Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS

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Termyn8or -> Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS (3/4/2011 12:12:35 AM)
I read this really weird book called World War Z. It had zombies and all that cool shit. Actually entertaining a bit. But in it was a businessman. This plague hit and he made a fortune selling a cure/vaccine/whatever that didn't work. He bragged about it, and knowing it didn't work. He said "Who cares ? ". Among these passages (the character I guess but really the author) were "Fear sells". I was taken for a moment by this because it is pretty much true. What is it that sells you ? The alternative of doing without. It applies to everything. A to Z I could do almost. Auto insurnce. When people who had no property drove and had at fault accidents the other party suffered financially, mandatory insurance or not, uninsured motorist sold. The asshole who hit you might simply not have any money and no matter if you put him in jail or fry his testicles on a medium charcoal grill, you don't get the money. That means hospital money, new car money, things you need. You fear to lack the things you need so therefore you collectivise (or socialize) your losses. They sell you a new car because you fear the old one may break down, or because you fear that you will be out of style, and let's not even go into clothes. The fear of not being hep is not only alive and well, it is a thousand feet tall, bulletproof and wearing all Tommy Holefinger shit. And how can you let your kids bring their friends home without having a bluray ? "Your house is soooo 90s". EEEEwwww. You fear that the one in 675,435 chance of your kid getting abducted and sold into whiteslavery is so grave you must get them a cellphone. You fear that you might lose touch so you have internet. You fear walking down the street so if no car, so you at least need a bicycle. And even if you don't fear getting robbed, you fear the inconvenience of walking, of building your own things rather than hopping down to Wallymart. You fear missing TV shows so you pay the cable bill, you fear stinking so you pay the water bill, you pay the gas bill because you fear freezing. You pay the taxman because you fear living under a bridge, you pay the insurance guy because you fear living in a pile of ashes. You pay for a refrigerator because you fear food poisoning. Fear sells. With the word "you" I don't mean you really, I mean all of us. I pay my house taxes and insurance, utility bills. And you know why ? I don't want to live in a cold dry hole in the ground full of ashes. Do I fear that ? The mirror on my wall says - you pay don't you ? So don't think I am claiming to be any different here. Maybe a little y'know but ........just because I am a nut. But I believe that is true - fear sells. T^T

MrRodgers -> RE: Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS (3/4/2011 12:23:05 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Termyn8or I read this really weird book called World War Z. It had zombies and all that cool shit. Actually entertaining. A bit. But in it was a businessman. This plague hit and he made a fortune selling a cure/vaccine/whatever that didn't work. He bragged about it. He said "Who cares ? ". Among this (the character I guess but really the author) were "Fear sells". I was taken for a moment by this because it is pretty much true. What is it that sells you ? The alternative of doing without. It applies to everything. A to Z I could do almost. Auto insurnce. When people who had no property drove and had at fault accidents the other party suffered financially, mandatory insurance or not, uninsured motorist sold. The asshole who hit you might simply not have any money and no matter if you put him in jail or fry his testicles on a medium charcoal grill, you don't get the money. That means hospital money, new car money, things you need. You fear to lack the things you need so therefore you collectivise (or socialize) your losses. They sell you a new car because you fear the old one may break down, or because you fear that you will be out of style, and let's not even go into clothes. The fear of not being hep is not only alive and well, it is a thousand feet tall, bulletproof and wearing all Tommy Holefinger shit. And how can you let your kids bring their friends home without having a bluray ? "Your house is soooo 90s". You fear that the one in 675,435 chance in your kid getting abducted and sold into whiteslavery so you must get them a cellphone. You fear that you might lose touch so you have internet. You fear walking down the street so if no car, you at least need a bicycle. And even if you don't fear getting robbed, you fear the inconvenience of walking, of building your own things rather than hopping down to Wallymart. You fear missing TV shows so you pay the cable bill, you fear stinking so you pay the water bill, you pay the gas bill because you fear freezing. You pay the taxman because you fear living under a bridge, you pay the insurance guy because you fear living in a pile of ashes. You pay for a refrigerator because you fear food poisoning. Fear sells. With the word "you" I don't mean you really, I mean all of us. I pay my house taxes and insurance, utility bills. And you know why ? I don't want to live in a cold dry hole in the ground full of ashes. Do I fear that ? The mirror on my wall says - you pay don't you ? So don't think I am claiming to be any different here. Maybe a little y'know but ........just because I am a nut. But I believe that is true - fear sells. T^T You are correct, some fear is...more profitable than others like say 9/11 and the whole war on terror. Tha gave us the Pat Act and HLS with almost unlimited electronic surveillance. Changing Posse Comitatus etc. Fear is wonderful for the profiteer. Similar to say Nixon during 'detente' with the Soviets giving them chip technology so we could then 'fear' the soon resulting 'Mirved' mobile missiles producing the last fraction of a $trillion profit on the cold war.

Termyn8or -> RE: Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS (3/4/2011 1:20:48 AM)
True, but the same. During the cold war fear "sold", quite well I might add. It sold so well it is still selling today. But really it is all the same, nothing has changed, and nothing is different in the different venues, and nothing has changed under the stars. Snake oil because you fear rheumatiz, a rain dancer because you fear a drought. A rifle because you fear bears, and a big knife because you fear alligators. It really is all the same. T^T

Edwynn -> RE: Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS (3/4/2011 1:22:18 AM)
Of course fear sells. It always has, but new modes of communication have taken things to all time heights, while simultaneously completely deadening our senses to useless slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians. The perfect Orwellian implementation of fear for ourselves to such extent that we don't care what happens to anyone else. Hence the motivation for installation and further heightening of 'fear' into the populace to have them accept whatever transpires. Amber alert forever. Good for domestic surveillance equipment and arms shipments abroad alike. Ask me if I care. From another aspect, but every bit as important ... Much research has been done in commercial and marketing science that indicates that an agitated audience is a more susceptible audience. To put it simply: more fear = more sales. It works, and it has been empirically proven, over and over. A newscast of the latest suicide bomber killing 2-15 people (just like the other 200 reports of same in the last 10 years) followed by a commercial with a woman saying "I want the best for my family", while holding her child close, sells a bazillion units of whatever toilet paper she was talking about. Don't expect this to end anytime soon.

Edwynn -> RE: Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS (3/4/2011 2:34:00 AM)
Of course fear sells. It always has, but new modes of communication have taken things to all time heights, while simultaneously completely deadening our senses to useless slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians. The perfect Orwellian implementation of fear for ourselves to such extent that we don't care what happens to anyone else. Hence the motivation for installation and further heightening of 'fear' into the populace to have them accept whatever transpires. Amber alert forever. Good for domestic surveillance equipment and arms shipments abroad alike. Ask me if I care. From another aspect, but every bit as important ... Much research has been done in commercial and marketing science that indicates that an agitated audience is a more susceptible audience. To put it simply: more fear = more sales. It works, and it has been empirically proven, over and over. A newscast of the latest suicide bomber killing 2-15 people (just like the other 200 reports of same in the last 10 years) followed by a commercial with a woman saying "I want the best for my family", while holding her child close, sells a bazillion units of whatever toilet paper she was talking about. The very same commercial advert following a documentary about blue whale migration would garner about 1/20th of sales vs. the suicide bomber, it's a fact. Don't expect this to end anytime soon.

Edwynn -> RE: Re : Has part of American Society become paranoid? FEAR SELLS (3/4/2011 5:07:40 PM)
FR Sorry for the double post, but I'm not able to remove or edit anything after logging off. The penultimate sentence in the latter post was the only thing added. Thank you for your fear and attention.

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