In 2003 the BBC published a list of 50 things to do before you die, as voted by the English public. Now I know that there are any number of these lists including books to read, movies to watch, wines to drink or virtually any activity you can imagine. What brought this one to my attention was both the fact that it was featured in a stand-up comedy set by Bill Bailey and the fact that most of them were kids dreams and either easily attainable or virtually impossible. You can see the list here. The list includes things like ride a motorbike on the road, or go fishing, or catch a section of the Orient Express, or look at a waterfall. And then it features things like see the earth from space, drive a formula one car and fly in a fighter jet. Bill Bailey would have liked to see something in there like number 67, lunge wildly at the Pope.
Now at this point, I must admit that I can't remember what the aim of this post was going to be, so it may get a bit train of thought - prepare for potential brain wandering.
As far as I can tell the only real functions these lists actually serve is to give people a more achievable goal "I must do that sometime" and therefore can serve to give people ideas on how to spend their time, money etc. This can be a positive function; everyone needs goals to achieve, otherwise life is a continual monotony that merely leads from day to night to day, it also can help to generate economic stimulus for the people involved in selling these pursuits (greed makes the world go round). The other function is to get people distracted by the list and envious of the people who can and do follow it. This last function is completely negative. While greed is positive for monetary exchange and economic growth and therefore in the capitalist world is good, envy is not. Envy, or avarice, commonly known as one of the seven deadly sins, is wanting what isn't yours, or what is out of your achievable range. Even in a capitalist sense, envy is bad; it leads to disillusionment and can in some cases reach points of both self and external hatred. It is the negative part of greed; while greed can be positive when in moderation (wanting something else leads to growth of other things), envy is never good.
The first of these lists was an interesting idea; 1001 things to do before you die. After this though, almost every man and his dog has written a list that seeks to be the definitive list of the more trivial of human achievement. They have never tried, except in a few rare cases, to be anything more than a list of 'things it would be nice to try one day, preferably while still alive' and thus are nothing more than a triviality. You can lead a full life and never have explored Antarctica (number 23) or skydived or hot air ballooned (numbers 6 and 7), this is recognised by all those except the people who get distracted and envious. As such, these people are the true market for these lists, the people who decide they can't die before having completed as much of the list as humanly possible.
The lists that have been more than that are things like one by someone called TrevorJ:
read every Shakespeare play
run for office
have a newspaper byline
play in a band/orchestra
own a business
attend the Nobel prize ceremony & speeches
deliver a speech at your country's legislative assembly
write a book
raise a child
dress up as Santa Claus & give presents to children
This one contains some meat, to carry out this list means that you have to achieve something. Even the one that looks the smallest, the last on the list, is something that at the time is usually a major thing for the recipient. These are real achievements and are recognised as such so they have made it onto the list.
One person I read in the process of writing this argued that the smaller things such as on the 50 things to do before you die list may have as much worth. His argument was that it depends on your goals, if your goal is to have fun, then the original is better, there aren't many cases where running for office or delivering a speech the the legislative assembly will be particularly fun. The question then becomes one of what is worthwhile and becomes a question of value judgements, so I'm not going to get into it here. I will however ask, what is more valued, major achievements or having fun?
Now at this point, I must admit that I can't remember what the aim of this post was going to be, so it may get a bit train of thought - prepare for potential brain wandering.
As far as I can tell the only real functions these lists actually serve is to give people a more achievable goal "I must do that sometime" and therefore can serve to give people ideas on how to spend their time, money etc. This can be a positive function; everyone needs goals to achieve, otherwise life is a continual monotony that merely leads from day to night to day, it also can help to generate economic stimulus for the people involved in selling these pursuits (greed makes the world go round). The other function is to get people distracted by the list and envious of the people who can and do follow it. This last function is completely negative. While greed is positive for monetary exchange and economic growth and therefore in the capitalist world is good, envy is not. Envy, or avarice, commonly known as one of the seven deadly sins, is wanting what isn't yours, or what is out of your achievable range. Even in a capitalist sense, envy is bad; it leads to disillusionment and can in some cases reach points of both self and external hatred. It is the negative part of greed; while greed can be positive when in moderation (wanting something else leads to growth of other things), envy is never good.
The first of these lists was an interesting idea; 1001 things to do before you die. After this though, almost every man and his dog has written a list that seeks to be the definitive list of the more trivial of human achievement. They have never tried, except in a few rare cases, to be anything more than a list of 'things it would be nice to try one day, preferably while still alive' and thus are nothing more than a triviality. You can lead a full life and never have explored Antarctica (number 23) or skydived or hot air ballooned (numbers 6 and 7), this is recognised by all those except the people who get distracted and envious. As such, these people are the true market for these lists, the people who decide they can't die before having completed as much of the list as humanly possible.
The lists that have been more than that are things like one by someone called TrevorJ:
read every Shakespeare play
run for office
have a newspaper byline
play in a band/orchestra
own a business
attend the Nobel prize ceremony & speeches
deliver a speech at your country's legislative assembly
write a book
raise a child
dress up as Santa Claus & give presents to children
This one contains some meat, to carry out this list means that you have to achieve something. Even the one that looks the smallest, the last on the list, is something that at the time is usually a major thing for the recipient. These are real achievements and are recognised as such so they have made it onto the list.
One person I read in the process of writing this argued that the smaller things such as on the 50 things to do before you die list may have as much worth. His argument was that it depends on your goals, if your goal is to have fun, then the original is better, there aren't many cases where running for office or delivering a speech the the legislative assembly will be particularly fun. The question then becomes one of what is worthwhile and becomes a question of value judgements, so I'm not going to get into it here. I will however ask, what is more valued, major achievements or having fun?
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