Monetization

There's this little tab on my dashboard that says [MONETIZE]. It's one of those things that reminds me about the pattern of the world. If you do anything, it's an economic activity. If you cash it in, it's called 'monetization', which means making money out of something (no, it doesn't mean forging French impressionist paintings).

The other word I've had to become familiar with is 'marketization'. My supervisor has spent many years investigating the marketization of Atlantean (and Lemurian) education. Essentially, education is no longer a public good provided from a common fund, but something to be hawked about, like bolts of cloth or whores at a brothel. You have to advertise. You have to promise all kinds of nebulous and enticing services. You have a stake in the marketplace of ideas, and ripping off other people's ideas is just one possible strategy.

In Atlantis, everything is monetized and marketized. The latest thing is kidneys. You can now legally accept inducements and bribes to sell a kidney.

I have no fears that this is a slippery slope though. It is more like a steep staircase down which somebody will likely fall and break his neck, thus at one fell stroke donating all his organs and miscellaneous body parts to the common good. It isn't a slippery slope because a live patient can only donate so many parts before ceasing to live. Skin and blood can be donated and they will regenerate, but until you develop a regen-drug for kidneys and livers and spleens and suchlike, similar organ harvesting will not happen — and if such a regen-drug is available, why should it happen?

What I fear (well not really, since I fear very little) is that people will note that you can now legally get lots of loot for selling a kidney, and that there probably isn't much percentage in allowing your parts (post-mortem) to go to the common pool. You might as well tell your family to keep your organs for the highest bidder, thus voiding your need for life insurance. Now, when Papa passes, you can sell all his parts and get far richer than by claiming his piddling little insurance — especially in these days when insurance companies seem to be decaying faster than such body parts.

Such is the pattern of the world. Wait for it. It will come to pass.

Hearting Inside

It's only been in the last couple of years that "I heart you" became a common term of endearment. It means (sometimes in equal parts, although that complicates the argument later) that the first person has affection for, has a great(ly) positive attitude to, is highly inclined to roll around on the floor with, the second person. It can, of course, mean other things as well.

But that's not the point. What gets me is that some people resent the conversion of (what is to them) a noun into a verb. In grouchier moods, I too feel a little of that resentment. Yet I can easily put it aside, reminding myself that if you can't stomach it, and you can't skin it alive or gut it, you can still eye it from a distance or hand it to someone else. It's not the first organ to be made into a verb; surely it will not be the last. (I have omitted some other organs because some verb forms are reserved mostly for undignified genres such as pornography or textbooks or both).

Are there any other 'organic' ways to convey one's deep appreciation of another person? Interesting question. "I liver you" sounds nice, but the opposite would intuitively be "I deliver you" which seems odd, since the latter is somewhat religious in tone and of positive semantic burden. We could try "I kidney you" but then the rejoinder is "I kidney you not" which seems more like an assertion of truth-telling than a statement of lack of affection.

What about "I lung you"? Sounds good, but "lunging you" sounds as if a preposition is missing (when it's probably a proposition that's about to be made) in a duel. "I finger you" is probably either gross or offensive (and can be grossly offensive). And "I brain you" is certainly not conducive to harmony. Some figures of speech are just too violent.

So what could possibly suffice to convey affection as deeply as "I heart you"?

I guess nobody nose.