Anyone who reads my blog knows that I continuously bemoan the stupidity of people. It’s expected that some find this offensive. Obviously if you make a blanket statement to a room full of people it will be only the people to which the statement actually applies who will be offended. The great reveal so to speak.
It’s not that I think most people are born with a deficient brain. I think that every human born has great potential and great worth – every single one of them. The problem is that people are not using their brains. They are not thinking clearly and are not being honest even with themselves. They continue through pre-programmed motions and as long as there is not a major disaster in their lives nothing changes. They need a reality bitch-slap because we’re all in this sinking ship together.
Our species is so spiritually handicapped that most of our decisions and behaviors are directly influenced by artificial marketing and PR. The real priorities of love, health, peace and compassion are not forces reckoned with. Instead, our lives are directed by and entrenched in the materialistic and superficial and we think that’s ok, because we’re ok. Some think they’re even exceptional.
While we are all aware that we are inundated with marketing messages most of us don’t realize the extent to which it influences us.
* Why do certain people get hired while others don’t? Marketing.
* Why do people go to college? Marketing/PR.
* Why do people date and marry the people they do? Marketing.
* Why do people drive the cars they drive, buy the houses they live in or the clothes they wear? Marketing/PR.
* Why do people get the credit cards they use, pick the banks they choose, eat the food they eat, and shop where they shop? Marketing.
* Even the non-profits you contribute to reach you through marketing.
* You watch the TV programs you do primarily because of marketing. Including buzz.
Big deal?
The people who are successful are good at marketing. The ones who are super successful not only have a talent for marketing and hire the accomplished in marketing but have flexible ethics and morals. They’ll play dirty if it means more leverage for them. Human laws are not the yardstick for right and wrong. The 10 Commandments and the Golden Rule are. You don’t have to be religious to see how they so succinctly state universally accepted good behavior. Quite in contrast to a single 20,000 page bill before Congress. (More proof that people are stupid.)
Some common samples of legal but wrong acts:
* Underpaying employees because you can get away with it is wrong.
* Tripling the price on something because other people are either a) undercharging you because of desperation, or b) overpaying you because of stupidity, ignorance, or lack of a fair alternative is wrong.
* Selling people GMO grain doused in sugar and chemicals with virtually no nutritional value that’s worth a few cents packaged in an over-inked pressboard box for $4 and proclaiming it a healthy breakfast is wrong.
* Overfishing the ocean because you think you have a right to or that your family has done it for ___ generations is wrong.
* The system that requires spending millions of dollars to get elected to public office is wrong. It's an incestuous career for the wealthy.
* Charging people bankruptcy-inducing, home foreclosure amounts when they have a serious injury or illness is wrong.
* Foreclosing on someone’s home when they are three months late on payments after paying on time for a decade is wrong.
* Charging someone a $39 overdraft fee or late fee on a credit card is wrong.
* Giving someone a ticket for going 10 miles over the already artificially low speed limit is wrong.
* Basing public financial assistance on charts that don’t consider financial reality is wrong.
* Lack of competition for local electricity, gas, phone, water, etc. is wrong.
* Putting cell phone towers every fucking where without getting permission from the people who live and work in that area affected is wrong.
* The oil industry suppressing inventions that would either greatly reduce or eliminate the need for gas in cars is wrong. The technology has been available for decades.
* The cosmetic/cologne industries legal use of literally hundreds of known toxic chemicals that soak right through skin is wrong.
* The use of chlorine and fluoride in public drinking water is obviously wrong.
* That there are dirty, cold, hungry, homeless people in a nation full of expensive churches, sprawling malls and dumpsters full of untouched food is a disgrace.
* That those who care for and teach children are some of the lowest paid and least respected people in our culture is wrong.
* The blatant double standards between men and women are wrong.
* That medications are patented and vaccines pushed with the sole goal of enormous financial reward is wrong.
