Denial is used by individuals, groups, and even nations to defend themselves against disturbing feelings, contradictions, thoughts, or events. An unpleasant situation is simply rendered nonexistent. Responsibility or blame is projected neatly upon someone else. Repression and denial are often interrelated and undistinguishable. Denial is far subtler than simple lies or misrepresentations. Lies are usually discovered and exposed. Denial is an unconscious mechanism that permits anyone to escape conscious awareness,. Denial can even develop into a powerful conviction. It is often involved in religious fervor, irreconcilable marital conflicts, chauvinistic nationalism, and political or national idealism, and is a frequent aspect of blind faith.

The above words are from William Bryan Key, the guy that wrote Subliminal Seduction, the book that has saved me thousands of dollars over the years in unpurchased deodorant. Specifically, it is taken from The Age of Manipulation: The Con in Confidence, The Sin in Sincere, his 1989 book, page 84. I read Subliminal Seduction back in the 1970s, and it got me looking at advertising, especially ice cubes in liquor ads, but I could never spot much of the perversions going on there on my own. I’d like to read it again, but the most recent Amazon offering is pricing it at $153. It’s become a collectors’ item.

Continue reading “The reaper of the past visits only in the evening” →

I am reading Foucalt’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. It is a slow walk, as I find my self looking up quotes at the beginning of chapters written in foreign languages, and lots of words that are new to me. For instance, see below, idée fixe, meaning an obsession. I’ll try using that in a sentence later today, and see if it impresses. This morning I came across the following, and am now wondering which of the four listed categories I fall in. Am I a cretin, a fool, a moron or lunatic? I have to be one, as the speaker, Belbo, claims we are all one of them. Or, worse yet, am I a hybrid? Reminds me of the Andy Williams song, What Kind of Fool am I? Honestly, given mistakes I make, and the great certitude I apply, I can only be a maroon, Bugs Bunny’s word for moron.

I transcribed what follows and skipped around, eliminated quotation marks and other punctuation.

Continue reading “Don’t be shy – choose your category” →

I am no example of freedom of thought, as I came of age when TV first came on the scene, and even though it was black and white and grainy, I was completely invested. Dad fought it, but he was never around to control it, so he left messages behind, called “directives”, which my brother and I scoffed at. One time he monkeyed with the wiring on the set before he left for his private drinking town 115 miles awaay, and I quickly figured out what he had done and fixed it. We never talked about it.

My older brother and I were latchkey kids. Mom had to work to pay the bills so we came home to an empty house and the TV each day. But it was Three Stooges, that sort of thing. One time in the evening we were watching some show about the Revolutionary War, and it showed General Washington in a tent at Valley Forge with a young black soldier, and he was telling him that he should be patient, that things would get better, but only gradually. Mom came marching out of the kitchen and stood in front of the TV and said something like “They are showing people from back then saying words that were written yesterday.” That was memorable, it is called, I know now, “presentism”, and it is everywhere. She had a brain, never really applied it to anything however. These days she would have been in college.
Continue reading “When you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” →