Thanks Lizbud, an interesting article.

I suppose it all boils down to "Wishful thinking" in the end. It's much easier to believe something if it fits what you want to believe. (I particularly like the "Particle Principal" theory too).

Interestingly enough, when I made my first venture into the world of the Dog House, I found some satirical articles that were derogatory about Tony Blair. But I got severely dumped on for attacking Americans and the administration. (Perhaps it was because I was also foolish enough to mention the American flag!). I hadn't made it clear that what really irked me was the increasing use of "spin" and advertising tricks by the British Government.

I worked for nearly 20 years in the advertising industry as a photographer, with some of the largest international agencies among my clients, but got completely and absolutely sick of the one sided fixation on profit above all, of "Psychological Profiling" being the new goal, and any other tool that could be used to increase turnover and profit. The truth came a distant second. Nowadays it's "Branding" and "Image" that are the buzz words. Anything to make a buck. Everything is becoming commercialized.

I was also sometimes involved in distorting the truth in order to sell more products (is politics also a product by the way?), but in the end I got so tired of the shallowness that I changed my vocation and now only work on educational material. As I found out, I feel much better helping to sell knowledge than gasoline or washing powder. Even if I do earn less money doing it.

We can't measure human values like honesty, tolerance and compassion in dollars and cents. Greed and extravagance seem to be the order of the day, and "All the News that Fits" the message from the media instead of honest, unbiased reporting. Same old story.