"I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding; they learn by some other way -- by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!" Richard Feynman
Anyone who thinks money doesn't influence elections has to also think millions, need I say billions, spent on advertising is a waste of money. Madison avenue would seem to then be an empty pursuit, and all that money on prime time and special events is just to annoy the audience. Ideas do not for most people materialize out of thin air, not do they grow from a deep studied knowledge of reality. They come from every thing that touches our lives and they come from years of patterned thought and repeated presentations. The only thing Glenn Beck ever got right was the power of ads, he seemed to miss the deep studied part that should have been his personal responsibility.
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.. But, soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil." John Maynard Keynes
