From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Theory Cartoons—Conspicuous Refusal-to-Consume

Click here for the "Theory Cartoons" Resource Center (all posts available)
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Theory Cartoons" (coming soon)
This is a "small" (小) post—click here for an explanation of Round and Square post lengths.
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On this date in Round and Square History 
10 May 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 05-10
10 May 2012—Flowers Bloom: Bloom's Republic II
10 May 2011—Endings: Around the World in Eighty Days
[a] New Yorker 2014 05-01
Fascinated though I am by a shirtless world leader who wrestles tigers (sort of) and kisses youthful "tummies" (didn't see that coming, did you?)...

No, it's not about Vladimir Putin at all.

What I want to consider (remember the title of this series) is the social dynamic behind the compulsion to avoid one's "normal" economic behavior. Think about that. Most of the time, we seem to follow the patterns that economists have studied and worked into a formidable art over the last century. 
[b] Dynamic RF

And yet...and yet...sometimes we are compelled to boycott—to say that "Much though I would like to consume that, I shan't...because I don't like who makes it or what it represents."

What's up with that? I am thinking micro- here, not the macro-kind that would have nation-states protesting, say, another country's aggressive move into another's territory. 

Why would some people refuse to eat Wonder Bread, while others would boycott Girl Scout cookies?

It is the stuff of theory, and it's not just the domain of economists.

Bon Appétit (or not...)...
[c] So much...not to buy RF

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