Are you fond of lists or not? I think that I am. It hasn't been anything that I've been explicitly fostering or anything. I can think back about some pretty about solid lists that I made in detention with friends, like ?13 Ways to Squash Pete Gomash?. To this day it's not unlike me to call up a friend and initially bullet a list of ?important? subjects to be discussed and the order that I'd prefer they were taken up. I do the same thing with emails. And scribbling down my name on the mailing lists for CalSurf and 7th St. Entry virtually changed my life in 8th grade.

But they were the type of mailing list advertisements that necessitated self initiated action by the consumer. Mailing lists, especially online, and my unwanted participation has multiplied themselves like the rats my sister used to keep in our backyard. When I find it considerate for a company to offer me an opt-out choice in the small print, I know that something has gone awry. But what is it that is at the root of mailing list advertising's current problematic nature?

I think it all started in 1789 with a kindly chap by the name of Adam Smith. I believe Mr. Smith's ideas on human nature and utilizing those inherent urges in the form of competition in order to raise the general well-being of society, really were intended with good intentions. However, unintended consequences have resulted from the laissez-faire approach to markets that Mr. Smith proposed.

My intention here isn't to consider the economic implications of a liberalized market economy, but rather the socio-psychological. What effects are brought upon a community that has from birth the invaluable merits of competition thrust upon them? It is my contention that the results are an extreme difficulty in combining the actions of community mindedness with personal gain at any cost.

I can't blame a single person of firm for behaving in exactly the manner in which the system that they operate has taught them, but I feel that a re-examination of our system is much over due. Mailing list advertising that gives not an iota of consideration to the unwelcoming client is simply a product of its environment and I think the environment needs to change.