Re: Way OT: Adam Smith and Software Markets

[Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com>]

Samuel Tardieu wrote:
> This is not what happens today. Most advertisements are trying to
> manipulate you in order to reduce your free will.

If that's what they are trying to do, then they have failed.
But of course, it isn't.

> For example, when you see an attractive person on a display, which has
> no link whatsoever with the final product, your unconscious reaction
> (as shown by many studies) will be to associate the product or the
> brand with a general pleasant feeling (without you knowing why) after
> a certain number of repetitions.

It's perfectly valid to buy something because you will feel good or
special for owning it. It's perfectly valid for someone to tell you
that you will feel good or special for owning it.

> When you see a strong and tall cowboy smoking Marlboro cigarettes in
> the wild country several times a day, your brain makes a link between
> good health, fresh air and Marlboro cigarettes. This reduces your
> freedom as it manipulates you into thinking (without telling you
> explicitely, which would be illegal) that Marlboro cigarettes make you
> a real free healthy tall male.
> 
> If you can read French, I suggest you read the excellent book "La
> parole manipul�e" by Philippe Breton. I am sure that several books
> exist in English explaining those methods.

French, huh? I'm not surprised. Anyway, this notion that people are
helpless zombies susceptible to mind control manipulation by cabals
and conspiracies, rather than free-willed and thinking individuals
who take in avalilabale information and then make up their own minds
is a favorite leftish notion, inexorably followed upon by the corollary
that every aspect of life must be regulated to protect people against
these influences.

Anyway, enough of this. I've come a long way, baby, and I deserve a
break today, so I'm going to just do it.