Also on the podcast, Douglas Rushkoff, author of the new book Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, describes his experience talking to some very rich people about the “event.”
This fun segment was all too brief, but Rushkoff mentions Jeffrey Epstein Richard Dawkins, John Brokman, Peter Thiel, etc. He casually mentions that being a billionaire tends to neurologically damage empathy centers,
How Airlines Quietly Became Banks:
Before I watch, does it mention Howard Hughes?
No!
LOL, I just thought that TWA would’ve had some weird set-up like that. Thanks! Now I’ll watch it.
I think a lot of companies in various industries do this. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but General Motors has GMAC, a mortgage company, and GE did something in this vein to avoid taxes. I’ve heard the term “financialization” used for such things.
Yeah. You see rewards programs and extended warranties and co-branded credit card offers and affiliate offers absolutely everywhere now - so that part’s not a surprise. However, seeing how much it actually dwarfs the companies’ legitimate business, that was kinda mind-blowing to me.
It’s like the video game model these days, only in real-life stuff. Only $20 for the base game, but then you can buy custom skins and in-game currency and chances to earn extra XP and get even cooler skins - and when you look at these companies’ reports, the actual game sales would be an abysmal tiny fraction of their overall revenue. Or even absolutely none at all in some cases. They make billions from the add-ons, so they can just make the game free to play.
It’s weird to think of basic logistical things like airlines operating that way though. They haven’t quite gone to the ‘free-to-fly’ model yet, but it appears they could and still be profitable!
To me, that’s kinda mind-blowing.
Or like how movie theaters make a profit off of the concessions.
Even FDR was in awe/fear of Endicott Peabody. This paragraph alone makes me respect Acheson even more.
When he was sent off to boarding school at Groton – that bastion of elitism where the Auchinclosses and the Harrimans rubbed elbows under the school’s domineering rector, Endicott Peabody – Acheson rebelled, graduating at the bottom of his class. As a senior, he published in the Grotonian “The Snob in America,” a thinly veiled assault on the Groton style. “The essence of democracy is belief in the common people,” he wrote, “and the essence of snobbery is contempt of them.” When Peabody in exasperation told Acheson’s mother that he could not make a “Groton boy” out of her son, Mrs. Acheson replied, “Dr. Peabody, I didn’t send Dean here to have you make a ‘Groton boy’ out of him. I sent him here to be educated. . . . I will leave him here as long as you think you can succeed, though you give me considerable doubt.” Acheson’s confident and condescending manner derived not from blue blood but from an iron-willed and supremely self-assured mother.
Addendum: Now I wanna find out more about his mom!
Gotta keep the kids busy so they aren’t underfoot when the hunting &/or gathering is going on!
It shows how our patriarchal view of art is so ingrained that this is a surprise. This activity looks a lot like kindergarten and first grade projects like hands in cement to document a child’s growth. That families would create art together, seems so obvious and natural except that we have turned art into commerce and prestige, instead of the pleasure of creating.
Yah, the bitching about the Black Little Mermaid might not be so bad if the folks bitching knew the mental & emotional problems (possible pedophile, repressed gay man, et al) HCA had.
My daughter and I read both the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales (or one of the many versions of the original stories they collected), the Hans Christian Anderson Stories, and other folk tales compiled from other cultures (a book a friend recommended but which I can’t remember now).
UPDATE: The book of feminist folk tales is Tatterhood.
HCA stories are hands down the worst. They are just so Christian, so male, so saccharine. I HATE the OG Little Mermaid story with a passion. I do like Disney’s songs, animation, etc. I think what they did with the story is well done within their world.
HOWEVER, if you really want to see how an interpretation of The Little Mermaid is done, I high recommend PONYO.
I have an old collection of HCA’s stories, illustrated by Arthur Szyk. There’s one story that’s just beautiful, “The Elder-Tree Mother”.
This is the book; I remember the story that illustration came from, there was a girl that was a toughie in it, I believe. She’s the one on the reindeer. Or maybe she’s the one standing, with the dagger in her belt.
Natch, I can’t find my copy, lol!
Not in Chicago!