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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!!
#7745980 - 12/11/07 05:10 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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What this show has accomplished is quite amazing. Through the skilled use of corporate sponsorships, product placements & recruitment of THOUSANDS of volunteers, they have built homes for 101 families across the U.S.
What I really love about it is the way it allows humans to express what I think of as our positive potential, to an extent not usually possible for individuals. It manages to incorporate the capitalist culture of the U.S. with the social service spirit of the Peace Corps, and to provide safe, beautiful homes for a few families.
Maybe I'm just a hippie idealist, but it seems to me that, if we could manage to fund more social service projects through the incorporation of capitalist goals, we could create a heavenly country.
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7746189 - 12/11/07 05:54 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Paisley to The People!
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#7746246 - 12/11/07 06:05 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Interesting way to look at it... I've always taken a much more cynical stance, but you have a point. 
If marketers put as much effort into helping people as they did into brainwashing us, the world would be an awesome place.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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OrgoneConclusion
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Isn't making my teeth 'whiter than white' helping me out?
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#7746584 - 12/11/07 07:16 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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It's not about redecorating, Shmoopy. You must not have seen the show.
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "if smart people who want to make positive changes in the world could figure out a way for corporations to profit from their projects, the world would be an awesome place."
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7746652 - 12/11/07 07:37 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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That's where you come in. 
*Not necessarily directed to Veritas*
I have read hundreds and hundreds of posts about people wondering why others don't make their version of the perfect world come true. (If only they - ) That's why we are here. That IS the point of life.
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Sophistic Radiance
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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7747489 - 12/11/07 10:59 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Veritas said: Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "if smart people who want to make positive changes in the world could figure out a way for corporations to profit from their projects, the world would be an awesome place."
No, I definitely understand what you mean. I was just thinking about this. People who were smart enough, jaded enough, but caring enough, probably could finagle a way to make charity vastly profitable. Why struggle against capitalism when it has been proven so many times that anybody can use it to their advantage?
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (12/11/07 11:00 PM)
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Rose
Devil's Advocate



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7747755 - 12/12/07 12:24 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Veritas said: Maybe I'm just a hippie idealist, but it seems to me that, if we could manage to fund more social service projects through the incorporation of capitalist goals, we could create a heavenly country.
The hippie idealist in me thinks quite the opposite.
EMHE is NOT a documentary. It is a reality show made for PROFIT.
Don't you realize how much cheaper it is to BUILD A HUGE HOUSE WITH A VOLUNTEER ARMY and DONATED SUPPLIES than it is to produce a scripted 1 hour drama?
You want a REAL show? Do a documentary on ABC about Habitat for Humanity... and donate the profits to the FAMILIES you are SUPPOSED to be HELPING.
EMHE is a ruse... to tug at the heartstrings. It is a FOR PROFIT show. ABC uses these sad people to win HUGE RATINGS and ADVERTISING DOLLARS.
It is not what it appears to be. Of course, I may be saying all this just because I can't stand that fucking host.
-------------------- Fiddlesticks.
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pacific blue
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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Rose]
#7747790 - 12/12/07 12:47 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. What this show has accomplished is quite amazing. Through the skilled use of corporate sponsorships, product placements & recruitment of THOUSANDS of volunteers, they have lulled millions into the typically ignorant, pathetic and moronic conclusion that all we need are a few corporate fairies to make everything all better in the world.
What I really love about it is the way it allows humans to manipulate what I think of as our positive potential, to an extent not usually possible for individuals. It manages to incorporate the capitalist culture of the U.S. with the social service spirit of the Peace Corps to provide safe, beautiful homes for a few families who live in neighborhoods where their decked out mini-mansions surrounded by slums become lightning rods for burglary and vandalism, so that shallow reinterpretations of the American Dream decompose into steaming piles of Disney-esque fairy-tale bullshit.
Maybe I'm just a hippie idealist, but it seems to me that, if we could manage to fund more social service projects through the incorporation of capitalist goals, we could create a heavenly country run by the likes of Halliburton, Enron, Philip-Reynolds Tobacco, Wal-Mart and McDonald's.
Or maybe I just can't stand the fucking host.
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Rose]
#7747994 - 12/12/07 03:43 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Of course, I may be saying all this just because I can't stand that fucking host.
And you watch the show week after week just to re-experience your loathing...
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Rose
Devil's Advocate



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#7749482 - 12/12/07 01:52 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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OrgoneConclusion said:
Quote:
Of course, I may be saying all this just because I can't stand that fucking host.
And you watch the show week after week just to re-experience your loathing...
I could create a drinking game, to increase the fun.
Every time Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's dreamy host, Ty Pennington, wiggles his head, like a bobble head doll on the dashboard of a truck that is speeding down a dirt road... I will have a shot of rum.
I will become a fan in no time.
-------------------- Fiddlesticks.
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Rose]
#7750251 - 12/12/07 05:12 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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You want a REAL show? Do a documentary on ABC about Habitat for Humanity... and donate the profits to the FAMILIES you are SUPPOSED to be HELPING.
I would watch, but only if they linked to the full episodes online.
That was quite a rant, but you falsely concluded that I do not realize that the show is produced in order to create a profit. My point was that it ALSO benefits people, and that perhaps similar blends of profitability and social service would be more effective than current methods of non-profit fundraising.
I also love watching the volunteers show up, full of positive energy & enthusiasm, and appreciate the leadership it must require to channel all that energy into such a complex project, under such a strict deadline.
But you can go on hating the whole enterprise if it makes you feel good.
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7751248 - 12/12/07 08:36 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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But you can go on hating if it makes you feel good.
Now that thar is material for a good topic.
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Rose
Devil's Advocate



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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7752118 - 12/13/07 12:03 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Veritas said: But you can go on hating the whole enterprise if it makes you feel good.
You heart it... I hate it.
You brought it up. 
-------------------- Fiddlesticks.
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Silversoul
Rhizome


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Re: I :heart: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!! [Re: Veritas]
#7752204 - 12/13/07 12:27 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I haven't seen the show, but I agree with you in premise. Capitalism doesn't have to be such a cold, unforgiving, social darwinist system. If we can find a way to create a market for compassion, then there will be more compassion. One of my favorite books, Natural Capitalism, talks about the profitability of environmentalism. I think it's great that the same thing could be applied to ending poverty. I think the Grameen Bank is a great example of that. I don't know just how much effect this show would have, but the principle is nice. I'm not quite ready to abandon a government social safety net, but I think the market can be used quite creatively to find solutions to the problems that face our world.
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