A few years back I started blogging as an outgrowth of my talk radio show. I called my blog site 'We Sell Fear', a reference to something that was told to me when I was selling telecom a few years back. My boss at the time said that any good salesman sells 'fear'. The fear that if you don't buy what he/she is selling your life will somehow be the worse for it. While that may or may not be true when it comes to selling telecom, or used cars, or big screen TVs, or any of the other things we Americans don't think we can live without, it got me to thinking about my earlier (and unbeknownst to me future) life as a TV journalist.
While reporters in my experience generally stick to the facts in a story, that story is then 'sold' to the audience using fear. The anchor introduction (usually written by a show producer) is loaded with obvious, and not so obvious, messages that what you're about to hear could have dire consequences if you don't pay close attention. From the over-the-shoulder anchor (and often over-the-top) graphics, arched eyebrows, hunched shoulders, and serious gaze, to the "could it happen here" copy, the nightly news sells fear every chance it gets. And we buy it. We're hardwired to buy it. It's in or genetic makeup. Animal behaviorists say living creatures that ignore danger don't live long enough to pass their genes onto future generations. Since humans have existed for hundreds of generations we've obviously become quite adept at responding to perceived threats.
The effect all this 'fear selling' has had on millions of TV news consumers was beautifully illustrated in Michael Moore's documentary 'Bowling for Columbine'. Americans have been conditioned to shoot first and ask questions later because hesitation (even a moment's worth) can have deadly consequences when faced with a suspicious looking person doing something questionable in the wrong part of town. At least that's the story we've been 'sold' on the nightly news countless times.
But 'We Sell Fear' was a radio show and when the show ended it seemed only right to move onto another theme for my rantings. So when I started an internet talk show a few months later I went with the acronym DIMFI, which stood for Don't Insult My F'ing Intelligence. The 'DIMFI' show, and blogsite, was a chance for me to discuss the irrational belief most Americans have in the supernatural, which occasionally manifests itself in trips to church or opening a bible, but mostly just hoping that a male deity will look out for our better interests if we ask real nice and hope enough.
Every night I would try to build the show around a rationalist topic posted on the blog site earlier in the day. The show included videos often illustrating the absurdity of religious belief along with a smattering of current events and the occasional caller. After a lot of work, and substantial trial and error, I was even successful in getting some interesting video interviews with well known atheists. But try as I might I could never build the 'live' internet audience to more than about a dozen people. Maybe it was the time slot, maybe it was the fact that asking anyone to invest an hour of their time four nights a week is too big of a commitment, maybe there just aren't that many atheists out there and DIMFI was too narrowly focused on the battle between rationalism and superstition, maybe it was me. But after about five months I grew tired of it and let the DIMFI show go. That was a little over a year ago.
Now I've decided to start another blog, and when I can get a little more time, another internet talk show. As you already know the name of this blog is 'mammonista' a word you might not find in the dictionary but is pretty obviously related to 'mammon' and 'mammonism' the latter which is defined as "the greedy pursuit of riches". While atheists might still be in the distinct minority in America most of us (myself included) are accomplished mammonistas. We love acquiring 'stuff' ignoring the consequences of that acquisition both in terms of how it was made and marketed and the effect it will have on our lives and the greater society. I'd say that in some instances we (and I'm ashamed to say myself included) are even addicted to the acquisition. There was a short period in the recent American past when being a 'mammonista' was distinctly uncool for a significant portion of the American public. The counterculture movement of the late '60s and early '70s was based on the notion that 'stuff' was just 'stuff' and should be left by the side of the figurative (if not literal) road. But in the whole scheme of things the counterculture lasted just a few years and when all was said and done precious few took it to heart while most came to their 'mammonista' senses.
So the mammnista blog site will be devoted to what makes us so uniquely American. Our unfettered and single-minded pursuit of 'stuff'. I say uniquely American because I'm not sure any other modern society is such a slave to mammonism. I find it hard to believe that most Europeans, Asians, Indians, Middle Easterners, Africans, or South Americans, enjoy enough of the basic necessities, to focus their attention on mammon. I may be wrong. And that's not to say that as their standard of living rises (while ours falls) they might not find the leisure time to become the Mammonistas of the next decade. But for now I think we are alone at that top of that mountain.
All hail mammon!
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