Swiss writer Alain de Botton once argued that the chief aim of humorists is not to merely entertain, but also to "convey impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly," and since society allows humorists to say things that others might are afraid to say, he also sees humorists as vital existences that would point out the flaws in society.
First of all, what are humorists? Humorists are people who write or perform humorous material. Humor is meant to be funny (or very witty that it's funny), and to make people laugh. This definition tells us that the chief aim or the main purpose of the job of a humorist is to entertain, and most of the time, only to entertain. Whether to "convey impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly," is just an option. It is fine if humorists do and it is also fine if they don't. Conveying impunity messages is the satirist's job.
A satirist may indeed convey his or her message in a humorous manner, but that is not his/her main goal. A satirist is there to point out flaws of a certain subject, most of the time in an "intelligent" way, instead of bluntly spitting outright insults and curses to the targeted subject. Satirists indirectly (or sometimes even slyly) strike their attack on their target. Some satirists transform their messages into metaphors, representing the targeted phenomenon and subject. Some satirists may convey their messages in a satirical way. Some satirists may exaggerate certain aspects of their messages, which may come with a humorous effect; for example, how Jonathan Swift suggest people to 'devour babies' in A Modest Proposal--his suggestion is so extreme that it is funny and we can't take his suggestion too seriously. However, all after all the main aim of satirists is their overall message, not the entertainment. They are to there to point out the flaws, but with or without humor, it is their choice. Just how we cannot say that humor is the chief aim of satirists, we cannot say that being satirical is the chief aim of humorists.
As for humorists, it is fine for them to ridicule or point out the ugly sides of society or any other subject. would say that "poking fun" is a very appropriate phrase for what many humorists do. When many humorists criticize (thought "make fun of" would be more accurate) a certain thing, they present it in a funny manner, people laugh--but it is even more laughable when the flaw the humorist points out happens to be true (well, most of the time) and agreeable (or sympathetic). I am pretty sure that we all have times that we laugh so hard whilst repeating the phrase, "Oh boy, that is so true, that is so true!." If what we were laughing at was unrealistic or not agreeable, would we have laughed so hard? Probably not, because very likely we will be busy disagreeing, or busy trying to understand what was the joke exactly about. Often when something is true and agreeable it smacks our mind, the impact is stronger than what we disagree or what we are unsure of.
Also, when humorists often make of certain things, unlike satirists, they do not necessarily urge for change. Isn't that what we all do sometimes? We see something ridiculous, we criticize it and laugh at it. The main goal of the humor is not to demand change. They use the flaws of society merely as a useful topic of another performance--and they use it very well and successfully, since many people agree upon it and thus are able to laugh even harder. To humorists, the more the laughter, the more they have done the job. To satirists, the more the awareness, the more they have done their job.
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Online Shopping for... Food!
Online shopping has been frequently used by customers for many years, in almost every country, every area around the world. It has been loved by many users due to multiple reasons: its convenience to just sit down where you are and wait for your purchase, cheaper prices than offline purchases, and the chances of finding rare goods that are difficult to find offline. One can also find a wide range of things; apparel, electronics, intruments and even furniture, can all be found easily while you sit and stay comfortable on your chair. Online shopping has always been very popular in Korea, and recently, online shopping even for food has started to become very common.
Food prices here in Taiwan may not be too much of an issue, but in Korea, prices of food are rising continuously, to an extent that it is becoming a threat to citizens. During the past winter break, my mother has went back to Korea for a few weeks to manage some family affairs. When she came back here in Taiwan, she tends to talk a lot about the costly food in Korea. Every time our family eats something that reminds her of the price of that certain food in Korea, she mentions how costly it is there, and how you can't eat that certain food so lavishly like how you are able to in Taiwan. From chunks of raw meat to piles of cabbages to bags of tiny sesame--even the sesame sprinkled on bread counts! The bread with sesame topped on cost a lot more than plain bread.
It could be because the value of money itself is rising. In other words, as the price of goods rises, the amount of income increases as well, balancing the rate of spent and earned. However, in Korea's case, it seems that the velocity of prices rising is faster that of income increase, income cannot catch up with prices on the run. Plus, some foods were already expensive even before prices rose, either it is because it is rare or because the time period it is able to be produced is short, due to the country's climate (if to compare with Taiwan, while some crops are only available during one season in Korea, it is available year-round in Taiwan). So how can Koreans save money? The "well-being (웰빙)" or the "being-healthy" craze is still commonly existent in the Korean society, they cannot boycott their own meals. What they need to eat still needs to be eaten.
So going online is what many Koreans chose as a solution for their crisis. No, it is more accurate to say that farmers in the countryside started to directly target on consumers. As long as internet access is available, farmers could display their fresh, healthy yields with a decent price. Since there are no tax or any other monetary fluff added to the products, consumers are greatly appealed by it, and day by day there will be more and more customers. Selling a lot with a cheaper price outnumbered selling less with a higher price--farmers are happy. Buying healthy organic raw food in a cheap price brings more beneift than buying pricey pesticide-decorated supermarket veggies (and also tiny in size too)--either in terms of financial or health concerns, the consumers are happy, and all they have to do is sit and wait inside their homes (especially when the weather is severely freezing).
