Zen Pencils - 155. BANKSY: Taking the piss (explicit)

[eyePod]

http://zenpencils.com/comic/155-banksy-taking-the-piss-explicit/

Definitely a Mustachian theme to me. Banksy is taking action instead of just wallowing. I'd like to think that my passive "I'm not going to give this company my money" is in along the same vein?

[Kriegsspiel]

Yea, fuck property rights! If someone owns something in your eyeline, go ahead and vandalize the goddamn SHIT out of it.

[eyePod]

Yea, fuck property rights! If someone owns something in your eyeline, go ahead and vandalize the goddamn SHIT out of it.

Hah! Well, there are different outlooks I guess. The reason I thought to post it here was the argument that people try to use against being frugal "But if you don't spend money, then the economy will collapse!" Also reminded me of the pirate dude in Atlas Shrugged.

Maybe I'm just a little crazy.

[warfreak2]

Yea, fuck property rights! If someone owns something in your eyeline, go ahead and vandalize the goddamn SHIT out of it.

Adbusting doesn't really require contempt for property rights. Property rights are great, but we can make a distinction between owning property and using it in a manner harmful to society. If you have a car, the state will enforce your ownership rights, until you leave it parked horizontally across the freeway.

What public messages are harmful to society? Most people wouldn't agree with the answer in this comic, sure - but I think they also wouldn't agree that the answer is "none at all". If the Nazi Party started putting up swastika posters, I would tear them down without any feeling of guilt, and I hope you would too. So it's subjective, and reasonable property-rights supporting people can have different ideas about it. Also, Godwin.

And before you say freedom of speech, that's great too, but again we can make a distinction between the freedom to speak and the freedom to be heard by an unwilling audience.

[warfreak2]

Regarding the comic itself, I like it; the point is, we are bombarded with advertising messages, many of which are designed to psychologically harm us in small ways so that we buy more things. Whether or not you think this kind of adbusting is acceptable is sort of beside the point; it's a comic, it's not real, it's entertainment. Like smacking someone in the face with a keyboard, you probably don't think it's OK to do that, but you can still cheer enthusiastically when a fictional character does it.

[Jennifer in Ottawa]

Yea, fuck property rights! If someone owns something in your eyeline, go ahead and vandalize the goddamn SHIT out of it.

The only laws that are absolute are natural laws.  Everything else is a societal guideline that lays out consequences for certain actions/inactions/words/behavious; you do that, we will do this to you.  Therefore, if you are perfectly willing to accept the consequences of your actions/inactions/words/behaviour then there is absolutely nothing that you cannot do.

That having been said, I like the cartoon.

I loathe advertising.  I avoid it like the plague, and I've taught my children that the purpose of advertising is to create a want in you for something that you do not need and so it is to be treated with disdain.  We are not consumers, we are citizens.

I don't begrudge the corporations though.  I just choose not to indulge them and to stop lining the pockets of the inaccessibly wealthy by not sending them any more money than possible.  I make everything I can by myself, and practice the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) with heavy emphasis on the first two.

[plantingourpennies]

Culture Jamming, Ad-busting and Subvertising is Mustachian?

Dunno guys, don't forget the corporations are the ones that are lining your pockets with dividends. In the grand scheme of things mustachians are capitalists, not the labor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvertising

https://www.adbusters.org/

Best,
Mr. PoP

[warfreak2]

Dunno guys, don't forget the corporations are the ones that are lining your pockets with dividends. In the grand scheme of things mustachians are capitalists, not the labor.

OTOH, anticonsumerism is a core part of the MMM philosophy. And that isn't a contradiction: most people here make the argument that buying a company's stocks isn't an implied agreement with the company's actions. Also, stock market returns are hardly driven by consumerism alone.


I suspect MMM would find this amusing, rather than putting his hands on his head and screaming "NOOO! My Audi stock returns will be lower!"

[GuitarStv]

I can't figure out where I stand on this.

Advertising is intrusive and effects people on a subliminal level.  That's why it works, and the reason so many companies will pay so much money for it.  It's pervasive and damaging to society.  Make no mistake, advertisements are a calculated attack on you directed by a hostile source.  That's wrong.

At the same time, property rights exist for a reason.  What you see as a society damaging sign, others may view as completely innocuous.  Vandalizing/damaging/stealing something that doesn't belong to you is wrong.

[Less]

Love the comic and the billboard and I detest marketing.  But not sure how I feel about interfering with business practice.

 If advertising was legislated against I think the world (or the country with this policy) would be a happier place, but at the same time a business has to allowed to be competitive and to grow. That's how the economy generates jobs and people afford to live their lives, whatever level if mustacianism they choose (or don't choose).