Rational Ideas

Rational ideas only provide useful models for systems that can be broken.

Interchangeable

An authoritarian may always be spotted by looking for interchangeable opinions.

Secrecy

Secrecy should only be sought for those things that really need to remain so.

Writing about Propaganda (Advertising)

As I've stated before, it's pretty much impossible to wrote about propaganda (or in this case advertising) without writing propaganda.  An example of this observation is given in Bombing the Senses:

The right wing mouthpieces for the “business community” that fired these once industrious workers now labels them lazy welfare cheats while marketers still try to figure out how to sell them the latest sugar-coated turds — excuse me, vital products with healthy chemical preservatives and taste additives.

After all, Americans, conditioned through decades of sensory bombardment, expect buying new products will bring happiness on earth. They can also purchase salvation in the hereafter

My wife’s grandmother donated money to a TV preacher – dressed in a garish pimp-like suit. Elmer Gantry of the tube assured Granny God would reward her contribution to His cause.

Secular pitchers entice us: buy this IPhone; enrich your life. Focus groups and consumer surveys marketers once tested merchandise, to discover what colored dye made toothpaste most palatable, or the proper wording to transform Ex-Lax into something soft and cozy. As if!

Companies like Google, GM, CBS and Campbell Soups biw invest in science and technology that manipulate brains to send messages to hands -- to sign credit card slips.

Sounds like Pavlov's Dog.

Memory

i. The past is memory.
ii. Memory fades.
iii. Does the past fade as well?

US Politics

Ignoring something doesn't make it go away, but you would sure think so looking at US politics.

Deflation

Deflation is akin to a popped ego.

Medocrity

Mediocrity is the life blood of American economics.

Paper

Paper is only worth what's printed on it.

Is it bad?

On Paving:

Is it a bad thing when the vibratory compactor can be felt in the building you are sitting in 300 yards away?

Up is Down

For someone on the other side of the globe, your up is his down.

Buying Crap

The difference between advertising and propaganda: Advertising sells you something you don't need; Propaganda sells you something you don't want.  See 5 Ways Stores Use Science to Trick You Into Buying Crap.

Flaws

When flaws become virtues, we all lose.

Cowardice

Cowardice is a way of life for many stuck in their own feedback loops.

(Just read the comments section of MSM and other sites.)

Fine Minds Wallowing

i. "Being an expert in one's field does not necessarily mean said expertise is transferable."
- attributed to A Real Windbag

ii. Obsession is boring.

iii. Fine minds are perfectly capable of wallowing in pedantic philosophy.

Wallow

Those doomed to follow need not wallow.

Economics

The Marxist economic block failed.  Now capitalism is in crisis.  Elections cannot change the historical momentum.  Things won't be the same.  Only mitigation is possible, but products are generally poor at such approaches.  For them, the system must be preserved.  No alternative is possible.  Desperation sets in.  They will try anything.  Quantitative easements have no utility.  Something cannot come from nothing.  Who would trade concrete for worthless paper?  It amazing that one could think otherwise.

See Also.

Hype

Hype creates meaning out of nothingness.