Funny how you should mention Tesco, Old-Nail. Below is my Facebook status update from two nights ago:-


Tesco-Warndon Villages, Worcester, strikes again. Buy a "four pack" of yogurt for £1, or "save" and buy two "four packs" for £2. WTF!?!

Just to remind the folks out there:-Last month it was-Buy a packet of six bread rolls for 50p, or "save" and buy three packets of six for £1.50.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED-Check the offers carefully-Though not too much care is needed with "special deals" like above.

Tesco are very good at "offers" like those, so I'm guessing they are the ones who are thick.

That's called 'being daft the right road' where I come from, or in other words they are gaining from being so 'thick'.

its all phsycologoical (speelling!) martketing, learnt about it in business studies, aim is to confuse you intothinking its better, like today, saw a sign sayd 1 for 4 quid, 2 for 7 and 3 for 12, now which is better value per scarlf? (i wasnt intending on buying a scarf!)

Psychology eh? I love it.

It's a long story, but back in the 1990's I sat a degree in philosophy and political theory... but it was the wrong degree. What I really needed was psychology so later I sat 18 months of that too.

Why?

Well I wanted to understand people, why they did what they did, and what made them tick. I thought that by studying philosophy, and it's poor relation politics, I would achieve a better understanding of the driving forces of man, and of why humanity is so f*cked up - but I didn't.

What I did learn is that our times, political ideologies, and even religious faiths may change, and the only reliable constant throughout is human nature, it's the same today as it always was...and always will be.

In 1984 a friend of mine bought 600 candles on the cheap. Back then he owned a small corner shop in Salford, and hadn't a hope in hell of selling 600 candles!
I saw him a week or two later and asked him jokingly how many he had left, and he told me that he had sold the lot, and not only that he wished he could find some more. I was amazed, I mean how do you even give 600 candles away in just over a week let alone sell them?

Y'know what he told me?

All he did was to put up a sign in his shop, he placed it prominently beside the till, and the words on it read:-

CANDLES - 20P EACH
ONLY 5 PER PERSON - NO EXCEPTIONS!

Psychology damn it!....allied to the awareness of human nature it will work every time. Politicians, and latterly guys like Darren Brown have traded off it for years, so like I say I took the wrong degree.

A couple of 'interesting' pictures for the Slowlex crew:

Did your 18 months of psychology tell you anything about human nature that was helpful to you, Old Nail? Are you more tolerant of irrational behaviour now, or do you find it as head-bangingly frustrating as ever?!

It never ceases to amaze me that, however far our race has developed, it is still lumbered by what appears to be some very basic and fundamental flaws. These 'flaws' in the human psyche are probably ones that served us well in our distant past, but - as often as not - can cause significant problems in our modern, much smaller, world. One that comes to mind is a kind of pack instant, where 'your' group is the one you instinctively feel a greater affinity to, with a resulting 'automatic' distrust of outsiders. No-one could argue, I don't think, that racism is a rational reaction - I simply cannot think of any rational argument anyone could use to justify or explain it; why so many people appear 'instinctively' racist. Could it be partially due to a hang-up from the past where early man lived in small packs and groups which were under constant threat from outside groups?

Religious faith also defies rational explanation - full stop. But, you can convince a child of anything you want to, however bizarre. And most of us have done so; hats off to the amazing Santa who can fly around the whole world in one night, never mind squeezing down (often non-existent) flues in every single house. I find images of rows of children rocking back and forth reciting lines from the Koran - or the Jewish/Catholic/etc equivalent - deeply infuriating. (But then, what often flies through my 'rational' head is the wish to see their teachers ripped to bits by savage dogs...)

I wonder how much of religious faith is down to mere delusion and how much to wish to belong to a secure group? I suspect that, even if you are not fully convinced of your faith, there is still an instinctive desire to belong to a secure group, or at least not to be an 'outsider'; it just 'feels' better that way...

Some staggeringly awful flaws in us humans; nowt as queer as folk.

Ooh that's a deep question! In short the answers (for me) were that no, I didn't learn anything that helped me to become more tolerant of man's idiotic behaviour, only to help recognise it for what it is, and the possible root causes behind it. When it comes to my view of humanity I'm with Thomas Hobbes.

The question that you raise regarding racism is I feel, pretty much how you describe it. The term 'racist' has become distorted in modern use to mean something overtly bad - a smear, whereas in it's simplest form racism is a natural inbuilt system linked to the sexual reproductive drive. It's purpose - as in all creatures, is to ensure the survival of the species (which is the only game in town where mother nature is concerned) and to attempt to nullify it is as difficult a thing to do as it is to nullify our fear of spiders, which is also inherited base instinct.

'Racism' as we know the term today is more to do with ignorance and spite than any form of inbuilt eugenics.

As for religion, it is of some comfort to those that believe of course, but its main purpose is and has been a powerful method of control throughout the ages. Today we are told that we must be tolerant of and respectful of others beliefs, but I cannot for the life of me see why a 21st Century rational thinking man should be forced to respect an unproven, hugely damaging, medieval theory of control. If a grown man approaches me today and tells me that he believes in Martians then I may well let him go on believing that if he wants to, but am I to respect that belief?

It's not logical - Captain.

Wow, this forum can become quite cerebral. I'm not knocking it. It's good to see some intelligent discussion to balance out the drivel that sometimes appears here. Keep it up you two.

Are you kidding? I just pissed so high up the wall I need a lie down.

Well Old Nail, if you haven't met this lot yet, it sounds like you're ready... http://www.venganza.org/