westebsco

the list, from a year and a half ago

*ideas about humans as earth dna
*thoughts on art vs science, or art cooperating with science. how the two relate
*trying to develope ideas about first world problems, how it relates to progress, and what kind of progress
*realization that i had when i was 11 or 10 comes back to haunt me as it relates to a theory of time. did i have it right when i was in 7th grade? do i even have it right now?does anyone?!

Thats a copy paste from the ACTUAL LIST I made long time ago. Its got a goofy look to it...

Well since Ive discussed a little about the dna idea, Ill be moving on in the list. I would like to keep poking away at the dna idea but I will continue that another time. The next item I have is art vs science which I was confused about when I reread the list but now I think I remember what I was thinking about and what I was referring to at the time. BUUUUUUUT I havent had any of those ideas on my mind as strongly as they were back then so Ill skip/combine that one with a new item on a new list. I HAVE however been thinking about the NEXT thingy44 on the list, my thoughts about "first world problems" and if they help to develop some progress in some way. Or maybe progress is the fuel for first world problems.

I recall seeing some goofy things online, pictures of people who are sorta sad with captions about how they dont get cell service or something? or a caption about how the coffee place didnt have enough creamer so they had to change their order and the people are crying. Or how the battery on their lap top is dying but the charger is in another room and its such a hassle. I believe most of these pictures reference things Im not to familiar with though, but I get the idea. The people are almost always affluent looking and acting rather dramatically upset about something very insignificant and they are titled first world problems or I think some of them might say white kid problems too. The idea is funny and obvious, rich white privileged kids complaining rather dramatically about very insignificant things, as i said. Its supposed to be funny. This brings to mind a conversation I recently had with a friend in reference to our humor. We would often point out things about people which we thought were funny, little actions and mannerisms that caught our attention and made us laugh. A lot of these observations were also of people doing things which we didnt really approve of, or perhaps actions which we would see as being unacceptable for ourselves. Things we wouldnt do because we just couldnt see ourselves doing them. And seeing other people actually doing these things or saying them was very funny to us. Being at a party and seeing a guy blatantly hitting on a girl who clearly wishes to just have fun with her friends, hearing the ridiculous things he says to her, thinking it is somehow acceptable? and attractive? Things which were a bit of a puzzlement to us were some of the funniest things, because it was a mystery to us how these people could reason what they did as being appropriate. A lot of our humor came from these observations and judgments of others. We would say sarcastic things to each other, as though we were giving answers that one of these people would give, playing the roll of the silly people. Eventually, our sarcasm became very over the top and we were no longer playing rolls of people who you would imagine actually exist, these were very dramatic, over the top reactions. They were the characters at stakes 10 as our acting teacher would put it, with every delivery of every line, or just about that extreme. We were, at this point, no longer making fun of people anymore, or rather no longer making fun of specific people we had seen. The kinds of things in these first world problems pictures online were the sort of silly problems we would create when being funny around each other.

It turns out, after laughing about these pretend people, that my friend and i have both encountered numerous individuals who fit the description of the characters we created. People finding reasons to be upset, pointing out how things around them arent conducive to their situation and thus they are allowed to be upset by it and their anger or dramatic depression is warranted because, well the store no longer has the high heel shoes that would go really really great with my dress!!!!! my life sucks. It is my contention that this behavior is seen in many areas of peoples lives. By that I mean, the idea that people deserve to have luxuries go their way and that, without those luxuries or circumstances going their way, there is merit to the resulting negative behavior, can be seen in not just a small niche area of someones life.

