Hey, remember public service pitches? I do. We don’t see or hear them much any more, possibly because air time has become so expensive, whether on radio or television. At one time they seemed endless.
The one – actually, it was a family of them – that lingers most vividly in my memory is “The family that prays together stays together. / Go to the church of your choice.” If you’re not virulently hostile to religion, it seems a decent sentiment…but wait: “the church of your choice?” What if that’s an Islamic mosque, or a Satanic temple? Ought such choices to be encouraged?
Others of more recent vintage involve exhortations to enlist in the military, because the skills you can acquire will land you a good job afterward. Now, I have no beef with the military – my father was a Navy man, and I worked in military engineering for three decades – but the claim about enhanced employability runs afoul of the ugly statistics about unemployed veterans. That may have changed for the better in recent years, but there are still a great many firms that tend to shy away from hiring veterans. All that talk about post-traumatic stress disorder and how it can strike without warning has made them skittish.
How about the ones that urged young folks not to drop out of school? Back when the schools were actually in the business of educating their inmates students, that might have been a decent suggestion. Today? Well, let’s just say that the “education” provided by the “twelve year sentence” tends to be more in the direction of victimism, racialist propaganda, indiscipline, hatred of America, and exculpations for thuggery: “coursework” I’d rather not have my progeny subjected to.
Still every now and then I stumble over a PSP that really does tell us something in the public interest – which really means “in your interest to take seriously.” Here’s the one I found this morning:
Yes, it’s a “tweet.” But Mr. Kelly is saying something people should hear. The Kung Flu Panic has told America’s 88,000 governments that if they can scare us sufficiently, they can strip us of our rights down to the last iota. And so I exhort my Gentle Readers to pass it around as widely as possible. As a public service, don’t y’know.
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“Murder Hornets”just did’nt cut it
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Agreed, though you have to admit it was creative.
Someone – not me, but someone – should start an ongoing pool for the answer closest in time and reason, to the Next Great Panic. Although I wouldn’t want to give them any ideas.
I have to admit I caved on the vaccine – I have relatives with medical issues, and I may need to travel quickly. With my joint issues, I just can’t travel as fast as I used to in a car.
I may have to consider trading in my Tiburon for something roomier and a little more sedate (that makes me feel so old). Really no room to bug out, though. If anyone has any ideas on a recent model car with room in the trunk for some bug-out containers of essentials, put it in the comments. Don’t need all the bells and whistles, I’m just looking for a good value and reliable.
Mr. Kelley’s tweet is short and sweet. Of course I like that. But it’s really not a new insight. That a gangster could come up with “Never let a serious crisis go to waste” proves it.
I hate to say this because I have considerable disrespect for Ayn Rand’s attitude toward the common man. But she nailed the enemy’s methodology. When she had John Galt use his Machine to take over the airwaves she revealed the secret to how this all was made possible. Destroy the means to broadcast the propaganda and just about every deadly totalitarianism of the last hundred years would have failed. They could not succeed in stampeding the herds into submission without complete control of information on a wide scale.
If I can force myself to follow up a simplified version of an analogy I long ago sketched out — no guarantees — more anon.