Online shopping indeed has some dangers, since consumers cannot directly look at and touch what they are going to buy. If we walk into a market, we can always see consumers scrutinizing and touching the quality of the products, and pick their own that matches their expectations. However in the internet we are not able to do that, since all we see is a photograph on the screen and the actual products are a distance away. Unlike uniformed factory goods, every unit of raw crop is different, just like how every person is born and grown differently. Also, raw crops sellers send is picked randomly, so the photograph on the screen would not make a perfect representation of what consumers actually get. They never know.
However, there is a solution: customer reviews. If the seller has his/her morals, he/she will definitely not send already rotten apple on purpose. He/she would most likely pick the fairer ones and ship them to his/her customers. Then the customers will post a review on how were the apples and also comment about how delicately the packaging was done and how much the seller seemed to care about customer satisfaction. On the opposite, if the seller just blindly pick random apples, with fair ones and bad ones among them, the customer would not be so satisfied of what he/she gets, and would reflect with a negative review. When it comes to other customers' turn, smart customers would read the reviews first, and then decide whether to buy or not.
As online shopping becomes more and more popular, more and more people want to try this method of convenient shopping. At the same time popularity rises, the questions rise as well. The idea of online shopping is there for our own benefits, satisfaction, and convenience. But of course, there is no such thing in the world that only has pros and no cons. As long as we are careful and look into the right places, we can always fulfuill our needs safely.
.
Food prices here in Taiwan may not be too much of an issue, but in Korea, prices of food are rising continuously, to an extent that it is becoming a threat to citizens. During the past winter break, my mother has went back to Korea for a few weeks to manage some family affairs. When she came back here in Taiwan, she tends to talk a lot about the costly food in Korea. Every time our family eats something that reminds her of the price of that certain food in Korea, she mentions how costly it is there, and how you can't eat that certain food so lavishly like how you are able to in Taiwan. From chunks of raw meat to piles of cabbages to bags of tiny sesame--even the sesame sprinkled on bread counts! The bread with sesame topped on cost a lot more than plain bread.
It could be because the value of money itself is rising. In other words, as the price of goods rises, the amount of income increases as well, balancing the rate of spent and earned. However, in Korea's case, it seems that the velocity of prices rising is faster that of income increase, income cannot catch up with prices on the run. Plus, some foods were already expensive even before prices rose, either it is because it is rare or because the time period it is able to be produced is short, due to the country's climate (if to compare with Taiwan, while some crops are only available during one season in Korea, it is available year-round in Taiwan). So how can Koreans save money? The "well-being (웰빙)" or the "being-healthy" craze is still commonly existent in the Korean society, they cannot boycott their own meals. What they need to eat still needs to be eaten.
So going online is what many Koreans chose as a solution for their crisis. No, it is more accurate to say that farmers in the countryside started to directly target on consumers. As long as internet access is available, farmers could display their fresh, healthy yields with a decent price. Since there are no tax or any other monetary fluff added to the products, consumers are greatly appealed by it, and day by day there will be more and more customers. Selling a lot with a cheaper price outnumbered selling less with a higher price--farmers are happy. Buying healthy organic raw food in a cheap price brings more beneift than buying pricey pesticide-decorated supermarket veggies (and also tiny in size too)--either in terms of financial or health concerns, the consumers are happy, and all they have to do is sit and wait inside their homes (especially when the weather is severely freezing).
Online shopping indeed has some dangers, since consumers cannot directly look at and touch what they are going to buy. If we walk into a market, we can always see consumers scrutinizing and touching the quality of the products, and pick their own that matches their expectations. However in the internet we are not able to do that, since all we see is a photograph on the screen and the actual products are a distance away. Unlike uniformed factory goods, every unit of raw crop is different, just like how every person is born and grown differently. Also, raw crops sellers send is picked randomly, so the photograph on the screen would not make a perfect representation of what consumers actually get. They never know.
However, there is a solution: customer reviews. If the seller has his/her morals, he/she will definitely not send already rotten apple on purpose. He/she would most likely pick the fairer ones and ship them to his/her customers. Then the customers will post a review on how were the apples and also comment about how delicately the packaging was done and how much the seller seemed to care about customer satisfaction. On the opposite, if the seller just blindly pick random apples, with fair ones and bad ones among them, the customer would not be so satisfied of what he/she gets, and would reflect with a negative review. When it comes to other customers' turn, smart customers would read the reviews first, and then decide whether to buy or not.
As online shopping becomes more and more popular, more and more people want to try this method of convenient shopping. At the same time popularity rises, the questions rise as well. The idea of online shopping is there for our own benefits, satisfaction, and convenience. But of course, there is no such thing in the world that only has pros and no cons. As long as we are careful and look into the right places, we can always fulfuill our needs safely.
.
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