# What if the world were colourblind?



## I am Roman (Nov 9, 2016)

I am currently writing a novel based on a setting called Rapture. Rapture was created on the morales and reasonings of Ayn Rand. The trouble I am having, is the more I research her work and come to understand her virtues, the world I see before me becomes less real. Not as in mentally but as in.. Unrealistic. 

It seems while writing, I have developed my own dark philosophy on the world around me. I was educated to believe the world is round. But symbolically it is a pyramid, the rich minority congregate on top, the well off an barely famous dwell mid section and the majority of man unfortunately barley survives at the bottom. 

My question is this. If the world was colour blind could you sell an apple for more than I could? No. The dull grey fruit would look and taste the same to everybody else. So why is it that in a world full of colour, a man can sell an apple for more than what the farmer can?


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## aj47 (Nov 9, 2016)

I think you're asking the wrong question.  The question isn't about appearance, but about what the saleslime can get you to believe about the product.


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## bdcharles (Nov 10, 2016)

The middle man, like the literary agent, adds convenience, edging the supply chain closer to the consumer so you don't have to travel to a farm to get the apple (though you can do this too and get good deals). If, in a monochrome universe, I hand-delivered the grey apple to your door, I might reasonably expect a small token for my troubles. I may have bulk-bought a crate of a hundred apples from the farmer for less than a hundred times cost price, because that's still a good sale for the farmer, and mark them up to the normal retail price. Yes, I could also invent some bumpf about how you're not just buying an apple but a whole fruitarian lifestyle, but that seems kind of, I dunno, vulgar.

I read The Fountainhead. It made me want to work really hard.


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## watermark (Jan 29, 2017)

I am Roman said:


> My question is this. If the world was colour blind could you sell an apple for more than I could? No. The dull grey fruit would look and taste the same to everybody else. So why is it that in a world full of colour, a man can sell an apple for more than what the farmer can?



Actually, yes I could. Or at least a good salesman can. You argue that if you take away the color or taste then a product can never be sold at a higher price. Well, it actually happens everyday in our world.

For example, why does Coca Cola sell better than a local no brand cola? If you really did a blind taste test I doubt few people can truly taste the difference. As for the color, well Coca Cola is mostly in cans (let's forget the bottles for a sec). You don't even see the actual product most of the time. We just guzzle it down without looking at it. So why does it sell better? Because Coca Cola is never about the taste or color. It's about what it represents. It could be happiness, or family, or partying, or youth, or love, or whatever the latest feeling the marketers are trying to get you to associate with Coca Cola.

The same thing happens with toothpaste, soap, detergent, oil, candy bars, and a variety of other products that if you take away the packaging, looks and works exactly the same.


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## K.S. Crooks (Feb 4, 2017)

Why does the lack of colour effect the taste. I do know that colour can have an affect on our preconceptions of how something will taste, but if people lived in a world without colour then it's one less thing to consider. The same way we don't live in a world where fruit makes music when on a tree or when eaten. If that did occur then people might buy the fruit that they enjoy the taste and sound. Prices always involve first supply and demand. After, the ability of the seller to raise a price and the buyer to lower the price comes into play. Two people having the same grey fruit could sell them for different prices depending on the needs or desperation and persuasive ability of each seller and each buyer.


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## SystemCheck (Feb 4, 2017)

I once got a bully to eat wet dog food. Cruel no. Well, he had taken to stealing the lunch of a disabled kid and the teachers were worthless. It wasn't going to kill him. But he really did believe I had given him a nice bunch of crackers with pate because that's what I "sold" him. 

Now in your colorless world, I'd be the sort selling mud pies as lemon meringues. What do I care? If you buy it hook, line and sinker that's money in my pocket. So your dessert is a bit crunchy but an't it tasty? That's how the corporate world works. They use every trick under the sun to get the less observant & the more gullible to buy whatever junk they are selling. Even if it isn't necessary. Some of the really good sellers will have you giving over money hand over fist even if the stall over is selling the same thing at half price.


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## Ultraroel (Feb 6, 2017)

Advertisement, branding. It's not about looks. It's about the feeling a brand gives people and what emotions, memories and ideas one associates with it.


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