Ninjas and the Magical Land of Should

Ask a man why he bought a Porsche and he will say 'Superior performance, to enjoy the beauty of an engineering artwork that just eats up the road...' ask a man why his friend buys a porsche and he will say 'So that when he drives past things in short skirts will flick their hair in his direction.' Its the same in politics 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' instead of 'Personal Vendetta and profitable oil (possibly we just plain don't get arabs).'
When I'd exhausted all the Eastern Martial Arts philosophical texts like Sun Tzu and Musashi Miyamoto I started buying any old shit including a book called street ninja for its pure psychopath appeal. Ninjutsu is a vague and ambiguous are and certainly superfluous. 'Ninjas tend to roll when a few steps are all thats necessary, or to throw a gas bomb when you just need to ask the waiter for the bill.'
And this book certainly felt that people had to be prepared to negotiate their way through the urban battlefield endorsing unreasonable force to permanantly disable or kill an assailant. Which was bullshit but in my desire to learn more about ninja I bought another book called 'Mind Manipulation' that when I cracked the cover and read a quote from the author of 'Street Ninja' I was bitterly dissapointed.
But I persisted and it paid dividends. It was essentially a marketing test with different psychographic segmentation that dated from 'the east' but also looked at diverse references to lies and brainwashing too. And the key to manipulation is: personal consistency.
They sighted an example of a cop and good christian who's daughters at bible camp had been encouraged to come forward about the practice of Satanistic molestation. The girls made up pure bullshit but because the father refused to accept that his girls weren't good honest christians and trusted his colleagues that were questioning him he actually pleaded guilty to molestation and satanic practices and actually created his own false memories. He was sentenced to 8 years jail and couldn't be released (I don't know why) even after an expert established what had actually happened.
I don't know why but people like to appear consistent even when fundamentally we aren't. Vegetarians who wear leather, Sensitive New Age Guys that watch pornos.
Ultimately attempting to be consistent is a noble goal and a source of stress, simply because there's so many exceptions to the rules out there. I've got a core set of values and I value human life but when natural disasters like the tsunami and hurricanes and cyclones of the past year occur I can't really stand back and say they shouldn't have happened. Because it's the fucking weather and even if the global warming is the result of the human's interference with nature here I sit with a zillion consumer goods I can enjoy because of exactly how we have treated the earth.
My housemates can sit and watch PBS Newshour with Jim Learer because 'They go to pains to remain objective and unbiased in their newsreports' then watch SBS world news and then watch media watch and lateline and the 7.30 report until they may aswell get 'reality' injected directly into their veins.
Whis is a great personal battle but whenever I suggest we watch Today Tonight or A Current Affair - aka pure propaganda, they will leave the room and read a book about morality or some shit. This personal consistency got exploited by an ex housemate of mine by betting $50 the George W would be realected, one of my housemates insisted he knew what was really going on because he watched Newshour and took the bet. But what was really going on didn't mean shit because Newshour accounts for very little ratings wise amongst the people with the power to elect and Fox News counted for a lot. George Bush would never get elected in the magical land of should only in the regular land of is.
Personal consistency when it drives you to refuse to acknowledge that things like Today Tonight exist, drink drivers exist, people who cut in lines exist, wealthy people that employ friends ove more deserving candidates exist, fraud exists, exploitation of labor exists, vested interest exist becomes a very dangerous thing.
Things don't happen because they should, people make them happen. It's fine to watch and enjoy programs that already agree with your own world view whether it be Newshour or programs about 'Aussie Jobs going overseas' but don't sit there and think the world should agree with you, because it probably doesn't, Abe Lincoln the abolitionist said 'You can't please all the people all the time' there's just too many worldviews out their the difference is some people do something about making theirs happen, other people become philosophers and try and come up with the correct world view then don't use marketing to promote it whatever it is.
Morale of the story personal consistency means a lot of moral people refuse to use 'immoral marketing' to promote their cause whereas marketing is in fact 'impartial' look at Oxfam and the comedy gala! thumbs up to Hamish for becoming Marketing manager of No Sweat Shoes.