Rationalityiness

The triumph of emotion over fact, visuals over language, is pervasive throughout a culture increasingly driven by marketing, advertising and profit to the exclusion of all else. An odd exercise is looking up maybe 50 year old ads for cars, or pretty much anything: much more text.

And the flood of money into campaigns, the predominance of TV ads, the media's news reports increasingly entertaining more than informative, all part of it.

Which, of course, all place an influence on the decision to purchase. An ideal consumer purchases, an ideal citizen votes because of immediate emotional gratification,and not on a rational consideration of long term utility. True of high fructose corn syrup, mall clothing, books, movies, chain restaurant meals and presidential candidates...