and women". The saddest thing with this is that this school is probably not that different from the humanities departments of real universities.
Of course, the day wouldn't be complete without the TTC:s advertisements about their heroic bus drivers and other workers. When they see that something abnormal is going on, they grab their radios and call the cops who will then come and solve the situation. It's almost like the TTC workers were superheroes or something. Surely these brave men and women deserve our heartfelt thanks, endangering themselves by going above and beyond their call of duty.
"The saddest thing with this is that this school is probably not that different from the humanities departments of real universities."
Well done, sir. Why did I waste four years communing with some of the finest thinkers in human history among beautiful young co-eds? If only I'd spent it as you did, typing ones and zeroes into a computer with a bunch of pimply Dungeons-and-Dragons enthusiasts... Ah, the sorrow, the regret...
Posted by Anonymous | 8:01 PM
New York subway cars also occasionally have poster ads for non-credit philosophy classes. They're a welcome break from the usual crap: "have you been injured?" shysters, worthless vocational schools enrolling high school dropouts, AIDS-prevention public service announcements, and similar things aimed at the lumpenproletariat.
Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights
Posted by Anonymous | 9:40 PM
"Why did I waste four years communing with some of the finest thinkers in human history among beautiful young co-eds?"
So that's what the humanities departments are for! As far as I know, most other university departments are dedicated for research and education for benefit of society or even mankind as a whole, not just for benefit of those communing with winners of a popularity contest for four years and then becoming... what?
Posted by Rebyk | 3:15 AM
I guess that I shouldn't put down the humanities so much. I mean, who else could we possibly trust to boldly carry on with Marxism, postmodern relativism and the various resentment studies in a world that rendered all of these ideologies obsolete a long time ago and tossed them to the dustbin of history? Now that must take courage and principles.
Posted by Ilkka | 11:06 AM
rebyk,
Plato is read world-wide 2500 yrs after his death. Conversely, you and Ilkka will be forgotten ten minutes after death. And this is wholly a result of the fickle finger of 'popularity' and not of any inherent qualitative or intellectual superiority... Well, whatever consoles you during those long days in the cubicle, buddy.
Illka,
I won't try and debate the finer points of this with you. Certainly, anyone who thinks Mississauga is a nice place to live is so irrecoverably braindead as to make debate impossible. Let me just say that the humanities embody the study of mankind's primary necessities and impulses. What the political structures ought to be, how the legal system should be organized, etc., these are all matters discusssed and decided on within the humanities. But don't take my word for it: look into a microscope and tell me how a murderer should be punished. After all, as Hume (someone neither of you will ever have heard of) said, "you cannot derive 'ought' from 'is'". Now, both of you make yourselves useful and design another Ipod; there hasn't been a new one for about ten minutes.
Posted by Anonymous | 9:38 PM
Your highness,
I don't doubt that I will be forgotten in ten minutes after I die, but I am interested in how long you think you will be remembered. After all, you have made a difference by communing among beautiful young co-eds. You brought up the co-eds so that must be very important. Perhaps you would like to compare also yourself to Plato?
Of course all Nobel prize winners have done something very important. Still, not everyone with somewhat equally important achievements can get the prize. That's why I called it a popularity contest.
"Now, both of you make yourselves useful and design another Ipod; there hasn't been a new one for about ten minutes."
No, I think I will continue designing and implementing some telecommunication software that people will use in a few years without knowing it. I am just a puny engineer who no-one has heard of and I am not even special compared to other engineers. Despite that, I have already made lives of millions of people better just a little bit. Perhaps you are one of them.
By the way, I have an office with a lake view. As I write, people are cross-country skiing and skating on ice fifty meters from my desk (and that's nice, I like winter). I wonder if I should have done something more important like study humanities to earn an office like this.
Posted by Rebyk | 5:06 AM
Well, I see basic reading comprehension isn't required of engineers. Just to clarify my already self-evident position, I wasn't comparing "also myself to Plato" (basic grammar isn't a requirement either, eh?). But my short, obscure time on earth will have been better spent than yours, insofar as I don't reflexively heap contempt on the judgements of generations of scholars (much more intelligent than myself) regarding work I haven't read.
As for the co-eds, that was a bit tongue-in-cheek. But evidently you're a man who appreciates congenial surroundings (among your mountains and such), so do I really need to explain the preferableness of being nestled among hot chicks versus dorks?
As for your Nobel point, every undergraduate reads a handful of unequivocal greats (in philosophy, about a dozen: Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Hegel, spring to mind immediately), and then specializes in a particular field, where lesser but still worthy writers are studied. Both historically and in the present day, there are simply fewer people doing high-level philosophy than science, which makes separating the wheat from the chaff that much easier. I feel like we need nap time after covering such extensive terrain.
Well certainly you improve people's lives. If we didn't have telecommunications software, I couldn't give you this little tutorial about the ins-and-outs of the humanities. Imagine how much more impoverished your life of smug self-satisafction would have been! As for myself, just try to ensure that your software doesn't cause sterility or something. If you do that, you'll be head and shoulders above most other practicioners of your profession.
Posted by Anonymous | 2:47 PM
(It seems my previous answer was lost like tears in rain. Time to write another)
Sorry Sir, I am not able to debate with you since English is not my native language and you clearly require perfect English from your opponents. I didn't understand the finest details of your writing and it seems my writing was incomprehensible even to the finest of the finest.
I finally see that your point from the beginning was that people in humanities departments are able to judge people in other cultures and lower classes without thinking about political correctness, at least in the protection of total anonymity.
I bow before your moral superiority.
Posted by Rebyk | 5:11 PM
My name is Fred Sheppard and I live in Vancouver, Canada. Is there really much difference between going as 'anonymous' and "rebyk" from Finland? They're almost equally non-descript.
I assumed you were a native English speaker (I didn't bother to click your name), so I retract my quibbles with your grammar (it's churlish to jump all over foreigners who make the effort to learn english).
Anyway, now you can see that I judge people from other cultures and lower classes (I thought you were a wealthy engineer?) even without anonymity. Do I get any credit for casting off the nasty shackles of political correctness and moral relativism?
Posted by Anonymous | 12:23 AM
The nickname I use seems to be almost unique and I haven't really tried to hide the connection between my nickname and my real name, so there's a huge difference between going as "anonymous" or "rebyk".
Finnish engineers are not that wealthy. Surely we are middle class, but by "lower classes" I meant "people who are not high class citizens like you".
Anyway, telling some name (it still could be randomly chosen but then again, I could be anyone using this nickname) brings you away from total anonymity. I respect that.
Posted by Rebyk | 4:17 AM