Truth vs Falsehood (22 page)

Dramas of human error are of value because they serve as learning examples. Maturity often evolves through painful errors and mistakes and is therefore accompanied by rueful irony and satire, as well as comedy.

Literature includes the presumed subjectivity and participation of the reader. Innate to all writings, including the current Harry Potter books, is the theme of implied or overtly stated ethics and morality, which is, in fact, the very core and key upon which the tension of the drama is dependent. This is subserved by nuance, subtlety, and selection of words in which meaningful shades of expression evidence uniqueness of style and elicit loyal reader response. The calibrations of literary output reflect the audience for which they are intended and are indicative of the level of interest of a writer’s readership.

Writers were not listed whose works are not really literary but merely extremes of political polemics, both far left and far right. They all calibrate far below 200, and some, although supposedly humorous or satirical, are even below calibration level 100. Their content is not only fallacious but also motivated by overt hatred and represents major excesses of narcissism.

Industries (United States)

In the world of business, profit is an obvious primary goal, and compromises are deemed necessary to subserve survival. Giant industries, such as petroleum, are international and have to deal with and survive in foreign cultures that operate according to different rules. Most businesses and their CEOs are under intense pressure to show a profit; thus, shortcuts are rationalized as ‘just human nature’ in order to survive.

The gun industry calibration at 202 was repeatedly confirmed since the popular view would expect it to be lower. However, guns calibrate as neutral at 200, and therefore it is the use to which they are put that gives different calibrations, e.g., similar to a tool such as a knife (cal. 200).

Of concern are the HMOs that please neither the medical profession nor the patients overall. The practice of medicine itself calibrates at 440, but its control by commercialization for profit preempts the tradition of humanitarian ethics. The role of the physician has been reduced to the business model of a ‘vendor’ or ‘provider of services’, surrounded by a plethora of rules, regulations, requirements, dire legal threats, and malpractice insurance rates. The risks are so high that physicians, especially obstetrician/gynecologists, have gone out of practice or are unavailable in twenty-three states, and the number is increasing yearly (Arizona Medical News, 2004). Medicine has become a high-risk profession and is practiced defensively.

Medical school applications submitted by native-born Americans have fallen sharply while those from foreign countries have risen progressively. What was once a highly motivated and rewarding profession has become contentious. Doctors now view patients as potential litigants, and HMOs are primarily profit motivated. The newspapers report that the officers of the HMOs have multimillion-dollar salaries yet refuse to pay for needed services. Provision for mental health services has collapsed to nearly zero. A severely suicidal patient is lucky to be admitted to a hospital even for just overnight, and the required paperwork and red tape are overwhelming, discouraging even consulting about a high-risk patient. The professional jeopardy of treating the mentally ill is so high that they are just abandoned to wander the streets. The jails have now replaced the mental hospitals that were fallaciously demonized in past decades by relativistic politicalization.

Television Commercials (not products)

The calibration of the advertising industry may reflect disparity between presentation and the reality of the product (Preston, 1996). Huge amounts of money are spent on advertisements and commercials that make people feel bad and go weak, thus creating an unconscious aversion to the product. There are also portions of ads that have a negative effect, whereas the rest of it may be neutral. Similarly, there are background sound tracks that produce negative psychological and physiological responses. Sixty-five percent of parents would also appreciate that certain advertisements be discretely aired later in the evening after family viewing time, rather than having to go into sexual details about side effects that warn, “after four hours, call a doctor.”

The calibration levels of television ads at the time of this writing currently range from a high of 455 (e.g., ‘Bob’ of Enzyte, and other companies) to as low as 100. A series of ads by one of America’s largest and most prestigious corporations calibrated at 145 and ran continuously with irritatingly frequent repetition. The overall cost must be in the multimillions of dollars. Other than a three-letter designation of the company’s logo, it is not even clear just what the company is trying to sell. In contrast, ads that have a ‘heart’, especially with animals or comic scenes of animal behavior, calibrate high, as do commercials that are humorous (e.g., e-Bay). Interestingly, broadcast-band commercials overall calibrate thirty points higher than cable television advertisements.

Another very major discovery is that everyone
unconsciously
knows when they are being lied to. Thus, substituting actors and actresses for testimonials cancels 50 percent of the benefit of that expensive advertising. A real-life sufferer who found true benefit from using the actual product itself has
twice
the convincing effect on the viewer as that of an actress or actor. The application of consciousness research techniques to advertising could increase the return on investment by 250 percent.

Energy Fields of Famous Industrialists

(Not Personal Calibrations)

American society ambivalently encourages and lauds success, and, at the same time, it can turn on a dime to attack and vilify it. As a consequence, the ‘really rich’ often live in safe enclaves and are quite aware that they are the hated targets of envy. They therefore usually shun celebrities and the spotlight and communicate by inner subcultural subtleties of expression by which they recognize and acknowledge each other.

Industrial barons, however, reflect other creative strengths, such as inventive enterprise, fixity of purpose, and pursuit of goals with underlying effort. Almost all major industrialists tend to calibrate in the high 300s and 400s and therefore have well-developed intellects as well as intrinsic overall integrity. Because of this, the collapse of the Howard Hughes enterprise (initial calibration, 490; later, 180) was a shock to the public and viewed as a tragedy.

Philanthropic Foundations

Not only did the inspired genius of industrialists and inventors create entire industries and multimillions of jobs worldwide but also products that accelerated America’s economic and financial ascendancy. In addition to these gifts to society, they established non-profit foundations into which are poured billions of dollars, and from which many billions of dollars more continue to pour forth, often with unheralded benefits to society in the form of libraries, humanities, education, health, and scientific research. Their overall output to society is prolific and continues for decades after the deaths of their founders.

From this we see that wealth, in and of itself, is not a morally suspect, superficial self-indulgence, but, on the contrary, for their producers and their subsequent stewards, wealth is a heavy burden and a moral responsibility. The holders of great wealth are acutely aware of social responsibility, ethics, and the most judicious use of monetary capital for the greatest good (e.g., the Gates Foundation alone has twenty-six billion dollars in assets). To this end, they employ the world’s best talents and academics to act as expert guides. Interestingly, the major philanthropic foundations and trusts all calibrate at 400, with the exception of the Templeton Foundation, which funds programs and research based on love, spirituality, and their positive therapeutic effects.

Corporations