[MD] BBC documentary 'the trap'

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Khaled]
Arlo, good to hear form you.

[Arlo]
Ditto, amigo. Thanks again for another great documentary reference. 

[Khaled]
And it makes you wonder, do we lose something once we become orderly.

[Arlo]
Since we are speaking of "free markets", I've heard it commented on that the
"bazaars" are the most dynamic markets on earth. No set prices, everything
negotiated and bartered, goods and services moving directly often times with no
"money" mediating the transaction. They are loud and noisy and chaotic but
right there in the middle of all that you have the most dynamic "market"
humankind has every produced. Bootlegged merchandise, handcrafted goods, food,
you name it, the bazaar moves it. And it is on the corners of the bazaar that
the black market (which is really a "free market" bypassing evil guvmint
regerlations) also shines. 

There is no doubt western society craved "sterility", a craving persisting to
this day. Pirsig would, no doubt, point to the Victorian influence on our
culture as the root of this "gentlemanly sterility", a syrupy phoniness of
pleasantries all designed to turn all human activity into neat stanchioned off
lines. 

Bikers have a word for these "Pleasant Valley Sunday" types. "Citizens". And
this is quite the derogatory term. As Thompson and other biker authors have
shown, it is precisely against this mundane status quo of sickeningly phoney
civility that the "rebels" had, err..., rebelled.

One of my colleagues once asked her class, it's late, you come upon a red light
where you can see for miles in every direction that there are no other cars on
the road at all. The light is red. Do you stop and wait for it to turn green.
Nearly everyone said "yes". She repeated, but you can see miles in both
directions, there are no cars at all. Still all "yes, we stop." Why, she asked.
"Because that's the law". The alternative seen by these kids? "Dogs and cats
living together. Mass hysteria!" (Peter Venkman)

"It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period"
(Chinese proverb). It would seem our culture has really taken this to heart.

Final related anecdote. Years ago I was working in corporate training for a
large bookstore chain. The company passed an edict demanding that all the front
tables by the entrance doors be visually identical from store to store, I
quote, "so that when a customer enters a store in New Orleans, he is greeted by
the same display of merchandise as a customer in Los Angeles". Imagine the
chaos is that customer, after shopping in New Orleans boarded a jet and entered
one of the store in LA, and saw a GASP! different selection of merchandise!
Orderly. We demand it.