"Black Friday" and "Marshal McLuhan"

I am sorry my weekly blog has not been written for 3 weeks. My bad. Traveling, a friend having a melt down complete with a 5 minute ha-rang like a scene out of Shakespeare's King Lear and just being derailed from a lot of little things but The Bailey Post is back.
2 things on my mind in recent days:

"Black Friday" So Americans have a new national obsession. As we closed in on Thanksgiving wasn't it enough that we culled the turkey herd with our need to sharpen our carving knives? Wasn't it enough that we watched one football game after another, smashed our faces with devil eggs, chips and drank booze and soda like we were Saharan camel jockeys drinking water on a caravan?

Oh no,instead we were bombarded with reminders that "Black Friday" was looming. People geared up for this day like post apocalyptic nut jobs hording water and buying camouflage unis. It used to be that the merely obsessed would be content to sit in their lawn chairs in front of Walmart, K-Mart, or any other mart to be the first one in. Sit there all night waiting for that special magic to happen, the doors of wisdom to open, the religious experience to transform them. They were dumb asses but they liked knowing they could and would do what reasonable thinking people wouldn't. (hence the expression dumb ass)

Well, the stores trumped these masochistic shopaholics by changing the paradigm. The stores would now open at midnight. Why sit when you can spend? What has happened to Americans? When the country seems to be on life support, when every adult needs to understand what is happening around them, they instead stampede to Targets and Macy's and frantically buy bobbleheads, fruitcakes, and tires. People were shot, one man fell with a heart attack and the people stepped over him, not taking the time to see if he was even deal (apparently there was a bargain on the snow cone making machine).

C'mon people if it has Black in the title it's probably not good for you. People did not embrace the "Black Plague" and didn't people jumped off the buildings on "Black" Thursday, 1929?
If there had been a "Black Friday" in 1348 the people would have asked this question at the place where the plague victims were taken....."how much for just the tunic"?

My second topic is based on Marshal McLuhan's 1970's book: The Medium is the Message. Among many other ideas he made the case that the perception of reality is reality. This may be true. Consider: Herman Cain dropped out of the Republican race for president. At the heart of his quitting was his wanting to spare himself and his family from relentless media scrutiny about alleged sexual harassment charges from his past. He believes Rick Perry and/or his minions created all this to get him out. Others believe the democrats were behind a smear campaign.

It's true that several women came forward with claims that he made suggestive comments and perhaps more. But where was the trial back then? Why didn't they claim this years ago when he had deep pockets and could have been sued or perhaps blackmailed into a big payday? Yes, the organization he was chairman of did payout cash settlements to 2 or more women but the amount they got was pretty minuscule considering the "outrage".
Here is my point: he clearly may have done these things, the women may be absolutely telling the truth, and then again it could all be BS. Companies settle claims all the time to avoid bad publicity and a potential costly trial. A company settling is not in itself a de facto guilt of anything.
HOWEVER, the perception that he did wrong things is that was needed. In the court of public opinion he must be as guilty as hell. Well, that's good enough for the media and John Q. Public. In short, maybe a bad guy dropped out as Republican contender and then again maybe a heretofore not taken seriously contender emerging had to be gotten rid of. The bigger point is IT DOESN'T MATTER which of those two scenarios is true...that's what McLuhan was saying, you don't have to be guilty....just get the "knee-jerk" reactors and the uninformed to think you are and you are.