Tag: awareness

consumption & advertising, education, health and medicine, mimetic theory, pop culture & icons, public affairs, law and politics, social goods and ills1 Comment

Mimetic Theory and Awareness

mmwm

I’m not making an argument for or against awareness campaigns in general, though some of the links below are. Very likely, awareness campaigns have funneled money that would not otherwise have been spent this way towards better patient care, more humane animal treatment, appropriate diagnostic tests for people who need them but can’t afford them, and research towards prevention, better treatment, a cure, some kind of useful solution or mitigation for the issue of concern, whatever it is. Some have probably, at least in their early days, made people more aware of diseases and social and environmental problems than they … Continue reading Mimetic Theory and Awareness

death & dying, money, philosophy and theology, public affairs, law and politics, quotes and excerpts, recent reading, social goods and ills, the mind, travel and placeLeave a comment

What I’m Reading Lately: 27 Oct: Death, Death and Certainty

mmwm

My irregular annotated link dump: >> Never Say Die: Why We Can’t Imagine Death by Jesse Bering in the 22 Oct. 2008 SciAm: The crux: “So why is it so hard to conceptualize inexistence anyway? Part of my own account, which I call the ‘simulation constraint hypothesis,’ is that in attempting to imagine what it’s like to be dead we appeal to our own background of conscious experiences — because that’s how we approach most thought experiments. Death isn’t ‘like’ anything we’ve ever experienced, however. Because we have never consciously been without consciousness, even our best simulations of true nothingness … Continue reading What I’m Reading Lately: 27 Oct: Death, Death and Certainty

consumption & advertising, glamour, health and medicine, pop culture & iconsLeave a comment

Breast Cancer and Pinkwashing

mmwm

Samantha King, associate professor of physical and health education and women’s studies at Queen’s University in Ontario, argues in The Toronto Star (“Are we getting pinkwashed?”) that although the relatively new image of women with breast cancer as survivors and strong women, rather than victims or passive patients, is plainly a change for the better in some ways — optimism and camaraderie trump stigma and isolation — there are other problems with the now common notion of breast cancer as “an enriching and affirming experience.” To wit: “Businesses looking to sell more products to female consumers have been quick to … Continue reading Breast Cancer and Pinkwashing