Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
Guy Bennett jotted down the following:
> so many of our technology-based threads (af/ae/hexar/etc) presuppose that
> everybody wants the latest and greatest. that may not always be the case
> (and it is *not* the case with me, be it auto-anything/everything and/or
> pixelated pix). i'm not against the technological march of time, i just
> don't want it imposed on me; i'll choose it myself when i want/need it.
Ah! Wonderful!! A fellow human being who doesn't necessarily want their
free ticket to the technology band-wagon.
'Better' is a relative term. 'Better' by itself means nothing, without a
frame of reference. But so often, 'better' is used as though it is
absolutely obvious in some absolute term what it is 'better' than. Digital
is 'better' than analogue. CDs are 'better' than LPs. Colour is 'better'
than B&W. Ballpoint pens are 'better' than fountain pens. Quarts watches
are 'better' than mechanical watches.
What the proponents of 'better' consistently fail to realize is that the
'better' they think is so obvious, is *one* of many, many possible frames of
reference, and that their frame of reference is not necessarily any more
valid than any other one. For example, a quarts watch may be 'better' than
a mechanical one using a functional frame of reference, but it may be the
other way around if using an aesthetical frame of reference.
What really pisses me off is the arrogance with which people assume that
their 'better' is the only 'better' than can exist. I'm with Guy on this
one: Provide me with options and let *me* do the choosing. I'll let you
know if it's 'better' or not. I don't need to be told.
M.
- --
Martin Howard | "...key features are the distinctive rear
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU | lighting clusters that make the Maserati
email: howard.390@osu.edu | 3200GT instantly recognizable to anyone
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/ | overtaken by it." -- Maserati sales lit.
+--------------------------------------------