Another platitude bites the dust

As the media relentlessly scours every dark corner of people’s lives for daily grist, one thing has become abundantly clear; at least to me. No one seems to be the saint they claim to be.

Virtue is no longer the key to success. Guile seems to be the new key.

Take banking for example. Banks have been the self-described bastian’s of integrity and honesty for centuries. Now they hang their heads in disgrace after news that their outrageous incomes come at great expense to their own investors. What’s up with that?

The dawn of our new millennium is not as yet spiritually uplifting. War is up while the workforce is down, and Wall Street is being held responsible.

We need a way to stimulate our nation’s morale. Blowing away less developed parts of the world will not accomplish that. Falling behind in every humanitarian statistic which measures our place in the world is not the answer.

Doing something for ourselves like rebuilding our infrastructure or reinventing our educational system or reducing our dependence on foreign oil, all the while creating jobs and alternative energy solutions in the process is the answer.

It is time to elect a few politicians who realize that the way forward is not to go backward. Getting rid of the politicians who have been presiding over the declining circumstances of America will be a great start to correcting our decades long losing trend.

Platitudes are the bane of truth seekers.

Take, for example, this pearl of marketing wisdom, and I pseudo-quote, having been genetically overlooked in the eidetic memory department: “if you are looking to build a giant list, make your customers an irresistible offer and they will join your list! Let me repeat, make your customers an irresistible offer and they will sign up to join your list!" DUH!!

This sounded like an interesting approach so I followed up on the results of this guru’s conference call and found that one avid devotee of the above advice offered his subscribers a $600 laptop for each one year, $150 per month subscriber who joined his list. He subsequently went broke trying to fulfill his promise! Everybody took the laptop and most subscribers subsequently cancelled their subscription.

The guru was right but his advice overwhelmed and quickly buried his student.

Moral of the story: beware the gilded thorn for, while pretty, It will pricketh or sicken thee.