* That natural remedies are demonized by the FDA and allopathic medicine is wrong.
* That your long distance bill is $14 and you didn’t even make a phone call is wrong. (And every other bill that consists of fees and taxes.)
* That murderers, rapists, and child molesters ever hurt a second person is a national failing.
* That CEOs of American companies are rewarded with millions of dollars while taking jobs away from American workers is wrong. Daniel Pink wrote in “A Whole New Mind” that in one decade an estimated $136 billion in American wages is expected to shift overseas. If you can't make an American business profitable in the U.S. then you are a failure as a CEO.
It’s all legal. They get away with it because the sheeple are brainwashed by marketing, PR, custom and tradition – none of which requires thinking. Thanks in large part to public schools and institutional religion.
Here’s a brief national I.Q. test: 1) Were you surprised by Katrina’s damage to New Orleans? 2) Were you surprised by 9/11? If you said yes to either question you have failed the test and you are not using your brain.
#1. I am a Louisiana native. When I was 12 years old and taking a Louisiana History course I remember reading that New Orleans was built below sea level right smack on the coast. I vividly remember realizing right then and there (an “oh, shit!” moment) that one day a massive hurricane would one day devastate New Orleans. And if they rebuild it another hurricane will eventually destroy it. Yea, I know that being below sea level is not the primary cause of Katrina’s destruction. I know it’s because the levee broke. Just believing that you can build a man-made whatever that will protect your below sea level, coastal city indefinitely from nature is ludicrous. I used to live close to a levee. Anyone with any sense knows you just have to cross your fingers and if you get any hint of a hurricane you get your ass out. Anyone who lives in a coastal city needs to look reality in the face and KNOW that there is the strong possibility – maybe it is even inevitable – that nature may kick your cleverly engineered ass. And don’t be an idiot and use the last century as your gauge of what will or will not happen. It’s not personal. It’s nature. It’s not negotiable. I’m not saying coastal cities should be deserted. People will live where they want no matter what; but please have the intelligence to not play chicken with a hurricane and the dignity to refrain from whining about the end result especially on television.
#2. My surprise at 9/11 was zero. Yes, it was a tragedy. Yes, it pissed me off. But no, it was not surprising. The U.S. is like an old lady (perceiving herself to be a self-righteous matriarch) who loves to gossip and manipulate – just can’t keep her nose out of everybody else’s business. That pisses people off – some more than others. If you keep pissing people off someone will eventually give you a bloody nose. It’s inevitable. What’s with the shocked expressions? Were the Twin Towers not previously targeted? Hello? What do we need? A singing telegram? And how can people be so horrified at the deaths of 2973 innocent people but yet casually rationalize the deaths of millions of innocent people at our own hands? The FDA approved Vioxx that killed about 50,000 innocent people. 50,000 dead people (with families who loved them just as much as the people in the World Trade Center) in the name of profit with the federal government’s nod of assent. Are you horrified? Crying over the loss of innocent American lives? There’s much more where that came from. Doctors in the U.S. cause about 225,000 deaths per year. (See http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx) Just imagine what that number will look like with national health care. (Ever been to a veterans’ hospital?) Are you disturbed? Shall we start a victims' fund? What about the near-genocide of the Native Americans? (The Native Americans were the source for many of the ideas of liberty in the Constitution. Our treatment of them inspired Hitler’s death camps.) Everybody feeling ok with that? How exceptional are we? And then there’s the estimated 50 million babies (and counting) killed by abortion. But some people are disposable – just as long as they didn’t work in the World Trade Center, right? Maybe they were large enough to matter. Is it the TV cameras that make a difference? “There’s no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” – Howard Zinn, American Historian.
It’s not about what’s legal or illegal. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about reaping and sowing. It’s not about artificial marketing messages. It’s about whether you and your loved ones deserve respect and liberty and if you/they do (and I believe they do) then so does everyone else on this planet. God bless Earth.
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