Bashing Success And Apologizing For Exceptionalism
You must have heard by now that Apple has a few issues with the iPhone unless you were living in a cave. Well, by all accounts if you get your news from the LameStream media, you would think that every iPhone is terrible and that the Government should step in to help the poor hapless consumer.
Well, guess what. I know of at least four people that have the new phone and try as they might, they can’t reproduce the issue. And they have asked friends who have it and no joy on being able to create the issues with the phone going out when you touch a certain part of it.
What does this mean? Well, I think it is a commentary on the predatory nature of media towards tearing anyone down that is successful or for the gall of being Exceptional and that bad news sells. I like to call them soul suckers … LOL . They want to portray anyone that is successful as bad, be it an individual or a business and especially businesses.
It extends to also saying that no one is better than another. My answer to that is poppy cock. Of course there are many people better than others and we should hold that Exceptionalism up as a guiding light, not try and tear it down. But this is always used by weak minds and souls. It is always from someone that is not truly exceptional in their own heart or mind. So, they want to tear Exceptional-ism down and have us believe that is does not exist.
This of course I have noticed started in DC recently and continues there every day. Big business is bad, rich people are bad, Wall Street is bad, or whomever they don’t agree with at that moment or they want to shake down, they are all greedy for looking out for themselves, their employees, their stockholders, etc.
However you will notice that we are supposed to believe that a all Government is good and the only way that we can possibly survive is to let them make all of our own decisions because we are not smart enough to use common sense. We are supposed to also believe that Big Bad Business and Greedy Rich people and not the Government spending your great grand child’s money is the real cause of the mess we are in economically. Does anyone really believe that who has an iQ higher than 10?
Some businesses are bad, but most are very good. Some Government is good and it used to be that the majority was good although we may be nearing a tipping point here. There is actually a proven mathematical model that proves how this happens. But that is another post.
When point in fact, that many Americans work for those big bad businesses and rich people and if it was not for them and them being able to gather money, they would not hire people, there would not be stocks to invest your retirement money. Rich people and people becoming successful are the solution to what is going on, not the cause.
But this is honestly nothing new and there is a lesson here for all of us.
Now this may be a bit controversial, but one of the most brilliant marketing minds out there was Joseph Goebbels the propagandist (marketer) for Germany. The first sentence is the important part. I give you the rest for context. Goebbels said he learned his techniques from Woodrow Wilson ( a truly evil man in my opinion) and his man George Creel a journalist who headed up the US “Committee On Public Information”, or our first true Government propaganda office here in the US of A. Edward Louis Bernays was in on this too and a lot of the ideas of shaping public opinion was his. He was the nephew of Sigmund Freud who I believe denounced Wilson’s whole regime.
This whole group was a bunch of egotistical elitist progressive bastards to put it mildly. But, man did they know how to market!
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Joseph Goebbls
Why You Have To Be Aware
There is an orchestrated attack who’s drum is beat everyday about business and free markets, and economic freedom in general. The reason why this is important is that you need to watch and learn from this for you marketing and yet to be aware to tune these things out and to not believe these things from a propaganda stand point for your business.
There is a lot of propaganda being bandied about as facts on many fronts including financial. And yet, you must make your decisions based on information, but only good information can lead to good decisions.
You can’t afford to run your business or your life for that matter based on erroneous information and you can learn from these techniques that they use because they do work!
Keep your message simple and keep repeating it. These techniques can be used for good and not just evil.
Now back to the Success Bashing as I like to call it. Don’t buy into it. It is not true nor is it helpful to your mindset or success. See my previous post on the Pygmalion Effect.
Have a Profitable Day! Have a Profitable Day! Have a Profitable Day! Have a Profitable Day! Have a Profitable Day! Have a Profitable Day! 😉
Cheers,
Andrew “Easy Anderson
While I certainly think there is an element of the “soul suckers”, I have to wonder how much of the tearing down on a personal level is a response to the snobbery that came with the exceptional product. Apple's stuff is gorgeous and amazing. Agreed. What was frustrating was anyone who didn't want to buy in to their product line and was treated like a second rate citizen by fanboys and enthusiasts until alternatives came out. I think much of the negative response was actually a response to the snobbery and not just the exceptionalism.
However, I do absolutely agree that the media does rush to the worst case scenario and present it as the rule. I don't blame the media though, they are a business and doing what works for them. I blame those of us who watch and respond to the media. While we may not be the up front soul suckers, perhaps there is something in the hearts of the masses that wants to destroy exceptionalism because they don't want to take responsibility for their own mediocrity.
I love that your message is to not fall in to the same trap and to certainly not use negativity as a means to gain. It's NOT helpful! So right!
David, you do bring up some good points. Apple has had a bit of the snobbery going on.
Also, I guess because I am biased in the other direction, I did not want to point out that it is indeed the masses that suck it up. Although from the Lamestream media standpoint, they have lost over 60% of their market share in the past decade.
So, I have not given up on the American people as as whole, but I concede that there is a significant portion of the public, and definitely people in the media and many politicians that get of on what the Germans call Schadenfreude, Which is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. The misfortune being when there is a Media and Political pile on and the Ducks attempt to peck the unfortunate target of the day to death.
The fact that some people are mad at Apple for being Elitists is actually a long American tradition going back to overthrowing King George and his ilk. Because our hearts, we still believe that Joe the Plumber is just as, if not more honorable than any Company, CEO, Politician, or individual.
Thanks for a well thought out comment.
Cheers,
Andrew Anderson
To your last point, I have come to realize that mediocrity is its own hell that has its own gravity that wants to draw others into it to assuage its own self-loathing.
While I certainly think there is an element of the “soul suckers”, I have to wonder how much of the tearing down on a personal level is a response to the snobbery that came with the exceptional product. Apple's stuff is gorgeous and amazing. Agreed. What was frustrating was anyone who didn't want to buy in to their product line and was treated like a second rate citizen by fanboys and enthusiasts until alternatives came out. I think much of the negative response was actually a response to the snobbery and not just the exceptionalism.
However, I do absolutely agree that the media does rush to the worst case scenario and present it as the rule. I don't blame the media though, they are a business and doing what works for them. I blame those of us who watch and respond to the media. While we may not be the up front soul suckers, perhaps there is something in the hearts of the masses that wants to destroy exceptionalism because they don't want to take responsibility for their own mediocrity.
I love that your message is to not fall in to the same trap and to certainly not use negativity as a means to gain. It's NOT helpful! So right!