[url]http://wimp.com/ethicalimplications/[/url]
Very cool, it makes you think.
Dont know what the fuck he's talkin about.
Is he even speeking english??? loL!
I'll admit I didn't finish it, but what I did see didn't really add up.
He starts by talking about how charity has become a marketting exercise. Such as his example about Starbucks, suggesting that all this 'fair trade' business they've gotten into is there to make them look good. It's to make people look at Starbucks and think "hey, they're doing good things, maybe I should buy my coffee there instead". Which is indisputable.
There's a toilet paper brand in the UK doing the same thing, saying they plant 3 trees for every single one they cut down in order to put toilet paper on the shelves of every supermarket in the country. I suspect there's others doing the same thing elsewhere too.
I don't see why that matters though, or why that's a bad thing.
Wow I totally agree. I've even had some of these thoughts before watching the video (not word for word obviously but along the same lines). Very cool stuff, especially to see I'm not the only one who thinks this way! I like his point that charity isn't a remedy but merely prolongs the issue and tends to demoralize it (in an indirect sense).
Short term solutions is probably a better way to describe it. Try to keep deaths to a minimum until we have a real solution.
Not to mention, even prolonging somebody's life can make a difference. Giving some old guy an extra few years could be enough for him to see his grandchildren graduate.
[QUOTE=lemming77;24683078]Short term solutions is probably a better way to describe it. Try to keep deaths to a minimum until we have a real solution.
Not to mention, even prolonging somebody's life can make a difference. Giving some old guy an extra few years could be enough for him to see his grandchildren graduate.[/QUOTE]
He equates poverty to slavery, the one striking line that answers your assertion is, "The worst slave masters were the ones that were kind to their slaves."
In Zizek's view, charity isn't a "short-term fix" until we "solve the problem" is the solution that makes it not strive to create a better world. The goal is not to make poverty less damadging, but to make a world in which poverty can't exist at all.
In the slavery example - slave masters that were kind to slaves hurt the movement for black freedom. Blacks that craved freedom were silenced by both the masters that denied the abusive claims (citing things like "we are just acting as a father to them), and the slaves that slaves weren't terrible (at least not enough to strive for freedom).
As for the Starbucks thing, his point is not that it is a good marketing strategy, but that when you BUY a cup of coffee, an act of consumption (which in todays society is treated as something bad) all the things that the coffee does (starbucks says it helps fair trade with Guatemalan farmers and comfy chairs and all that) you alleviate your guilt in the purchase, "Look at me, now I'm doing something good for the world."
You should watch the whole thing.
Oh right, now I see. Thanks for clearing that up.
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