Captain's Blog
Mission Launch
L. Marc Adams
As we approach Mission Launch I find myself reflecting on what impetus started this, the buildup to this mission and what this mission entails. Why are we starting this journey, and what do we hope to achieve?
Most of my life has revolved around this system as we know it. It seemed no one really understood the system in which we all revolved; it was only apparent that some benefited from the system while others, to varying degrees, did not. It seemed some were working for others outside of this system but few were willing to point that out and as long as they could get away with using plausible deniability most were content to not rock the boat.
But I’ve always been a boat rocker, and I’m from a long line of boat rockers and hell raisers, a couple of whom helped start the revolution that helped found this country, and a couple of whom went on to serve as presidents – and more importantly, one brewed beer and then later had his name put on a really good beer. The family is still waiting for the royalty check on that one, by the way. But I digress.
The great part about being – for want of a better word – unseen, is that people talk around you as if you’re not there, and at other times, people tell you things that, well, astound you. You start observing things, seeing the interactions as if watching a magicians’ act trying to figure out how they accomplish their slight of hand and misdirection used to create their illusions. And, like the magicians, if they tell you often enough that it is magic, people start to believe it and are willing to pay more and more money to see the magic act. But it’s not magic – it’s science.
It’s the science of motion, the science of psychology, the science of smoke and mirrors – and the science of marketing.
But when you buy your ticket and go to the magicians’ act, you go knowing you’re going to be fooled – in fact, you ‘want’ to be fooled.
But when someone sells you smoke and mirrors when you were expecting a product or service that’s completely different, yet it happens all the time from the very top of the spectrum to the very bottom, from politics to religion.
As P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” And while everyone hates to be a sucker, they keep getting back into the stampeding herd with the other lemmings as they run towards that cliff…