Industry Of Deception

For a long time now, a multi billion-dollar/pound industry whose sole reason for existence is to dupe people into making mostly irrational financial decisions, has been growing steadily stronger. Personally, I find it difficult to imagine what it must be like to be an employee of this industry; people who spend their time bullshitting and lying their way through life at the behest and in the pay of, their corporate masters. Some people will do anything for money, I suppose.

A few of the leaders of this almost criminal enterprise are actually proud of their efforts at deception; they seem to think they’re being creative! Sadly, the reason for their continued expansion is the willingness of consumers to accept the bullshit and allow their thinking to be done for them. The great mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell, once said:

“People would rather die than think, and in fact they do so.”

This seems to be even truer today that it was when he first said it and this industry of deception called advertising, depends entirely upon this fact.

Imagine a world where we the consumers decided to think for ourselves and subjected products to properly conducted testing of their claims. Take anti-wrinkle skin creams aimed at aging ladies for example; testing would prove these products ineffective in their stated role. Vendors however, could simply re-label them as “brain cream” and then they may even pass tests, because there is little doubt that’s where they’re working!