Whatever your belief system about how us human types came into being, there are a few questions that seem to me get totally overlooked in whatever book of answers you choose. Wether you believe in evolution, divine finger snapping, or that we were sneezed out of the nose of the Great Arkleseizure, one thing that has never quite been explained to my satisfaction is where the whole emotions thing came into being. I mean did the first fish climb out of the ocean because it was bored? Or did the creator simply include a few fun little twists in the higher life forms because of a sense of humor? Maybe it was caused by the interference of a cosmic tissue used by the Great Arkleseizure?
The simple fact is that emotions definitely throw a wrench in things. The more basic ones, such as love and hate and calm and fear, are not unique to humans, and as much as they mess with the natural order at times they overall seem to balance out. But when we get to the more advanced ones, like say … deception and guilt and the like … well seriously … why and how? Did some pre human dude suddenly consciously realize that “If I lie to Ug over there, I will get two slabs of prime flesh instead of one. But I might feel bad about it if I did.”? Or did the divine designer intentionally build some flaws in for the fun of allowing a nemesis something to work with? I am still liking the cosmic tissue theory personally.
But wherever these nifty mind tricks came from, humanity has sure mastered the use of them. Guilt has pretty much been the foundation of every moral system out there, and deception? Well humanity would be a purely boring lot without it. I mean where would all our strife, greed, selfishness and general mayhem be without the wonders of deception?
So what brought on this bit of deep poo? Well I once again was amused to see deception in it most artful form … advertising. It always amazes me what people will do to convince other people to buy, use, watch, play with, vote for … and a whole slew of other things … something that may ultimately be of no practical use whatsoever. Most recently it was a commercial on some sort of lunch box that keeps things cold. It followed the standard pattern of unknown products these days. Call this number and will cost you only $19.95. Not only will it cost you just $19.95, but if you call now we will give you a second one free. But you must be one of the first fifty callers to get that deal.
So if you call now you will get two for $19.95 (oh yeah it is a $70.00 dollar value I swear). You just have to be one of the first fifty callers, and pay a shipping fee of $11.95. Which is almost the price of a second one anyway. So basically what they are saying is it only is $5.00 dollars to make, $0.50 to ship, and you are a sucker. But if we make you believe it is actually worth much more and that you have to do it right away we will sell a whole slew of them!
I am not sure which is funnier, that the advertisers expect people to believe this, or the fact that people actually do!
