I liked this post. I get the main point. I did not think you were having a go at anyone. My comment was supposed to be complimentary, and I was just listing the specific parts that I liked. That was the only point I was making. Wasn’t disputing anything.

I get the “nothing of value was lost.” Have pointed it out in my own life to people. Like when people say about the lottery: “Can’t win if you don’t play.” I say to them, “No, you can’t LOSE if you don’t play.”

This is the epiphany, there is no payoff, even if you “win”, the payoff is an illusion, question it and it vanishes, along with everything else.

If you continue to believe the weather forecast, or what a wimminz says, or that KFC is finger licking good, just because often enough to keep that belief going, you get some sort of payoff, even if you actually don’t ever get the actual prize, just enough to keep you from walking away, then one thing you cannot claim is that it is anything other than a spectacularly successful piece of marketing.

Why does marketing work? Because it was designed to, it was designed to SUBVERT your own human nature.

The red pill is saying KFC sucks, I’ll go to BK

An epiphany is knowing that if anything ever held any true value, the last thing you would ever do is risk that by marketing it…. you no longer have to look and see if Nandos is any good to eat at, you just have to ask if it is marketed, if the answer is yes, you got all the info you needed.

Zippo – lifetime warranty

when is the last time you saw a zippo advert, paid for by zippo?

when is the last time you saw anyone who made a forecast call you up personally to apologise when it didn’t turn out the way they said, or offer compo?

the train company at least has to try to get you to your destination, if the track is out, they hire coaches, and you can claim compo.

I’m *not* having a go at you.

I’m just, like the professors you alluded to above, patiently putting yet another straw on the camel’s back, sooner or later one of them is going to be the epiphany straw for someone.

that’s the point.

You remind me of the law professors who can improvise a million different hypothetical scenarios regarding same law and “ethics” problem hoping that coming at it YET AGAIN from a different angle will get a glimmer of comprehension from a dull eyed classroom.

“Mourning” is such a key word, but frequently gets missed amid the mordant wit. These laughs are all of the cosmic variety boys, the laugh that we do not weep variety.

I know you only mentioned this bit in passing, but it seems key in understanding why we men seem to give them the benefit of the doubt again and again:

“what she says she will do is right, or close enough to right, JUST OFTEN ENOUGH for you to listen to the next thing she says she will do, or the next weather forecast.”

Worked on me for years.