Window
Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 13.12.2020
Veblen Effect
At
23, Julius Caesar was a junior politician on the way up. But he had an
advantage: confidence and brains.
Sailing
across the Aegean Sea, he was captured by Sicilian pirates. They demanded a ransom:
20 talents of silver. (That’s about 620kg, worth about $600,000.) Caesar told
them they were being ridiculous. He couldn’t possibly allow himself to be
ransomed so cheaply.
The
pirates hesitated, they were confused.
Caesar
insisted the ransom must be raised to 50 talents of silver. (Around 1,550kg,
worth about $1.5 million.) Now the pirates didn’t know what to make of this.
Normally, their captives tried to escape as cheaply as possible. They didn’t
understand what was going on.
But
if he said he would double the ransom, why argue? They let Caesar’s men go back
to Rome to raise the money.
And
in Rome, in his absence, Caesar suddenly became very famous. No-one had ever
been ransomed for such a vast sum before. He must be very special, he must be
incredibly important. That ransom demand put Caesar on the political map.
He
had just invented the Veblen effect.
Although
Thorstein Veblen wouldn’t give it that name for another 2,000 years.
The
Veblen effect is when consumers perceive higher-priced goods to be worth more,
simply because they cost more.
Like
Rolex, Cartier, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Louis Vuitton, Christian
Diorr, Harrods, Crystal Champagne. None of them are actually any better than
the cheaper alternatives, but the price alone makes them seem more desirable.
Caesar
had effectively made himself a Veblen brand. He’d placed a value on himself
greater than anyone in Rome. But, as far as anyone in Rome knew, it wasn’t him
who had done it. It was an independent valuation. So it must be true.
And
because Caesar was now so highly valued, his men had little trouble raising the
ransom money. They returned to the island and freed him.
But
Caesar wasn’t going to allow the pirates to keep that sort of money. As a now
important and famous man, it was easy to raise a force. He hunted down the
pirates and took back all the money, plus everything else they had pillaged,
then executed them all.
So
Caesar was now both very rich and very famous.
And
in time, with that same combination of confidence and brains, he became ruler
of all Rome.
And
he presided over the golden age of the Roman Empire, expanding it from Spain to
Germany, from Britain to the Middle East.
Because
Caesar knew that reality begins in the mind.
So
the most important piece of real estate in which to stake a claim is the human
mind.
You
stake a claim in the mind by creating a perception.
You
create that perception by controlling the context.
Control
the context and you control the mind.
Control the mind and you control reality.
Lalit Surjan
Lalit
Surjan, editor-in-chief of Raipur based Hindi daily Deshbandhu passed away on 2 December at a
private hospital in Noida. He was 74.
Hindi
journalism lost a knowledgeable and sensitive editor. Raipur has lost its finest
editorial voice, a relentless torch bearer of secularism, a friend of many
social movements and a relentless champion of the marginalised.
I
have had the privilege of knowing him for a long time. I used to write a column
on the cartoonists of India in Deshbandhu. We occasionally spoke on different
subjects including literature. He was very well read.
Deshbandhu was started in 1959 by his father the
legendary Hindi journalist Mayaram Surjan, who was the first editor of Navbharat. Lalit Surjan
entered journalism in 1971 and took over Deshbandhu in 1995 after his father’s demise. He
built an institution that was uncompromisingly secular, searing in its social
critique and stood resolutely with the marginalised, continuing the foundation
values on which Deshbandhu was started. Under his stewardship, Deshbandhu grew to eight
editions, a Hindi eveninger, Highway
Channel, and the monthly literary journal Akshar Parv.
Rest in peace Surjanji.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
November
20 was the 36th death anniversary of one of the finest poets of Indian
sub-continent- Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984), who wrote in Urdu language. Faiz,
whose work is considered the backbone of development of Pakistan's literature,
arts and poetry, was one of the most beloved poets in the country. Along with
Allama Iqbal, Faiz is often known as the "Poet of the East". His
poetry is known for expressing the anguish of the downtrodden. He has had a
strained relationship with the ruling dispensation of Pakistan. His literary
work was posthumously publicly honoured when the Pakistan Government conferred
upon him the nation's highest civil award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990
Here
is a one of his well-known poem- in English translation. I translated this poem
from original Urdu to Odia.
 |
| Illustration by Keonjhar based artist Gorvachove. |
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Hark,
who is there, my heart?
Just
another traveller, it seems, on their way elsewhere
Another
night has passed; the stars disperse yet again
The
lamps in the great dusty halls have begun to waver
The
weary path is barren with anticipation
All
the footfalls from before have disappeared now
Put
out the flames, my poor, sad heart, and empty the chalice
It’s
time to bolt the doors shut
No
one will visit here anymore...
Tailpiece: Photographers
Photographers are violent people.
First they frame you.
Then they shoot you.
Then they hang you on the wall.
(Courtesy: Social Media)
Tailpiece 2: Kaun Hai?
It’s 5 o’clock in the morning.
Doorbell rings.
- Kaun hai?
- Mai hun ‘Dawn’.
(Courtesy: Social Media)
***
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