Saturday, December 03, 2011

Preying Upon Fears

I was visiting some people today who proudly showed me their new water filtration system that they had bought. It was a fancy system with two units, one of which that had rocks in the bottom. They were so excited that they now have healthy water. But the sales pitch they were given left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

The woman told me that Hitler used Chlorine gas in the gas chambers when he killed the jews. She said, "And what do we use to clean our water today? Chlorine!" Now, I'm not the smartest apple in the basket, but it seems to me that there is a big difference between inhaling chlorine gas, and swallowing chlorine. If chlorine were that dangerous, would we be filling our swimming pools with it? It just makes me angry that people prey on the fears of others. I'm sure that by the time the sales pitch was over, these people felt that if they didn't buy this system, their lives would be in danger!

i'm not against walter filtration systems. I have one that fits on to my faucet. My main concern is that our water tastes like the Delta during hot weather. But I do also drink unfiltered water, and I've made it to 50, so I guess I'll live. :P

4 comments:

Rummuser said...

Delirious, it has been my observation that the more one tries to protect oneself from all possible and imagined pollutants, the more one becomes vulnerable. India is a classic case of millions who drink ordinary tap water without any problems and a minuscule minority who install water purifiers and buy bottled water, who suffer frequent bouts of illnesses. We should build our immune systems.

Vid said...

And guess what table salt is made of? Chlorine! Combined with sodium, which explodes if it comes into contact with water. Of course, this isn't a problem because the elements are chemically bonded. Even some of the most deadly elements are harmless if they bond correctly.

Any time somebody's using Hitler as an incentive for you to buy a product (or hold an idea, or anything really)you can pretty much tell they're phony.

vaxhacker said...

It's a time-honored tradition, though, to make a profit by preying on some human
weakness or other. Fear, xenophobia, addictions, vulnerabilities, greed, you
can bet every imaginable exploitation has been used effectively to sell everything
from emergency radios to multi-level marketing schemes. It's sad, in the end,
when someone's shelled out hard-earned money for something they didn't need
and are left holding the bag. Maybe some of those products are worth buying
(for the right reasons), some maybe not, but as long as the decision to buy
is based on manipulating emotions instead of rational purchasing decision-making,
I have a problem with that.

Delirious said...

VID: That is a great point about the salt! I would not have thought of that.

Vaxhacker: I agree about the fear tactics. I was telling my neighbor that we should all have a little red flag pop up in our brain whenever people start using scare tactics to sell something. But unfortunately most people are so caught up in the fear that they can't think reasonably.