Coin of the Realm

“When change is not necessary it is necessary not to change” 

John F Kennedy US President who gave us lots of change from space travel to a nuclear “Hot Line” to a new type of war, the Cold War.

As an inventor, I disagree vigorously with his quote. We have such a long way to go to reach our potential as humans that we could use more change.

But certainly, there is such a thing as too much change. Too much change can cause people to become overwhelmed and inspire them to withdraw into a state of ignoring the new and seeking comfort in an imaginary but more manageable past.

That phenomenon along with the idea that there is no bad PR led us to the commonly held fear of the future we see today.

The news show 60 Minutes demonstrated that there is no such thing as “Bad” PR after discovering that every time they aired an expose on the criminal activities of a company, that company’s stock went up! This brought into existence a new currency called the column inch.

A column inch is a measurement of press response to a given subject. All the articles in all the papers on a single subject are collected and measured and reported as a single number that represents the value of that particular subject. The higher the number the more eyeballs that subject could attract and the more advertising that subject could sell. The phenomenon includes stock values as well. More column inches means the subject has more value. Good or bad is a factor of course but bad generally receives more column inches, which gives financial motivation to promote the immoral activity that has insidiously reversed the moral standards once held in high esteem.

Now, bad behavior is usually stomped out, generating even more column inches but that takes time, the time it takes a community to build up a rage and a plan and an execution. However, if there is a second column inch event, a portion of the community will refocus on the second event and start their rage cycle anew and the original event will dissipate, losing most of its immediacy.

After a few hundred of these events, the news reader is rendered not just numb but stupid. It’s actually a form of Stockholm Syndrome on a spectacular scale. The kidnapped form an affinity for their captor — the kidnapped being the population of the humanity-loving world and the captor being the person with the most column inches.

Yes, dear reader, Bitcoin has nothing on column inches. Ask Wall Street.

This has a lot to do with the future. First, it undermines the moral fabric of society by honoring “Bad” over moral behavior. This, in turn, confuses and teaches our children that their more ethical parents and teachers and ministers don’t know what they are talking about. This social mechanism encourages children to take the easy path to their imagined success, which includes cheating of all types and lying to gain more social column inches. And yes, people will use their social media to gain column inches.

Second, celebrities will rule the world. Wrestlers and comedians and reality show stars and actors win elections. They bring a vast wealth of column inches with them to the polls. I don’t remember a single celebrity that didn’t win the office for which they were running. This has the effect of putting the voter on a first name basis with their potential leaders and, of course, this first-name basis relationship is worth fighting for.

Third, humanity loves a train wreck. They will even grease the switches if it will make a more entertaining event. The public is more than happy to give someone enough rope if it’s rope they desire or deserve. But eventually, the Critical Awakening will come to pass. That’s where large blocks of the population will simultaneously become aware that they are needed to save the day. Remember Mighty Mouse? He would sing “Here I come to save the day” before he would zoom in and right the wrong of the day. Humanity has a built-in mighty mouse soul. Yes, all of us have it. And it overrides and overpowers all other forces and circumstances. Mankind’s pride in his humanity is his most precious asset. And at the Critical Awakening, all men will celebrate their participation in this glorious event.

And column inches will no longer be a tool of mind control or even a weapon of war.