David Kreps Blog

The right to be bigoted?

I have signed a petition this evening.
Islington Council it seems will appeal against the victory of this bigot in her tribunal, where the judge decided she had a right to be bigoted.
I think this is one of those crucial little battles in the longer term defence of our recent freedoms against the bigots' claim that they have a right to discriminate against us, and would encourage anyone interested in the protetion of minority rights to add their name to this protest at the granting of freedom to discriminate dressed up as religious freedom. Prejudice we know is rife amongst the major religions, and needs must tolerate. But their legal right to translate that prejudice into discrimination against those against whom they are prejudiced - this, in a secular society, we must not allow.

I urge you to sign the petition. http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/20471.html

18 07 08 - 22:33 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶

Orange and the new personalisation market

I like the new Orange advert http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/. There are others in this vein – The Sunday Times for example. It is about personalisation. It aims to speak directly to ‘real’ people. Advertisers, it seems, are beginning to realise - no doubt through the reports of sociologists - that there is no 'Public'.... ...to realise that there are many diverse groups of people who all need variously to be catered for in targeted and unique ways. This is in contrast to the formerly popular general attempt to rationalise and generalise for 'the Public' from a 'sample' of a few, which many have begun now to see is fraught with a sociomyopia that oversimplifies and alienates badly enough to work counter to its primary, if piecemeal, aims. We are more complex than we used to think, and efficiency requires less bluntness in our implementation strategies - whatever project it may be that we pursue. Fundamentally, the efficiency of today’s socio-micromanagement is something we must all grasp - across all disciplines and walks of life - as we stand up to the collective social task of environmental behaviour change. This seems to be one story in the multiple narratives we are exposed to that really does seem to carry weight. This is an eco-social, collective responsibility moment for the species, in that it is global, and requires consensus on a geographical and population scale unprecedented in human history –at a moment when we realise how diverse we truly are. The Orange advert speaks to an understanding (within the arts community that informs these marketing tactics) of the unfolding zeitgeist of a humanity at a crisis moment in both its self-realisation and its survival potential, and how the answer to that crisis seems to us all to lie somehow within our understanding of the self, of who each one of us is, and how each one of us in our moment by moment unfolding as persons can contribute, through our self awareness and our actions, to the eco-social behaviour change required of us all to prevent the destruction of our planet. (more)

09 07 08 - 21:03 - da5idk - default| No comments - § ¶