Hype: Now I Know Why I Am Cynical

Hype: Now I Know Why I’m Cynical

I put the G in gullible.  I still believe lots of hype and propaganda; perhaps it is my hopeful soul or maybe a lingering innocence that believes people are telling the truth and really are wanting to make me happy…  Now in the late summer of life I realise that cynicism was designed by the soul as a first line of defence; a shield that only I can lower, but like all defences it only works if used.  Being caught off guard has brought me down more times than I care to remember.

Advertising is an easy target for the Inspiration Point writers this week and rightly so; it is crammed with hype.  Who can blame them?  Not I because mostly the advertiser has a job to do and most may stretch their claims, but a watchful regulator keeps them moreI or less in line.

No, I am the one to blame.  I WANT to believe what I am told (don’t we all?) because of a sense of self and a sense of greed.  I always smile when I see the word ‘quality’ for many of us, and I include me, we want that the mean ‘good’ nay, ‘the best’ and yet all the word says is ‘quality’ no prefix of good, excellent etc.  No wonder we have a plethora of lawyers to unpick our complex language.

 In my own life I have passed by so many hypes and I thank them for honing my cynical skills.  I am old enough to remember North Sea Gas when it was introduced.  The talk was of free gas for life and heralded as the nation’s answer to all our energy problems and a nation still recovering from WW2 and the austerity that followed wanted to believe it.

Then nuclear power became the saviour... shouldn’t someone warn Iran? I visited Heysham Nuclear Power in the eighties.  The guide couldn’t even tell me the unit cost of a rod of fuel.  Draw your own conclusions…

Hype can raise expectations beyond reason, give hope where it doesn’t exist or make money…I say judge for yourself and take a deep breath because oxygen fuels the brain and the brain can be reasonable – if it ignores the hype.