Among an infinite number of candidates for the dumbest words in the English language, I choose: "Poll results show..."!
My theory is now that we have so many new computer systems, we have to keep finding new ways of using them. What more ego-gratifying way than divining what people are thinking? Editors, politicians, and millions of everyday readers love to learn who's the most popular? most likely to be elected? most likely to sell? most likely to invest in? At one long-ago time we had shamans and mystics studying entrails. Now we have college campuses and opinion centers crunching numbers.
The quickest way to get some client's attention (or commission fee) is to start with: "The top ten are..." Consider here the latest crunched numbers in the good old US of A:
* 37% say they believe in ghosts
* 23% say a ghost has visited them
* 20% say they've seen or heard a ghost
* 23% say Sarah Palin is qualified to be president
* 67% say she is not qualified to be president
* 47% of Republicans say she is qualified
* 46% of Republicans say she is not qualified
* 50% of Tea Party supporters say they drink coffee
Now here's the thing -- somebody got paid for crunching these particular numbers (AKA, Zogby Poll Inc, ABC News Inc). Statistically speaking, how guilty they felt spending their commission fee is hard to say, because no one polled them on the question.
All of which leaves us to ponder over several other questions:
* Is Sarah Palin more likely to be a president, a ghost or a coffee drinker...???
* Is there any reason not to take up arms against a sea of troubles & statisticians....???
* Is there any reason not to take away the citizenry's voting cards for the next election....???
Or to paraphrase Ms. Palin: "How's that democracy-thingy working for you now!"
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Hmm, maybe Ms Palin is closer to truth than we think! So we could then vote for a coffee-drinking ghost of a president or is that a president ghost? Funny? Maybe we need funny, serious doesn't seem to be working so well. Moving on... I wonder how many people realize how many important things or problems are actually created by man first so that there is then the need to fix it and of course, then someone will then get paid to do that. Oops, ha ha, maybe that was supposed to be a secret!
ReplyDeleteAnnie ~ Sounds like your secret makes a lot of sense. As for Ms Sarah...well, right now she's making enough money to retire for the rest of her life. Ahhh, not an entirely bad idea!
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