This behavior can be obvious in my first example. Maybe we could call that the shopping or consumer area. I think there might be other "areas" which I could examine but I will focus on the consumer area. The "struggles" a rich white privileged kid can go through range from being upset that they are only allowed to get one pair of new shoes when they really want two pairs, even though they have plenty at home, to being upset about being forced to get a different kind of cell phone case than the one which they really want, because the store only holds one kind and, well they certainly cant wait to find the one they want cause who waits for anything anymore?
Consumer first world problems are probably the route of the whole notion of first world problems, as far as the modern world is concerned. Or maybe a better way to say that is that the consumer/capitalist system is the current driving force to maintain a steadfast and exponential first world problem attitude increase within the American zeitgeist of the last...100 years? maybe more. I think it was first introduced around the time of the spanish american war, when the US was trying to push their title of being a world power. News papers during the yellow journalism era helped to further the choices choices mentality once the monopolies of the mid and late 1800s were being broken up. The introduction of industrial production and manufacturing of goods was probably the initial grandfather of first world problems. Maybe we should dub two important aspects in the whole examination of first world problems. One aspect is what I will call the problem and the other I will call the solution, for lack of better, more thought out terms. Conditions for creating enough goods for consumers in the late 1700s up through the 1900s were not optimal, thinkers and inventors came up with ideas to fix these problems. Solutions to these problems could be anything introduced during those years, the cotton gin up to the modern assembly line and modern factory work. While these solutions were becoming more and more refined, items that I would refer to as luxuries were introduced to the american mainstream. Washing machines, vacuums, refrigerators and the like were products that people could now afford and utilize to help maintain their american life style. Thanks to the end of the monopolies, the american mindset became engrained with the notion that choices are what we have and deserve. This belief that we need to have so many choices when going to the store boomed after the second world war. From cereal to cars, people could choose just the kind of product they wanted, and rightly so. Who is going to tell me that I can only get one kind of...well anything! Im an american citizen and I deserve it! One might contend that the cold war had a major impact in pushing the, as far as americans were concerned, important idea that choices are american, and having little or no choices is anti american or even communist. And for the better part of, 50, 60, 70 years you would not want to be dubbed communist. Its still a dirty word and title to a lot of people. Through advertising, consumers were pushed to buy more and more, believing(?) that buying these things would, at first, be a symbol of their status among a classless (ha)society and I believe eventually, that these products might actually make them feel better. By them, I mean consumers. It is around the time that people more widely start to believe that the products the advertisers are pushing on them will make them happy that I believe the current first world problems attitude emerges. It became common place to own a tv, to own a car, to eat three times a day with dessert. Kids became a larger target audience for products, for music, for toys, clothes and the like. Kids who had old worn out clothes were probably picked on by others who had the latest fashion. It might be the first time that people who already lived in a privileged society started to feel bad for what the lacked. This early introduction in children to ridicule based on living "without" is what helps to perpetuate the must have and must own so that we are happy mentality. How often have you heard people, whether referring to their children or their phantom future children, remark on how they will not allow them to struggle and go without, like they had to when they were growing up? This is nothing new, people have said that for hundreds and im sure thousands of years. But advancements in technology and daily life have made just the proverbial basics for an american such a comfortable life. People living in a very privileged society are still saying they will not have their children go without. Im reminded of something I read online regarding a day camp and the snacks served to the kids. One parent sent an email to the counselors of the camp, saying that they became aware that the snacks served were not name brand and they were concerned.

Ok, this is only the introduction of my topic. A little bit of background and understanding so that you might better understand what first world problems means to me. And when I say you, of course, Im talking to no one because no one reads this. In any case, what Ive wondered is whether these first world problems have anything to do with first world progress. And im not really sure where to go from there. Its just a question and I dont have an answer. I can reason out why I think the first world problem attitude fuels capitalist progress, but it doesnt mean its true. But it could be true, and my examination of something as simple as the funny first world problems pictures online got me curious. Im curious if consumers striving for an easier life helps to push back on the companies that push them to buy their products. It seems to me like an interesting relationship made even more interesting. The producer and consumer relationship. The producers need consumers so that they can exist, and in turn the consumers become dependent on the producers. With the first world problem attitude, I think the consumers might be pushing back on the producers for better, easier, faster products. Or you could say that the producers are just playing the consumers like a fiddle, creating products that will go bad in only so many years or months, forcing the consumers to buy again and again with the added appeal that their products are now faster than the last. How many different levels of iphone are out now? 5? im typing this in mid 2013 and i think the iphone 5 is the latest model or what have you that is out. And how often do these new models come out? And how much better, what ever that means, is the latest model from the last or the first? Isnt it very obvious that these companies already have technologies ready to go out on the market so far in advance that they are first selling just slightly better products every year, with holding technologies so that they have something to put in an updated version of the product down the line? Im sure I am very uninformed and I am thinking about putting a disclaimer at the beginning of every post about how uninformed i am, but that has been my understanding of how you really control the consumer, by allowing only so much advancement in a desirable technological product so that you can sell millions and then a year later, guarantee sells similar to last years by selling a slightly better product. It is also good artillery in the producer battles of technological goods. If another company is claiming a ground breaking product, you can take solace in knowing that your company has, what you might call back up advancement in its products.

