Another dead printer and another note. This is a different one though. Whereas most notes are vigorously anti-dumping, this is a note from the dumper designed to reassure any prospective gleaner that, yes indeed, this dump is safe to handle. Not dead so much as merely resting between gigs. Whereas the anti-dumper note is often accusatory and angry, the dumper note is typically friendly and hopeful. It wants you to take on whatever it is that has been set free. The burden and privileges of ownership are being passed along. Please. Help yourself.
There will be some people for whom the offer of a free gift is too hard to resist; the note merely seals the deal. It is imperative therefore that the note is honest and accurate, if only to ensure that all future notes continue to be taken at face value. If the note is fraudulent or deceptive, it could possibly undermine public trust in the veracity of all such notes. That is the promise of these notes; when they say that something works then it damn well better work. No ifs and buts (although qualification is allowed if it aids clarification: ‘Works well but needs new knob’ for example).
Who amongst us hasn’t seen such a note and and experienced the merest flicker of a thought, “Well, I wonder…”? That mental instant in which desire is measured against necessity, usefulness against effort, new versus old, time and energy swiftly calculated, and a snap judgement is made about the value of something being free or merely worthless.
The conclusions we reach in such moments tell us a lot about who we are.
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