Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Myth of Ownership and Independence

It's a commonly pushed notion that people need to be aided in their ability to own certain items. We are told that we should be home owners, own at least one car and then we start to get into all of the little things we hold as status symbols, nice clothes, a big screen TV, a large music collection. Recently I have started to think more and more that ownership if often hindering us as much as it helps us.


The reason for the push towards ownership is rather simple. By owning particular items we are attempting to guarantee their availability to us. If you are simply renting a house there is the chance that the landlord will kick you out. What would happen if they suddenly jacked up the rent so that you are no longer able to afford to live there. How would you know that you'd be able to find another place to live? With cars we want to have our own mode of transportation. In some locations there is no reliable mode of public transportation so the only option without having a car is to get a ride from friends of relatives that have a car. In many locations that have public transit it's a lot faster to have your own vehicle. If you want to leave at a particular time you can and you don't need to worry about overcrowding or missing the last train.


At face value it seems that ownership affords us with a great deal of freedom because we ostensibly have control over many more items in our life. In addition it creates demand for more goods and creates jobs for building and manufacturing.


The problem is that with each item that we try to own we lose more and more of our freedom. Items like houses and cars are expensive and the most common way of paying for them is on credit. I can't think of the last time I heard of someone buying a new car outright let alone a home. That means that in order to get that house you need to enter into a contract to pay back the borrowed money. You also have to make regular payments and ensure that you have enough income to afford it. In addition you need to maintain your purchases, that means mowing the lawn, keeping the paint up, maintaining the septic system and many other items. With a car you need to go in for regular maintenance, keep the inspection up to date, repair the car if it has any mechanical failures.


With the lock downs that ownership creates there are other factors that come into play. Even though it may spur market demand it also makes it harder for communities to respond to changes and reinvent themselves. People that have a mortgage on a house can't just uproot and move to where news jobs are. Likewise it makes it less likely that the demographic of an area will change. The people that originally settled in an area will likely stay in the homes that they own and new immigrants will be pushed off into the outskirts of the original areas and their communities will have fewer ties to each other.


Now on the other hand if a system is set up to properly support the community and protect the citizens without pushing them into personal ownership they will have less things to tie them down and more freedom when they relocate or simply visit another area. There are additional benefits as well since overproduction is less likely and transit and housing can be created in more economical manners by being developed to accommodate more people in an efficient manner.


By having more items in public control or easily usable by the general populous without the requirements of ownership the individual has less responsibility and gains mobility as well as greater ease when relocation. Renting an apartment instead of owning a house means that there isn't any requirement to sell a property when moving. In addition apartments can be designed to have greater energy efficiency than a stand alone house. The maintenance can be improved because it can be done as a whole instead of peace meal. With transit there are even greater benefits as public transit tends to be significantly more energy efficient fitting a greater quantity of people into a given space and transporting less needless weight. With a well designed transit system there isn't much of a time loss and the public can escape the need to purchase a vehicle, maintain it, keep it registered and insured. There is an extra benefit that when someone moves to, or visits a new location, as long as it also has a proper public transit system they won't need to bring their car out or rend a car at their new location.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Blue Penis Contoversy

Not that long ago I went to the theatre to see Watchmen. I was well aware that it had received a good bit of press but I intentionally shielded myself from the reviews so I could enjoy the movie to it's fullest. When I went into the theater I had not read a single review and had minimal expectations. I thought that it would be visually pretty and have some functioning plot.
After watching the movie I went home and did a quick search to see what professional reviewers and the general public thought about the film. To my surprise the plot, characters, and directing were all overshadowed, by a blue penis.
To simplify the controversy there were a few common reactions

"There is a blue penis in the movie. These people are bad make it so nobody is allowed to see it!"

"The blue penis is bigger than it should be."

"Penises make me feel awkward."

Given the fluctuations in public acceptance of nudity in movies the first response didn't come as much of a surprise. It was more of a shock that the moral right was complaining and had lost rather than complaining and successfully getting half of the movie chopped up. It is a mixed win for liberalists because it managed to sneak by on the grounds of being a digital copy (not a "real" person) and by being blue. Perhaps we will see a trend of brightly colored naked people.

The second point is the most amusing. While mothers of white bread familys are ready to attack theatres for even showing the appendage die-hard enthusiasts are complaining about the reduction of significance buy the increase in size. The thought is that by having a respectable endowment Dr. Manhattan loses a factor that was supposed to make him more modest. It's a valid point but it garnered a disproportiante amount of attention.

The last comment in one that I have to agree with. While watching the movie I went through 4 phases.
1. Hhmmm blue penis that's weird, but OK
2. More blue penis. I don't feel comfortable.
3. Hey! Blue penis again
4. Whew! I'm glad that they didn't show blue penis just then.
It's not something that I felt entirely comfortable with but it also wasn't that bad. Having seen Walk Hard it was a situation that I was familiar with. Also when I was growing up I would occsionally watch foriegn films with my parents, random nudity, not so strange.

The controversy placed Watchmen in a slightly different light for me than most other movies. In some respects I would have liked there to be more discussion about the plot elements, the character development, favorite characters, sound track and the regular spiel. However I really enjoyed having some thing different to talk about for once. A subject that is unlikely to pop up in any other movies anytime soon. Blue penis controversy, thank you.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Latin Networking

Random events are fantastic. There are plenty that are complete duds but the ones that go well entirely make up for it.

Stuff @ Night was holding an event at Macy's and based on the regular promise of free alcohol and the potential for fun times I decided to show up. The group was squeezed into a section of the men's department in the store and when I showed up they already had some alcohol flowing and the DJ spinning some music.
The fun factor apparently hadn't been booked for the night.

Small amounts of beer in plastic cups is not good, sprite with water is even worse.

Getting a bunch of guys together to watch a men's fasion show is not a good idea. In fact from now on I demand that all men's fashion shows be co-ed. I want to see how well the clothes will make me look when I am standing next to a hot girl.

Networking events work well when people are getting together to make new connections and talk with people that they don't normally communicate with. If you meet with a bunch of people that you spent last Thursday with you aren't networking.

Five Days Later

It's five days later and I get the first return call to my posted resume.

and I miss the call.

A call back to the number and all that I get is a busy signal. Call again, busy. Call again, busy. Call again, busy. Call again, and I finally connect. It's fantastic, not quite what I was expecting but I still spend a few moments on the phone.

One way calls with fax machines are awesome.