Ive had this idea for a long time and I think once I write it out it will be obvious that it has been with me for a long time because it might sound very naive. I had this idea that, in a very strange and interesting way that i am JUST now, as I stated this sentence, realizing has returned to me but through a different train of thought. But in any case, the idea I had when I was younger was that people returning to an agricultural way of life would be beneficial. That it would benefit peoples physical and possibly social health. Driving everywhere and getting all your food from fast food places makes you fat and out of shape. Thinking that it is important to find out what happened to the people on the reality shows keeps you sitting on the couch and helps to keep you fat. Playing video games for hours and hours on end, trying to advance the life of a fictitious character keeps you on the couch and in a chair for hours and hours and hours. It was through these observations that I applied my understanding of how to solve these problems. In the producer mindset the only problem sitting on the couch created for them was that people were to lazy to get off the couch and go buy the products. That was rectified with online shopping. My solution was to first think about the problem in a different light. After that I could try to reason out a solution. It seemed to me that the progress being made was primarily progress in a system that relied on controlling people. If people could be controlled then progress was being made. Or rather a solution that keeps people in control is one which fits with the rules of the system that we live in.

AAAAAANYway, my idea was to do away with this progress. If you were to tell me about any kind of advancement in the last 200 years I would have shot you down with how it eventually negatively impacted people. Or how these advancements forced further industrialization which created more problems. My questioning of progress and its positive and negative effects has come up again through other avenues of thought which I may cover in a later post. But in terms of first world problems, it seemed rather clear to me that the first world problem attitude helped to fuel progress in a capitalist system. Maybe i can create a path of how these first world problems create technological progress.

Advancements in technological goods creates advancements in technology in many areas. Intermingling of technological progress is sorta like legal creep, but in a "good" way. The introduction of this progress into the mainstream creates a high standard of living. People walk around with computers in their pockets which the most advanced world powers could only hope to possess 50 years ago. If you currently dont have the latest update of a product, your american mind might accidentally creep through and you might feel bad for yourself. BUT, this desire to attain the high standard of living, which is believed to be normal, must clearly help to perpetuate the push for progress. If the most desirable products are the ones which are at the head of their field, developmentally and technologically, then the company with the fastest computer with the most memory will be top dog. By consumers wanting more and more, we have created a system that is bent on progress in these areas which help to keep companies and the more recently familiar 1%, or bourgeoisie in control of the rest of the people, or the proletariate. In this, the two classes are striving for the same thing. With better goods, a majority of the proletariate find themselves unknowingly supporting the bourgeoisie. Not only does this solution to the proverbial problems of producer fit the bill in how it helps to keep the people in control, it also asserts that the average american will not stand for a lower standard of living, believing it is their right to live with so much apparent freedom and technology at their disposal, and that any place wishing to take that from them should be stopped because it is anti american to think otherwise. And this attitude keeps technological progress going and going and going.

I feel as though there is so much more I could say about this. I like to think through all the different angles of my topics, or at least acknowledge that there are so many ways to discuss and critique the topics which i think about, but I feel like Ive covered the topic I wanted to, without creeping too far into other areas. With that being said, Id also like to mention that most of the things which occupy my mind often involve so much more than just one area of that topic. Like first world problems. In order for me to feel like Ive explored my thoughts I need to examine and critique and ask why why why and consider contributing factors which some people might think unrelated. It makes for a much longer blog post, but I dig it.